A new fun summer project, fretless 4 st

hi all,

I had fun fiddling with the little Warwick project, and I love playing that bass! But that was supposed to be my summer project and so I decided why not go for a little more on my first sort of bass build. I say sort of because I’m only gonna build the body, I ordered a kit fretless neck from one of the European sites to avoid a lot of work, frustration, customs and taxes. I just don’t have the tools or knowledge to build a neck, so maybe that will come in the future.

The body will be Douglas fir. I chose that mainly because that’s what I could get from the big box hardware store here. They had some ash boards also, but they were too skinny and I would have had to mate up a 4 piece body with only hand tools...didn’t seem like a winning proposition to me. So it’s fir. This board will allow me to do a 2 piece, front and back body. The board is pretty straight but I don’t have a planer so it might be a total fail when I got to glue them up. It’s 30mm thick, so I’ll have 60 mm total to work with on shaping. I’m hoping to do a similar style to the Warwick, as I love the swooping horizontal profile of that body. I have basically taken every measurement I could conceive of on that body, then scaled it all down by a small factor, and changed the horns a bit from the streamer shape. I’m excited! The neck and random parts should be here any day now, but this thing prolly won’t be playing for several months (if ever!). Anyways, as some of you know, I need all the help and advice I can get. And you might have to remind me several times before I get a point and avoid some stupid mistake. Have fun out there!

 

thanks for the tip. hopefully i can do without, but we'll see what it's looking like when i'm getting closer to glue up. might have to anyway, as 60 sounds like a lot of wood to remove by hand.

as far as the plans, that's all still in flux right now! i definitely want to go with a black 2 piece warwick bridge and saddle. i really like the look and feel of their hardware and i think it probly does something with imparting tone/vibrations into the body. gonna skip the just a nut though, as the premade neck already has a nut that i'm gonna stick with for now. black knobs and tuning machines *probly hipshot* (and maybe the drop d tuner on e).

currently i'm learning a lot about pickups! i've been researching the last few days about the general feel of the main pickups out there. since it's a fretless, that implies a certain tone already i feel like. but i really want that deep grovelly sound as well...i hope to find a good balance between rock grovel and fretless mwah. sort of leaning towards 2 meg humbuckers with maybe the glockenklang pre system again, as i like that sound and configuration.

probly a very very light walnut stain, but i dig the red and light coloration of the fir so i don't want to necessarily mask that and may just go natural finish with oil and wax.

lots of decisions still to make!

 

ya know, that never even occurred to me

 

hahaha, oh the foibles of impatience and inexperience!

so yeah, in my haste i made the body too short for the scale length. i'm sure you experienced guys can look at that first pic and see my mistake. once i got the neck is when i realized it. but hey, that was part of the idea of a fretless neck just to buy me a little leeway. i'm just going to take a dab of brown black paint and cover the side dots and i'll repaint new ones once it's all finished.

i started with a 86cm scale length as that is what the neck was designed for. the side dots are actually at the middle of frets like on a fretted neck. now, i'm at a 32" scale as shown by the new neck placement in the second photo. i think that will work much better. i'm not sure i will ever learn patience....

 

Hey peeps,

So is it just me or does it look like these tuner peg holes are not quite right? Like, a bit out of alignment and shifted to the top of the paddle? Maybe it’s just an optical illusion. I’d try it but don’t have any machines right now! Thoughts?

In other news, my New collaborator left her synth here for a few days for this session. A and her vintage Harley Benton that she plays it thru! Oh my god so much fun!

 

morning all,

just a quick update as i'm in limbo on this bass for now until i can get all of the bits and bobs. got the body halves glued and everything is hopefully planned for. right now the only thing i can do to move foward is start hogging off a lot of this wood from the back. and that means i need to build me one of those planer table/jigs or start going in with a rasp and hand sander (oh god ) which leads me to a couple more questions for you experienced folk:

1. is it necessary to use ferrules for pickup mounting screws? the warwick has them but most other guitars i see pics of don't (i think). think it really matters??

2. @dwizum , how deep did you make your warwick bridge route cavities?? or how deep would you suggest i mount/ route them considering i hope to have a very low action with this being a fretless. I would check but i don'f feel like tearing my guitar apart again now that it's sounding awesome and all

3. are there any tricks to getting the inside face of the electronics cavity routed parallel to the swooping face? i'm a bit concerned that with the sweeping angle the pot shafts and knobs will not sit properly in alignment and maybe i will have some fit issues there. any wise words? like hopefully don't worry 'bout it? i'm envisioning nightmares of trying to route this cavity (and the very shallow lip for the cover) all flush and trim on a radiused back face.

thanks for any more help and guidance!! have a great week all...

 

@dwizum

thanks for the info! i'm glad you write that stuff down too

i've gone down the pickup rabbit hole again. see you all in awhile...

maybe i'm gonna change the whole shbang and go with a pj setup. don't know yet

 

yes to both of these sentiments! i just got back from a much needed vacation so now i'm armed with musical inspiration for a couple more songs and a little more time to work on the bass before i go back to work. i think i'm gonna go with the 2 humbuckers like originally planned. before i can do anything else i need to get to the store and get some parts tho. i just cant route any cavities off of dimensions i read online so i'm kinda at a standstill until that happens. maybe this week, we'll see....

 

ok, after some deliberation and the comment from @dwizum i have decided to go with a sandberg bridge for now. i can get it at my local store, it's not too expensive, and i can always route later and put in a warwick bridge. i'm gonna buy the warwick one now as well anyways, just to have it and i can always use it later or on another build.

also, another question along these lines. do you guys typically build up the guitar and play it, then tear it apart before finishing? or do you just finish everything, then build it up? i'm just wondering cause if i do the sandberg bridge i could try it out before finishing and then if i decide to go with the warwick i wouldn't have to do any finish touch up after routing. maybe i'm overthinking this...

 

howdy!

well, i'm excited today cause i finally pulled the trigger on some pickups. i went with a set of delano sbc 4's. i also got some knobs and tuners. not sure if i mentioned the deal with the tuners before, but either way i should have all of the bits to actually continue working! i've put off routing which is the next step i think because a. i'm super nervous about it, and b. i didn't want to make my template until i have all the parts in hand. so, also waiting to not overspend my budget has held me up. but now i'm moving forward again! i hope this bass will be my christmas present to myself.

going to go with the glock 2 band pre like i have in my warwick and stick with the sandberg bridge. kinda sad about not putting in a warwick bridge and saddle but i think i'll get over it.

contoured bodies are a pain in the a$$. may end up being firewood....