SBO 24 - Single Cut PJ

[trevorpell0]

Nice progress! I like the pickguard idea.

Thanks! I think I am going to try to inlay it so don't have to worry about warping or breaking. I'll cut off the bottom piece and make it removable for the electronics plate, more like a J bass. I'll probably do a bit of reinforcement on the backside of the electronics plate, I'm still thinking about it.

 

[trevorpell0]

Neck Pocket! Body Contours!

I think I cut the neck pocket a bit too deep, the third picture is the bridge up against the neck, the saddles are a bit higher than the fingerboard. If I understand things correctly, the saddles and the fingerboard would be levelish, since that would be the minimum possible string height (0). Although, maybe its okay, because practically, string height is never zero. When I moved the bridge back to the right location and held a piece of string taught between the nut location and the bridge, the string height seemed actually pretty reasonable (and on the low side, with some room to raise the saddles.)

 

[trevorpell0]

I got a bunch of time in the spider shack today. I was able to configure the neck bolts, cut out the inlay for the pickguard and do some work on the headstock.

There are some gaps between the pick guard inlay and the body, I'm planning on filling them in with Wenge dust and super glue, but maybe someone has any better ideas?

 

[trevorpell0]

Headstock (pegbox?) progress!

I'm a bit worried about neck dive, if I were smart, I would have cut a big hole through the middle chunk before I glued the part that will be the scrolls on. Oh well. I've still got some sculpting to do, I'm hoping that a lot of that material will get taken off as it takes shape.

 

[trevorpell0]

Body Progress!

I ended up using some offcuts of mahogany to try to fill a lot of the larger gaps, and then dust and glue for the smaller parts. Its not perfect, but I think overall, it is pretty good, all things considered.

 

[trevorpell0]

A bit of a mis-step with the headstock. Haha, I accidentally drew an extra turn in the scroll, it didn't work out so great. BUT I took the mistake as an opportunity to do things better. I sawed off my mistake and hollowed out the inner part of the scroll (something I realized I wish I would have done after I had already glued on the old mahogany chunks). Then, I made more laminate! I cut one side yesterday, I'm hoping to get the other one cut today. I'll need to do some clean-up in terms of adjusting some sizing and angling, but overall it came out much better than before. ha.

 

[trevorpell0]

We have a double scroll with some rough decoration. More finesse to come.

Its about ready to do a test fit for some strings to make sure the bridge and fingerboard heights are all okay, then its almost time to take this thing in for a landing.

I'm considering doing a very small inlay on the front of the fingerboard with a piece of wenge and purple heart. I think it would add to the decoration, but I'm worried it might be a bit busy, or even worse, destroy the nice clean look of the maple fingerboard. Any opinions?

 

[trevorpell0]

The "art part" always takes the longest, huh. Here's a bit more in the way of decoration cleanup:

 

[trevorpell0]

The strings sat a bit high, so I recessed the bridge a bit. But then the strings were a bit low, so I glued a shim in out of offcut from the pickguard. I probably ought to make sure the fingerboard is straight.

I did a bit of body work, too. Routed out pickup cavities and did some hole drilling. I haven't done this since the first bass I built, but I drilled through the back when I did the bridge channel. Dang.

 

[trevorpell0]

I made some knobs!

 

[trevorpell0]

Giving the fingerboard the ol CA treatment

 

[JRA]

wow!

 

[trevorpell0]

A few days of tru oil coats and I think we're ready to let things rest before final assembly.

 

[trevorpell0]

Assembled, tuned up, ready to rip.

It got its debut at a jazz jam last night.

Overall, I'm happy with how it turned out, it plays in tune, the action isn't very high, the sounds from the pickups are very distinct.

I really only messed up two things - I drilled the hole in the knobs a bit too high so I had to re-drill. I'll consider plugging the old holes at some point in the future, for now it's probably fine.

I also had to patch up an errant hole from the control cavity tunnel-to-bridge connector. The grain of my patch doesn't quite match. Oh well.

The thing is overall really gaudy, I think in a good way. The headstock is very extra, as they say, and took a lot of attention to detail, but I like how it came out. Since its hollow, there isn't a whole lot of weight there.

 

[trevorpell0]

Here's a quick video, I'm hoping to record something more clear in the next few days. If anyone from Patagonia (the company) sees this, I'm looking for a sponsership.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

I like the pickguard and the contrasting woods in the scroll.

I mean, I like the whole bass but that stands out.

 

[trevorpell0]

I like the pickguard and the contrasting woods in the scroll.

I mean, I like the whole bass but that stands out.

Thanks a lot. Yeah, I think they are the two key visual features of the bass, too. I think they balance each other out. A headstock as ostentatious as that needs some competition from the body.

 

[trevorpell0]

Here's a quick recording demo with its brother bass:

 

[pklima]

If the Mad Hatter was a bassist, he could put many hats on this headstock as well.