J.Parsons Build Diary

[JParsons]

I thought I'd start a thread as a place to post about some of my builds!

There's mostly guitars happening at the moment (finishing up the last of my customer orders) but there's some basses here too, with maybe another one to come.

First up, a couple of Doug Fir bodies, salvaged from a renovation at my sister's house.
The Tele-ish one (Silas model) is regular scale, while the offset (Gideon model) will be baritone - a first for me!
Both have roasted maple necks, with 25" roasted maple and 27.5" Pau Ferro fingerboards respectively.

 

[JParsons]

Next is a hollow Silas, made from Queensland Maple (body) and Tasmanian Oak top, and a laminated roasted maple neck + fingerboard.

The body is heavily chambered, and electronics will be fed through that hole in the top, which gets covered by the Pickguard. The toggle switch at the top goes through a channel under the neck pickup. I like to keep the backs of my guitars tidy, even if it does mean a bit of fussing around during wire up!

The Queensland Maple is more like Mahogany, and is gonna look great under a coat of oil! the top will get a white wash, hopefully letting some of the subtle figure through.

 

[JParsons]

Here's the batch of necks I'm working through. All different s
cale lengths!

from left - 33" Roasted Maple, 30" Maple + Macassar Ebony, 27.5" Roasted Maple + Pau Ferro, 25" Roasted Maple
It's amazing how much Roasted Maple can vary - I guess the oven was a bit hotter for the first one..

I'm about to start work on one more neck, for myself. It's plain maple that's been carefully sawn according to the @Bruce Johnson method, making sure the growth rings line up for great stability. I've still got a little bit of planing to do to make sure it's a perfect glue fit, then it'll be fitted with carbon TOW, my favourite truss rod, and capped with a Rosewood Fingerboard. There's a nice Swamp Ash body blank on the way from StewMac that I'll probably have to set aside until a bit later in the year.

 

[rudy4444]

Nice work. I like to see clean and simple designs that are well executed.

The component port under the pick guard is a nice touch. I built a carved top f hole semi-acoustic a few years back and made a opening within the neck bucker cavity to pass the controls through. It's worth the effort when you know folks are scratching their heads trying to figure out how you got those pots inside the body!

 

[JParsons]

Thanks @rudy4444

These will get some comfort carving, and the last one will get my signature "Swoop", that's my take on the f-hole.

 

[JParsons]

Hey all! I'm starting a thread to keep track of all my builds, both completed and in progress. I've got some cool ones coming up, but for now I'll start with this 33" Gideon model in Swamp Ash and Roasted Maple. It's the lightest bass I've made so far, coming in at 7lb 11oz. I could probably shave a few off with a lighter bridge...

The body is one piece and finished in Aztec Gold lacquer. The neck is super light thanks to a fancy lightweight truss rod from Mike at Allied Lutherie - not sure I'd use one again for bass as it takes a fair bit of tightening to counter string tension. They're great for guitars though.

Tuners are Gotoh GB350s and the bridge is a Hipshot Kickass. Can't say I'm a huge fan of that bridge, as I tend to go with the Gotoh bent plate style, nice and simple.

The Aguilar pickups are great - everything I'd expect from a P/J set that sort of sits between vintage and modern sounds.

I had plans to sell this one, but I like it too much so it's now mine!

 

[JParsons]

Gosh, I'm an idiot. I'd already started a diary thread!

 

[Thud Staff]

Hey all! I'm starting a thread to keep track of all my builds, both completed and in progress. I've got some cool ones coming up, but for now I'll start with this 33" Gideon model in Swamp Ash and Roasted Maple. It's the lightest bass I've made so far, coming in at 7lb 11oz. I could probably shave a few off with a lighter bridge...
View attachment 4655757 View attachment 4655758 View attachment 4655755 View attachment 4655756

The body is one piece and finished in Aztec Gold lacquer. The neck is super light thanks to a fancy lightweight truss rod from Mike at Allied Lutherie - not sure I'd use one again for bass as it takes a fair bit of tightening to counter string tension. They're great for guitars though.

Tuners are Gotoh GB350s and the bridge is a Hipshot Kickass. Can't say I'm a huge fan of that bridge, as I tend to go with the Gotoh bent plate style, nice and simple.

The Aguilar pickups are great - everything I'd expect from a P/J set that sort of sits between vintage and modern sounds.

I had plans to sell this one, but I like it too much so it's now mine!

Beautiful work, JP! I like your take on vintage and added your individual style. Very cool and original.

 

[Dec1975]

That golden Gideon is glorious! I really love your pickguard shape.

 

[JParsons]

Beautiful work, JP! I like your take on vintage and added your individual style. Very cool and original.

Thanks! I'm definitely inspired by vintage instruments, but I'm not one to copy. I've spent way too many hours dialling in my aesthetic, so I'm glad it's appreciated by others!

