As if I don't already have enough on my plate! But hey, I couldn't help myself. Inspiration struck and this one's intent is to be built very quickly. Having the neck already made certainly helps that, no doubt!
I present to you, my second WBO entry for this season:
"Aria Kidding Me"
The neck was acquired as part of a trade with @cholyoke in exchange for some beers.
The pickup was part of a parts box buy and the previous owner "Triple Van Gogh'ed" the 3 ears that were on the cover.
Bridge was given to me by @Rapisme (thank you kind sir!).
The piece of swamp ash here is something out of the scrap bin that was likely hard to use for a full-on build.
Honestly, the idea for this came about after seeing the project that @smart51 has been building, the Essence. It utilizes the sort of sparse, skeletal structure that was akin to Paul Lairat's basses.
So here I was, liking the looks of that and thinking about this neck that was from an Aria ZZB. That bass was like "super 80s pointy Explorer style on c'caine" and doing that full on shape was unlikely for me. But thinking about how to make something with the outline in some respects, using scraps for whatever I can, making it "skeletal" in some ways, certainly fit the renewal/rebirth theme.
The general plan will be to build off of this central beam, adding supports and bowed woods to create a sort of outline of a ZZB shape. This will evolve as I figure stuff out, but that's where I'm beginning.
SPECS (so far):
- 32.25" scale Aria Pro ZZB neck
- Swamp ash central beam
- Duncan MM pickup in a custom shell
- Heavy Duty Bridge
Traced the neck heel into some MDF and made a template. Then cut out the neck pocket:
Because that was a little deep and the beam was more than 1.75" thick anyway, I sent it through the planer and brought that down to proper depth.
Now as for a pickup cover, I've only rarely made wooden ones and most I was not only annoyed by the efforts required, but unhappy with the end result. So I'm not much for making them, but this is needed for a functional pickup.
Went through the old scrap bin and found a chunk of wood that was cut from a neck build for a bass from a few years back (I believe @bassbully has the bass now). It was wide enough for the task, so I measured where to hog out and went to work:
Using the top of the bad cover to guide the pickup pole hole cuts:
After a little fine tuning, the coils fit into the cover. I trimmed that down closer to size, plugged the face holes with tape and filled the thing with epoxy:
And that's where I left off. Obviously, it will need to be shaped a bit more, but the end result will be a working pickup in a wood case that was made of scraps.
I present to you, my second WBO entry for this season:
"Aria Kidding Me"
The neck was acquired as part of a trade with @cholyoke in exchange for some beers.
The pickup was part of a parts box buy and the previous owner "Triple Van Gogh'ed" the 3 ears that were on the cover.
Bridge was given to me by @Rapisme (thank you kind sir!).
The piece of swamp ash here is something out of the scrap bin that was likely hard to use for a full-on build.
Honestly, the idea for this came about after seeing the project that @smart51 has been building, the Essence. It utilizes the sort of sparse, skeletal structure that was akin to Paul Lairat's basses.
So here I was, liking the looks of that and thinking about this neck that was from an Aria ZZB. That bass was like "super 80s pointy Explorer style on c'caine" and doing that full on shape was unlikely for me. But thinking about how to make something with the outline in some respects, using scraps for whatever I can, making it "skeletal" in some ways, certainly fit the renewal/rebirth theme.
The general plan will be to build off of this central beam, adding supports and bowed woods to create a sort of outline of a ZZB shape. This will evolve as I figure stuff out, but that's where I'm beginning.
SPECS (so far):
- 32.25" scale Aria Pro ZZB neck
- Swamp ash central beam
- Duncan MM pickup in a custom shell
- Heavy Duty Bridge
Traced the neck heel into some MDF and made a template. Then cut out the neck pocket:
Because that was a little deep and the beam was more than 1.75" thick anyway, I sent it through the planer and brought that down to proper depth.
Now as for a pickup cover, I've only rarely made wooden ones and most I was not only annoyed by the efforts required, but unhappy with the end result. So I'm not much for making them, but this is needed for a functional pickup.
Went through the old scrap bin and found a chunk of wood that was cut from a neck build for a bass from a few years back (I believe @bassbully has the bass now). It was wide enough for the task, so I measured where to hog out and went to work:
Using the top of the bad cover to guide the pickup pole hole cuts:
After a little fine tuning, the coils fit into the cover. I trimmed that down closer to size, plugged the face holes with tape and filled the thing with epoxy:
And that's where I left off. Obviously, it will need to be shaped a bit more, but the end result will be a working pickup in a wood case that was made of scraps.
