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Spalted Maple Top 4 String Bass Build (complete)

davens

davens

Jan 24, 2005
42
5
Stoney Creek, ON
#1
Hey all,
I think this is the first build that I've posted on talkbass, though it's my 8th build (3rd bass).

Here's the specs:
Curly spalted maple top
Mahogany body core
5pc Wenge neck w/ mahogany laminates and carbon fibre rods
Wenge fretboard and knobs
Delano xtender pickups
Vol / Bal / Tone / 3-way switches (parallel, series, single-coil) for each PU
Mono rail bridge, Zerofret, Mother of Pearl inlays, Aluminium side-dots
Black hardware

Sorry, progress pics are a little bit sparse.

Lumber planed, neck laminated, top came bookmatched from fraser valley fine woods:
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Body glued up, roughly cut to shape:
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Neck scarf jointed, test fitting CF rods and truss rod
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gluing up the fretboard
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#12
etherealme: Plays very well; fast, punchy, but lots of sustain. I'm not used to 4 strings, nor 34" scale, so it feels petite to me. The CF reinforcements made a big difference in stiffness I found.

Max Pratt: The client very much liked the style and feel of the SR Prestige so it has some similar styling elements and I based the neck geometry on what they had listed in their specs. I hit both the body and neck with a few coats of watco danish oil, with a bit of wet sanding, then protected with a few coats of satin minwax wipe on poly. The bridge is a set of brandless mono rails. I spent a long time calculating the placement of them; a bit more complicated than a solid one, ha.

Geoff St. Germaine: These are the Xtender 4 HE/S. They are fantastic; I'm very jealous. With the 3 way coil tap switches, the bass becomes a swiss army knife of tones. You can easily get a P tone, MM tone, a more modern ibanez sound, a stanley clark sound, or more of a j tone.
 
#19
Thanks for all the positive feedback, everyone!

Grant Bass said:
Very nice!
i just noticed you were from stoney creek!
my first shop i set up with my buddy from Fbass was in Winona
thats crazy!
good clean build man!
Click to expand...

Yeah, F-Bass is just about 10m from me. I should try and make friends there so I can take a tour or something :D
You do fantastic builds yourself, btw! I think I mentioned it in another thread, but I remember seeing a picture of yours at exotic woods (a block away from where I work) and was very impressed...
 

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