But amidst the boxes and the chores of packning... I did build a bass guitar. Let’s look at some pics because I’m awfully pleased with the result. I was going to build the neck from scratch but before I could score som maple I found a decent 2nd hand neck so I used that one.
The sketch I made:
I had this really hairy piece of mahogany, severly damaged from the logging process but dry as bone. I figured I could extract the needed material, avoid the crushed part.
And it worked, even though there wasn’t much extra material in the resulting blank.
Glueing it up, I turned the pieces to get the grain direction balancing out possible movement.
My wee Proxxon bandsaw did a sterling job, but not without complaints.
Carving bevels, or an extended German carve. With the gouge sharpened to a ridiculous level it was quite easy.
Fitting the pickup directly into the body. I allowed myself a millimeter or so around the edges, but it was a tight fit. After chiselling out the cavity I realized I swapped the position of the coils, compared to a P-bass. But Yamaha made some cool models in the 70’s with this layout so I’m with them. Apparently.
The body turned out to bee too thin for a side mounted jack plate so I got a strat jack and mounted it inside out.
And you are correct, there are no pots. So no volume, no tone control.
Then I managed to mix red and brown stain to get almost the colour I wanted. I’m very pleased, as I already blurted. What’s more, I had a set of strings lying around so I used them. They were flat wound! What a peculiar feeling, but I actually like them a lot.
AISLE B, BACH... as they say in the record store.
Then I managed to mix red and brown stain to get almost the colour I wanted. I’m very pleased, as I already blurted. What’s more, I had a set of strings lying around so I used them. They were flat wound! What a peculiar feeling, but I actually like them a lot.
AISLE B, BACH... as they say in the record store.
