Getting first custom made bass built!!

[MrLenny1]

Wow, 11 piece neck?
Enjoy man. I had Chris Stambaugh build a bass for me
3 years ago. Got to visit his studio while he built it.
I had a blast.

 

[Macrocosmcwh]

does he have a website for his basses?

Not yet.... Hahahahahahaha his words "I am a caveman when it comes to technology"

 

[Macrocosmcwh]

Wow, 11 piece neck?
Enjoy man. I had Chris Stambaugh build a bass for me
3 years ago. Got to visit his studio while he built it.
I had a blast.

Have a picture?

 

[Macrocosmcwh]

Top Wood

Back wood

 

[Macrocosmcwh]

Andy just finished the Bridge... Had to show it off.

He still has quite a bit of sanding and finishing to complete on it... But this is the beginning.

His note to me:
"I just wanted to show you this design before I posted it to talkbass. I can defiinitely say that this is by far, my best bridge to date. I wanted to pull out all stops for you on this one. You can see the maple veneer accent between the outside binding. This just makes everything else stand out that much more. I also wanted to incorporate the lighter sapwood on the shorter sides to pull out the lyptus in the neck and also tie in with the fretboard. I still have to drill for the string through holes and do a lot of sanding and cleaning up, but this is where it all starts. Let me know what you think. By the way, this is a rosewood bridge, so will last a lifetime."

 

[Randyt]

Just had to tell someone... Hahaha I am having my first fully custom bass built by Andy Zoldo.
Specs so far in the build:
6 stirng 35 scale
Single cut design
5 piece body with myrtle burl/ebony veneer/sapele core/ ebony/myrtle
11 piece set neck (maple/lyptus/maple veneer/lyptus/veneer/sapele/veneer/wenge/veneer/lyptus/maple)
24 fret jatoba fingerboard with wedge binding and inlays 20" radius
Matching pickup cover custom bridge custom three piece knobs
String through body
Single truss rod with dual carbon fiber reinforcement bars
45 mm nut width
Bartolini J pickups with HR5.4 AP/918 custom preamp.

I am so excited...

Are you sure the nut width is 45mm for a 6 string and not 54mm?...seems really tight...could be cool though...btw...bass looks great!!!

 

[SirMjac28]

Now that's pretty

 

[ZoldosCustom]

Just wanted to chime in since Christian is doing an awesome job controlling this thread. We have agreed to a bit wider of a spacing at the nut. He plays mostly fingerstyle, so a narrower spacing will work fine. I think that 50mm is what we are shooting for, that way its still narrow, but wide enough to accomodate 6 strings w/o seeming crowded.

 

[Macrocosmcwh]

I had asked Andy what his thoughts were on pickup placement. I showed him Scott Devine's signature Overwater Bass and the pickup placement.

His idea, he came up with this:

This will be under the pickup cover which will the top will be rounded to match the radius of the fingerboard and act as a pickup ramp. But what I think is really cool is that it will allow for me to place the pickups anywhere under that cover to get the sound that I want. Should I decide that I want a different sound... it will be as simple as taking the strings off removing the pickup cover and moving the pickups to a new location within the "pickup box". I think it is ingenious! Once again, I cant wait to get my hands on it.

Also he is now making the template for the body out of MDF. This is all coming along very quickly! Hahahahahaha I only hope that it slows down a little so I can save up to pay the remaining balance!!!! Hahahahahaha

Anyway... more to come.... I hope you all are enjoying the progress so far!

