So let’s build a third...

[NKBassman]

that's a nordstrand BigBladeMan and powerblade. Killer pickups.

Is that a Big Bladman in an EMG 35 shell?

 

[thisSNsucks]

Contour, active, and maybe a green? I've been lookin at pics online for solid colors against roasted maple necks. The classic surf green looks cool and I've seen a few darker, forest greens or more like BRG that look nice with roasted maple too.

A metallic teal would look ace with that maple neck!

Belly contour and some upper body contouring, but no angled belt sander forearm contour please!

Passive has my vote.

Yeah as much as I love the roasted maple, it does look funny with some colors.

I like the surfy colors but maybe we'll do something wacky like a yellow or orange. Still got time to think.

I feel like anything with a MM pickup needs to be active, right? At least with an active/passive switch if you want passive too. I have a bass with an MM pickup and an active/passive switch, and as much as I'm a fan of passive basses in general, I literally never play it in passive mode.

I agree with our fellow New Yorker @Hasdrubal that it should be contoured but with no belt sander forearm!

Also, I feel like that shot of a shelf of body blanks is just gratuitous showing off.

I have an OPB-1 sitting around, this might be a good candidate!

The wood hoarding is a sickness, I won't even show off the fretboard stash!

I need to do a better job of labeling my wood. I started doing that and seemed to have stopped at some point. Half my wood is labeled the other half is a guess. That said, I'm getting pretty good at wood identification based on grain alone!

I actually stole the idea from some shots I saw of the Novo guitars factory. Super helpful. I used to just go shuffling through piles picking up blanks to feel which ones were heavy or light lol.

Is that a Big Bladman in an EMG 35 shell?

Indeed it is and it is glorious! That was just a tester. Those electronics are going into something a little fancier. I'll have to put that up against the short scale to see which does the "Fat StingRay" sound better.

 

[NKBassman]

Indeed it is and it is glorious! That was just a tester. Those electronics are going into something a little fancier. I'll have to put that up against the short scale to see which does the "Fat StingRay" sound better.

Very cool. Didn't know that was an option! I think I like the look better than the standard Musicman shape. I have Nordy J Blades in my Jazz bass and really like them. Most of all, I like that the blade is radiused, which gives a nice even string-to-string balance.

You're using the Aggie pickup in this build, though?

 

[Hasdrubal]

Indeed it is and it is glorious! That was just a tester. Those electronics are going into something a little fancier.

I knew Nordstrand could do some custom-sizing, this is definitely useful to know (I hate the ears of the regular MM shell).

 

[thisSNsucks]

Ok, so if you've followed my previous build you know that there can be some twists and turns along the way.

Let's get the first one out of the way.

The neck and fretboard will now be unroasted flatsawn maple. I didn't want to have to do a heavy finish on the neck but every color I want to do on this thing will look better with plain maple.

So I missed a few pics since the switch up but essentially start with a thick blank and resaw off a fretboard and send both through the jointer...

Then through the planer...

Allow to rest for a day or so...


Track any movement in the wood....

Repeat with joining and planing.

Good! The grain will match up nice.


Seam or no seam?

Pretty good!

Woods been resting enough after dimensioning. Now time to start cutting!

 

[thisSNsucks]

Very cool. Didn't know that was an option! I think I like the look better than the standard Musicman shape. I have Nordy J Blades in my Jazz bass and really like them. Most of all, I like that the blade is radiused, which gives a nice even string-to-string balance.

You're using the Aggie pickup in this build, though?

Yeah Nordstrand can fit most of their pickups in an emg sized shell. I think as far as musicman pickups go, the BigBladeMan man is the only one that fits, but you'd have to ask the guys at Nordstrand to be sure.

Yes this one is getting an Aguilar pickup for now.

I knew Nordstrand could do some custom-sizing, this is definitely useful to know (I hate the ears of the regular MM shell).

yeah I'm not big on the ears either but I wanted this one to look the part lol.

 

[thisSNsucks]

Man, lots of winter builds going on right now.


Exciting times here in the LC!


A little progress today. Cut out the neck blank.

I was too lazy to change out my resaw blade so I just made a bunch of relief cuts around the curves.

Looks a lot like a neck. I can either nail it or mess it up from here. Lol!

Next up is fretboard and flush sanding.

 

[thisSNsucks]

Crawling along.

I have a batch of other builds I'm working on at the same time so if you're following along, prepare to be in it for the long haul! Lol

Anyway, I attached my rough cut blank to my template with some screws.

Trimmed it back with the big robosander, which leaves about 1/32" around the perimeter. I'll flush trim the blank with a router once the fretboard is attached.

I run the drill press at a medium slow speed, prevents burning.

the smaller robosander just gets used for a few tight curves.

Looking closer to a neck.

Whoops, forgot to do the truss rod notch! Routed...

I have once exciting change to my truss rod set up, you'll see that in another post or 2.

And I mark the tuner locations. I'll drill them after I sand the top of headstock using a fence to ensure they're all an equal distance from the edge.

