Most (all?) of the basses I've built have been relatively light, except for my 6 string, which is heavier than it looks because of it's aircraft-carrier-size neck. They've all been ever so slightly slightly neck heavy, too. This one is pretty much the opposite! Heavy, and REALLY biased towards body-heavy. I just went downstairs again while on mute on a conference call and spent some time holding it and trying to get a feel for how it balances, and I do think I will need to do some lightening work with the body to keep it from being uncomfortable.
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Special Edition Build Off: The Thumfinizenvette
- Thread starter dwizum
- Start date
- Apr 18, 2008
- 16,013
- 1
- 31,725
- Disclosures
- I'm highly opinionated and extremely self-assured
If you have all of your hardware and electronics on hand, and if you have a postal scale, you can weigh the whole pile. I did that the other day, and got something around 2.5 lb for my stuff....
Everything is here except the tuners! This is a good reminder that I need to figure them out.
If you are looking for lightweight, check out the Res-O-Lite line:
RES-O-LITE Series – G-GOTOH
Or if you are good with clovers, maybe the Carbon-O-Lites:
CARBON-O-LITE – G-GOTOH
I got a set of GB350s for my 5 string build
When I built my violin bass for the WBO, I measured the weights as I went along
Keep in mind that wenge is 54 lbs/ft3, and bubinga is 56 lbs/ft3 per the wood database
The body blank with top itself came in @8.3lbs
By the time I hollowed it out, put in the 2Tek route, pup and neck routes, and removed some material off the top, It came in @4.6lbs. So I lost almost 50% of the weight
@Jeff Siddall those Gotoh tuners are nice. I've used many Gotoh tuners but never those two models. Ultimately, if I was going to use "premium" tuners, I think I'd have to go with Schaller to keep the theme consistent on this bass. If I don't end up with Schaller tuners I may just get a cheap set of generic mini tuners for now.
The data analyst inside me wants to start catalogging every little detail of every build I can get data for, so I can come up with a way to predict outcomes based on choices in things like materials or design elements. Many years ago I got frustrated when a walnut board I was resawing cupped badly, so I started keeping track of material stability by vendor and species, and it has at least proven interesting. I might start tracking things like weights and utilization of materials for basses, and maybe a few other factors. But I want this to remain fun, not just be another numbers thing.
Routed the profile after dinner, then I routed the fretboard "step" into the top using a scrap of mdf as a template, to get the fretboard step outlined down to the correct depth. After that, I clamped it between the router plane jig rails and used the radius jig to carve the curve into the top. I was going slow because this was a first-time-use of a new jig, but honestly, it worked great. I got a nice perfect curve and the surface is true and very clean - I'm not really going to need any touch up at all, except cleaning up the last quarter inch or so near the fretboard ledge.
If anything, my only "complaint" is that the radius could be a hair tighter, it's pretty gentle. At least, it's really hard to photograph!
If anything, my only "complaint" is that the radius could be a hair tighter, it's pretty gentle. At least, it's really hard to photograph!
Absolutely, just didn't have the time tonight!
Yeah, I don't mind being slowish on this build. When all the pandemic restrictions hit last month, I figured that would translate into a lot more shop time. Instead, it has translated into more time working (which is fine, I'm lucky to have a job right now) and more family time, which has been great. I'm OK with bass building taking a backseat to those things!
Thanks Bruce! Nice to hear that from the king of router fixtures! And I have to give credit to @rojo412 and @Beej and others who have used body radiusing jigs in recent build threads, since I definitely based this fixture on what I saw them doing.
Put the radius on the back tonight. Again, it was frustratingly hard to photograph such a gentle curve, but I'm super happy with how it turned out.
Before I did the back, I drilled a pilot where the jack will go, and then I put the puck cut out from the control cavity in place and drove a screw through the jack pilot to hold it in place. This way, as I carved the back, the puck got carved to match. Now I can take a slice off the puck and have a control cavity cover that is grain matched to the back and carved to the correct curve.
