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.
Alder SSB J in BMM w/ Sheptone p . 32" Ziricote & Ebony w/ "Gold" frets
My 5 string Jazz built by Larry Smoak at Wooden Wizard Guitars in Fairfax Station, Va. After several meetings and phone discussions, Larry and I decided to build this bass! The body is a Warmoth Swamp Ash reshaped with brass strap locks recessed in the body and painted tobacco burst by Larry. The neck is a modified All Parts maple neck with rosewood fingerboard with the pearl dot inlays removed and replaced by genuine abalone block inlays hand cut with a genuine ivory nut. Larry designed and fabricated the entire bridge, bridge saddles, jack plate, screw inserts for the body/neck, string through ferrules entirely from a solid block of brass. The tuners are also solid brass. The pickups were specially made for this bass by Joe Barden with Pao Ferro pick up covers around each pickup. A 5 way switch was installed and has a blend pot giving me 9 different variations of tone depending on where the switch position is using the blend pot with all wiring NASA grade and copper shielding in the cavity. Sorry for the crappy pictures but I was deployed overseas shortly after picking up the bass and did not take the time to make some good photos of it! But here it is regardless!
Attachments
Last edited:
Kind of lost this thread.. Hey, if anyone needs or wants a number, hit me up with a pm and I will get you one.
fretno, I always truly enjoy your builds. Great stuff. For my next bass I'm trying to decide between another Warmoth build or get something used (I just posted a new thread asking for advice). With all your experience, if I were to build a medium scale Warmoth with a Bisonic/Darkstar pickup and was shooting for a 7.5 lb weight, how heavy do you think the body could be max?
No I installed those , I bought that neck used from a warmoth employee and it had no markers at all . It needed something and those seemed cool , turned out to be very easy to do and they are indeed very cool . You can order direct from them , make sure you buy the mini light too .
Thanks Dradder! I waited long time for that baby to get finished! It was a very detailed job and Larry took his time to carefully make sure it was done right! Its a lot more detailed than I posted but it is one serious beast through an amp! I get so many different variances of tone through that switch and blend pot set up! Of course my wallet sure is not happy still, but it's what I dreamed of and put it into reality! When I get home on leave frm over here I'm going to take some good pictures of it and repost it and hopefully do it the justice it deserves!
Please do. At some point, I'd like to get a Warmoth build; based on the results you got, this Larry Smoak fellow is going on my short list.
His website is Wooden Wizard Guitars! He is an amazing luthier and he is also Fender Gold Certified repair technician which if Im not mistaken, they only have one or two allowed per state! He has two books on my bass where he detailed all the wiring and bridge schematics! There were several of his customers gawking at it while he was finishing it up! He is the best by far and he has also done work for numerous big name musicians!
Fender US neck fit perfectly on my warmoth body. MIM necks are meant to be interchangable so wouldn't imagine there'd be a problem.
thanks! i thought i read somewhere here that the neck pockets were a little loose for them.
Heres my GL jazz/Warmoth. Wenge/Ebony Lined Fretless. Can I be added to club? 
Last edited:
