SBO 2023: The Ocean - Assembly Build

[MonetBass]

First time participating in a Build-off, so be gentle! This will be an assembly build as I'm no woodworker. Let's have the experts at Warmoth do what they do best! My lame excuse? I've always wanted to do a bass build, but have been putting it off. For no good reason.

The devil is in the details, so here they are.
Body: Warmoth Dinky J, swamp ash with quilted maple top finished in turquoise transparent
Neck: Warmoth J, birdseye maple with ebony unlined fingerboard
Guts: Fender Custom Shop 60s Jazz pickups, CTS pots with 0.047 cap, passive VVT, Switchcraft output jack
Hipshot Ultralite tuners, Fender MIM Jazz bridge, Hipshot string retainer, Fender back plate, D'Addario oval strap pins
Custom 'Monet' decal for the headstock, too.

Here are a couple of shots of just the body:

Like you're in the Carribean!

The neck is unfinished because I'm going to use wood dye to match the headstock with the body color. I've already tested it on some scrap maple and it's pretty darn close. Then the neck will be finished with satin poly.

Here we go!

 

[Flying B]

That's gonna be killer, dude!

 

[TerribleTim68]

Man that looks great!

 

[41Hz To Go]

That maple top looks good AF!

 

[Crawforde]

Sweet!

 

[Beej]

That colour is mesmerizing. <- it matches the drool.

And look at all that room for a Darkglass preamp and two 9v batteries.

 

[C Stone]

Yup that’s gonna be a looker and most likely a player too…Headstock grain is also killer let’s hope you can still see it well after the stain match. Good luck!!!

 

[MonetBass]

That colour is mesmerizing. <- it matches the drool.

And look at all that room for a Darkglass preamp and two 9v batteries.

LOL yeah, that may come later. We'll see how it sounds passive.

Yup that’s gonna be a looker and most likely a player too…Headstock grain is also killer let’s hope you can still see it well after the stain match. Good luck!!!

The dye will definitely show the grain -- it does on the test piece of maple. Dyeing starts tomorrow so I'll post pics!

 

[roccobass]

Nice!

 

[CaribooBass]

That is my favourite green for a bass! Not a paint, a stain of great beauty with the grain of the body.

What does a “Dinky J Body” mean ?
Will It will still be 34 inch scale length?
Thanks
Clayton

 

[MonetBass]

That is my favourite green for a bass! Not a paint, a stain of great beauty with the grain of the body.

What does a “Dinky J Body” mean ?
Will It will still be 34 inch scale length?
Thanks
Clayton

It’s just a downsized body. Scale length is still 34”.

 

[definenredefine]

I'm in.

 

[Ethereal Thorn]

Dig all the specs on this except I feel the bridge could be maybe upgraded but that's just me being spoiled I like the brass hipshot A style bridge and got hooked on it

 

[Flamingo21]

I can totally see this.

 

[micguy]

What does a “Dinky J Body” mean ?

The biggest noticeable difference is that Fender's "Cro Magnon" upper horn (way bigger than it needs to be) has been thinned to a reasonable width.

 

[Reedt2000]

J

Dinky J

 

[dave64o]

Very cool! Can’t wait to see - and hear - how it turns out.

 

[MonetBass]

Dig all the specs on this except I feel the bridge could be maybe upgraded but that's just me being spoiled I like the brass hipshot A style bridge and got hooked on it

I get that, but I've found after bridge swapping that the original bent plate Fender design works just fine; and others really don't make a difference tone-wise, at least to my ears.

 

[MonetBass]

Dye is on the headstock! There was some overrun on the sides I had to sand out, but otherwise it turned out great.

All taped up and ready for the first coat of poly.

 

[Altitude]

Subbed, looks great.

The Dinky J is the shape a jazz bass always should have been to my eyes. Traditional J bodies are very large and look a little porky once you’ve seen a nice downsized version.

Sadowsky and Valenti, among others, use similar downsized proportions.