Brooks FV-12. A short scale twelve-string bass

[Basvarken]

Hooray, another Brooks bass is born!

The Brooks FV-12

- Korina body wings
- Bookmatched Quilted Maple top
- Nine ply Korina/Mahogany Neck through
- Cherry Burst high gloss finish
- Pearloid binding
- Ebony fretboard
- Mother of Pearl position dots. Aluminium Circle dot for 12th
- Jumbo frets
- 30 1/2" scale
- Buffalo horn nut
- ETS Custom made twelve string brass bridge and tailpiece. Black
- Two spokewheel double action trussrods
- Carbon reinforcement strip in the neck
- Pickups: Lace Alumitone DB7, Black
- Controls : volume, volume, tone
- 0.047mfd capacitor
- Gotoh GB 350 lightweight bass tuners, Black
- Gotoh ST-31 octave string tuners, Black
- Output: Pure Tone Multi Contact jack
- d'Addario custom strings
- Weight: 4.3 kg

In posts below I'll show pics of the build process.

 

[Basvarken]

My wood supplier made the neck blank for me.
It's a nine ply korina with mahogany strips in between

I had some triangular pieces of korina in my shop that could be used for the body wings

On most builds I start with the fretboard.
And in this particular case the 12th inlay.
I sawed off a ring off an aluminum tube.

Drilled the holes for all the inlays. In this pic you see the 12th position hole

Glued the mother of pearl dots in. And also the ring for the 12th position. On the inside of the ring I used a black position dot marker (not very well visible in this pic, sorry)

Sanded the inlays flush with the fretbaord using a 16" radius beam

Taped off the fretboard to prevent superglue splattering all over the board while I hammered the frets in.

After hammering each fret in I used the fretpress to make sure they were seated well.

 

[Basvarken]

Next I shifted my attention to the neck blank. Starting with the slot for the carbon reinforcement strip.

And then the two slots for the trussrods on either side of the carbon strip.
They follow the taper of the neck.

Made the truss rod access slot and cover.

The body would get a 7mm thick bookmatched top of quilted maple. So I had to take away 7 mm thickness on that part of the neckblank. And it need to have a neck/body pitch in order to get the right action at the bridge.
So I made a jig for my handheld router. Place the neck blank under an angle and routed away the desired depth.

Here's the routed part. Still had to chisel away the parts next to the fretboard.

But first I glued the fretboard on. Used a staple tacker and cut off just above the blank to prevent the fretboard from "swimming" away during the clamping.

Then glued it on. Using rubber strip (of bicycle tubes) to get an even pressure

Chiseled away the parts next to the fretboard.

 

[Basvarken]

Drilled the holes for the side position markers

Made a special marker for the 12th position.
Using a small aluminum tube. And a regular black inlay that fits inside the tube.

Glued the markers in.

Didn't take a pic where I saw off the headstock angle. So fast forward to the headstock shape.

Clamped the neckthrough part to the workbench and started shaping te neck.
With a shinto rasp, a spoke shave and strips of very coarse sand paper.

Shaped the volute.

Drilled the tuner holes. I don't drill all the way through. I leave about 1.5 mm thickness on the back. Because I like the holes on the back to be smaller. That makes sure you won't see any gaps when the tuners are installed.

Glued the body wings on. I cut steps into the sides to make sure the clamps had proper grip. Since you can't clamp a diagonal piece ;-)

Free hand routed the wiring channel.It was going to be covered up by the maple top. So I didn't bother to make a template.

 

[Basvarken]

The beautiful set of bookmatched quilted maple that I found at Holz Faszination was ready to be glued onto the body.

Then routed along the mdf template to give it the body shape

Looks like a Flying V already!

Shaped the heel area.

Routed the controls cavity form the back

Routed the pickup cavities

Not the neatest routing job I've ever done. But I was going to use pickup rings so I didn't mind that much.
Wetted the top with a damp rag to make the quilt pop.

 

[bholder]

Wow! Congrats!

