Custom J-P-J Bass Build Thread

[Doner Designs]

Sold my 72P bass today and kicked off another project to replace it. This one will be have a J-P-J pickup layout in a J body with a J neck. The P pickup will be in it's standard position and the J pickups will be one inch away from the coils as shown in the layout photo (using the P bass I just sold). More on specs...

- Chambered mahogany body with high grade quilt maple top (clear gloss finish)
- Quartersawn flame maple neck with rosewood fingerboard (clear gloss back finish)
- Nordstrand NP4a P pickup (angled poles) with Alnico 3 magnets
- Nordstrand split coil J pickups with custom pole spacing and Alnico 5 magnets
- Audere 4 band Pro-Z preamp
- Babicz bridge (top load)
- Hipshot Ultralights and Xtender (shiny nickel)

This bass will solve my OCD "one of these things is not like the other ones" problem in my prior lineup.


EDIT - body and neck arrived today!

The little red mark by the controls is blood, not a flaw in the finish.

 

[Doner Designs]

Still need to finish setup but got her all put together today...

 

[Basshappi]

Quite a beautiful combo of woods, congrats!

 

[NKBassman]

Cool! Looks great.

 

[Doner Designs]

I just weighed it on a recently acquired postal scale. It's lighter than my other builds by almost 2 pounds. Total is 9 Lb, 2 Oz. Very pleasant surprise.

The weight difference between these two is kinda surprising. Main difference is bocote fingerboard (a beautiful but notoriously heavy wood) and walnut body. Both are chambered but the JJJ weighs 10 Lb, 8 oz.

 

[Captain Chaos]

Keep thinking this is as a Jone Paul Jones bass arghhhh...

Maybe you should make a JPJ bass next.

 

[Doner Designs]

Keep thinking this is as a Jone Paul Jones bass arghhhh...

Maybe you should make a JPJ bass next.

Every time I searched for JPJ pickup bass examples I got JPJ bassist pictures.

 

[Pazelaya93]

So can you get true jazz sounds and true Pbass sounds out of it too? Because if you can then you just made all the other pickup layouts obsolete lol

 

[Doner Designs]

So can you get true jazz sounds and true Pbass sounds out of it too? Because if you can then you just made all the other pickup layouts obsolete lol

Not quite. Compromises had to be made in terms of pickup placement and spacing in order to fit three. I was never entirely happy with how it came out which is unfortunate because it was extremely light and had one of the nicest tops and necks of any bass I ever put together.

Still a very nice bass, but when I wanted to fund building another one, that's the one chose to sell.

Doing it over I would have put the neck J where it is in that one, the bridge J about an inch closer to the bridge and the P right equidistant between those two J positions.

 

[Pazelaya93]

Not quite. Compromises had to be made in terms of pickup placement and spacing in order to fit three. I was never entirely happy with how it came out which is unfortunate because it was extremely light and had one of the nicest tops and necks of any bass I ever put together.

Still a very nice bass, but when I wanted to fund building another one, that's the one chose to sell.

Doing it over I would have put the neck J where it is in that one, the bridge J about an inch closer to the bridge and the P right equidistant between those two J positions.

Would the P being equidistant from the two J's still be in the true P bass location?

Would a J right up on the neck J(ala Gibson) , one in the 70s position and the P where it would normally be placed work?

And yes that bass has a beautiful body

 

[Doner Designs]

Would the P being equidistant from the two J's still be in the true P bass location?

Would a J right up on the neck J(ala Gibson) , one in the 70s position and the P where it would normally be placed work?

And yes that bass has a beautiful body

You could do it that way. I would probably center the P because I’m too OCD not to.