DIY P-kit from Thomann

[Henrythe8]

Hi y'all.
i don't know if this thread belongs in here, as it's not really a "luthier's" build, but rather a construction of a DIY kit.
I've been tinkering with three basses until now (one Toby-enstein piccolo with three pickups, seen here : Modified Epi Toby4, three P'up bass. | TalkBass.com a JazzBass Fretless and a poopy Stagg Bass that i sold after thorough cleaning)
I had a few parts on hands, wanted to have a p-bass, so I jumped.
I bought this kit from Thomann, a major European Music Retailer (I'm in France, BTW).
Modified Epi Toby4, three P'up bass. | TalkBass.com

And that's precisely what I received :

I already had an Epiphone Bridge (Strings Thru) :

(I bought another one here, with the Bronze saddles

I went on for the drilling of the body for the bridge.
I put the boidy on another piece of wood, so i would avoid splintering on the exit.
Unfortunately, I moved a bit and the last hole wasn't covered. Splintered.

I went on anyway, and decided on a white blonde finish.
Here's the first coat :

In all, I applied five coats of white varnish, with sanding in between to smooth things out.
I used a White Furniture varnish, simple as that.

Here's the third coat.

Unfortunately, at the end of the fifth layer... I made a mistake and took a "heavy grit" sand paper instead of a fine one. On one strike, I removed too much varnish...
So... I had to improvise, and then wen for a "light relic'd finish" :

I added an Anodized Gold Pickguard, and a '59 Custom Shop Fender P'up. (from a Mike Dirnt Signature Fender).

As for the head, I went for a "TeleBass" vibe with a twist.

I'm pretty pleased with the overall result :

Of course it's nowhere near high luthier's standard, but it looks great, and, what is the most important, it sounds great.



As of today, I changed the bridge for one with bronze saddles, and changed the tuners for Hipshot Lollipops.

The total budget for this bass is around $300. There are Squier that are cheaper, I know.
But I'm pretty sure that I have a Sound+look/money ratio that is really, really high.

Cheers,

H

 

[Hopkins]

It looks and sounds good. The white almost looks like a pickling stain

 

[Henrythe8]

Thanks

 

[jg42]

Like the way it all came together! The combination of gold, white and rosewood fretboard is not obvious but it works!

 

[vdub75]

nice Job man! I had a few Harley Benton instruments and all were playable and sounded okay for the price

 

[Henrythe8]

They are. I think the woodwork is well above the price range. What really oozes "Cost Cuts" is all the hardware, P'up and Electronics. replace this and you have a very good "medium range" instrument, IMO better than Fender MIC or Squiers made out of Balsa.

 

[Shardik]

Nice job. I do some DIY work myself, but I really hate fret work. How is the neck and especially the frets on this kit? Did you have to level/file much to make it playable?

 

[yoshi]

I love the result of the wrong selection of sandpaper! Looks great.

Not keen on the headstock - looks like it's been nibbled by various animals of varying sizes.

The gold scratchplate looks cool though. And yes, it sounds fabulous!

 

[Henrythe8]

Thanks. I went for a Telebass head, but got "illuminated" in the process. The truth is I wanted to add a bottle opener

Nice job. I do some DIY work myself, but I really hate fret work. How is the neck and especially the frets on this kit? Did you have to level/file much to make it playable?

I did absolutely NOTHING on the neck and frets. The trussrod is double action, so you can really adjust the relief. I personnaly like the stings very close to the neck, and I achieved a 2.25mm (0.09in ? ) at the 12th fret.

The fretjob itself is basic and sufficient. There are no Bronze, hidden fretlines, extra thin frets, but the intonation is right, and I didn't have to file them on the side : no sharp edges.
I heard that a few years back the necks were pretty sloppy, but as of today, it's a really nice job.

 

[A-Step-Towards]

That looks and sounds great, hell for $300 id way rather have that over a squier thats a lot nicer hardware that you put on and those Dirnt '59 pickups are so nice I parted out a few dirnts and kept those pickups out of them.

 

[Joybass]

I am glad this kit turned out so well for you. I bought the same kit some time last year and the quality of the neck was disappointing. There was a hole in the rosewood of the fingerboard between the 7th and 8th fret. Besides that, I had to turn the trussrod as tight as possible to get a fairly straight neck. I do not like that at all on a bass. Furthermore, all the frets from the 15th up buzzed like crazy. I complained to Thomann about this and I received a replacement neck. Unfortunately the holes for the neck screws did not match up with the body, so I had to fill them up and redrill them. When I attached the neck I found that the trussrod did its job much better, but the fretwork turned out to be pretty hopeless. Frets 9 through 14, again, buzzed like hell. I ended up filing frets 9 through 15, but I was beyond liking the whole thing by then. I ended up putting back the original neck and selling it for a few coins to a student who wanted to start playing bass. It was good enough for that, anyway. What I liked about it were the pickups (cheap maybe, but a big p-bass tone). The bridge, body and tuners were Ok.

I hope you had, and will have, fun with it. I am done with DIY kits.

 

[Bassamatic]

I like it and it sounds great. Good job.

 

[Nomiis]

Just finished my j-bass today. SD quarter pounders, high mass bridge, DR strings and high end pot's. Massive sound and sustain.It even fits in the p-bass case!

 

[Joybass]

That looks awesome! Nice color. Congratulations. Makes me wonder: should I, should I not...

 

[Nomiis]

That looks awesome! Nice color. Congratulations. Makes me wonder: should I, should I not...

Thanks! The final test was rehearsal yesterday. The bass cut trough the mix like a knife. Great tone too. I have a BEAD configuration on the strings and the B-string it is sooooooo tight! Awesome.

 

[Joybass]

I just now noticed the Fender bridge. I have replaced the bridges on two of my jazz basses with this Fender Hi-Mass bridge. Because of the residual length of the intonation screws I decided to place them approx. 1 cm further back to the edge than the original bridges. Looks a little less cramped to me. But thats just me.

 

[Nomiis]

Well, it does need some fine-tuning . To be honest, I also need to lower the strings on the headstock side. I will use some old strings as a file for that, I guess. Excellent idea to place the bridge further back!

 

[Joybass]

That's how I do it too: old strings and a small piece of fine sandpaper.

 

[bound'n'blocked]

View attachment 2869828 Just finished my j-bass today. SD quarter pounders, high mass bridge, DR strings and high end pot's. Massive sound and sustain.It even fits in the p-bass case!

That looks really cool!

Just to let you know, I'm going to be stealing that headstock shape on a future build...

BnB