then i had this brainstorm idea.....
and that is the build that i started working on today.
and that is the build that i started working on today.
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The Mediocre Builders Club
- Thread starter MirandM
- Start date
Thanks bassbrad! Checkout the Indian head nickel string guide.
The power of bass compels you! The power of bass compels you!!!
Not that my opinion matters, but an 1110 glider is an excellent choice.
Hey I think I might fit in here!
Many years ago I decided to build my own Thunderbird. I bought some ash and maple, traced a Tbird at a music store and went for it.
The neck/center section is cut out of one board and book matched. The wings are northern Ash, all glued with aircraft grade epoxy.
I didn’t finish it for a long time, but the wood got grungy. My nephew who was a bodyman offered to paint it. Unfortunately he never got it past primer and I decided I kinda liked it:
Many years ago I decided to build my own Thunderbird. I bought some ash and maple, traced a Tbird at a music store and went for it.
The neck/center section is cut out of one board and book matched. The wings are northern Ash, all glued with aircraft grade epoxy.
I didn’t finish it for a long time, but the wood got grungy. My nephew who was a bodyman offered to paint it. Unfortunately he never got it past primer and I decided I kinda liked it:
Attachments
Gotta teach the kids that there is life beyond the interweb. The P'JAZZSTER is on it's way, as is My Grandson's education in using his hands to create. We're having a BLAST!!! This is gonna be my 3rd build. But... my 1st with Him. It'll be far from perfect, but... TOTALLY AMAZING!!!
EDIT;
P.S.
The headstock is almost done. Just needs to be wet sanded, and buffed. Had to experiment with color. Can I post this? If it breaks rules, I apologize. Feel free to delete it.
EDIT;
P.S.
The headstock is almost done. Just needs to be wet sanded, and buffed. Had to experiment with color. Can I post this? If it breaks rules, I apologize. Feel free to delete it.
Last edited:
Count me in. This is my latest, I think I'm better at taking pictures that hide the imperfections than building the perfect bass.
Welcome, you are, like all of us, #1110.
btw, why would you build a perfect bass? That's no fun because you won't be able to build a better one...
D
Are you kidding me? That's the typical try-what-I-have-at-home sort of bass, GREAT!
btw, why would you build a perfect bass? That's no fun because you won't be able to build a better one...[/QUOTE]
LMAO That is exactly what I thought happened. After I finished my six string, I figured I had hit the top and needed to save the money rather than build any more. It lasted about two days.... Then I had a new idea.
The point is that no matter if we do achieve perfection at something, The true craftsperson will just raise the bar a little higher. and so perfection gets redefined.
So I say GO FOR IT!!! build that perfect bass, and raise the bar for us all.
LMAO That is exactly what I thought happened. After I finished my six string, I figured I had hit the top and needed to save the money rather than build any more. It lasted about two days.... Then I had a new idea.
The point is that no matter if we do achieve perfection at something, The true craftsperson will just raise the bar a little higher. and so perfection gets redefined.
So I say GO FOR IT!!! build that perfect bass, and raise the bar for us all.
I love it. that is the kind of thing that leads to new ideas.
D
I mod more than build. I put that together to be a test bench for pickup wiring ideas for the red bass next to it..... the red one was a black ammoon jazz that has been an evolving project for almost a year now.
But it plays right? Maybe you haven't considered this, but to me it looks like a very good start for a travel bass. Maybe a shorter version (even short scale?) with the electronics on the back.... just an idea...
D
It plays... it would play better if i took a bit more time on the neck pocket, and i just might do that once i use that neck on its original body (82 ibanez roadstar 2. Back burner project). I have another neck to swap to the test bench.
Regardless, it was huge to be able to play around with different wiring schemes out in the open instead of cooped up in a cavity or bound up on a control plate.
It gets messy quick!! This is a simple series/parallel switch
Sure ironed out some issues before i got to this
The swift bass project (started nov 2019)
The body in prime time:
The neck with its first layer of base coat:
Yes, its gonna be rose-pink!
