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First Build - 5 String, Neck Thru, Fanned Fret

#81
Ok, 2.5 hour practice last night. So the first thing that takes me a song or two to get used to is the neck........I'm a big guy, 6'7" 230lbs so I figured I should build this with a neck for a big guy (19mm spacing, neck is .97" front to back at the nut and 1.01 at 12th fret) that and I've played 4 bangers for the last 16 years (I found myself useing the B comfortably though).......Like I said though, only took me a song or two.....neck is fast and smooth.......the thing sounds so good, and the B is clean and clear. I owned a cheapy Epi Les Paul 5 string for 2 weeks and the B was so floppy it almost soured me on 5 strings forever. I also elected to go with a flat board. To tell the truth I initially did this because I thought it would be easier to build that way.....I'm glad I did now, I love the flat board!!! On to the Sound, the walnut reminds me of playing my upright. There's a vibration through the wood that I can feel when I play....I guess this has something to do with the neck through too, but it's there. The sound compared to a Lakland 44-02 that I had a while back (only comparing because it had barts too) is more woody and aggressive at the same time. There's a very nice feel to the sound, where you can tell the wood is dense, but open at the same time.........I'm horrible at describing tone so bear with me......:hmm: Basically, set flat the sound is closer to the thumpy bark of a p-bass, but smoother kind of in between a P and a J but leaning towards the P. From there the possibilities seem endless with blending the pups and separate treble and bass...........Oh and the sustain is insane, not that I'd ever need to hold one note for a million measures, but seems that I could ring an open E for a whole song if I wanted to.

Final specs:
36.5 to 34 scale , 9th Fret is Parallel

Neck:
5 piece Walnut/Flame Maple
1.98" wide at the nut
3" wide at the bridge

Body Wings:
Walnut

Total Weight:
10lbs 2oz

Pickups:
Bartolini passive soapbars

Pre-amp:
Bartolini NTBT wired Volume, Blend, Bass, Treble

Finish:
Body/Back of neck - approx 25 coats of tru-oil
Fretboard - 3 coats of minwax poly from a rattle can lightly sanded between coats
 
#82
Can I say one more thing that I'm sure all of you know.
I've always been one to feel the music and really get in to the groove of it all..............When the instrument you're playing is one you've built with your own hands that feeling is 10 fold.........It was incredible to close my eyes and play, I knew every inch of my bass and I'd never played it before!
 
#83
DigthemLows said:
Can I say one more thing that I'm sure all of you know.
I've always been one to feel the music and really get in to the groove of it all..............When the instrument you're playing is one you've built with your own hands that feeling is 10 fold.........It was incredible to close my eyes and play, I knew every inch of my bass and I'd never played it before!
Click to expand...

This is so cool man! I cannot wait to get that feeling.:hyper: BTW great first build!
 
#84
Not sure how this will sound over the net. This is with everything set flat. I tried to play something with lots of notes to give an idea of the overall sound. Yes it's busy, but you get the idea. This is recorded straight into Garageband through a Tascam US122 with no effects. Sorry for the drum loop but it keeps the 28 seconds a little more interesting.
Link Removed
 
#87
Thanks, I love the sound, and playing with fanned frets has been a very smooth transition. I played this at a gig last Friday and had no problems. And yeah, I probably should have pressed harder to eliminate the buzz.....It wasn't easy to think of something to put up for a clip to give the idea of the tone.......Thanks to everyone for the help and encouragement along the way. This was very fun, and I learned a lot.
 
#90
Thanks, I play this bass every day............it's been gigged quite a bit too..............my only regret is not spending more time carving, the body could use some more...........that and I used the StewMac hotrod truss rod and I'm afraid to thin the neck much more, but it's still a little thick...........I love the bass though and considering my other gig is an upright gig, the neck is pretty thin!:)
 
#94
If you decide to thin the neck down anymore, be careful with those trussrods, I ended up sanding through a really beautiful one piece wenge neck into the trussrods...definitely a day-ruiner.

Get some pics up when you can, I remember following this a couple of years ago and loved how it came out so I'm looking forward to seeing how it ends up this time!

Greg
 

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