Assembling my ideal bass

Been thinking about building my own bass and took my first major step today.

I ordered a solid maple P bass body. I want a natural wood finish so I ordered a 1/8" x 12" x 24" piece of maple plywood from MakerStock for a pickguard.

The pickguard was the most daunting challenge. I don't have a lot of tools so I mounted my jig saw upside down on my Black & Decker Workmate and it allowed me to make the curved cuts I needed.

Put some contact paper over the area the I wanted to remove for the pups to avoid splintering the wood, laid out the cuts, drilled a hole and the jig saw got the major part removed. Sandpaper and small round and flat files brought it to the final form/fit.

Still thinking about the final pickguard shape but getting the guard done was the major DIY hurdle for me.

DiMarzio Will Power pups. Mojotone pots (500K vol;250K tone); Sprague .033uf Orange Cap (polyester film as suggested by my tech guy). Values for pots and cap per DiMarzio specs.

My hope is to get a bass that has great sustain and harmonics from the maple, great mids from the maple and great lows from the Will Power pups. Each of the 2 pups have 7 poles to help reduce volume taper when I bend strings.

This is how it turned out today. More updates as I progress. Thx.

 

Rounded the pickguard. Fitted the neck. Received the bridge,

 

Yeah, the seller claimed it was "crate maple" but I am suspicious. It is a bit light in weight. Regardless, I am going to finish the build and see what it sounds like. If I don't like it, I'll look for a genuine maple body. Budget is tight right now. The neck is genuine maple at least.

 

Mounted the tuners today. Applied more coats to the body and pick guard.

 

I will do a thread on it! I have been taking some more pictures of some that I have just finished and a few that I haven't taken a pic of. I'll let you know when I post it!

 

Movin' along. Drillied and mounted the neck to the body. Drilled a hole for the ground wire for the bridge. Laid out the bridge and installed it. Installed the string retainer tree on the headstock. Put some old strings to allow me to adjust the neck, string height and intonate the bass. Waiting for the shielded wiring to arrive and then we'll hear how it sounds!

 

Finished it today! It sounds great! View attachment 3941618 It took a bit longer than I hoped but for my 1st attempt at assembling a bass from scratch to my specifications and to find "the" tone I've been searching for, I am very happy with the results. Kept it under $300. It will get a lot of gig time!