I didn't make the body and neck, mainly because of lack of time, however it's not a kit as I've collected the hardware and pups separately.
I wanted to build a 4 string active bass in a Taylor Swift Lover style, that is glittery rose-pink-fucsia. Just to make a rather unique bass, something to show off to my daughter who really adores Taylor.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Neck's getting to the finish-line:
This is sort of to get my idea.
Don't wanna hijack this thread so I'll leave the rest until it's finished and mounted.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As promised: bass is nearly finished.
Lightning gives a wrong impression, so here's a bit better view of the finish.
It has a sprakling three tone finish.
4 string active p and j pubs, three eq, one vol, one pup balance.
Tuned DGCF, 45-65-85-105 gauges, round wound nickel at this moment, but they will be replaced by Dr Neon's pink strings.
I did this project not to have a profesional custom build bass, rather to gain experience in the three tone overlayed finish, which has resulted quite satisfactory, it was a bit easier than I expected.
The hardware is simple chinese stuff, but surprisingly good, maybe because of my 19+ years of experience in buying.
The bass plays well, low action and a good range of sound thanks to the 3 pot eq.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As per request, with the Dr Neon pink strings.
Some small work to do yet, string retainer and back pocket cover still missing.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This concludes the various post about this build all "gathered together with a pick" here in just one post.
The body in prime time:
The neck with its first layer of base coat:
Yes, its gonna be rose-pink!
I didn't make the body and neck, mainly because of lack of time, however it's not a kit as I've collected the hardware and pups separately.
I wanted to build a 4 string active bass in a Taylor Swift Lover style, that is glittery rose-pink-fucsia. Just to make a rather unique bass, something to show off to my daughter who really adores Taylor.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Neck's getting to the finish-line:
This is sort of to get my idea.
Don't wanna hijack this thread so I'll leave the rest until it's finished and mounted.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As promised: bass is nearly finished.
Lightning gives a wrong impression, so here's a bit better view of the finish.
It has a sprakling three tone finish.
4 string active p and j pubs, three eq, one vol, one pup balance.
Tuned DGCF, 45-65-85-105 gauges, round wound nickel at this moment, but they will be replaced by Dr Neon's pink strings.
I did this project not to have a profesional custom build bass, rather to gain experience in the three tone overlayed finish, which has resulted quite satisfactory, it was a bit easier than I expected.
The hardware is simple chinese stuff, but surprisingly good, maybe because of my 19+ years of experience in buying.
The bass plays well, low action and a good range of sound thanks to the 3 pot eq.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As per request, with the Dr Neon pink strings.
Some small work to do yet, string retainer and back pocket cover still missing.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This concludes the various post about this build all "gathered together with a pick" here in just one post.
The Art Bass projects. (start of 2020).
Another news flash, my youngest daughter came home yesterday and saw the Swift bass. Her reaction was like "hey, that's great, you could sell that easily" so we had some brainstorming and maybe I'll be dedicating more time to producing custom basses. I already ordered two new body and neck sets of which one will be painted by her and I think she was right, I won't go into details about our plans but it might just work and I think I could actually make some money by selling them for double the cost.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Project basses are on their way...
These will be similar to the Swift bass, active electronics. All hardware has been ordered. Yesterday I bought the primers, paint and varnish and made good use of a $20 voucher they sent me about a week ago.
The idea is to produce a first pair of low-end custom basses, prototypes if you like (although the real prototype is the swift bass), to see if there's any interest in them. If I sell them good and fast maybe I'll be producing more or even think about different quality series.
Still have to figure out if I'll sell them online or maybe through my local music store if he's interested.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Since I've been controlling the costs, no harm done, they're cheap to make (at least these two) and I can always update them with higher quality hardware.
The bodies are just ok, the wood is actually very nice but the routing leaves to desire, here's were you notice the cheapness. Now for me that's not a big problem as I'm very well capable of doing the necessary adjustments to make it all right. When I was 14 I made several curved items from wooden blocks (hickory) finishing them very nicely, I also worked on wooden boats, so woodworking experience and tools, I do have.
