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Custom lucite bass bodies???
- Thread starter Sharko
- Start date
I played one of the Lucite Ampeg basses back in the Day, it had yellowed pretty badly, and was heavy as hell, the Formica pickguard was…interesting. There are modern epoxy and polyester formulations used for table tops that will stay clear indefinitely, but it’s expensive material. @Bruce Johnson did some experiments with colored resin bass bodies a while back, it’s harder than it looks, apparently. There’s a guy on YT who’s made a few, usually something like 10,000 guitar picks or colored pencils mixed with clear resin, but he’s done a few full clear. It’s pretty involved, you’d need a mustang bass body to make a mold, or gave to CNC the whole thing out of a resin block.
Kind of off topic, but I used to know Doug Trumbull (special effects for 2001 A Space Odyssey, Blade Runner / directed Silent Running, Brainstorm), and he was telling me that the Monolith from 2001 was originally intended to be completely clear, rather than solid black - and the ridiculous amount of time, and number of failed attempts it took to create one without any bubbles in it (I seem to remember they had to build a vibrating mould, which would gently shake the thing until it had fully cured - which for a gigantic block like that, was something crazy like several weeks).
Anyway, they finally got one to come out perfect, and Stanley Kubrick looked at it, changed his mind, and decided to go with a wooden frame painted black - the rest is history.
So what happened to the single, perfectly clear 10ft, by 5ft, by 1ft resin block - apparently the largest in the world (at the time)?
It had its face etched into a giant crown, for The Queen's Silver Jubilee, and got hung outdoors on a wall in St Katherine Docks, London
Yeah, the basis from Curved Air made one sound good to, playing finger style. Proof that it's not the bass, it's the guy playing it?
I think that Burls Art. That guy does all kinds of crazy things, like make guitars out of melted copper wire or making an aquarium guitar or even one made from a pink salt block.
Yep! Thats the guy. Here's one he did all clear, came out pretty nice. It still isn't absolutely clear, but I think it could have been with a bit more polishing. It's not an easy project by any means, the biggest challenge with any of these resin pours seems to be getting the bubbles out. He used a pressure vessel to "de-bubble" the resin. Some of the newer table top resins are advertised as "bubble-free", but you have to take that with a grain of salt. Close your eyes when he plays it at the end and tell me if you can realistically tell the difference between this and an all-wood guitar. Be honest now! Tonewood/Schmonewood.
And here's his first attempt where he made the mold. A lot of work!
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Jack Bruce played a fretless Ampeg Dan Armstrong in the 1970s:
Great example of the tone he got from it here:
All of his guitars sound pretty good to me...certainly no discernible difference between his and "conventional" guitars.
Ok, I have ordered a clear resin mustang bass body. I will update as the project progresses
Here it is pulled from the mold. I have some thoughts, but I’d like to wait for some more progress pictures before talking too much about the process.
Surprised how rough it looks, but I'm sure it has to go through a whole level sanding and polishing process. The modern resins should stay clear, a lot of the old lucite ones went pretty yellow.
I thought the same thing at first, not quite sure how the finished product will look but I’m hopeful.
Starting to come together in this pic:
New picture from the maker, sanding process giving it a frosted glass appearance for now
I see you chose a bridge which gives you through body mounting for strings. Are you going to drill the mounting holes, or just go with bridge mounting? It is a P-bass. Through body option would be nice. Any idea what the competed bass will weigh, with the lucite body? I played a Dan Armstrong back in the early 70's, wasn't too bad. This looks like it might have a bit more mass.
It’s being made by SI at ResinGuitars (Etsy). It is a mustang, the mold was made from a CV mustang bass, so yes, it will string through the body. I do not have a weight yet but I will keep you posted. I figured shirt scale small body would help keep weight in check.
