Solid East Indian Rosewood Jazz Bass

[cstar]

As the title says, really. I got a solid, 4 piece, 1.75" thick East Indian Rosewood body blank last Christmas per my request. So, I've had this wood for one year to the day as of tomorrow. Hoped to get to this sooner, but I finally got a chance to tear into this and am overwhelmingly satisfied with the progress so far.

This will be top routed, with control plate only (standard volume, volume, tone arrangement), with 62 RI Fender pickups (for now at least). I will also be making a (lined) fretless neck with a Quartersawn East Indian Rosewood neck blank. Probably going to get cheap Mighty Mite tuners and a Wilkinson bridge for now, for the sake of making "her" playable. Eventually going for Schaller Fender style tuners and a Kahler high mass brass bridge (chromed), the really chunky ones you used to see kicking around.

Pics or it didn't happen:

 

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progress

 

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I'm going to be posting a series of photos. This is my second body, any feedback is appreciated

 

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Working on some pup routs

 

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Finishing some pup routs.

 

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Drilled neck holes and routed neck pocket

 

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Done except for sanding of roundovers, contours, and control cavity rout. I would have done the cavity rout before but the template I bought had a HUGE cavity rout that I wasn't feeling so I need to make another template. This is the end of the work of Day 2 on this project. Probably about 10 hours in total. Slow going, don't have a bandsaw, work bench, etc etc.

 

[jsb22257]

That is Indonesian rosewood , we call it Sonokeling. Beautiful though

 

[pacojas]

estimated weight?

 

[cstar]

Bathroom scale says 10lbs

 

[wraub]

Bathroom scale says 10lbs

Just the body?

I guess that means no neck dive, so... You got that goin' for you. Which is nice.


p.s. that looks frackin awesome.

 

[cstar]

This is true, lol.

Thanks though!

 

[pfox14]

Interesting choice of wood. RW is pretty heavy so I hope the bass isn't too heavy to be comfortable. Sure is nice looking wood though.

 

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Thanks. I don't mind heavy basses because I don't gig, so I never have to stand and play for really any length of time. I still considered chambering it (going the Fender rout and putting a maple veneer in the middle), but this body isn't turning out as heavy as I thought it would be. My main jazz bass has a northern hard ash body that weighs 7-8 lbs., and that honestly doesn't feel so bad. This body is at about 10 lbs now, and I still need to do the control cavity rout and the contours, so I'm guessing it won't be much different weightwise in the end.

 

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Some updates! Done with everything. Contours, wire holes, etc. Just needs more sanding and Tung Oil. I'm going to start on the neck within the next week or two.

 

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More pics

 

[cstar]

More pics. Pups look good