What is your process for finishing? Also, his ebay store says they fit a standard P-neck; but from my limited research, it appears a modern J-neck should work as well?
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Dumb idea?
- Thread starter Old_Noob
- Start date
What is your process for finishing? Also, his ebay store says they fit a standard P-neck; but from my limited research, it appears a modern J-neck should work as well?
Either neck should fit.
I had good results with Fiebings Leather Dye followed by TruOil. Initial finishing problems were self-inflicted. LOTS of TruOil info on TB.
I would consider buying a neck from the TB classifieds. IMHO - less chance of someone selling you a junk neck, especially compared to some unknown entity on Eba*.
I had good results with Fiebings Leather Dye followed by TruOil. Initial finishing problems were self-inflicted. LOTS of TruOil info on TB.
I would consider buying a neck from the TB classifieds. IMHO - less chance of someone selling you a junk neck, especially compared to some unknown entity on Eba*.
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Yes, absolutely. But as others have warned, it's tough to do just one. Oh, it starts out innocent enough.... a mod here, a mod there. Then it's a parts bass or two. Soon that just won't scratch the itch and you'll need a bit more of a thrill. Then a so called friend offers you a small pile of wood for your first from scratch build, mumbling things like "the first ones free" "come on, try it" "what's the matter....chicken?". Go ahead, build a parts bass. Just know that you may never buy a production bass again.
Turnaround
Commercial User
Dumb idea? Yup. The question is "How dumb is it?" And I would say it's just dumb enough to be good. As has been stated earlier - do this and you won't stop there.
JeezyMcNuggles
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- Feb 23, 2018
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When you buy it, you specify what you want. Click in the descriptions, and it'll tell you your options. He'll do any of those options. If you shoot him an email for anything other than what's listed, he'll let you know what he can do for you.
Finishing process :
Sand
Sand
Sand
Sand
Sand
Sand
Sand
Color
Sand
Finish
Sand
Finish
Sand
Finish
Sand
Finish
Sand
Finish
Sand
Finish
Sand
Finish
Sand
Finish
Hahahahaha add infinum till you get desired results.
JeezyMcNuggles
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- Feb 23, 2018
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So, looking at this further....my options are:
1. Do a total parts build from scratch, including staining, etc.---The finishing seems doable, but also a tall order....and the wife is not a fan (not like thats ever stopped me)
2. Find a finished squire body and customize.....seems to be few and far between currently. I found a Squire P body on ebay for $130, which seems too much for a body.
3. Buy a Bronco and mod the poopie out of it. Plan would be to excise the strat pickup, expand the pickup pocket, install a humbucker, upgrade the bridge, repaint the pickguard, and install better tuners. If I do it all at once, cost will be around a new squier mustang. .....although I am curious if I could replace the neck with a 32 jag neck....While I don't expect this process to be necessarily cost-effective, I am having trouble justifying dumping $300-$400 into a $200 bass.
The 2 biggest challenges I foresee are a) if I go option 1, the PITA finishing process....although the time commitment on that will allow me to space out the other expenditures and I will have much more of a "this is my creation" feeling; and b) regardless of which option I choose, I don't know how to solder....so I am looking at expensive EMG style pickups or finding something on ebay that is already pre-wired to a pots, which there do not seem to be a lot of.
1. Do a total parts build from scratch, including staining, etc.---The finishing seems doable, but also a tall order....and the wife is not a fan (not like thats ever stopped me)
2. Find a finished squire body and customize.....seems to be few and far between currently. I found a Squire P body on ebay for $130, which seems too much for a body.
3. Buy a Bronco and mod the poopie out of it. Plan would be to excise the strat pickup, expand the pickup pocket, install a humbucker, upgrade the bridge, repaint the pickguard, and install better tuners. If I do it all at once, cost will be around a new squier mustang. .....although I am curious if I could replace the neck with a 32 jag neck....While I don't expect this process to be necessarily cost-effective, I am having trouble justifying dumping $300-$400 into a $200 bass.
The 2 biggest challenges I foresee are a) if I go option 1, the PITA finishing process....although the time commitment on that will allow me to space out the other expenditures and I will have much more of a "this is my creation" feeling; and b) regardless of which option I choose, I don't know how to solder....so I am looking at expensive EMG style pickups or finding something on ebay that is already pre-wired to a pots, which there do not seem to be a lot of.
Just have fun and learn. I’ve made plenty of mistakes...part of the learning. Soldering isn’t that hard...being an electric bassist/guitarist, amps and cables, soldering is part of it.
Have fun!