 

[ZoldosCustom]

Glad that you like the idea. I think that it will work out pretty good. At least this way, if you ever get bored of the sound, you can make a few changes and it will be like playing a new bass. I know that it seems like things are going quick, but I will have a break come Christmas. I know I said it before, but I am really stoked for this build and just want to get as much done as possible before all the other materials and parts arrive. After the new year, things should really start progressing. Just for a quick plan of attack for this coming week. Monday; route and epoxy carbon fiber. Tuesday; Complete neck and body template. Wednesday; Complete headstock template. Thursday; Complete control cavity template. Friday; ???. A lot depends on when I recieve parts. If I get the pickups early enough in the week, I will start on the housing. I can't do much more with the neck until I glue on the headplate cover, which is the burl, but I won't have that until Saturday. So after the new year, with templates in hand and wood ready to be cut into, progress should be fast and exciting. Can't wait. I will keep updating when I have things to post. Thanks for watching.

 

[Macrocosmcwh]

So some new progress pictures were posted by Andy yesterday. I was sick with the flu, so I didnt get a chance to post them on this thread. But I wanted to keep the few updated with the progress.

His quote... "Really enjoying this build. I was able to route and epoxy in the carbon fiber reinforcement bars today. I will take some pics tomorrow once the clamps and caul are removed. The mail lady just showed up about 5 minutes ago with the electronics in hand, so I will probably start detailing out the pickup housing which should be a lot of fun. I wasn't expecting the electronics this soon, so that was a nice surprise. I was also able to cut out the body template as well as rough out the fretboard. I always cut my fretboards a little heavy and then flush trim them to the neck once glued on, just in case anyone was wondering why the cut look a little sloppy. Just wanted to do a cheesy little mock up, because...well I just wanted to."

I cant wait.... What do you think?

 

[Macrocosmcwh]

A little early Christmas present to me... Andy posted some new progress pictures of my new bass he is building for me... I wanted to post them here so you can see the progress. I am so very excited for this to be completed.

From his thread at : Luthiers Corner

"Well as promised I have a few pictures to post and that will be about it until after the new year. I might post some pics of the Myrtle once it arrives, but that will be about it. Keep in mind too that it has only been 2 weeks since I started this build, so I think I am doing pretty good with a full time job and a few kids at home. I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas in advance and a very happy and safe new year. And what do you know, Dec. 22 and were still here, so that's a very good thing. Okay, here are some pics."

Body template w/ bridge and pickup housing skeleton on top of Sapele body core.

This is where the bridge sits right now. Holes are drilled for string through, and recesses are routed for strings to rest on and create angle to saddle.

Here is where the pickup housing is at right now. I know that it looks different from the concept, but there is good reason. I had a slight oversight and ordered the wrong pickups originally. The spacing on the bart's j pickups were about 1mm too narrow above the bridge pickup. They probably would have worked, but if Christian is a hard player and caused the string to wander outside of the magnetic field, the sound would be just awful and I couldn't risk it. So instead of 5 compartments, we settled for 4 since the new pickups are a bit larger. I feel slightly embarrased for this, but it's not whether we fail or not, but how we recover.

Body Wood core wood

neck now with carbon fiber bracing

Just wanted to show neck wood contrast. This is just a water pop, and will be a lot more pronounced once the finish goes on, not to mention all the carving that will be taking place.



Thank you again Andy for posting progress pictures... Your care and attention is amazing. I cant wait to start our next build already!

 

[jbrady]

Its good to see the bass I bought on eBay is getting noticed. It is one hell of an axe, and I've been playing it non stop. I intend on writing a full review in the near future.

The wood bridge is definitely something I've never seen before, but I cannot comment on its usability. Intonation has been perfect so I have not adjusted it at all.

I'm definitely excited to find a brother in arms. I'll be following this closely

 

[Macrocosmcwh]

Its good to see the bass I bought on eBay is getting noticed. It is one hell of an axe, and I've been playing it non stop. I intend on writing a full review in the near future.

The wood bridge is definitely something I've never seen before, but I cannot comment on its usability. Intonation has been perfect so I have not adjusted it at all.

I'm definitely excited to find a brother in arms. I'll be following this closely

PM sent...

