Another 8-string hybrid fretless/fretted

[BassCycle]

I made this 8 string hybrid bass for a client, and he liked it a lot.
Building an 8-string hybrid fretted/fretless bass
Building an 8-string hybrid fretted/fretless bass
I guess he considered the first one, kind of a prototype, cause he wants another one, with a few refinements and upgrades.
1. He wants it to be a neck through.
2. He wants a Birdseye Maple top.
3. He wants 4 humbucking pickups, 2 for the fretless side, and 2 for the fretted side.
4. I suggested the fretless side of the fingerboard be raised to be even the the frets. That way, the strings will be relatively level all the way accross the fingerboard.

So here we go:

 

[Rip Topaz]

Very nice. Really digging your headstock. Would love to hear it.

 

[odin70]

Subscribed

 

[lowfreq33]

Really dig that body shape.

 

[Rob17]

Cool... wanna see this..

 

[BassCycle]

This will be my first neck through in a long time, so it should be fun.

The wood pile:
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Maple, canarywood, bubinga, bookmatched birdseye maple

Cut into strips:
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The centerpiece is tapered. I did this without a jig, I just eyeballed it on the tablesaw, then cleaned it up on the joiner.

Trimmed the strips on the bandsaw:
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And glued them up:
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So far so good.

 

[BassCycle]

Very nice. Really digging your headstock. Would love to hear it.

J2Bizzy plays the Classic Bass Works hybrid fretted/fretless bass

Classic Bass Works hybrid fretless/fretted bass

 

[pilotjones]

I can't wait to see how you implement the hi/lo fretboard. Should be cool.

What's the bump in the middle of the backside of the neck for?

 

[BassCycle]

What's the bump in the middle of the backside of the neck for?

It's just to make it easier to line up the pieces for gluing.

 

[NateS]

subscribed to the last one, and i'm subscribing to this one. you do good work

 

[BassCycle]

subscribed to the last one, and i'm subscribing to this one. you do good work

Thank you so much!

 

[scojack]

This will be good, looking forward to seeing how that FB works out.
You dont do 'easy' JD !?

 

[Jools4001]

What's the bump in the middle of the backside of the neck for?

I think it must be one of those mid-humps I keep hearing about

 

[Stealth]

Subbed to this because I was really impressed with the first one. I love how the first one sounded. I'm especially interested in the leveled fingerboard.

Any idea on the specific pickup types yet?

 

[BassCycle]

This will be good, looking forward to seeing how that FB works out.
You dont do 'easy' JD !?

With any luck, scojack. Fb should go ok using my version of the Ledbeli jig. We'll see.

Subbed to this because I was really impressed with the first one. I love how the first one sounded. I'm especially interested in the leveled fingerboard.

Any idea on the specific pickup types yet?

Thank you Stealth!
We're not really decided yet on the pickups. We need something narrow. We might have some custom made. My friend Alex Watson has a guy that'll make custom pickups to your specs. We might go that route.

 

[NOAH_FX]

Subbed, you do awesome work man and damn if you don't sound good

 

[headlikeahole]

Awesome! The first build was one of my favorites very cool stuff.

 

[BassCycle]

Subbed, you do awesome work man and damn if you don't sound good

Thank you NOAH_FX, you are too kind.

Awesome! The first build was one of my favorites very cool stuff.

headlikeahole, that means a lot coming from you.

 

[BassCycle]

I cleaned my shop today (trust me, it was way dirtier before) and got the radius jig out.

I set up the jig for a compound radius: 17.5" at the nut and 34" at the heel.

First pass on the jig. I cut the first half about 1/16" deep.
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One half done.
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All done. Can you see the difference? It's kinda hard to see on fresh cut wood.
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As you can see, I don't need to route truss rod channels because of the way I cut the stringers.
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My client called me today and said he wants it tuned high to low: Bb, F, C, G on the fretted side, and D, A, E, B on the fretless. In other words, tuned in 4ths from B to Bb. That should be interesting.

 

[NateS]

So this bass is going to be less like two 4 string basses smashed together, and more like one 8 string bass that can't make it's mind what it wants to be? That is totally awesome!