The necks are far better finished, even the frets are finished quite correctly, no sharp edges or badly pressed ones, which saves me a lot of time. Truss rod only needs a small adjustment during setup, really nice.
The electronics are of much better quality than what I pay for them, the same as on the Swift bass, 3 band eq, 2 pups, J and P, one vol and one pup mix. They surprised me when I first tried them on the Swift bass, I expected far less. I'll need to route a battery box cavity as the body doesn't have one. On the Swift bass I just put the battery in the control cavity, but for user friendliness I'll need to include that.
Tuners are standard stuff. The bridges will be new to me, the one on the Swift bass is much more expensive, but from the looks they should work just fine.
Strings are Alice strings, no big name but very good quality for their price. They're on the market for years now and I have good experiences with them, standard gauges 45-65-85-105 roundwound hexcore nickles.
Paint is not the best there is, I'll have to leave more time between layers to cure them, one of the things I learned from the Swift bass experience. Coverage is good though, can't complain at $6 a can.
Key here's like I said in some earlier post, good quality at minimal costs
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This morning I went to my workshop at my 2nd home to get the mini router and other tools needed for my work on the two new project basses.
Here's the layout for the battery cavity
Although the battery holders are yet to be delivered I do have the dimensions.
The neck pocket has some work to be done, it does have the right shape and depth though. Routing on cheap bodies leaves a bit to be desired.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
One of the two project basses being primed...
On the swift bass I did this a little too fast, even though the layers were dry they weren't cured. Now I take much more time to do this right, also because temperatures are much lower now than the first time.
Hardware is coming in little by little, I gather in 2 weeks or so most of it will be here.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
One of the new builds neck in my rather mediocre paintbooth:
Seems like I got the blue spot on, no flaws whatsoever...
I must say these neck are actually very good quality. They came with a satin varnish to protect the wood from stains and dis-colorization, only needed a very light sanding with 320 mesh and one layer of primer was enough to have a butter smooth base. Not like the body that needs filler, multiple primers and sanding.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Project bass 1 in progress:
neck's finished painting, now curing:
Color difference between the two photo's is because of the lightning, it's the same paint.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Project bass 1 body front, not terminated but painted in it's base layer, something will be painted over this but that will remain a mystery until the bass is finished.
Paint is way better since I leave more time between the layers.
Two days ago I finished the final color layer on the neck of project bass 2 and this morning I've put the decals on it. Now it only has to be finished with clear coat.
One of the things that needs to be done afterwards is drill a wire channel for the bridge earthing wire. I couldn't do this earlier as I only received the bridges recently so I'll have to do that with great care not to screw up the painting.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Project bass 2 neck with it's first clear coat layer
String retainers are coming in today so that leaves only one set of active components to be delivered to have all hardware in house.
Yesterday I drilled the bridge wire route in the body of project bass 2 which was still in primer, easy no problems, "just a little pin prick" as Pink Floyd says in comfortably numb.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All items were waiting for me at the post-office today, so now I'm ready to assemble the two project basses.
Only need to drill the wire route and start the front painting on bass 1 and base coat the back of bass 2.
I also clear coated the neck of bass 2, tomorrow another layer and see how the result is.
So here's an update, project bass 1 has nearly finished it's body front, only needs some lines to be painted and after that top coating, starting tomorrow afternoon. Neck's finished.
Project bass 2 is ready to start painting the front body. Necks's also finished.
Things are going pretty well with these builds. Next week I'll start assembling bass 1 and maybe have it finished by the end of the week. Bass 2 will be inline with only half a week or so delay.
About a month for two basses, not bad for a first time production of two hand painted basses.
The work on the project basses is going well, bass 1 is top coat-finished and now curing, bass 2 is in the top coat finishing, probably until Wednesday. Had some delay due to the dentist activities leaving me in a non-luthier state...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Today I finished project bass 1, which is now officially called "Art Bass 41", tuned standard AEDG, 34" scale, stringed with standard 45-65-85-105 gauges, after setup and final small adjustments I played a little, has low action, good sound and plays smooth.
