Body blank weight Vs. Finished weight

Impossible question.

What are the dimensions of your blank (billet)?

What style of bass are you planning?

 

I have kind of a sense of what it will be based on different body designs I've used, but there are so many other factors, depending on how you build.

If you're talking about just a simple solid body Fender style design, then from a "pruning away" standpoint, you may lose about 20-30% of the weight with the body shape, cutaways, roundovers, pocket and routs. You could lose more with a smaller, thinner body, deeper roundovers and a larger control cavity as well, or less with a larger, thicker slab style body.

 

Hmm. The trick is to always cut a same-sized piece from the blank (say 1.75x1.75”) to use as a comparator then you’ll know what the next body will weigh.

This is from my bench last night. 1pc swamp ash 51 P-Bass (no arm or tummy carves).
Not seen one on Warmoth as light as this. Would be under 4 pounds if I added the carves and round over of a ‘55.

 

A 4 lb. non-loaded Jazz or Precision body will yield about an 8 lb. bass, give or take. That's with lightweight tuners.

 

To me, a more important factor would be somehow predicting balance, though from asking previously, this might involve the term "centroids", at which point im probably out in the Math-yness department. 1.75" body always seemed unnecessarily thick to me. It seems like thats one place you can shave some weight right from the getgo. I have a one piece mahogany body a built years ago, thinking of shaving it down to 1-1/2" and re-countouring it a little.

 

I built Lucifer at 1-1/2" thick, mostly because I didn't know any better (and a thinner body sounded better, I like the look). And now I'm seeing some issues that have popped up. Originally I was gonna run 3 pups with a 5-weay rotating switch. But I can't find a rotating switch that will fit in a cavity I can rout, that extra 1/4" made a difference there. So I guess just know your hardware first.

 

If unloaded body weighs 4 lbs @13/4” thickness. Theoretically 4/1.75x1.5 =3.43lbs or .57 lbs /1/4” unloaded body weight sustain would most likely suffer and Watch balance as you could wind up with a neck heavy useless bass

 

Speaking of thickness and considering why people thin bodies out (save weight, ergonomics etc) I personally have always found instruments with thin bodies very "toy" like. I would prefer chambering, coring or otherwise hollowing to reduce weight. And then there's the hardware issue you just found. If I went thin then I couldn't have as easily done this side mounted control panel (there is a belly cut at the back as well). For me about 1 5/8" is about as thin as I go before it starts to fall into the "toy" area from my perspective.

 

~ 6 lb body will be ~ 10lb bass

Adjust from there depending on body weight.

So, body + 4 lbs

Neck is ~ 2lbs
Hardware is ~ 2lbs

 

Really light bodies do show up on Warmoth, but ya gotta be quick - they go pretty fast. I have a couple of P's (yes, they have cutouts) that both weighed 3 punds, 4 ounces (actually, a bit less once the pickup routes were carved) - one is a 4 string body, the other a 5. I have bought about 10 bodies from them (for myself and others that I've built basses for) - all but one were under 4 pounds.

The Warmoth showcase (bodies they have made on spec that are for sale) is a decent place to go to get some idea of the weight of a body you're making - if you know the wood and body style, you can go there and see what theirs weigh.

 

Aluminum hardware will get you less weight - my 6.6 pound P has a 3.25 pound body, so hardware, neck, pots, knobs and strings (yes they do weight something) all total are about 3 and a third pounds.

 

Exactly what I said. Body + (~ 4lbs) = Total

 

Thank you. Check here for its replacement.
6 string Fretless with Ebony Neck