First bass build

[Steve Pendleton]

My sister was throwing out a beaten up Mahogany shelf and wondered if I wanted to make a guitar out of it. Instead I opted for a step up from my previous Cigarbox attempts and tried a P-bass!

I essentially blundered my way several 100 YouTube tutorials, but miraculously it turned out really well and sounds pretty good too.

I managed to make my own templates ( They are so expensive!) and used Sketchup to print them at 1:1 scale. Then glued to MDF and cut out.

Having no jointer the 2 half boards I cut did show the join which is largely hidden for the front, but on the back I made a thin oak 'Skunk strip' which worked nicely.

Now I just need to learn how to play it

Images attached.

 

[Jimbob Jones]

Looks great. Really nice choice of pearl pg against the mahogany!

 

[Beej]

Looks good... inlay close-up?

 

[Steve Pendleton]

Hi Beej thanks. I assume you mean the frets inlay? I just used 2mm side dots plastic rods and made a little template as I don't trust my eyes enough to get it exact! Image here

 

[BritFunk]

That's very cool! One of my local friends sells antique furniture on the cheap to make extra cash, and there have been several solid smallish mahogany tables I have considered picking up for this kind of a project. I have to keep reminding myself I don't really have the space for that sort of endeavor - yet.

 

[TerribleTim68]

I'm not a P-Bass guy, but you did a great job and it looks awesome. I totally respect your build, for a first effort, well done!

 

[5tring]

Nice work! What’s build number 2 going to be?

 

[FretsAreFor]

Nice work! What’s build number 2 going to be?

It's a happysad moment. Great work, but it's like watching someone trip and fall into a rabbit hole without fully realizing what they got themselves into. Welcome to the club!

 

[Steve Pendleton]

Nice work! What’s build number 2 going to be?

I think I will go for my own design - Some outlandish shape maybe.
(That is when I will find out why Leo Fender came up with his - Ergonomics!)

 

[Steve Pendleton]

That's very cool! One of my local friends sells antique furniture on the cheap to make extra cash, and there have been several solid smallish mahogany tables I have considered picking up for this kind of a project. I have to keep reminding myself I don't really have the space for that sort of endeavor - yet.

Thanks - The Mahogany is so heavy that my 35mm deep body (many commercial ones are 45mm?) still resulted in a bass which weighed 4.5Kg - Almost identical weight to the commercial P-basses.

Admittedly I did also go for a bit of a baseball bat neck because the neck wood came from a skip and although I knew it was hardwood I found it difficult to identify - So I opted for strength!

 

[Steve Pendleton]

It's a happysad moment. Great work, but it's like watching someone trip and fall into a rabbit hole without fully realizing what they got themselves into. Welcome to the club!

Many thanks

 

[xn34]

SWEEEEEET!!!! Looks great! Love the finish and the inlays!

 

[silvertone]

Great go in maximizing the simplicity of the design.

 

[JimmyM]

Great job!

 

[wmhill]

Top-notch !!

 

[arbiterusa]

What's the scale length? Doesn't look 34", looks shorter.

And BTW a damn sight nicer than the first bass I ever made. Which was terrible.

 

[PennyroyalWe]

Super cool. Is the neck mahogany also?

 

[Steve Pendleton]

What's the scale length? Doesn't look 34", looks shorter.

And BTW a damn sight nicer than the first bass I ever made. Which was terrible.

Hi - Thanks very much for the comment. You are correct I went for a 31" scale for 2 reasons. Firstly I hope one or both of my daughters will play it one day and they have smaller hands - And secondly, as I had no real idea on the strength of the neck wood (reclaimed) I wanted give it best chance of not bending under the higher tension of say a 34" scale ( as it happened I need not have worried on that one ).

 

[Steve Pendleton]

Super cool. Is the neck mahogany also?

Hi there - No the neck is the common or garden 'Skip' wood ( or to put it another way - I have no idea what it is but I could tell it was hard wood ). Whatever it is it carved quite well with a Spokeshave/Shinto rasp

 

[Steve Pendleton]

SWEEEEEET!!!! Looks great! Love the finish and the inlays!

Thanks - The easy inlays (using side dot rods in a pattern) were because after spending hours sanding the 12" profile I was too much of a chicken to risk ruining it by drilling out proper holes for mother of pearl dots or whatever. Shameful! Next time I will be braver or do it the right way round (?) and put the inlays in before profiling!