Easiest will be modding and existing bass.
If you start changing pickup sizes you better start working on your routing skills.
Start with a natural oil finish, then workup to paint or stain and maybe poly or nitro.
Finishing is indeed a learned skill that takes time.
Good luck,
Dirk
p.s. I just saw the post above about soldering, that is also a skill that takes practice as well.
If you start changing pickup sizes you better start working on your routing skills.
Start with a natural oil finish, then workup to paint or stain and maybe poly or nitro.
Finishing is indeed a learned skill that takes time.
Good luck,
Dirk
p.s. I just saw the post above about soldering, that is also a skill that takes practice as well.
sure. and i'll throw in on the encouragement!
i can't build a bass from a tree/lumber, but i've done a bunch of assemblies --- what you're talking about. IME: getting an ax that is playable is easier than making it look cool. but the cool thing about it is = you can keep working on the piece until it plays perfectly! your preferences, your way! that's why i'd get a body that i liked and a neck that i liked and make them fit (with bolt-ons = there is almost always a way to make them work!) but it may be easier if the parts are 'fenderish' to begin with...just as you're thinking on this project.
post some pics as you go! good luck!
Of course it's a dumb idea, which is why so many of us have done it! So much to learn and so much fun to be had for not a whole lot of money. There are so many choices out there now, back when I made my first bass (around 1970-ish) all I had was a few planks of mahogany and a general idea, now you can buy anything you can think of! You can even get bodies all finished and ready to go if you don't want to paint them yourself.
So many places have great stuff. These guys have a lot of good stuff, they buy up job lots from manufacturers and on-sell it. Their inventory changes fairly rapidly so if something is not there today try again next week: Bass Bodies and Necks | Pre-Assembled Standard Wiring Harnesses
Edit: re finishing, I have had furniture polishers do some and others I have sprayed at the local car painting shop (I used to work there).
So many places have great stuff. These guys have a lot of good stuff, they buy up job lots from manufacturers and on-sell it. Their inventory changes fairly rapidly so if something is not there today try again next week: Bass Bodies and Necks | Pre-Assembled Standard Wiring Harnesses
Edit: re finishing, I have had furniture polishers do some and others I have sprayed at the local car painting shop (I used to work there).
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You could do a wipe-on finish like Danish Oil or Wipe-on Poly. Easy easy. Then next year after you build your second, strip it and do something else. LOL.
Understand that you can have something very playable that brings you pride and joy without a factory quality finish. On my dumpster find, i just sprayed the body with Rustoleum hammered paint. Played fine
Understand that you can have something very playable that brings you pride and joy without a factory quality finish. On my dumpster find, i just sprayed the body with Rustoleum hammered paint. Played fine
I am the same sans bicycles. I started out winning a warmoth body on ebay and dove in from there, Then I got hooked! went on to refurb another Ebay win that needed love. I' d advise starting out with a used or inexpensive bass and upgrade or tinker it up. Although I learned much from refinishing my basses it was the most time consuming & least rewarding, I have another that needed a good refinishing, but luckily I got in touch with a paint shop that did everything! much easier, as they have all the tools( sprayers & driers, Booths), i used cans & the summer sun in the garage, they did a good job. problem with DIY paint with cans, new EPA laws prevent them from having enough hardner in them. I shot like 10 coats of clear on my 1st, to get a glass like finish. but its been over year drying out, and its still kinda soft. i can live with but if i started over i'd let the pros do the painting! like a car I can do the wrenching , but painting/finishing is a whole other "Monkey" to deal with. Both of My DIY basses look fantastic! but I'd let someone else do the refinishing, A headache I'd do without! and much faster too!
FYI, Just know you'll wont recoup the $$ you spend on the parts you buy/ upgrade! I spent well over my budget & I cant flip bc it has nice parts on it, even though it looks Fire!GL
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I should also advise, stick with Fender styles, because the are sooo many after market parts made for them!!Ala Warmoth plus countless others. I started mine when ebay was just exploding, so many 3rd party makers it was a gold mine. a great resource! not so much with other makes( but theyre out there) it s just easier to find aftermarket fender parts!
OP. It's a blast, it's fun. It can be full of mistakes the first time or two, so be ready for cosmetic screw ups or intonation damnits or neck pocket aww-mans.
But even then, you built it yourself.
I have been putting together frankenstein guitars since I realized that my first two guitars both had bolt on necks with similar bolt positions... even though design and brand were completely alien. I learned a lot.
