Alright, been thinking, plotting, and deal hunting, so today I did the first actual work towards what will be a parts build with significant modifications along the way.
Through a series of lucky trades and internet deals, I've ended up with this body, a 5 string made by Geoff Gould.
I've been gassing for a headless so I started hunting and found this Hipshot 6-string bridge for less than 50% of the normal price! I've played quite a bit of 6-string so I jumped on it.
I was thinking about trying to build a neck, when I found a 6-string Brice neck MIK on ebay so, I've got the neck (the blue one, seller wouldn't break up the pair so I bought em both and sold the fretless)
Along the way I also grabbed a set of Aguilar DCB pickups (which fit the existing routes and are wide enough to catch all 6 strings, even confirmed that with Aguilar) and a 3 band 18v pre from a USA made Fender (Reggie hamilton model), and I've got 6 individual string locks on their way as well.
The plan is as follows, fit the neck to the body, mount the bridge including removing material from the body so the tuners clear, cut the head down to a rounded nub, inspired by a Kubicki pic I found online
It will be that shape but not as long. Overlay the "head" nub with a dark wood (locks are gold so ebony overlay w gold locks speaks to the black and gold of the bridge) and install the locks and nut (no nut yet, might get a just-a-nut cause I like it on my Warwick), then string to make sure it's playable. Once it's at that stage, I'll disassemble, strip and refinish the body as well as finish the parts of the neck I've modified.
Today I built an extension at the heel as the body has a rectangular pocket and the neck a bias cut.
It looks a little rough but it's gonna get blended in. I fit it by hand with a demel, files, and sand paper. The joint was tight enough that I felt good about it, but had some little gaps so I made some spackle from tight bond and maple dust to fill them in. After its blended it will get a maple veneer over the top to hide the joint. I shot a screw in it (countersunk so I won't hit it when I blend the pieces together later) which will act as a clamp now, and stay in as a mechanical connection in addition to the glue. The neck pocket needs to get widened by 1/8" on either side which I also plan to do slowly by hand.
I think the end result will be really cool and unique, just got a long way to go to get there
Through a series of lucky trades and internet deals, I've ended up with this body, a 5 string made by Geoff Gould.
I've been gassing for a headless so I started hunting and found this Hipshot 6-string bridge for less than 50% of the normal price! I've played quite a bit of 6-string so I jumped on it.
I was thinking about trying to build a neck, when I found a 6-string Brice neck MIK on ebay so, I've got the neck (the blue one, seller wouldn't break up the pair so I bought em both and sold the fretless)
Along the way I also grabbed a set of Aguilar DCB pickups (which fit the existing routes and are wide enough to catch all 6 strings, even confirmed that with Aguilar) and a 3 band 18v pre from a USA made Fender (Reggie hamilton model), and I've got 6 individual string locks on their way as well.
The plan is as follows, fit the neck to the body, mount the bridge including removing material from the body so the tuners clear, cut the head down to a rounded nub, inspired by a Kubicki pic I found online
It will be that shape but not as long. Overlay the "head" nub with a dark wood (locks are gold so ebony overlay w gold locks speaks to the black and gold of the bridge) and install the locks and nut (no nut yet, might get a just-a-nut cause I like it on my Warwick), then string to make sure it's playable. Once it's at that stage, I'll disassemble, strip and refinish the body as well as finish the parts of the neck I've modified.
Today I built an extension at the heel as the body has a rectangular pocket and the neck a bias cut.
It looks a little rough but it's gonna get blended in. I fit it by hand with a demel, files, and sand paper. The joint was tight enough that I felt good about it, but had some little gaps so I made some spackle from tight bond and maple dust to fill them in. After its blended it will get a maple veneer over the top to hide the joint. I shot a screw in it (countersunk so I won't hit it when I blend the pieces together later) which will act as a clamp now, and stay in as a mechanical connection in addition to the glue. The neck pocket needs to get widened by 1/8" on either side which I also plan to do slowly by hand.
I think the end result will be really cool and unique, just got a long way to go to get there
Last edited:
