Maiden fretless

Time for my third DIY bass. Every bass I've made has been a new challenge. First time was just being able to build a bass. You can read about it here.

Second bass was a shortcale neckthrough singlecut

My third attempt will be a fretless bass with the following specs.

• 4 string
• Wenge neck
• Ebony fretboard & headplate
• Alder body -probably painted with milkpaint
• Chrome hardware from gotoh
• Seymour Duncan pickups. Apollo jazz neck and musicman bridge pickup
• Buffer/blend preamp from Richter. Volume - Blend - Tone

I will be using the templates from my first build. So essentially a Monarch body shape with more contours than my first bass.

I started with the logo made of brass and ebony. My initials A & O.

Here it is on the neck blank made of wenge.

 

Got some more work done today. Trussrod channel and access hole done.

If you think the channel looks somewhat off center. No problem. The headolate accidentely moved off center when glueing. So I compensate with a new centerline since I need the full width of the headplate.

 

The logo is made of brass and ebony. This was the beginning of the project. I had a scrap piece of ebony which I glues to a piece of wood and mounted it in the lathe.
The "A" is made from 2mm brass. Here it is test fitted in mahogany

 

Yesterday I cut the rough shape of the neck with the bandsaw


The onto neck template and router


And done

Next up logo

 

Fretboard coming up

Waiting for the router.

 

Today I made a simple jig for radiusing the fretboard using a sandingblock.

 

Body made of alder

 

Without any shaping or routing on body or neck this is the combined weight


And here is the hardware


Weight of it all


Maybe the final weight will be around 4,1-4,2 kg?

 

The neck is on the scale under the body

 

Starting with the side dots. Made a simple jig. 2mm brass wire for the dots at 1, 3, 5, 7 ,9 ,15, 17, 19, 21 fret. Three dots 2-4-2mm at 12th fret.

 

Last night i radiused the fingerboard.

 

Side dots made of brass.

 

There's only one knot in the body. I guess i know where to put the ekectrosocket jack

Is there some kind of drillbit that is better than others to use when drilling in a knot?