MIMF

Hi!

This is a bass I built for a friend, we both like it a lot! Nice balance, great sound, all around I'm very proud of this instrument!






Some specs:

34" scale, 12" radius, 22 frets
one piece walnut root body, with radiused front
bolt-on neck, walnut with stripe of cherry, alu-nut, headstock scarfed from body offcut, radiused like the body
handmade dual action rod
handmade bridge, maple, ebony, aluminum, alu-saddles
GFS MM pup, volume-tone controls
copper shielding and string ground
strap buttons and all ferrules handmade from alu-rivets in a drill press

body and neck backs sprayed with clear,
headstock and front of the body oiled/waxed
both oil and wax homemade

I made a slideshow of the build, but don't know if it's OK to post a YouTube link of it here?

Hi Goran, nice bass!
YouTube links are fine (so long as it's not a self-promotional video).

That's a really nice instrument !!

Thanks guys!

Here's the youtube slideshow of the build:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QLCD8G0qMI , nothing commercial about it...

Cool! Like me some walnut. Can you talk more about the bridge?

Thanks Jason!

The bridge is 10mm thick piece of maple, with some ebony 6mm thick added for looks (some fretboard offcuts). It has 19mm string spaceing, and the alu fences is out of 5mm thick stock, epoxied in space. The whole thing was shaped together on sander, mostly. A bit time consuming, due to alu heating quickly which can ruin the epoxy bond, so I had to take it slowly.

It's fixed to the body via 3 wood screws, 4x25mm I think. I've finished it with lacquer to have it stand out on the waxed surface.
The saddles are 13x15mm long, also the 5mm stock, mostly hand shaped. They have 2 threaded holes from the bottom for height setting, which are invisible, and the added stock is just glued together with superglue, and shaped by hand. I will probably make an second set, because I think I have a better shape in mind now. They are held by friction and string pressure, with little marks, practicaly invisible, showing the player the proper intonation locations when changing the strings.

Hope that helps!

Looks mighty comfortable to play. I'm curious about the body thickness, width and height. Could you please talk a little on the body dimensions and how you arrived at the measurements you did.

Thanks

Hi Jeff!

I don't know all the dimensions right now, but I will measure the templates when I get to the shop later today. It's a few cm narrower than Jazz, about 35cm I think, and about 5cm shorter from the bottom side. There's a good pic of the comparison in the slide show. Thickness is about 45mm at it's thickest, dropping down on the sides for 1cm. Neck pocket is standard Jazz, I just prolonged it a bit, following the lines, for added contact surface between body and neck, and for looks, too. It looked too empty with one pup on it, and angled neck (~2deg) makes a good place to place a thumb. That's why it has that fingerboard drop, to be able to play there.

The shape is a story in itself - my friend got this fancy gig and wanted a better bass than the one he was using, so he wanted me to make a new body, and use his neck, and various hardware from his 2-3 cheap basses. So, I started out with an Jazz template, and told him he can change the shape a bit if he wants. Then we started drawing on the template and came up with this shape. I suggested a top radius, he said great, but this made using a premade bridge impossible.
So I said, I'll make a bridge to make it fit. I drew up a bunch of bridges and a few different concepts for attaching the strings and grounding them, he decided not to use his old pups but to buy a new one, and what we had on the table didn't want no old Squire neck on it and I ended making a whole bass from scratch

The neck has Jazz dimensions on the fretboard, but 12" radius, warwick thickness, prolonged heel, a volute, 14 deg headstock, headstock face radiused (I had to recess the tuner washers prior to shaping it, to have them sitting on the flat surface when mounted).

I completely forgot to post a forgot a few pics of the back, but it's also all in the slideshow. I'll post dimensions later today or tomorrow.

It's interesting how Warwick*ish it looks considering you started with a Jazz Bass Template. Regardless, cute little bass. It's definitely one that would lure me in if it were on a store wall. Do you have a sound clip?

Thanks Samuel!

I'll have some sound clips in a day or two, I was promised some recordings from a concert they have today.

Impressive. I'm looking forward to the sound clips.

Thanks Markku!

I have another bass in the works, but fretless this time!

Goran,

I like your bass (and looking forward to the fretless one)!
I very much like your bridge design and find it inspiring! Do you have a more close-up photo you like to share?

Hans

Thank you, Hans!

I have all the photos I took of the process in the yoputube slide show, but I'll gladly answer any questiones you might have!

Goran,
Very nice and thanks for the video too.
Hans bridge is around 8:48 on the video

Thanks Bob!

Hans, just in case, here are some pics of the bridge in the making:










This is not a new idea really, it's been done before, but worked for me nicely, and I found a way to use some of the scraps nicely.
I'm making a xy-table out of particle board in my spare time to make more simmilar projects in the future.

I got some pic from a gig they played a few days back, and it seems they'll be playing live on TV this weekend Nice!

That bass really looks good on him - Live Action!!!

Thanks for the extra pictures of the making of the bridge!
Hans

You're welcome, Hans! If you make something simmilar, I would like to see some pics!