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Winter Build Off 2020 - Air Jazz
- Thread starter dwizum
- Start date
Home and time to do some body work. This is gonna be a good looking bass...
Obligatory first mockup shot:
Obligatory first mockup shot:
I decided to just throw caution to the wind and cut the control plate cavity and the f hole freehand. I also did the carve on the horns, which is hard to photograph because this maple is so white it has no contrast. And I'm done for now, thanks to a certain virus my wife's work trip got cut short and I need to go get her at the airport!
I got the fretwork mostly done before work today but no photos. Hopefully I'll be final sanding and putting finish on this weekend. My pickguard materials aren't getting here until Tuesday so I might not really have much to do until then.
Am I allowed to question the part where you are putting a pick guard on this?
#NoTort #WeDontNeedNoStinkingPickGuards #BareYourWood
I can't figure out if your phone is taking photos backwards or maybe the upload software is reversing them.
Haha! Considering that in the last 6 months I've built two left handed instruments and 5 or 6 righties, I constantly have these little oh **** did I just do that backwards? moments!
Am I allowed to question the part where you are putting a pick guard on this?
#NoTort #WeDontNeedNoStinkingPickGuards #BareYourWood
Yeah I'm fully on board with liking bare wood but I can appreciate a well done pickguard too. And since this is roughly a jazz bass inspired build, I wanted the jazz control plate which looks dumb without a pickguard. I'm pretty confident I'll like the outcome.
Tag it, bag it, sell it to the butcher in the store...
First coat of finish is going on now, last major step of actual construction is the pickguard.
First coat of finish is going on now, last major step of actual construction is the pickguard.
So I've been playing with the acrylic sheet. The smoked sheet is just right, it's dark gray but you can see through it.
The frosted matte piece is much more clear than I expected, I thought it would be more translucent matte white but it's pretty much totally clear and just barely frosted. I might try scuffing it with coarse schotchbrite pads or something.
The frosted matte piece is much more clear than I expected, I thought it would be more translucent matte white but it's pretty much totally clear and just barely frosted. I might try scuffing it with coarse schotchbrite pads or something.
Another mockup from this morning, before the next coat of finish. I've got my shop heater on full blast which speeds the drying time of this poly enough that I can do 3 coats in a day. I should be done with finish tomorrow at this rate.
For the control plate section, I ended up spraying a mist coat of white on the back since it was too clear on it's own. Now I have the look I wanted, a sort of translucent frosted matte white.
For the control plate section, I ended up spraying a mist coat of white on the back since it was too clear on it's own. Now I have the look I wanted, a sort of translucent frosted matte white.
Last edited:
Good thing this bass is semi hollow otherwise there would be no way I could cram all those electronics and two batteries under a standard jazz control plate!
I started assembly before work this morning and immediately ran into a snag. I had drawn faint pencil lines on the pickguard to mark the screw holes and the freaking pencil wouldn't come off. I washed with dish soap, tried scrubbing with a paper towel, tried a pencil eraser, a generic plastic cleaner we had in the kitchen... Even WD 40 and no luck. Now I have a slightly scuffed pickguard. I know it'll get scuffed in use but I at least wanted a moment of perfection first! At lunch time I'll go at it with some polish and a microfiber pad and knock it back down to gloss but it seems like a frustrating waste of time...
- Apr 18, 2008
- 16,011
- 1
- 31,720
- Disclosures
- I'm highly opinionated and extremely self-assured
Yeah no kidding. And that last photo is with a fairly substantial oil based poly finish, which adds quite a bit of amber tint. Most maple looks nearly orange, or at least amber, after that finish goes on. I've been woodworking long enough to have probably handled a few thousand board feet of maple, this is the whitest maple I've ever seen. It makes for really awesome contrast against the dark pickguard and the bright purpleheart fretboard.
Speaking of the pickguard, if I did this again I'd go one step lighter on the tint. I was hoping that some of the grain would show through. It does, but only if you really look for it. Some day (ha, we all know how that goes) I might swap this pickguard for a new one made with a few steps less tint.
