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Nova guitar parts headless P bass conversion

#23
I think with the black bridge, this would would do it justice instead of the tort puzzle pieces…
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#25
@johnh89, excellent job! Congrats!
I've got a beautiful Warmoth Jbass neck in my parts closet with a broken headstock. I was thinking of gluing it up to look like a Gibson Thunderbird headstock, as only the lower third is missing (kinda like a telecaster hdstock) but this looks like a path of less resistance.
Where did you source the carbon fibre plate, and did you do the logo yourself, or is it sold that way?

Again, great job and best wishes enjoying it! :thumbsup:

Edit to add: What about truss rod access? Any problems?
 
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#27
johnh89 said:
What colour ? Original plan when it was first built was going to be red oxide primer in Matt with an aluminium chequer plate pickguard but when the body turned up it was such a beautiful piece of wood I couldn't bring myself to paint it
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That's the beauty of cerusing or ebonizing. You can paint the wood AND show the grain off.
 
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#29
Ethereal Thorn said:
I will chime in another vote of confidence in Nova hardware I bought a set of the individual bridges for my 7 string multiscale build and they are extremely well built they make the hipshot headless bridge look cheap in comparison imho.
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Wow, I didn't expect that, thank you so much!
 
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#30
Ryan in PDX said:
Thank you for sharing! Looks like a lot of fun. I want to do something similar...


Was the stump of the headstock weak in some way?

Not weak but the machine head hole that was filled stood out a bit bit so it was either paint it or carbon fibre . It is really just for aesthetics .


Does the weight in the new head piece maintain the original balance, or is the bridge heavy enough that it doesn't matter (as far as neck dive is concerned)? It's hard to tell how heavy that head piece is.

A heavy ash body will probably never have neck dive anyway, so maybe this is the wrong build to judge that.

Head piece is not heavy at all . Bass balances perfectly . With the white ash body this bass will never be a neck diver . Before surgery it tipped the scales at 12lb 2 oz . A deliberate choice on my behalf as I am in the minority that likes a heavy bass .

Are you saying you mounted it flat on the body, with no routing required? Were these standard fender dimensions on the neck and body?
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Yep , flat on the body . Body was custom made to 66 fender specs but I couldn't tell you how accurately it conforms to a real one . Neck was a fairly cheap ebay that needed a bit of work too fit to the neck pocket .

MVE said:
I like the bass enough, but I've never been entirely comfortable with the term "headless".

Can we come up with something better?

A Bridgetuner, Chopstock….maybe?
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Sawn off ?

shnapper said:
I think with the black bridge, this would would do it justice instead of the tort puzzle pieces…View attachment 4408138
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Tort puzzle pieces were done out of an old pickguard to show as much of the grain as possible . It may change in the future to something different but it definately won't be to a standard P bass PG . Something unique will come up when I get inspired .

2tonic said:
@johnh89, excellent job! Congrats!
I've got a beautiful Warmoth Jbass neck in my parts closet with a broken headstock. I was thinking of gluing it up to look like a Gibson Thunderbird headstock, as only the lower third is missing (kinda like a telecaster hdstock) but this looks like a path of less resistance.
Where did you source the carbon fibre plate, and did you do the logo yourself, or is it sold that way?

Again, great job and best wishes enjoying it! :thumbsup:

Carbon fibre plate was from a firm in the UK . 2mm plate 200mm x 300mm . About £20 if I remember . It looks the nuts but really is a messy pain in the backside to work with . Logo is one I designed for various projects of mine . Artwork sent to ebayer who prints them for a very reasonable price .

Edit to add: What about truss rod access? Any problems?
Click to expand...

No problems . Left enough space between nut and headpiece to get allen key in . Bought some Extra long scale roto 77s but used the standard ones for now as I was ready to string it up before they arrived .

Played it at a rehersal last night and absolutely loved it .
 
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#35
Thank you John, I've been rolling the idea of doing something similar to you for a while and using the Nova bridge too. Your build has convinced me I won't be heading towards a complete stuff up. I have a sacrificial neck I've been holding onto for the project, but will build a body from scratch.
 
#40
Durham52 said:
Thank you John, I've been rolling the idea of doing something similar to you for a while and using the Nova bridge too. Your build has convinced me I won't be heading towards a complete stuff up. I have a sacrificial neck I've been holding onto for the project, but will build a body from scratch.
Click to expand...
Let me know if you want any pointers .I'll help if I possibly can
 

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