All of TB has seen this bass before - it's the 3rd instrument I built and it's been around for a couple of years. The bass photographed well but, in reality, was a mess as far as the finish was concerned. I was rushing to finish it for showing off during one of the GTG's down at BassCentral in Orlando. As I was spraying a clearcoat on I nearly simultaneously had a meltdown of my gun AND my compressor. Both have been replaced since. Well, it looked like hell but played pretty good. At that time it had a Carvin 3 band preamp and Fender Japanese Jazz pups which was all that I had at the time. This past summer, it got a new owner in TB's Paul Schlotfeldt and he had some specific requirements to suit his situation so I took the opportunity to completely update the build. I've learned a lot since it was originally finished and I put to use in the rebuild. Here are the specs...
Chambered walnut & ash body - the back is made up of about 20 individual boards, matched and glued up butcher block fashion. The top is a bookmatched piece of the same walnut stock. Body weighs 2 lbs 8 oz. The body was sealed with amber shellac and tinted with TruOil. Final topcoat is a PPG polyurethane high solids clear. The new pickup covers were cut from some scrap of the original blank and finished like the body. The cover over the electronics was the original piece I made back then. It doesn't fit perfectly but it's grain is much better than the one the bass had before. It has my single screw retainer with a curly walnut and maple button.
Flame maple 1 piece neck - This is one of my "interpreted" necks that began life as an overrun production piece. It's been narrowed, reprofiled, leveled, fretted and dressed. I replaced the black dots with abalone - my first inlay job. The headstock is laminated with walnut. The Hambone ribbon was cut into the headstock and a new decal was applied as part of the rebuild. It's finished in a clear poly on the fretboard and headstock and a rubbed TruOil finish on the back of the neck. The lower edge of the neck has been pretty radically radiused to be a very rounded and smooth finish. Of course, all of my bolt-on necks have steel machine screw inserts.
John East U-retro preamp
Bartolini 9J pickups
Gotoh tuners, bridge, and straplocks
Brass nut
Total weight is 8 lbs even
There are a few more pics here in my gallery: http://www.talkbass.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=2231&size=big&password=&sort=1&cat=501
Chambered walnut & ash body - the back is made up of about 20 individual boards, matched and glued up butcher block fashion. The top is a bookmatched piece of the same walnut stock. Body weighs 2 lbs 8 oz. The body was sealed with amber shellac and tinted with TruOil. Final topcoat is a PPG polyurethane high solids clear. The new pickup covers were cut from some scrap of the original blank and finished like the body. The cover over the electronics was the original piece I made back then. It doesn't fit perfectly but it's grain is much better than the one the bass had before. It has my single screw retainer with a curly walnut and maple button.
Flame maple 1 piece neck - This is one of my "interpreted" necks that began life as an overrun production piece. It's been narrowed, reprofiled, leveled, fretted and dressed. I replaced the black dots with abalone - my first inlay job. The headstock is laminated with walnut. The Hambone ribbon was cut into the headstock and a new decal was applied as part of the rebuild. It's finished in a clear poly on the fretboard and headstock and a rubbed TruOil finish on the back of the neck. The lower edge of the neck has been pretty radically radiused to be a very rounded and smooth finish. Of course, all of my bolt-on necks have steel machine screw inserts.
John East U-retro preamp
Bartolini 9J pickups
Gotoh tuners, bridge, and straplocks
Brass nut
Total weight is 8 lbs even
There are a few more pics here in my gallery: http://www.talkbass.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=2231&size=big&password=&sort=1&cat=501
Do you honestly think that I would leave a detail like that hanging? 
