Peter Wilcox's two basses from a table top and floorboards

[Peter Wilcox]

Got rid of some excess weight and rounded over the edges. The pick guard and bridge seem to fit OK.

[Peter Wilcox]

Roughed in the arm and belly contours. The p bass body is done except for the hard part - sanding and finishing. Ugh!

I'll go on the the neck from here.

[Warren May]

Very cool. I like to watch your builds on these challenges, Peter. Always inventive.

[Mark Swanson]

That looks great but I suspect it will make a neck heavy instrument when all done.

[Hans Bezemer]

I like your design, it gives a new look to an old design.
Cool.

[Peter Wilcox]

That looks great but I suspect it will make a neck heavy instrument when all done.

That may be, but the body wood feels heavier than alder, and the neck and fret board will be of mahogany/luan, which is lighter than maple, so I hope it all balances out.

[Peter Wilcox]

I've done some work on the neck. I resawed the thick part of the floor board to make the board 3/4+' thick, glued some strips into the grooves in the board, laid out the neck and cut out the headstock. I'm going to leave the neck sides square until at least I've cut the fret slots.

[Peter Wilcox]

The part I resawed off I will use as the fret board. It's not wide enough at the heel, so I cut some pieces from the headstock end to glue on.

[Peter Wilcox]

Made a truss rod and routed a truss rod slot. Made a maple filler.

[Peter Wilcox]

Glued on the fretboard after planing the filler, and radiused it to 12". Thinned the headstock to 5/8". I'd had to decrease the neck width to fit it into the jig to route the slot, but left it square to make it easier to cut the fret slots later.

[Peter Wilcox]

I'm going to put on 4 or 5 coats of polyurethane and finish it before I cut the fret slots. The wood is fairly soft, so will need a hard protective finish. At one coat per day, this will take some time. I've finished a fretless fingerboard like this and it seemed to do a good job, but since I don't have a 34" bass with frets I'm fretting this one. I can't imagine how I'd fret it before putting on a finish like this.

[Peter Wilcox]

Well, I've got all the fun stuff done on this bass. I'm not looking forward to sanding and putting on finish, so I'll put it aside and go on to the jazz type bass.

The pic shows it suspended at the upper strap button. It looks OK to me, but I know nothing about how it's supposed to balance. Is this OK?

[Bryan Bear]

I like this one a lot. It certainly doesn't look neck heavy to me, I'm sure it will feel good.

[Jon Whitney]

That looks really good to me. I used to play bass, and even as a young man I didn't like the weight. It will be interesting to see what this lighter weight instrument does in terms of tone.

[Warren May]

That's a really cool looking bass in the altogether. Innovative, as always, Peter.

[Patrick DeGreve]

I like this a lot! Very nice design. What kind of finish are you going to use?

[Peter Wilcox]

Thanks for your kind comments. As for finish, always my nemesis, I'm going to try lacquer, since this is a learning experience. I've bought some Harbor Freight guns, and some brushing lacquer. I understand (possibly wrongly) that it is the same stuff but thicker, so needs more thinning to be sprayed. I also got some lacquer sanding sealer, though I suppose I could use shellac. I'm hopeful I won't need a grain filler, though it may come to that - more learning if so.

The body for the jazz bass is done (same design), and now working on the neck. It will have a 1 1/2" nut (1 5/8" for the p bass) and be fretless.

[Hans Bezemer]

Lookin' good Peter. And as Bryan said, it looks balanced.

[Peter Wilcox]

I have both basses to the point of sanding and finishing. This will be the hard part. I'm planning on several coats of sanding sealer, then multiple coats of lacquer. I still have to put polyurethane on the j bass finger board, fret the p bass, and make nuts and install the controls for both. I suppose other things will come up.

[Peter Wilcox]

I won't be making the deadline, what with my sloth and incompetence, the heat dome (temp here 109 today - average for date 89), and need to travel for family 4th July gathering.

But I have got going with the spraying for the first time - 4 coats of sanding sealer I thought would fill the grain didn't, so I'll keep spraying. Then lacquer - spraying is going well, though I found out stuff bubbles if you do it in the sun. So I've set up on the west side of garage to work in the morning shade before temp reaches 100. That little rotating TV stand sure helps a lot - just stand there and twirl it.