JJS 4 build for TBer Mike Phillips

[Musiclogic]

This will be an ongoing build thread for Tber Mike Phillips, a long time customer of mine, and good friend. He dug up an old pic of a bass I designed back in the late 80's for a large Japanese company. Since there is no longer any infringement liabilities, he asked me to do a similar build to the original with a few Mikey mods. So here is the plan:

JJS 4 string
Neck Through
Walnut neck with maple stringers
Northern Ash Body with Cathedral Grain pattern
Black hardware
Birdseye fretboard with wenge binding and blocks
70's jazz pickup placement
Dimarzio Ultra Jazz pickups in wood covers
slim neck profile
bone nut

An so we started with cutting some quartersawn walnut and some quartersawn maple to create the neck pieces and cut some Ash to create the cathedrals he wanted.(or maybe I just sprung it on him....LOL)

Next I thicknessed the laminates and glued them up

Mikey is a Pepsi guy and hates Coke products

while the neck was drying I started cutting the body shapes out

So this is a blow up of the original sketch from the 80's, and the idea for the body(thank god for Kinkos)

Ok....fast forward a bit, and I finished cutting out the body and planing and sanding the neck square, and this is where it is headed at this point

So that is all for this one for the moment, I will update this as i get more completed.

 

[Greg Johnsen]

Looks great so far! I'm kind of surprised he chose to go with wenge for the blocks and trim but I'm sure it's gonna end up looking great.

Any thoughts on the finish?

Greg

 

[faulknersj]

I can't wait to see how this turns out! Looks great so far!

 

[Musiclogic]

Hey Greg, yeah the finish will be a straight up clear, probably waterborne lacquer, if not, it will be Nitro. I am moving away from solvent based finishes although They will always be in my booth, LOL. Just trying to limit the use for cleaner waterborne stuff which is great these days.

As for the FB idea, Mike originally wanted wenge with Ash blocks and binding, but after he saw the birdseye and wenge board on the fretless 5 build, he changed his mind. It's actually the design I originally suggested, so I readilly agreed when he asked if we could change it.

 

[dremy2006]

Sub.......still learning

 

[jmorbita]

subscribed!!!

 

[Musiclogic]

Truss rods and bridge pieces arrived today so more to come on this one shortly.

 

[mike phillips]

looks good my man. cant wait to play this bad boy. its been awhile but good thing come to those that wait. custom things take some time so be patient and listen to your luthier. there were things that i would have liked but were not able to be done or would have sacrificed the integrity of the instrument. listen with an open mind and ears to what your luthier suggests. he knows what works and what will stand the test of time. HJCs work is flawless and very detailed with some cool tricks only HJC can pull off. this bass will be with me forever, not only because we spec'd it out but because it was built by an incredable luthier and a good friend who truly cares about his work. if you want something custom, look no further than HJC CUSTOMS USA. you wont be disappointed.

 

[Musiclogic]

Well I have been slacking on this thread, a couple of new things to put up quickly.

made the top cut for the headstock, neck plotting isn't visible, so I just showed this, 12.5 degree headstock planned

Then I cut the rear panel out of the back for a better match. I only do these on exposed neck throughs, kind of a trademark thing I have done since my first build.

I'll be catching this and a couple other threads here shortly, thanks for looking.

 

[mike phillips]

i cant wait to play this. as always, great work.

 

[jmorbita]

ok, we need some progress on this!!

Is the neck blank thicker on the bridge side than on the neck/body joint?
By how much?
do you trim the neck much during the final shaping, or are you already in the final thickness (i mean from treble to bass side)

 

[Musiclogic]

I lost my hard drive on my computer, have been having all of the pics recovered to discs which I am going through to find all the pics for this and the trinity build.

At this point the neck is thicknessed to the through body thickness, and has not been cut for the neck profile, rear of headstock, or volute , just the 2.25" blank.

Sorry about the delay, I am very busy in my shop, so my time has been a bit limited lately to search for these pics.