Just hand it to me...my slots would naturally look like that...
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What's On Your Workbench?
- Thread starter HaMMerHeD
- Start date
Telecaster body destined to become a 30" bass. Tooling up for a first build. The smooth talking guy with the head tattoos over at Crimson persuaded me to get the small Triton router, which is an extravagance for a single neck and pickup pocket but hey ho.... may build more. I don't even have a workshop with dust extraction, just a small room in my city apartment, so will have to find an appropriate garden to work in. I do have a drill press and the rest of the tools.
I've been agonising over a single PU placement but have decided to rout upwards from the existing bridge pocket which would put me just a bit further down then a P-bass, just down past 24th fret. Given the 52mm string width at this point I opted for a single MM pickup which is 57mm, but the pole pieces are 9.5mm wide so that helps. I could use 2 PUs and push the MM PU towards the bridge. Not decided. The neck PU rout is right up against the end of the fretboard.... hmmmm....
I have a spare Wal bridge, which I should probably sell because of its rarity and get a Hipshot - we'll see. The neck is the challenge. I want a paddle style headstock and you don't see many necks like that for sale. I'll probably end up getting a cheap 30" bass for a donor neck, which would give me the tuners and a bridge as well. Body is walnut, so I'm looking forwards to hearing the result!
I've been agonising over a single PU placement but have decided to rout upwards from the existing bridge pocket which would put me just a bit further down then a P-bass, just down past 24th fret. Given the 52mm string width at this point I opted for a single MM pickup which is 57mm, but the pole pieces are 9.5mm wide so that helps. I could use 2 PUs and push the MM PU towards the bridge. Not decided. The neck PU rout is right up against the end of the fretboard.... hmmmm....
I have a spare Wal bridge, which I should probably sell because of its rarity and get a Hipshot - we'll see. The neck is the challenge. I want a paddle style headstock and you don't see many necks like that for sale. I'll probably end up getting a cheap 30" bass for a donor neck, which would give me the tuners and a bridge as well. Body is walnut, so I'm looking forwards to hearing the result!
Manton Customs
UK Luthier
Extreme bending is out
nope, a common misconception of TT
This one is a build of mine from a few years back, which came back to me for a service. It was slotted on CNC by TT in Sweden.
Sell the Wal bridge, buy a Hipshot... and use the rest of that Wal bridge money to buy a big Triton router
- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,587
- 221,958
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
A router is a good tool to own if you plan on doing any more bass/guitar projects. However, it creates a lot of dust/wood fragments and is a tool that needs to be used very seriously and under proper (shop) conditions. Even if using outside - precautions need to be taken. Years ago I used a Tele guitar body to make a bass and it required a lot of modification. Mine was 34" scale, so 30" will be a bit more conducive using a guitar body. But even on a short-scale bass, the fact that that Tele body doesn't have an upper horn will most likely result in a neck-diving bass. This is how I resolved that on mine.
Another thing you will need to learn about routing is that you first need to make forms to rout from. You cannot and should not rout freehand - ever. So cutting forms requires other tools and the ability to use them correctly.
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Thanks JIO for the ideas. I've been looking at a lot of YT videos about routing to prepare myself. Clearly you have to be serious about using a router. I'll do plenty of practice runs on odd pieces of timber.
That's a nice bass in your photos - is that a Tele body where you cut off the lower horn? I'm hoping that I won't get much neck dive. I have a Gretsch G2220 which is roughly the same size as a Tele and is Les Paul shape, so no long top horn. That balances OK. Plus the walnut body is pretty heavy in itself. Getting a 30" neck in the UK is holding up the build, but I have plenty of time, so I've been using the time for loads of measuring and research.
That's a nice bass in your photos - is that a Tele body where you cut off the lower horn? I'm hoping that I won't get much neck dive. I have a Gretsch G2220 which is roughly the same size as a Tele and is Les Paul shape, so no long top horn. That balances OK. Plus the walnut body is pretty heavy in itself. Getting a 30" neck in the UK is holding up the build, but I have plenty of time, so I've been using the time for loads of measuring and research.
Reasonable week for me considering I had to rearrange my whole shop to fit my new drum sander (which was a long overdue purchase!)
I had a pickup install job on an epiphone Thunderbird Pro V.
Nice bass, thick neck!
Reshielded
Done! Ramp was not made by me.
Then there’s a few builds scattered around.
all roasted tele build
Top secret Maple bodied short scale
And this wacky fruity pebbles looking top build.
I had a pickup install job on an epiphone Thunderbird Pro V.
Nice bass, thick neck!
Reshielded
Done! Ramp was not made by me.
Then there’s a few builds scattered around.
all roasted tele build
Top secret Maple bodied short scale
And this wacky fruity pebbles looking top build.
Slightly delayed response, but I've re-read your post a couple times and gotten a lot of value from how thorough you were, so thanks!
- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,587
- 221,958
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
I cut/redefined the lower horn of a standard ash Tele guitar body. The body was heavy, but it didn't stop neck-dive as the maple Tele bass neck was 34" scale. You might get lucky having yours be a short-scale. The company Eden (on eBay) sells short scale necks with paddle hs's so you can shape it any way you want.
Finally found a moment to put this Thunderbird on the bench and give it a proper setup. This was a recent trade acquisition and the action was higher than I've ever seen. The neck actually had a back bow in it once I removed the strings. After a little time, she now plays way better!
A neck!
It's a CIJ Jaguar neck with heavy black poly overspray. The original red lacquer is there under the black on the headstock, but split when I took the tuner bushings out.
A bit of a gamble, but it is a Jazz spec neck with blocks and no binding.
Discoloured inlays and varnish build up on frets.
Emmett says 'that's quite a back-bow'. He isn't wrong!
It's a CIJ Jaguar neck with heavy black poly overspray. The original red lacquer is there under the black on the headstock, but split when I took the tuner bushings out.
A bit of a gamble, but it is a Jazz spec neck with blocks and no binding.
Discoloured inlays and varnish build up on frets.
Emmett says 'that's quite a back-bow'. He isn't wrong!
No such thing as a free lunch. Cherry red lacquer wasn't too great under the black. Chunk of wood missing next to D tuner hole, so sanded that area smooth. Ugly headstock!
The tuner bushings were removed prior to the black spray job, then forced back into the still-curing lacquer. Unfortunately two caused damage to the original lacquer when I tamped them back out.
I'm thinking I can drop fill the damaged area with superglue (or superglue and maple dust), block sand, apply a new decal to the headstock and re-spray with poly lacquer.
Always annoying when a quick project grows legs like this.
I made some knobs for my nephews guitar (he'll be a dentist soon). Today I spent the afternoon sanding and polishing the acrylic center. They're walnut with crushed pearl underneath a shark tooth with clear acrylic on top. All they need is a coat of oil and they'll be the last work on his tele.
I've got nine more to clean up for future projects, always make more than you need at the moment.
I've got nine more to clean up for future projects, always make more than you need at the moment.
- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,587
- 221,958
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
paint hides a world of evil... (well, evil is a bit much.., more like blotches
). Superglue & maple dust is how I'd fix it. 
paint hides a world of evil... (well, evil is a bit much.., more like blotches
Thanks Jio! It is an annoying backwards step, but all is not lost. A good chunk of the damage his hidden by the skirt on the bushing, and who is going to be looking? Superglue, maple dust, sandy sandy sandy, lacquer.
Or... I sell it on Ebay as a project, much as I bought it.
I've bought a 2019 Jaguar Bass neck from Ebay to keep my Jazz bass running. At the moment it is borrowing the neck from my P Bass. This is all getting a bit incestuous.
The problematic blocked neck was to be the 'forever neck' for this Jazz Bass, which itself is a bit of a mutt. If I can get it looking good again then I will defret another Jazz neck I have (the re-decal'd one from earlier in this thread) and keep this one fretted, as block inlays would be confusing on a fretless.
Ultimately I have a Jazz Bass that is getting a new neck. The body has already been replaced. The control plate is the same as the Jazz Bass I originally bought, but the knobs and pots are new. I've even replaced the pickguard screws.
You can't chop and change Gibson instruments as easily. I'm working on an Epiphone 'Dot' at the moment, belonging to my buddy Joe. He wanted black dog-ear P90 pickups dropped in. Gibson type instruments don't work like that! Humbuckers and P90s have very different footprints, so I would have been chopping wood at the ends of the pickup route while exposing some of the original route as the pickups are thinner, bridge-to-nut. The P90s he supplied me with are too tall to work down the end of the neck, but too short to get close enough to the strings at the bridge. You would need a guitar with no neck pitch but the neck sitting quite high off the front of the guitar. Joe likes really low action as well, so there was no way out of this one.
Working on Joe's guitar has made me think more about working on other people's instruments. Joe is a perfectionist, but he's also happy with all the exposed screw holes and general mismatching that would come if you swapped out pickups like this. His idea of what makes a guitar right or wrong isn't the same as mine. I would love to work on the frets, clean the fretboard, file nut slots lower, but that isn't what I'm being paid to do so I have to leave my ideals at the door.
Emmett says 'is the bridge or tailpiece grounded on a Dot? I think its the tailpiece, and if you swap it with a trapeze then the strings are no longer grounded'.
Emmett is of course correct.
The one bit of work I can do right now I cut a ES-335 style pickguard. Those Epi Dot pickguards are slightly ugly, and Joe sent me photos of Alvin Lee tearing up an ES-335 with a big pickguard with a chunky white outline. Joe saw the pickguard I made for my Epi Casino and wanted me to make him one.
Your nephew can't be all that confident in his fillings if he's not playing bass....
Ultra cool knobs though...