Fretboard and truss rod slot are up next.

 

[pathdoc2]

Looking great

 

[thisSNsucks]

Happy New Year all.

It's fretboard time.

Trim it down a bit on the bandsaw.

Bust out the handy dandy fretboard slotting sled and contractor table saw. Attach my stewmac slotting template and away we go!

Slots! Beautiful consistent slots! They look deep but the board is .32" thick right now. It will come down a bit when radiused so the slots should be just about the perfect depth after that.

Why stewmac doesn't include a nut slot on their bass slotting templates but do on their guitar ones is beyond me. I could just file a notch in them but I just transfer the board over to a guitar template to finish the nut slot.

I could easily just measure 1/8" and cut it too, so i guess I should just stop complaining.

I have some alignment to do now. Drill some index holes from the board to the neck blank, then we'll get a truss rod in.

Stay tuned!

 

[BishopJP]

Why stewmac doesn't include a nut slot on their bass slotting templates but do on their guitar ones is beyond me. I could just file a notch in them but I just transfer the board over to a guitar template to finish the nut slot.

I have the 34" scale version of the template and it has notches for the nut slot. Maybe that was a feature that was added later? I've had mine about a year...

 

[thisSNsucks]

I have the 34" scale version of the template and it has notches for the nut slot. Maybe that was a feature that was added later? I've had mine about a year...

Are you telling me I have to buy the new ones now! Lol

yeah I've had the full scale one for a bit, but the short scale template was ordered a few months ago.

Oh well not a big deal, I just have to vent once in a while.

 

[marsbel]

Did you finish it?

 

[thisSNsucks]

Did you finish it?

Sad to say this one's been on the back burner, but I think your post is what I need to get back into this thing!

Lets consider here on out a soft reboot of this build, as I've changed my mind on a few details...again!

 

[thisSNsucks]

Ok so whenever I build a stock instrument I change my mind a bunch of times before I settle on what I want

Here's a quick and dirty spec list for the reboot:

Body: 1 piece Paulownia (we'll get to that in a minute)
Neck/Fretboard: Roasted Maple (yes, going back to roasted maple, I'll stash the neck I had been working on for a rainy day)
Finish: Satin clear on body/oil on neck
Pickup: Aguilar MM
Preamp: Maybe, maybe not, but probably 2 band MM clone or an Aguilar OBP-1 or 2
Frets: Stainless Steel this time around! You'll be able to hear my hands aching from here!
Pickguard: Real deal, funky as h-e-double hockey sticks, celluloid yellow tort
Hardware: Hipshot

Goal: A traditional feel, light weight, easy to play, thicker sounding MM bass, for the short scale lover.

 

[marsbel]

That's great!
What I like in your builds, is that you manage to keep a traditional feel without straight out copying the standards. They have an own identity.
Looking forward following the 'reboot'.

 

[thisSNsucks]

That's great!
What I like in your builds, is that you manage to keep a traditional feel without straight out copying the standards. They have an own identity.
Looking forward following the 'reboot'.

Much appreciated!

On that note, let's start the Reboot!

i won't go too in detail with the steps I already covered, we're just going to start from where we left off, just with the new wood.

So, paulownia, empress wood, princess wood, whatever you want to call it. We all heard what they say; lightweight, soft like styrofoam.

I had a supplier post some nice blanks available and at first look I thought it was ash, but it was paulownia, US grown in fact. I had to buy some to try.

Nice looking one piece blank, and yes it is ridiculously light. Soft? yeah, but not as bad as I thought it would be. I can't put a dent with my nail or anything crazy. I'd say this is similar to most Poplar I've used, maybe a smidge softer.

Anyway the blank was bigger than I need so a quick trim on the bandsaw, and a few passes through my new drum sander.

quick note on drum sanders, if you don't have one, get one!

oddly enough I normally keep my bass bodies at 1-3/4" as opposed to the traditional 1-5/8". I may slim this one down even more but I'm keeping balance in mind because the body wood is so light.

I mean, this grain is killer! that knot wont be anywhere near the final cut of the body. Definitely not covering this up with anything other than clear. The tap tone is very lively too.

So far I'm putting Paulownia in the win column.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

It does look like ash. Does the grain look like you'll be able to fill with a colored grain filler under the clear or do a ceruse finish like ash?

Also, if you don't mind, who's the supplier?

 

[thisSNsucks]

It does look like ash. Does the grain look like you'll be able to fill with a colored grain filler under the clear or do a ceruse finish like ash?

Also, if you don't mind, who's the supplier?

Yeah, it's almost exactly like ash, maybe a shade or two off in color, but I expect it will finish the same as well (grain fill, etc.)

Some of the blanks I had looked at before on the web were kinda plain but The few blanks I got were all really nicely figured and not as soft as I was expecting but the weight is like it's filled with helium lol

I purchased this from Commercial Forest Products.

 

[5tring]

I'm using Paulownia on a build at the moment, it machines beautifully