Reducing weight on a solid Rosewood body.

[hbarcat]

Decades ago, I found myself with an orphaned bass body that was originally made by Schecter in the 1980s as a Fender P body clone. It was made of solid Rosewood and weighed 6.8 pounds.

I sat on it for awhile and then about 2015 I decided to make some use of it. I started by radically cutting into the body to try to reduce as much weight as possible. I completely restructured the upper horns and trimmed away wood along all the edges. I routed out the pickup cavities with the intent of using lightweight covers over them. I finished by planing a small amount of material off the front and back. Then I abandoned the project.

So now I want to take this up again and this is where it's at today. The bare body now weighs 5.6 pounds.

The dark areas are remains of the clearcoat that I sprayed on it as a test before I planed the front and back.

My plan is to carefully remove a bit more wood around the edges to give a softer contour and then add the neck, pickups, hardware, etc..

I think an oil finish would be appropriate, but I'm open to other options.

I'm open to any and all suggestions about what you think might be interested in seeing moving forward.

 

[Bruce Johnson]

Decades ago, I found myself with an orphaned bass body that was originally made by Schecter in the 1980s as a Fender P body clone. It was made of solid Rosewood and weighed 6.8 pounds.

I sat on it for awhile and then about 2015 I decided to make some use of it. I started by radically cutting into the body to try to reduce as much weight as possible. I completely restructured the upper horns and trimmed away wood along all the edges. I routed out the pickup cavities with the intent of using lightweight covers over them. I finished by planing a small amount of material off the front and back. Then I abandoned the project.

So now I want to take this up again and this is where it's at today. The bare body now weighs 5.6 pounds.

The dark areas are remains of the clearcoat that I sprayed on it as a test before I planed tge front and back.

View attachment 7439081View attachment 7439082View attachment 7439083View attachment 7439084View attachment 7439085

My plan is to carefully remove a bit more wood around the edges to give a softer contour and then add the neck, pickups, hardware, etc..

I think an oil finish would be appropriate, but I'm open to other options.

I'm open to any and all suggestions about what you think might be interested in seeing moving forward.

Hey hbarcat;

It's good to see you working on another cool project. Definitely a beautiful chunk of wood, worth turning into a playable bass.

Not many options left for trimming some more weight out of it. You could try boring some holes in from the edge at the back end, and putting a rosewood cap over them?

My personal opinion is that it would look best with a simple clear gloss finish. Not too thick, no extra tinting on the surfaces, just clear. Maybe a bit of darker brown tinting around the perimeter. It's already got plenty of color and grain contrast.

 

[Lo-E]

You could lose a little more weight with an aggressive tummy cut but that’s about all that’s left to reduce.

You could always route cavities under a pick guard but it would be a shame to cover such pretty rosewood with a pickguard. Unless, of course, the pick guard was made from another beautiful piece of wood.

 

[hbarcat]

I'm okay with the weight as it is, so I have no desire to get rid of any more wood other than the trivial amount that will come off when rounding off the edges. I'm also not really into the idea of a pickguard. I want to keep the look as simple and clean as possible.

I am contemplating doing an arch top contour, but that could be tricky. I've never done one before and if I take off just a bit little too much wood in one spot, I've basically ruined the body. I really don't want to risk it.

 

[tubedude]

Remove the lower horn, deep belly cut, deep forearm relief heavily rounded edges.

 

[definenredefine]

No suggestions but happy to see how this comes out!

 

[DJ Bebop]

There is this…

 

[Water buffalo]

How thick is it?

You could take it down to 1 1/2"

 

[bassman10096]

I’d be interested in Bruce’s expertise on finishes but in my experience not every clearcoat will dry properly on rosewood due to oil in the wood. Urethane has not been good on rosewood for me. Nitro is fine, but fragile. Not sure about water-based or catalyzed lacquer products though.

 

[fretno]

That looks like walnut.

 

[ctmullins]

That’s beautiful. I would shorten and de-sharpen the horns a bit, then make a headless neck, and use lightweight Nova headless hardware. Maybe even Lace BassBar pickups.

 

[Dirk Diggler]

Looks to me like you've got a good bit of sanding to do still.
Agreed great looking wood, and that should be plenty light at this point, hardware isn't going to add back the pounds.
Mighty pointy bass there, gotta be from the 80's?

 

[J Wilson]

Wouldn't presume to give advice about woodwork or finish, but I would suggest being careful about weight with the rest of the parts to finish making this into a complete instrument: Bridge and tuning keys, and a lighter than heavier neck if possible. These things would hold the finished overall weight back.

 

[funkinbottom]

If you're definitely going with a pickguard, perhaps a swimming pool rout under the guard?

 

[ctmullins]

If you're definitely going with a pickguard, perhaps a swimming pool rout under the guard?

NOOOOOOOOOOOO

 

[hbarcat]

If you're definitely going with a pickguard, perhaps a swimming pool rout under the guard?

I'm definitely not going with a pick guard. That's decided.

 

[hbarcat]

Mighty pointy bass there, gotta be from the 80's?

The original shape was a Fender Jazz body clone, produced by Schecter in the 80s.

It was only a few years ago when I cut the pointy horns into the body. I was copying the shape of bass bodies that a local luthier uses on his own custom boutique basses.



This is the "sister" bass I made (flamed maple body)

 

[hbarcat]

This is the neck I have planned for it. It's a Moses graphite neck. I cut down the headstock a bit.

 

[Beej]

I think if you want to keep the top as it is (i.e., not adding a drop top), then I would consider slicing the top off, hogging out some chambers and gluing the top back down.

If you have access to a very large bandsaw, you could lay this body into a jig that holds it flush so you can cut it, and then take off the top. If you don't have a large enough bandsaw, then I'd split it down the middle (probably tablesaw) and then remove the top from each half. I'd then glue the top halves back together so I could router plane them flush on the underside of the new top, and do the same to the body halves. Once the cavities were routed out, I'd glue the top back onto the bass and then re-rout the pickup cavities and neck pocket.

This method, if done carefully, would only lose about 1/8" in width and 3/16" or so in thickness. It's a bit of work of course, but it's a way you could preserve the existing grain on the front and back. The seam on the side could either just be ignored, or you could put a contrasting (or subtle) veneer between them as an accent.

 

[dlmarquez]

does rosewood do well with something like tung oil or tru oil? I am a big fan of oiled finishes, and I’ve had 3 basses with oiled walnut that were wonderful in my opinion