NBBD New Born Bass Day - It's Alive!!!

Spectre Gunner

Supporting Member
Jun 8, 2016
1,858
2,655
Tampa, Florida
Craig Frankenstien Jazz Bass Build 4 - 1.jpeg

I finally completed my latest bass build and it came out excellent. Now that all the final tweaking and setup is complete it plays and sounds great. It's been gestating for nine months and today it was finally born and now it needs a name ( cheesy but true). My wife wants to call it "Galaxy" because it is black with flakes that sparkle in different colors and looks like a star filled night sky. It's a tough paint job to photograph because the flakes reflect light back into the camera causing them to be over exposed and that washes out the colors. It's really pretty when the light hits it just right.

My goal with this build was to use my favorite components, Aluminati aluminum/carbon fiber neck and a body made exactly to my specs. No compromises here and no expense spared. I invested a lot into Frankenstein and doubt I would even break even if I sold it but return on investment was not a priority but building my dream bass was #1 priority.
Craig Frankenstien Jazz Body - 1.jpeg


Details:
Warmoth Body - Dinky Jazz Bass body (the dinky is 1/7th smaller than a standard Fender Jazz). The wood is roasted Swamp Ash and chambered for lightness. Roger Sadowsky is one of my favorite builders and was the inspiration for my design. The paint is called "Halo Flake" which is gloss black with flakes that sparkle in various colors.
Craig Frankenstien Jazz CF Fingerboard - 1.jpeg

Aluminati Neck - Chambered aluminum neck anodized black satin and the back is brushed for smoothness. The headstock is cutout for more weight saving. Since the neck is aluminum there is no need for a truss rod. The relief is dialed in at the factory and will not change at all from changes temperature or humidity. Not having to mess with a truss rod makes like that much simpler. The fretboard is carbon fiber with stainless steel frets, white pearl dots, glowing side dots and bolt on brass nut. I also ordered a second brass nut cut to BEAD in case I want to do that later on.
Craig Frankenstien Jazz CF Back Body - 1.jpeg



Hipshot tuners and bridge - all black hardware

Sadowsky pickups with alnico III and alnico V magnets.
Workbench one - 1.jpeg


Sadowsky active preamp and controls with a pull knob that switches from Active and Midrange to Passive and Vintage tone.

Dunlop straplocks.

Soundjoy Nickel Round Strings

Workbench Two - 1.jpeg
There were some unexpected challenges along the way. The most difficult was that the Sadowsky control knobs were too shallow to go completely through the knob holes so I had to drill them out and that took a lot of care using a drill press to keep it straight. I ordered the jack hole too small so I had to open that up. I don't like taking a drill to a nicely painted mint body, especially when it comes to drilling the strap lock holes. But I managed without a scratch anywhere. When I was working on the body I applied masking tape to the edges and wrapped the body in cellophane to prevent any damage to the paint while I was doing all this woodwork to a finished body.

The neck was as easy as it could be. The neck uses machine bolts and threaded inserts so it's just a matter of attaching four bolts. No need for shims and you can totally skip the truss rod relief adjustment steps. This is literally a plug and play neck with a Fender spec neck heel. This neck weighs about the same as a wooden neck roughly 2.5lbs.

Workbench Four - 1.jpeg
Even though the Sadowsky preamp uses connectors between all the components and circuit board there was still plenty of soldering to do with all the ground wires and pickup leads. But this was better than having to solder everything. I lined the control cavity and cover with copper foil and grounded it to the bundle of ground wires with solder. In the end I had no issues with the electronics. This hasn't been the case with conventional preamps I've assembled in the past.
Craig Frankenstien Copper-Preamp - 1.jpeg


All these components work well together and I'm happy with the result. It weighs in at 7lbs and 15 ounces. I consider this to be on the lighter end of your average bass weight. I'm already thinking about what my next build will be for 2025. Maybe something based off a P or a PJ with a Tony Franklin circuit. I'm open to suggestions.
 
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Cool...different...but cool.
I've never seen one of those necks. Well done sir!
I was definitely going for different while not straying too far from the standard Fender Shaped Object. It was a lot of fun deciding on parts and putting it all together. The hardest part was waiting on the customer ordered body and neck to be completed and shipped.
 
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