Winter Build Off 2025 Project PP

[Alex Xander]

I'm in, with a big disclaimer. These builds are taking back seat to a much more exciting build off entry that is a commissioned build for a member here. I currently have time off work and am waiting on wood for the commissioned build to arrive and have a hankering to make sawdust. These build will be done in between jobs on the commission once the wood arrives.


With that rather long disclaimer out of the way, we can begin.

A bass playing friend recently said "you have all these basses and there's not even a P bass with flats among them"

Enter project PP. A pair of P basses.

Now P basses really aren't my thing, so these will be a little different.

On the left
39" scale fretted 6 string
Nordstrand split coil
Octave4plus flatwounds
Bunya pine body
Buloke neck (one piece)
Dark silver pearloid pickguard

Depending on how the mood takes me, it will either have a high gloss grey finish, or a black stain and oil finish.

On the right
38" scale 6 string
Newtone roundwound strings
Jarrah neck, Jarrah body, Jarrah fingerboard
Nordstrand single coil in the bridge position
Ibanez Aerosilk piezo bridge


So yeah, I'm building a pair of P basses. My "P with flats" will just happen to have six strings, a 39" scale and a low F# string. So be it.

These are intentionally simple builds, considering the aforementioned commission. One piece bodies, one piece necks. No complex glue ups to consume my time. The biggest job will be carving the buloke neck (anecdotally the world's hardest wood). Shinto rasps just graze this stuff and get hot.

The electronics on the fretless will be wild, so hold onto your hats if you geek put about that stuff.

Making a P bass body style work with an XL scale required lots of modelling to get something that looks right, provides access to at least the 20th fret and balances. I think I've got it.

Thanks for looking.

 

[Why Nautilus‽]

Always love your builds and how unique you go on scale length. Excited for these too!

 

[Alex Xander]

A little bit of progress on the fretted build.

Body cut and pickguard cut.

Here's a mock up to give an idea of the skewed proportions.

 

[Alex Xander]

So I’m changing the script a little and instead of a buloke neck, I’m going a Tasmanian Blackwood one piece on the fretted bass.

Clamping the scarf joint, I realised something should have realised a dozen builds ago. It doesn’t matter how ugly the securing is on pieces that will ultimately be cut off when tapering the neck. Fussing with precisely cut pins is just a waste of time (IMHO).

Solution - dry clamp the scarf joint, pre drill some holes for some dirty old flat head screws. Unclamp, add glue, then use the screws to not provide clamping force and stop the joint from slipping.

It’s a little agricultural, but given it’s going to be cut off when tapering the neck, who cares?

The neck was cut from this lovely billet of flame Blackwood.

That hasn’t been wetted down. It should really pop with a finish on it.

I’m fretless bass news, the preamp turned up

This is a specially configured 10 (ten!) knob preamp from Underhill. Controls are parametric shelving bass eq for the piezo, then three parametric bands for the master. The magnetic and piezo both go through buffers before going to the balance.

Controls will be
Volume
Balance
Stacked bass/freq (shelving) for the piezo
Stacked bass/freq (peaking for both pickups)
Stacked mid/freq (peaking for both pickups)
Stacked treble/freq (peaking for both pickups)

To add to the chaos, the piezo has its own preamp with trim pots for each saddle.

This is the polar opposite to most of my basses that often don’t even have a volume knob, but you know, the grass may be greener on the other side!

 

[bowthing]

Brilliant agricultural no-brainer on the scarf joint! I'm definitely stealing that one!

 

[Alex Xander]

So I think I have at least three unfinished build threads here. I figured I should make some progress on at least one of them.

At the moment, most of my woodworking time is spent working on some commissioned builds, but in the gaps, I’ve revived these builds.

The Underhill preamp is no more - it’s in one of my gigging basses. The plan now is as follows

Both basses 37” six strings. The fretted will have an onboard tube DI (a Steddi Go build), the fretless an ACG EQ01. Garry Goodman is currently making some flats for the fretted build (low F# tuning) and the fretless will have rounds.

Another change of direction is the top woods. Enter some pale moon ebony…

I’ve resawed enough for ten tops, but I think both basses will end up with full pale moon fronts (fretboard, headstock, top).

More to follow.

 

[joeLowB]

So I think I have at least three unfinished build threads here. I figured I should make some progress on at least one of them.

At the moment, most of my woodworking time is spent working on some commissioned builds, but in the gaps, I’ve revived these builds.

The Underhill preamp is no more - it’s in one of my gigging basses. The plan now is as follows

Both basses 37” six strings. The fretted will have an onboard tube DI (a Steddi Go build), the fretless an ACG EQ01. Garry Goodman is currently making some flats for the fretted build (low F# tuning) and the fretless will have rounds.

Another change of direction is the top woods. Enter some pale moon ebony…

View attachment 7519300

I’ve resawed enough for ten tops, but I think both basses will end up with full pale moon fronts (fretboard, headstock, top).

More to follow.

Thanks for reviving this! Keen to watch along!

 

[Matt Liebenau]

So I think I have at least three unfinished build threads here. I figured I should make some progress on at least one of them.

At the moment, most of my woodworking time is spent working on some commissioned builds, but in the gaps, I’ve revived these builds.

The Underhill preamp is no more - it’s in one of my gigging basses. The plan now is as follows

Both basses 37” six strings. The fretted will have an onboard tube DI (a Steddi Go build), the fretless an ACG EQ01. Garry Goodman is currently making some flats for the fretted build (low F# tuning) and the fretless will have rounds.

Another change of direction is the top woods. Enter some pale moon ebony…

View attachment 7519300

I’ve resawed enough for ten tops, but I think both basses will end up with full pale moon fronts (fretboard, headstock, top).

More to follow.

Interesting. Feel free to post deets about the DI. Is it going to be a full size tube or one of the mini, circuit board mount ones? I forget what they’re called. I watched / read a bit about those a couple of years ago. It seemed interesting.

 

[Alex Xander]

Interesting. Feel free to post deets about the DI. Is it going to be a full size tube or one of the mini, circuit board mount ones? I forget what they’re called. I watched / read a bit about those a couple of years ago. It seemed interesting.

Hi Matt,

It’s the full size tube running at high voltage. I have a drawing somewhere, but I can get it to mount nicely under the pick guard. I’m currently trying to find a suitably sized low voltage cutoff for the NiMH batteries that will power it. There’s something about a volume knob, flats and a tube DI that has me really excited. A little bit fancy, but super basic at the same time.

 

[Alex Xander]

I got sidetracked (as I often do) and pulled out one of the original bodies made from Jarrah (a really rich brown/purple eucalypt).

I had bought some binding and an appropriate router bit for the task, so last night after the kids went to bed, I had my first go at binding. The only CA glue I had on hand was a fairly thin viscosity, so there will be a lot of tidy up (note to self - get some thick CA glue next time), but overall, I’m happy enough with the result.

I’ll string this one up with flats and chuck some frets in the board. Notably, all the wood in the bass will be jarrah. I’m not exactly in love with it, but I’ve wanted to do a one-wood bass for ages, so this is it.