Here are some teasers, full picture will come shortly
This bass has its name in honor of the art work that has been hand painted by my youngest daughter (she studies fine art) and me.
I wanted this bass to be very special, unique, not to be found anywhere, and I think it's just that as you'll see soon when I post the photo of the entire bass.
I had fun building it, based on the swift bass I corrected some small errors, used basically the same hardware except for the bridge which I think is a very good choice.
Now all I need to do is set a price for it...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As promised, the presentation of my project basses:
Project bass 1
This bass is the Art Bass 41, based on an art study to include Picasso elements.
Project bass 2
This bass is the Art Bass 42, based on a painting called "Composition in red, yellow, black, gray and blue" from Piet Mondriaan made in 1921.
Both basses are not exact copies of the original artworks to avoid copyright infringement. They represent my devotion in general on art and are unique pieces, real hand painted.
Both have the same technical specs:
Maple body, Ahorn neck with palisander fretboard, 34" scale, 20 frets, double truss rod, active electronics (3 eq + Vol + Blend), J and P pups, 45-65-85-105 gauges nickel roundwound on steel hexcore strings, standard EADG tuned.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And this concludes the series of posts about the Art Bass project.
Another news flash, my youngest daughter came home yesterday and saw the Swift bass. Her reaction was like "hey, that's great, you could sell that easily" so we had some brainstorming and maybe I'll be dedicating more time to producing custom basses. I already ordered two new body and neck sets of which one will be painted by her and I think she was right, I won't go into details about our plans but it might just work and I think I could actually make some money by selling them for double the cost.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Project basses are on their way...
These will be similar to the Swift bass, active electronics. All hardware has been ordered. Yesterday I bought the primers, paint and varnish and made good use of a $20 voucher they sent me about a week ago.
The idea is to produce a first pair of low-end custom basses, prototypes if you like (although the real prototype is the swift bass), to see if there's any interest in them. If I sell them good and fast maybe I'll be producing more or even think about different quality series.
Still have to figure out if I'll sell them online or maybe through my local music store if he's interested.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Since I've been controlling the costs, no harm done, they're cheap to make (at least these two) and I can always update them with higher quality hardware.
The bodies are just ok, the wood is actually very nice but the routing leaves to desire, here's were you notice the cheapness. Now for me that's not a big problem as I'm very well capable of doing the necessary adjustments to make it all right. When I was 14 I made several curved items from wooden blocks (hickory) finishing them very nicely, I also worked on wooden boats, so woodworking experience and tools, I do have.
The necks are far better finished, even the frets are finished quite correctly, no sharp edges or badly pressed ones, which saves me a lot of time. Truss rod only needs a small adjustment during setup, really nice.
The electronics are of much better quality than what I pay for them, the same as on the Swift bass, 3 band eq, 2 pups, J and P, one vol and one pup mix. They surprised me when I first tried them on the Swift bass, I expected far less. I'll need to route a battery box cavity as the body doesn't have one. On the Swift bass I just put the battery in the control cavity, but for user friendliness I'll need to include that.
Tuners are standard stuff. The bridges will be new to me, the one on the Swift bass is much more expensive, but from the looks they should work just fine.
Strings are Alice strings, no big name but very good quality for their price. They're on the market for years now and I have good experiences with them, standard gauges 45-65-85-105 roundwound hexcore nickles.
Paint is not the best there is, I'll have to leave more time between layers to cure them, one of the things I learned from the Swift bass experience. Coverage is good though, can't complain at $6 a can.
Key here's like I said in some earlier post, good quality at minimal costs
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This morning I went to my workshop at my 2nd home to get the mini router and other tools needed for my work on the two new project basses.
Here's the layout for the battery cavity
Although the battery holders are yet to be delivered I do have the dimensions.
The neck pocket has some work to be done, it does have the right shape and depth though. Routing on cheap bodies leaves a bit to be desired.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
One of the two project basses being primed...
On the swift bass I did this a little too fast, even though the layers were dry they weren't cured. Now I take much more time to do this right, also because temperatures are much lower now than the first time.