 

[JParsons]

That golden Gideon is glorious! I really love your pickguard shape.

Cheers!

 

[JParsons]

New build coming up - A long overdue build for myself (because why not?) using the new shape model I've been working on, inspired by double-cut juniors.

Some goodies from the Big Mac - although the truss rod is from Allied Luthierie.

I'm pretty picky about my bass weights these days, so I kept an eye out for something light and good looking. This one-piece blank caught my eye - something about those cross hatches did it for me.

The roasted maple is pretty darn nice too, although I feel bad using it on myself instead of keeping it for a customer.

Anyway, here's what the finished bass will end up looking like!

It's a 32" scale, bound Rosewood fingerboard with pearl blocks, ebony head plate, Gotoh reso-lite tuners, Hipshot Supertone bridge, and a cool pickup that McNelly designed for me - it's like a p-bass jammed in a Dog-ear P90 case!

I'll likely end up doing a hard shellac finish on it.

 

[JParsons]

I'm currently working through the biggest batch of my "career" - 8 guitars!
I hadn't intended on doing any more customer builds, especially not guitars, but I'm taking a whole year off next year to go traveling through the outback with my family, so I put the offer out there to people I knew were on the fence about ordering. The books filled up pretty fast!

So I'm slowly chipping away at these two personal builds - the double-cut bass and a single-cut guitar.

I'm fairly happy with the inlays on this one - not perfect, but the gaps are minimal and were filled easily. I'm doing another one for a customer in ebony. Hopefully, that one goes better.
The binding on the fingerboard was a new feature for me, and I'm glad I gave it a go because it looks sharp!

I chose to keep things simpler with the guitar - plain Royal Blackwood from LMI. Seems nice to work with, although it really gummed up my thickness sander while making binding strips!

Finally, I gave my personal 5er a facelift! Someone was interested in something similar, but I knew I wouldn't have time for a fresh build so I offered him mine. It got repainted, a new pickguard, a new pickup, and some abalone dot markers! I also shaved the neck profile down to something a bit slimmer. It feels great to play now.

 

[Gary_M]

Very nice, love the fretboard binding!

 

[JParsons]

I've been experimenting with Ken Parker's finishing technique, sealing the raw wood with epoxy, wiped off before it sets, then finishing it off with oil. I'm using a thin epoxy that soaks into the wood a bit more than the West Systems that Ken uses. Then I use a hard-wax oil with a hardening additive and my topcoat.

One of these necks is Celery Top Pine, which although stiff and stable, is a bit soft. I figured this was a good chance to put the new finishing technique to use.

The Roasted Maple neck is seriously good looking though

 

[JParsons]

I also have been chipping away at these two necks - One Macassar Ebony, the other Royal Blackwood. For those who haven't come across Royal Blackwood, it's roasted Purple Heart, available through LMI as a jet black Ebony alternative.

After working with the Royal Blackwood for a while I have some thoughts:

It's not as stable as you'd think. The first board I bought from LMI was already radiused. When it arrived it was starting to cup, meaning that the gluing surface was actually convex! It took some work to flatten out and made it thinner than I'd like. I bought another flat, un-slotted board to cut up for bindings, and it developed a twist after I cut some slices and left the rest to sit for a week or so.

It's also not as hard as I'd like. I'm used to Macassar Ebony, so when I hammered the frets in I found I was denting the frets into the Royal Blackwood board, mostly along the edges.

It doesn't polish up quite like real ebony. I sanded the boards above to 800 grit, then applied some paste wax. It might be the more open pores of the RB, but it still seems a bit dull.

Ultimately I don't think I'll order any more boards, except to use as binding. I have some fingerboards left so I'll use those up, but I'll probably stick with Mac Ebony.

 

[Beej]

Funny, I'm a huge Ken Parker fan and I didn't realize he did the epoxy/oil combo as you describe. That's one of my own favourite go-to finishes for ease of application and durability.

 

[JParsons]

Funny, I'm a huge Ken Parker fan and I didn't realize he did the epoxy/oil combo as you describe. That's one of my own favourite go-to finishes for ease of application and durability.

He's got a great YouTube channel where he goes through the process!

 

[JParsons]

With a batch of guitars that need painting, I figured it was about time I did something to deal with the fumes and overspray. I popped out and bought a decent extractor fan, which I set up to push everything out a window. The filter medium catches a lot of overspray, and the fumes are moved outside nicely!

Here's the first body - It's getting a shell pink finish, but I like to put down something a bit darker first, so that as it ages the contrasting colour peeks through.

As you can see the top colour is a very faded shell pink, which is exactly what we wanted.

 

[JParsons]

A few more nearing the finish line! The Ash will be given a clear gloss, the mahogany will be getting a ready dark metallic green.