Gonna take my lunch break shortly here and hopefully by the end of it I'll have strings on!
Little bit of a delay at lunch time, I screwed the pickups down which took longer than it should have, since the holes at the treble side of the neck pickup were over the routed out cavity, which meant the screws weren't long enough to hit wood. I only had one screw long enough, so for now the neck pickup only has three screws in it.
Then I went to install the nut, and I dropped it. It bounced off across the floor. I spent 20 minutes down on all fours looking for it, then decided to just cut a new one, which took the rest of my lunch time to do. So it didn't get strung up before I had to get back to work.
But just now I pulled a @Jisch and worked on it while on mute on a conference call. I got the strings on and did a quick, basic setup for action and intonation. Just sort of eyeballed it all to get it playable. Then I plugged it in and WOW.
I have three words:
New.
Favorite.
Bass.
Heck, "new favorite instrument" full stop.
Didn't get time to wipe all the fingerprints off and take good photos but I'll try to get around to that tonight or tomorrow so I can get this entry on the books for the contest.
This thing just absolutely GROWLS and the Bartolini electronics have lots of flexibility, yet somehow it's all usable. I usually forgo complicated electronics because I feel like you only end up with one good setting but these pickups with this preamp is just magic - it can do no wrong! Other than totally rolling the bass to zero, I like every single combination of settings. It sounds good fingerstyle and slapped. And with a pick it gets a super awesome bright grand piano voice that is just killer. Mids up it's punchy. Treble way down and it's warmer and vintage-y. The only real issue I have with the electronics is that there's a bit of buzz with the mids above about 8 with only a single pickup on, but I don't think it's realistic that I would spend a lot of time like that anyways.
It's a lot easier to handle than my 6 string "zombie bass," although it does neck dive a bit. I think I can cure that with a strap that's a little more grippy, I had a slick strap on it for now.
This was the quickest build I've ever done, I was so focused on building it I wasn't really even thinking about the end result much. Normally I spend the whole build daydreaming about what it'll feel like, what it'll sound like, how it'll work for different styles, things like that. This time it was just all go and no think, so playing it is a big mental surprise!
Then I went to install the nut, and I dropped it. It bounced off across the floor. I spent 20 minutes down on all fours looking for it, then decided to just cut a new one, which took the rest of my lunch time to do. So it didn't get strung up before I had to get back to work.
But just now I pulled a @Jisch and worked on it while on mute on a conference call. I got the strings on and did a quick, basic setup for action and intonation. Just sort of eyeballed it all to get it playable. Then I plugged it in and WOW.
I have three words:
New.
Favorite.
Bass.
Heck, "new favorite instrument" full stop.
Didn't get time to wipe all the fingerprints off and take good photos but I'll try to get around to that tonight or tomorrow so I can get this entry on the books for the contest.
This thing just absolutely GROWLS and the Bartolini electronics have lots of flexibility, yet somehow it's all usable. I usually forgo complicated electronics because I feel like you only end up with one good setting but these pickups with this preamp is just magic - it can do no wrong! Other than totally rolling the bass to zero, I like every single combination of settings. It sounds good fingerstyle and slapped. And with a pick it gets a super awesome bright grand piano voice that is just killer. Mids up it's punchy. Treble way down and it's warmer and vintage-y. The only real issue I have with the electronics is that there's a bit of buzz with the mids above about 8 with only a single pickup on, but I don't think it's realistic that I would spend a lot of time like that anyways.
It's a lot easier to handle than my 6 string "zombie bass," although it does neck dive a bit. I think I can cure that with a strap that's a little more grippy, I had a slick strap on it for now.
This was the quickest build I've ever done, I was so focused on building it I wasn't really even thinking about the end result much. Normally I spend the whole build daydreaming about what it'll feel like, what it'll sound like, how it'll work for different styles, things like that. This time it was just all go and no think, so playing it is a big mental surprise!
- Apr 18, 2008
- 16,011
- 1
- 31,720
- Disclosures
- I'm highly opinionated and extremely self-assured
