NBD: Lighten Up, Francis!

[CatchaCuda]

@JimmyM , very cool.
Since you have your router all warmed up and set to go, maybe consider a route on the back of the headstock to bring it all back into balance.
About half the overall depth of the wood, running a straight line along the tuners, and then following the headstock shape, something like a 1/2" in from the edge to finish.
Could start a new trend!

I couldn't help but picture that after reading his initial post, only all the way through. Could make a great handle.

Let's see under that hood!

 

[JimmyM]

As a side-effect, you are kind of reigniting the age old debate, is the wood quality all that important?
It doesn't sound like it on this instance.
On the second picture, the back of the neck looks nice, as in, satin nice. Where did that neck came from?

I think wood density is important personally, but while these basses all sound wildly different unplugged, they all sound the same plugged in. Meanwhile, a P Lyte I have with a basswood body doesn't sound good to me at all with vintage style pickups, and I ended up going full EMG active on it. But I don't use it anymore.

 

[JimmyM]

Good to see someone who appreciates the joys of a lightweight bass.

Those are good mods. One comment, you could have saved even a bit more weight had the tuners been Y-tuners, or better yet, Gotoh res-o-lites.

Happy playing, it looks great!

Thought about the Y's but decided against them because I like the clovers. Also considered Res-O-Lites but Hipshot only makes a Bass Xtender for the original Fender keys they're based on and it's really heavy, thus offsetting the weight loss by using Res-O-Lites.

 

[JimmyM]

So answering a couple recurring comments and questions...

---The neck was made by a Canadian company called LaSiDo, and sold through Stewart-MacDonald at a very low price. The body I scored off Ebay in the late 90's for $80. It was cheap and seafoam green, so I figured why not?

---I didn't do the routing. My late luthier friend Bill Colvert of Lyrical Lumber in Maitland, FL did it. I had the idea, and Bill was keen to try it just to see what would happen. I have no idea what the before-after weights were, but the increased neck-heaviness offset the body weight loss.

---I'm not shaving down the headstock or filling in the screw holes. Yes, I know it's not a real Fender, but trimming it down and refinishing it doesn't appeal to me.

---Dead spots: Always had a dead spot on the D at the 7th fret G string. Still does. I don't think about it even a little, though.

---I thought about taking off the pickguard and doing a pic, but the routing made it very hard to keep the P pickup in place, and the pickguard actually helps to keep it from slipping out of place. So it's a real PITA to do a pic. Sorry. I'd guess it's routed down about an inch, maybe slightly more.

 

[ChrisBowsman]

Speaking of lightweight bodies...

When I was a kid, my best friend’s dad was a horn repair guy at the biggest music store in Dayton. He told me that Peter Frampton (lives nearby in Cincinnati) brought in a Les Paul to be worked on.

Rick (my buddy’s dad) opened up the case to check out the guitar. He said it felt like it weighed nothing. This was in the early 80’s, when Les Pauls were usually boat anchors. He picked it up, and saw that almost all the wood had been routed out of the back of the guitar.

He doesn’t really play guitar, but said he heard one of the other guys plug it in, and it sounded amazing.