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First build starting!

CoffeeBass

CoffeeBass

Aug 20, 2007
298
0
San Juan Island, Wa
#1
Hey TB,

Just because I cannot imagine a person not being grossly interested in what is going on in my life, I thought I would start my first build thread for my first Build. I have decent woodworking skills and (luckily) access to three full shops, one of which is my neighbor's, so I hope this goes pretty smooth. It can't go worse than building some subwoofers on my front porch in the dark!

Phase one:
Build new body to replace the plywood one on my main player (a late 80's Squier P) out of Ash. Then put that together with a new SX neck that I picked up awhile ago. I have never built any instrument before, so I thought this would be good to begin.

Here is my ash:

IMG_1345-1.jpg

IMG_1348-1.jpg


The heart wood on the back could end up cool, or it might not. If I like the body natural I will leave it otherwise I will paint it translucent white so you can still see the grain.

Phase two:
Build a really nice bass in Conjunction with a luthier friend of mine, Bobby Warren. It will be a great lesson I am sure. Here are the specs:

African Mahogany body - chambered probably
Curly walnut top, or maybe redwood
Neck is still being decided, but I am leaning toward Bubinga and Ash (I ripped a bit of the straight grained stuff off of the boards above) and Ebony finger board. 24 fret.
35" Scale
HH/HH wtih a Marcus miller B/T preamp.
I am going to use hardware that I have around or have been accumulating from the classifieds here.

Here are some photos of the drawings. They did not come out so well but I think you can see them. I will post pics of the wood I have tomorrow. Going to start gluing this weekend I hope.

IMG_1351.jpg


IMG_1357-1.jpg


Here is the Redwood that I have to use.
IMG_0104.jpg


Any thoughts or suggestions welcome. I am sure I will be asking lots of questions here, so thanks in advance.

Cheers,

CoffeeBass
 
#3
It looks like your pots are too close to the edge of the body, unless you're having zero roundover and a cavity cover clear to the edge.

It looks like your 12th fret line is not halfway between the nut line and bridge line, but that is probably the pic.

It looks like you are intending to mount the bridge baseplate so that, before intonation, the saddles are at the midway point. This is a waste of the bridge travel space, and could make the bass un-intonatable. But, to correct this, you'd have to lengthen the body, or shrink/shift the scale to move the bridge witness line.
 
#4
Pilot,
You're right about the pots. After I drew them on I realized this, just haven't changed it yet. The 12th fret is in the right spot, 17 1/2" from the nut and bridge line. And yes the saddles are shown in the middle of the bridge. I put the bridge and the pups on there to get a better idea of what it is going to look like, but their position is not fixed as of yet. Nothing stopping me from shifting the neck a little bit too. I am going to mock up a neck and bridge etc and play with pup placement.

Thanks for looking out.

Coffee.
 
#7
Well here are the bodies so far. I am going to the resaw this sunday to cut them to the proper thickness and cut up the redwood I have. I figured since I am doing one, why not make a bunch! I now have a P body, my custom body, and a Jazz body going.

IMG_0353.jpg


I have a little more shaping to do on the template for my custom, but it is getting close.

Any thoughts/suggestions are welcome.

Cheers,

Coffeebass
 

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