You can get a bit of a feel for the curve by looking at that fuzz line along the perimeter where I routed the outline. The curve results in about 5/16" difference between the center and the very edges of the body.
Before I did the back, I drilled a pilot where the jack will go, and then I put the puck cut out from the control cavity in place and drove a screw through the jack pilot to hold it in place. This way, as I carved the back, the puck got carved to match. Now I can take a slice off the puck and have a control cavity cover that is grain matched to the back and carved to the correct curve.
You can get a bit of a feel for the curve by looking at that fuzz line along the perimeter where I routed the outline. The curve results in about 5/16" difference between the center and the very edges of the body.
- Apr 18, 2008
- 16,013
- 1
- 31,725
- Disclosures
- I'm highly opinionated and extremely self-assured
Thanks guys!
I've been so mentally focused on getting the body radius done that I need to pause my brain now and review the next few steps to make sure I have everything thought out and don't mess it up!
Out of curiosity I weighed it again just now. It's 6 pounds 4 ounces. I'm assuming the additional carving will bring that down another few ounces. I weighed the components I have on hand, too - pickups were under 4 ounces each, bridge was about 12 ounces, top wood is 11 ounces but not cut to size yet so it'll probably be half that or less when finished.
I'm thinking the total additional weight will be right around the 2 pound estimate so I should be in the low end of the 8-9 pound range. I also weighed all of my finished instruments, out of curiosity. They're all in the 8 - 9 pound range except for the 6 string bass with the massive neck, which was 9-something, and the featherweight semi hollow 4 string fretless, which is arguably a special case and not really comparable. Curiously, my old Ibanez, which doesn't really FEEL heavy at all, was almost ten and a half pounds. I guess that just goes to show - the ergonomics and balance matter as much as the actual weight.
At any rate, I'm feeling like this bass is on track to be an appropriate weight. I don't think I'm going to do any additional lightening to the body, I'd rather have something slightly heavier than something neck-dive-y and light.
I've been so mentally focused on getting the body radius done that I need to pause my brain now and review the next few steps to make sure I have everything thought out and don't mess it up!
Out of curiosity I weighed it again just now. It's 6 pounds 4 ounces. I'm assuming the additional carving will bring that down another few ounces. I weighed the components I have on hand, too - pickups were under 4 ounces each, bridge was about 12 ounces, top wood is 11 ounces but not cut to size yet so it'll probably be half that or less when finished.
I'm thinking the total additional weight will be right around the 2 pound estimate so I should be in the low end of the 8-9 pound range. I also weighed all of my finished instruments, out of curiosity. They're all in the 8 - 9 pound range except for the 6 string bass with the massive neck, which was 9-something, and the featherweight semi hollow 4 string fretless, which is arguably a special case and not really comparable. Curiously, my old Ibanez, which doesn't really FEEL heavy at all, was almost ten and a half pounds. I guess that just goes to show - the ergonomics and balance matter as much as the actual weight.
At any rate, I'm feeling like this bass is on track to be an appropriate weight. I don't think I'm going to do any additional lightening to the body, I'd rather have something slightly heavier than something neck-dive-y and light.
I finished planing the top this morning and glued it. I tried to get a good, up close photo of the wood, but I seem to struggle with photography in general so it didn't turn out well. From a distance, this top is a little plain in appearance, but up close, there's a good subtle fiddle/flame figure. And even better, it's nicely quartered, and it shows really amazing long, straight parallel grain lines in a rainbow of colors. I've never worked with this species before and I don't know if this piece is really representative or not, but in terms of appearance, it's almost a more colorful and figured version of spruce or other acoustic topwoods, in that it has these nice tight straight grain lines. At first I was worried that it was so plain it might not belong on an instrument with these exotic woods, but now that I spend some time really looking at it, I think it balances nicely and pulls it together without being over the top.
Top is cut out and glued on. I take a photo tomorrow when it comes out of the mess of clamps but here's the top just resting in place.