 

[Basvarken]

Now was the time to make a decision about the "armpit" in the body.
On my previous (long scale) Flying V Bass builds I had used and extra part in the armpit to allow the bridge to be as far back as possible. This would keep the original V shape visually in tact.

And my original plan for this bass was to do exactly the same.
I was going to use 24 ferrules for the 12 string through body attachment.

I figured since it is a short scale bass it was not really a problem to have the bridge a bit away from the edge.
And I had my doubts about the strength of the wood with all the holes that would have to be drilled quite close to each other. With all the string pull it might snap a chunk off?
And the binding would ba a quite complex affair. One part would have to follow the original V shape and the other would have to follow the black part.

So after some restless nights I decided not to used the extra part.


I routed the binding channel (sorry no pics) and glued the pearloid binding in

Drilled the output hole for the Telecaster style cup

And holes for the potentiometers

Holes for the bridge screws

Time to stain the bass!
First I did a yellow stain all over.

I really like the korina with the yellow stain. But my customer wanted a mahogany colour for the back and sides.

Then took to the burst.
I used a light red stain for the trabsition to yellow. Plus a darker red stain for the outline.

After a few layers of clear lacquer:

 

[Basvarken]

After lots of layers of clear and lots of sanding in between I could apply the decals.

Sanded it with 800 grits > 1200 grit > 2000 grit > 3000 grit. And then polished it

I painted the cavities with shielding paint.
But I'm horrible at soldering. So I had my good friend Sjoerd take care of the wiring for me.
He did a very neat job.

 

[Alex Xander]

Beautiful bass, as always.

Two questions, if I may...

What's the neck dive like?
How expensive is the bridge hardware?

 

[Basvarken]

Beautiful bass, as always.

Two questions, if I may...

What's the neck dive like?
How expensive is the bridge hardware?

No neck dive whatsoever!
Thanks to the ultralight weight tuners.

And the bridge and tailpiece are €325

 

[T_Bone_TL]

After hammering each fret in I used the fretpress to make sure they were seated well.

Why do you prefer to hammer, then press, rather than just press them in?

Just curious.

 

[Basvarken]

Why do you prefer to hammer, then press, rather than just press them in?

Just curious.

Good question.
I have always just hammered them in. Always worked fine for me
But a few months ago I acquired a fret press (and a whole bunch of other tools) from a guy who quit his lutherie hobby.
And I figured I had to use it somehow. But it really doesn't add anything ;-)

 

[mikewalker]

That is MAJESTIC!!!

 

[Flatwound]

That is MAJESTIC!!!

+1!!!

 

[MCF]

Hooray, another Brooks bass is born!

The Brooks FV-12

- Korina body wings
- Bookmatched Quilted Maple top
- Nine ply Korina/Mahogany Neck through
- Cherry Burst high gloss finish
- Pearloid binding
- Ebony fretboard
- Mother of Pearl position dots. Aluminium Circle dot for 12th
- Jumbo frets
- 30 1/2" scale
- Buffalo horn nut
- ETS Custom made twelve string brass bridge and tailpiece. Black
- Two spokewheel double action trussrods
- Carbon reinforcement strip in the neck
- Pickups: Lace Alumitone DB7, Black
- Controls : volume, volume, tone
- 0.047mfd capacitor
- Gotoh GB 350 lightweight bass tuners, Black
- Gotoh ST-31 octave string tuners, Black
- Output: Pure Tone Multi Contact jack
- d'Addario custom strings
- Weight: 4.3 kg

In posts below I'll show pics of the build process.

Once again Rob, a fantastic build!

 

[Beej]

Another fine beauty

 

[dave64o]

Fantastic work!

I love the binding.

 

[J Posega]

Holy hell, what a bass. Absolutely beautiful.

 

[J Wilson]

WTH, I thought the Gibson Custom Shop was here in Nashville.

STUNNING work, as always. Congrats.

 

[gtirard]

Incroyable !