Thinline Telebird

[Basvarken]

A new bass is born!
I proudly present the Brooks Thinline Telebird.

- Two piece Swamp Ash body. Half hollow
- Two piece Swamp Ash top. With f-hole
- 7ender P-bass neck with Pau Ferro fingerboard
- Sea Foam Green top.
- Artec Mudbuckers
- 34" scale
- Wide travel Thunderbird bridge plus tailstop. Chrome
- Pearloid pickguard
- Tortoise binding
- Hipshot Ultralite tuners. Chrome
- CTS Volume pot
- CTS Tone pot
- 5 way super switch
- Chrome flat top barrel knobs
- Telecaster jack cup. Chrome
- Rotosound 66 Swing bass strings 45-105

Wiring by BQ Music:
• Neck humbucker in series
• Outer coils as humbucker in series
• Both humbuckers in series
• Inner coils as humbucker in series
• Bridge humbucker in series

I'll post pics of the build process in separate posts below

 

[Lammchop93]

gorgeous! that wood binding is perfect!!

 

[Flying B]

Wow that thing is gorgeous!

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Cool. I’m interested to hear how the 2 mudbuckers sound especially the bridge one.

 

[Basvarken]

Each build starts with finding/selecting the right wood.

For this bass I found a beautiful piece of swamp ash.
Had my wood supplier glue it together as a body blank and cut the upper part off for the top.
So it came from the same slab.

The tried something new. Since a few months I have access to a laser cutter at my employer
I cut an mdf template for the body and the cavities

Routed along the template

Sawed the f-hole in the top with a jewelers saw

The glued the top onto the body and routed the outline. Forgot to take pics of that part. Sorry...

 

[Basvarken]

Routed the binding channel. And glued the tortoise celluloid in with acetone

Routed the pickup cavities

Test fitted and fine tuned the cavities a bit

Routed the neck pocket

And test fitted that too of course. ;-)

 

[Basvarken]

Then routed the controls cavity and profile fo the cover
Had to glue in a piece near the edge because I miscalculated...
No big deal. Cover will hide that ;-)

Drilled holes for the controls

Made the slot for the 5 way switch and drilled the counter sunk screw holes

Put the bridge post inserts in place (and the ground wire)

Sanded the body. Ready to fill the pores

Oh and I cheated a little this time. I bought a genuine Mexican 7ender P-bass neck. Which I modified to the Tele headstock shape.

Filled the pores with Z-poxy.

The laser cuter at my employer came in handy for personalising the neck plate

And for cutting the pickguard.
I did the bevelled edge by hand

 

[DirtDog]

A new bass is born!
I proudly present the Brooks Thinline Telebird.

- Two piece Swamp Ash body. Half hollow
- Two piece Swamp Ash top. With f-hole
- 7ender P-bass neck with Pau Ferro fingerboard
- Sea Foam Green top.
- Artec Muduckers
- 34" scale
- Wide travel Thunderbird bridge plus tailstop. Chrome
- Pearloid pickguard
- Tortoise binding
- Hipshot Ultralite tuners. Chrome
- CTS Volume pot
- CTS Tone pot
- 5 way super switch
- Chrome flat top barrel knobs
- Telecaster jack cup. Chrome
- Rotosound 66 Swing bass strings 45-105

Wiring by BQ Music:
• Neck humbucker in series
• Outer coils as humbucker in series
• Both humbuckers in series
• Inner coils as humbucker in series
• Bridge humbucker in series

I'll post pics of the build process in separate posts below

Beautiful!

 

[Basvarken]

Then sprayed the sea foam green for the head stock and top of the body

I bought a cheap foldable wardrobe closet at Ikea and used it as a spray booth

The back and sides were finsihed white blonde

scraped the binding clean

Applied the decal on the headstock

Sanded and polished the body.
Used a matte finish for the neck.

Mounted everything.
And then handed it to my good friend Bas Becu of BQ Music to have it wired.

 

[Basvarken]

gorgeous! that wood binding is perfect!!

it is tortoise celluloid

 

[Basvarken]

Cool. I’m interested to hear how the 2 mudbuckers sound especially the bridge one.

It sounds very good. Very responsive bass.
The neck pickup setting is actually my favorite. A nice bite with plenty low end.

I'll make a demo video tomorrow.

 

[Lammchop93]

it is tortoise celluloid

oops, I see that now! I love me some tort, it fits the bass perfectly. fantastic craftsmanship!!

 

[knigel]

Very nice!



Seriously though take my money. I can't see my picture but it's shut up and take my money. I'm not very good at the internet.

 

[TinyE]

awesome

 

[HardNHeavy]

that is a very nice build...The T-bird shape is what i'm gonna "part together" next.

 

[BigDrew]

Super dope! Looks great, nice job!

 

[CaribooBass]

Are you aware you built a Bass that both Leo’s would consider Genius?
In the best colour I may add.

How did you cut the slot for the slide switch so cleanly ?

Very nice work!
Both DaVinci and Fender would agree.

 

[Basvarken]

Are you aware you built a Bass that both Leo’s would consider Genius?
In the best colour I may add.

How did you cut the slot for the slide switch so cleanly ?

Very nice work!
Both DaVinci and Fender would agree.

Thank you
I drilled a tiny little hole (1mm)
Then sawed out the slot with a jewelers saw. Then cleaned it up with a locksmith file.

 

[Reedt2000]

That looks killer

Great job

 

[BishopJP]

Very nice! Love the color!