Hardware is coming in little by little, I gather in 2 weeks or so most of it will be here.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
One of the new builds neck in my rather mediocre paintbooth:
Seems like I got the blue spot on, no flaws whatsoever...
I must say these neck are actually very good quality. They came with a satin varnish to protect the wood from stains and dis-colorization, only needed a very light sanding with 320 mesh and one layer of primer was enough to have a butter smooth base. Not like the body that needs filler, multiple primers and sanding.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Project bass 1 in progress:
neck's finished painting, now curing:
Color difference between the two photo's is because of the lightning, it's the same paint.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Project bass 1 body front, not terminated but painted in it's base layer, something will be painted over this but that will remain a mystery until the bass is finished.
Paint is way better since I leave more time between the layers.
Two days ago I finished the final color layer on the neck of project bass 2 and this morning I've put the decals on it. Now it only has to be finished with clear coat.
One of the things that needs to be done afterwards is drill a wire channel for the bridge earthing wire. I couldn't do this earlier as I only received the bridges recently so I'll have to do that with great care not to screw up the painting.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Project bass 2 neck with it's first clear coat layer
String retainers are coming in today so that leaves only one set of active components to be delivered to have all hardware in house.
Yesterday I drilled the bridge wire route in the body of project bass 2 which was still in primer, easy no problems, "just a little pin prick" as Pink Floyd says in comfortably numb.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All items were waiting for me at the post-office today, so now I'm ready to assemble the two project basses.
Only need to drill the wire route and start the front painting on bass 1 and base coat the back of bass 2.
I also clear coated the neck of bass 2, tomorrow another layer and see how the result is.
So here's an update, project bass 1 has nearly finished it's body front, only needs some lines to be painted and after that top coating, starting tomorrow afternoon. Neck's finished.
Project bass 2 is ready to start painting the front body. Necks's also finished.
Things are going pretty well with these builds. Next week I'll start assembling bass 1 and maybe have it finished by the end of the week. Bass 2 will be inline with only half a week or so delay.
About a month for two basses, not bad for a first time production of two hand painted basses.
The work on the project basses is going well, bass 1 is top coat-finished and now curing, bass 2 is in the top coat finishing, probably until Wednesday. Had some delay due to the dentist activities leaving me in a non-luthier state...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Today I finished project bass 1, which is now officially called "Art Bass 41", tuned standard AEDG, 34" scale, stringed with standard 45-65-85-105 gauges, after setup and final small adjustments I played a little, has low action, good sound and plays smooth.
Here are some teasers, full picture will come shortly
This bass has its name in honor of the art work that has been hand painted by my youngest daughter (she studies fine art) and me.
I wanted this bass to be very special, unique, not to be found anywhere, and I think it's just that as you'll see soon when I post the photo of the entire bass.
I had fun building it, based on the swift bass I corrected some small errors, used basically the same hardware except for the bridge which I think is a very good choice.
Now all I need to do is set a price for it...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As promised, the presentation of my project basses:
Project bass 1
This bass is the Art Bass 41, based on an art study to include Picasso elements.
Project bass 2
This bass is the Art Bass 42, based on a painting called "Composition in red, yellow, black, gray and blue" from Piet Mondriaan made in 1921.
Both basses are not exact copies of the original artworks to avoid copyright infringement. They represent my devotion in general on art and are unique pieces, real hand painted.
Both have the same technical specs:
Maple body, Ahorn neck with palisander fretboard, 34" scale, 20 frets, double truss rod, active electronics (3 eq + Vol + Blend), J and P pups, 45-65-85-105 gauges nickel roundwound on steel hexcore strings, standard EADG tuned.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And this concludes the series of posts about the Art Bass project.
These were my mayor builds. I have others, specifically one that has taken a fair number of years to terminate which I will be posting later on. I also have posts on modifications I made to some of my basses, including a fretless conversion, which will be repeated shortly to have a clone Rickenbacker 4003 NF fretless.
D
Your upping the game for “mediocre”.
