New Brooks bass: EB-N

[Basvarken]

I've completed the build of a new bass.
Unlike other Brooks basses that I've built this does not feature a mix of a classic Gibson bass with another non-Gibson classic.
The Brooks EB-N is an original design that I came up with in an attempt to give it a bit of a classic vibe without referring to well known designs.


BROOKS EB-N
- One piece mahogany body
- Smoked oak constrasting veneer in between layer
- Bookmatched flamed maple top
- Five ply quartersawn mahogany/American walnut neck
- Ebony fretboard
- Mother of Pearl position marker dots. 12th circle inlay
- Jumbo frets
- 34" scale
- Zero fret and buffalo horn nut
- Babicz FCH4 bridge
- Spokewheel double action trussrod
- Lace Alumitone Bass Bar
- Gotoh GB 707 bass tuners
- Push-pull volume pot for humbucking or single coil
- CTS tone pot

 

[Mktrat]

Very nice execution.

 

[electracoyote]

Beautiful bass, nice features. I'd love to take a spin, but short of that I'll take a look/listen to any demo you produce.

Zero fret, ebony board, set neck, bone nut, and push/pull pot are nice touches.

 

[Basvarken]

I'll post some pics of the build process.

Starting with a pic of the quarter sawn neck blank that I cut into four pieces on the saw table of a friend of mine.

Next is three pieces of that neck blank with two strips of American walnut veneer in between that are going to make a five ply

Glueing them together. Lots of clamps

Used an old fashioned saw to cut the headstock angle

Routed the truss rod channel

And chiseled the shape of the spokewheel

 

[bass40hz]

Beautiful.
Rock on.

 

[Basvarken]

Found a huge blank of beautifully figured mahogany. Can take at least four bass bodies out if this one.

And found a nice bookmatched set of flamed maple for the top. Plus a pre slotted ebony fretboard

Drilled holes for the position markers and glued them in

Cut a short piece off an aluminium tube for the 12th fret position marker

Sanded it all flush to the right radius

Sawed the fret slots to the right width and depth

Filed a tiny angle to the slots to make the frets fit in nicely

Cut the frets and hammered them in

 

[Basvarken]

Glued the fret board onto the rough shape of the neck

Beginning to look like a proper neck

Working on the control cavity

And routed the channel for the pickup wires

Next I glued a thin veneer of smoked oak as a contrasting layer in between the mahogany and the maple

Made a template out of MDF for the body shape

Glued the bookmatched set of flamed maple onto the body

Routed the shape of the body

 

[Basvarken]

Used a coarse rasp and a file to shape the contouring

Routed the pickup cavity

Chiseled the corners to make it a clean fit fort the Lace Alumitone

Drilled some more holes

Routed the back for the control cover

 

[Basvarken]

Drilled holes for the side dot markers

Making the 12 position side marker

And glueing in the other side dots

Side dots sanded flush with the side of the fretboard

 

[SAlcott]

Nice work-simple, elegant, no battery required.

 

[Basvarken]

Routed the neck pocket

Used the smoked oak veneer too for the headstock (completely invisible in the end result...)

Test fitting the neck pocket

And checking the neck angle

Cut the slot for the nut

Once the angle was correct, I glued the neck onto the body

 

[NKBassman]

Beautiful work as always!

 

[Basvarken]

Taped off the body to do some pore filling on the mahogany

Next I stained the top a light brown colour to make the flame pop

Sanded it back to get a bit of contrast

After much deliberation I chose blue (other options were bright red and naturel)

Stained the back the same colour.

But oddly enough the colour simply disappeared after several layers of clear coat...
Looks almost black now.

Top after a few coats of clear lacquer

 

[cnltb]

I really like the body and head shapes!

 

[Skillet]

The attention to detail of this build is inspiring. I'd consider the 'almost black' color of the back to be serendipity. It looks great.

 

[BassTank84]

I love that little cover for the truss rod wheel. Great build, love the overall design and great color.

 

[TNCreature]

I really enjoyed being walked through the process. It's like magic to me!

 

[thanos k]

looks awesome!!!

 

[Ostie]

Great work! I especially like the progressive FB dot markers. How clever!

 

[deernaes]

That is fantastic!
Very nice work...