I even took apart a humbucking pickup (which wasnt' very good) and turned it into two single coil pickups (which WERE very good). It looked like hell (I used nails to attach one of the single coil pickups to the guitar body LoL). But man it sounded awesome, not just to me either.
But even then, you built it yourself.
I have been putting together frankenstein guitars since I realized that my first two guitars both had bolt on necks with similar bolt positions... even though design and brand were completely alien. I learned a lot.
I even took apart a humbucking pickup (which wasnt' very good) and turned it into two single coil pickups (which WERE very good). It looked like hell (I used nails to attach one of the single coil pickups to the guitar body LoL). But man it sounded awesome, not just to me either.
Get one that is already painted/finished.
...Unless you have experience with spray and finishing.
Also, you don’t need solderless connections. Soldering ain’t hard.
...Unless you have experience with spray and finishing.
Also, you don’t need solderless connections. Soldering ain’t hard.
I got into bikes and bass building the same way. Now I own a bike shop and have 4 scratch built basses that only I want to play...
jump in, the water is fine!Truth!
If tinkering with things is you're thing, then give it a go. If nothing else you have a new hobby...
Lots of good advice already, but I'd pass on the idea of doing major stuff to a short scale Bronco/Mustang type bass, there's little in the way of parts to suit them and as they're a bit in trend right now they can run out to be quite expensive.
P and J bass parts, bodies and necks abound, so there's endless options and price ranges available. Plus those tried and proven shapes and layouts guarantee a balanced reasonably ergonomic instrument, with a range of tones that tick the boxes for what years of hearing them have taught us to recognize as "the sound of a bass guitar".
If you're happy with the wood grain showing, perhaps a simple wipe on poly or oil finish might be the go first time out. If you want a glossy paint finish, maybe buy a finished body, the Eden 'Premier' ones on ebay are quite good quality three piece alder under the paint and of course there's usually a few Squier's about. If you're looking to paint a raw body, perhaps consider alder, or poplar as body woods, they require little or no gain filling to get a smooth surface to paint over. Nothing ruins an attempted smooth glossy paint finish like deep wood gain pores showing though all over and filling woods such as ash to perfectly smooth is a pita if you aren't used to it. (Even if you are it's still a pita!)
I think you're idea of using EMG pickups is solid if you have no soldering skills and the price of their pickups is on par with Seymour Duncan, etc. when you consider you get good pots, wires, jack and all included. A parts P bass with a EMG passive pickup like their Geezer,(I quite like their alnico II evasive P as well, but tastes vary....) will give you a professional sounding instrument.
Maybe consider a decent quality bridge, over the cheapest on ebay? Gotoh stuff is excellent for not much more money that no name stuff same applies to their tuners/machine heads. Splash out a few extra dollars on a decent nut, if the neck you find doesn't come with one. I've always been partial to the graphite type synthetics over just cheap plastic.
Good luck and keep asking questions.
Lots of good advice already, but I'd pass on the idea of doing major stuff to a short scale Bronco/Mustang type bass, there's little in the way of parts to suit them and as they're a bit in trend right now they can run out to be quite expensive.
P and J bass parts, bodies and necks abound, so there's endless options and price ranges available. Plus those tried and proven shapes and layouts guarantee a balanced reasonably ergonomic instrument, with a range of tones that tick the boxes for what years of hearing them have taught us to recognize as "the sound of a bass guitar".
If you're happy with the wood grain showing, perhaps a simple wipe on poly or oil finish might be the go first time out. If you want a glossy paint finish, maybe buy a finished body, the Eden 'Premier' ones on ebay are quite good quality three piece alder under the paint and of course there's usually a few Squier's about. If you're looking to paint a raw body, perhaps consider alder, or poplar as body woods, they require little or no gain filling to get a smooth surface to paint over. Nothing ruins an attempted smooth glossy paint finish like deep wood gain pores showing though all over and filling woods such as ash to perfectly smooth is a pita if you aren't used to it. (Even if you are it's still a pita!)
I think you're idea of using EMG pickups is solid if you have no soldering skills and the price of their pickups is on par with Seymour Duncan, etc. when you consider you get good pots, wires, jack and all included. A parts P bass with a EMG passive pickup like their Geezer,(I quite like their alnico II evasive P as well, but tastes vary....) will give you a professional sounding instrument.
Maybe consider a decent quality bridge, over the cheapest on ebay? Gotoh stuff is excellent for not much more money that no name stuff same applies to their tuners/machine heads. Splash out a few extra dollars on a decent nut, if the neck you find doesn't come with one. I've always been partial to the graphite type synthetics over just cheap plastic.
Good luck and keep asking questions.