 

[ZoldosCustom]

Christian asked me to post some pics of the wood once it arrived, so here they are. There are 2 blanks that I will be cutting from, and have yet to dictate which one will be the top and which will be the back. Once they are resawn and bookmatched, then Christian and myself can figure out which piece will go where. You can sort of see a faint outline of the body in the first picture. I will definitely have to stabalize the wood before jointing, planing, sanding, resawing. I don't want this burl to blow apart on me. Anyway, here are the pics and I will be cutting into this stuff most likely this coming thursday after the new year.

In addition, this wood is still pretty rough. I just wiped a thin coat of shellac to try and get some of the figure to pop. So once this stuff is surfaced and sanded, it should be pretty amazing looking.

 

[Macrocosmcwh]

Thought I would update everyone with what is going on. Andy posted in "Luthier Corner" an update to what he has been working on. I will post pictures soon! I wish I could put into words how excited I am to get this bass in my hands. Hahahaha I have even been working on a piece of music that I am writing just for this bass. Anyway, enough with my babble... Here is what Andy said:

...it sure feels good to be back to work and back to working on this bass. I will have some updated pics either tomorrow or saturday. What I have done so far is I bookmatched and glued up the headstock cover, Cut and template routed the neck and headstock, glued on the fretboard (which is drying overnight), and bookmatched the burl for the pickup cover. Tomorrow I will be glueing on the Wenge binding on the fretboard, and trimming that nice and flush. I always like to attack the neck first and get it to the point that it will be at tomorrow before I start glueing up the body, just how I like to do it. Everyone at work keeps asking me to bookmatch the myrtle for the top and back, but I don't want to rush anything. I am very excited to split that stuff, but I want to be at a good stopping point with the neck. The bass is really coming together nice, and I really look forward to the day when Christian can play his first custom bass. Stay tuned.

 

[ZoldosCustom]

There has been some great progress on the neck thus far. You can see in the pictures what has been done. I am going to glue up some laminations for the transition block next week, and will leave it at that point until the body is glued up. This way I will have a nice easy squared off neck to work with, and once the recess is routed out to recieve the neck, I will start carving the neck. This is just the order of progress that I have been so used to, and it works so I don't want to deviate from what works. Here are the pics:

 

[Macrocosmcwh]

Andy..... Just beautiful! My GOD..... WOW!!!!! I so cant wait for my next bass with you!!!!! WOW!!!!!!!I am just so excited to get this bass in my hands!

 

[Macrocosmcwh]

::UPDATE::
Andy just posted some new photos of his progress on my new single cut design 6 string bass. It is getting close now! I just cant wait!!!!!!

He says:
I have a few more updates as of today. I was able to get the body pressed up, the 5 layers consisting of Myrtle burl top/ ebony veneer accent/ Sapele core/ ebony veneer accent/ Myrtle burl back. I still have quite a bit of void filling to do, but a large majority of the top is filled. I have yet to touch the back. I was also able to get the neck pocket routed and the body cut out. I still have a lot of carving and shaping to do, but this is where the bass is at. I just have to say again how much I am enjoying this build. The design is very unique (at least to me), and I am just loving the wood choices. I did water pop the burl top just to get some contrast. You will also notice in the pictures that the route at the base of the neck is quite sloppy, but that is because the pickup cover will be routed into the heel a bit, so it will all be cleaned up in due time. There is also a picture of the transition block, which is just wenge, maple, and wenge which should look pretty sweet once I start carving into the back. I should be able to start carving the neck tomorrow, and possibly some of the body. Carving and shaping is by far my favorite part of this trade. It is my form of meditation, and it just relaxes me and makes me smile.

 

[Macrocosmcwh]

Can you help please... I want to make sure that it is not my eyes/camera playing tricks with me. The first picture is the orignal design of my bass being made the second is the template and the third one is the rough cut of my bass after being glued up.

It seems to me that the bottom of the bass and the "butt" of the bass is proportionatly different from the original design.

Am I nuts? LOL I would love your input!