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Making a Jazz from parts...

#22
Built from parts on Ebay and here at the Talkbass classifieds. Sprayed a black body with primer and surf green. Presto: custom Jazz bass with Dimarzio J pickups. This bass plays well and sounds quite nice. Total cost was about $350, including a pro fret leveling. Of course, the paint job took a lot of time, but it's a fun project!

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#24
MarkMyWordsXx said:
the idea of doing a parts bass is to enjoy the build. if your not going to do that theres really no point
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I disagree. My reasons for doing it myself was I had specific ideas for a bass that I knew nobody offered, and I didn't want to pay for something I knew I could do myself, so I did my own assembly. The joy didn't come until I got to play the bass.



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#25
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Neck and body from Warmoth about $300
Fender original pickups $65
Other hardware gathered from ebay/talkbass other projects, under $50
Finished it myself with reranch products.

It's the best playing and sounding bass I have. I like the warmoth neck because it's a C profile with banjo size frets (which are really little) and I wouldn't be able to find that elsewhere.

I don't play any production basses anymore. I've been assembling for years now and I have accumulated a store of supplies so I don't have to pull everything together one bass at a time.
 
#26
Parts basses are fun, especially if you approach it like a scavenger hunt. I'm nearing completion of my Jazz bass - I just have the big hurdle of the neck to have all my pieces.

I've been watching the TB classifieds for bargains and have gotten them by being patient. (Granted, it's taken a while...) When you do find the exact part you were looking for at a good price it gets you pretty excited!

I got a sunburst body with bridge, ashtray, and pickup cover in a trade for a body that I already had. I got the pickguard for a song. I got my complete electronics package (MEC active jazz pickups and an Aguilar OBP-3), for $70 total. :cool:

The best way I can "justify" building a parts bass is that's fun and relatively easy to do. It's just a fun project, and everyone needs something like that to work on. If you end up spending a little more/less than the price of the bass bought from the store, who the heck cares? It's worth ~$100 either way to have the experience and something to work on.
 
#27
I agree with the comment made about sticking with common wood used for jazz basses. It'll be hard to go wrong when you know that's what is used.

I assembled my first bass this year after seeing how outrageous Sadowsky, Lull, and Valenti prices are. I bought the parts I wanted from a number of places. Some from eBay and some from TB classifieds. I built the bass I wanted almost down to the last detail at 1/3 of the cost of a high-end manufactured bass. The finished product was half the reward. The work I put into and knowledge I gain was priceless. What I learned was that assembling the bass was the easy part. The setup was a different animal. I tried setting it up myself and it played horribly. Then I took it to the shop for re-setup job and it cost me $22. It plays like a dream now.

I do have one question though: Where can I buy Fender decals for the headstock???

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#33
danomite64 said:
I'm curious about your tuners; why did you opt to put a 2x2 set on?
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I knew someone was going to ask that. Well I bought the tuners thinking it was a 4-in-a-row setup. When I got it, I realize it was 2x2. Since I got a good deal on it I just said what the fork. I'm going to get some gold hipshot ultralites anyway so these will do for now. The luthier that set my bass up said it should work fine. I haven't had any problems with them yet. Only thing is I gotta remember to turn the first two keys the wrong way.:D
 
#35
I built a bass from parts earlier this year and just re-wired it and put some fender flatwounds on it this weekend - I'm happy with it, but as far as the resale value - yeah, I imagine I could not get back what I paid for it - being worth $200 in parts.

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I also built a "custom" as well. It was alot of work and I'm not entirely happy with the outcome. I think it would've been better to spend that money on a used bass of some sort ($500 in parts). See my sig file for that the thread on that one.

BUT I learned alot from doing it. I still have some pick ups off a Geddy Lee that I want to build a custom jazz with - but will probably find some used parts to do it with.
 
#36
I say DIY. I did, and I can't even do fret work all that well.

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#38
Joel, I hate the fact that every time I have a decent looking bass you come along and make mine look like crap. Grrrr!!!!!!!!!! Great looking bass though. Can I take her for a ride?

BTW what are all your parts? Mine are as follows:

Fender MIM Jazz body 3-tone sunburst
Allparts neck w/ block inlays
EMG JV pickups and electronics
Gotoh 201 bridge (gold)
Wilkenson tuners (looking to replace these with gold Hipshot Ultralites)
Fender tort pickguard
Fender control plate
Fender neck plate
Allparts gold strap buttons
 
#39
To tell you the truth, I just want something relatively simple; this would probally be my recipe:

Neck: Maple w/ Rosewood and standard cream dots
Body: Ash/Alder w/ Solid black gloss or Matte Black
Hardware: Chrome/vintage control pots
Bridge: Something that won't fall apart
Tuning keys: Anything that won't throw blance off
Pickups: Passive Fralins or anything with a full, vintage sound
Pickguard: White/Black/White

As you can see, nothing really special but thats what I really want. I'll always be looking for a prodution bass like this but if I can't find "the one" I'll go for a parts bass.

Thinking a lot about Lakland Skyline Joe Osborns but I've got to play a few first and check out their hardware, bridges, tuners, its really important to me to have solid hardware.
 

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