Full Bass v1

Now that I've built two piccolo basses (see ::version 1:: and ::version 2::, I figured it was time to make something practical -- a 35 inch scale bass proper. I was able to do most of this work over my winter break between 2022 and 2023.

December 2022

Anticipating the build, I was able to do the planning, wood shopping, and supply shopping before starting. Having all of the pieces at hand made everything go much more smoothly. I got the wood (Ash, Wenge, Ebony) from Crosscut Seattle.

Wed, Dec 28

The Northeast Seattle Tool Library has played such a big role in my ability to build these instruments. For the first two, I just borrowed tools from them to do the work in my shed and yard. Because of some additional steps in preparing the wood, I needed some larger machinery. NESTL has a tool shop that members can use so I spent a few hours sawing, ripping, joining, and planing my wood to get it ready for work. That night, I was able to glue up my wenge strips into a laminated neck blank.

Thu, Dec 29

Once the clamps were free from gluing the neck blank, I could use them to glue together the two pieces of ash forming the body.

While that was gluing in the house, I could plane the neck blank, then route cavities for the truss rod and 4 carbon fiber stiffening rods.

Fri, Dec 30

Now that the rod cavities are routed, we can cut out the neck blank and use the table router to make sure the lines are straight. Then, we can use epoxy to glue in the carbon fiber rods.

While the epoxy is setting, its time to start working on the body. Because the scroll saw has a tough time with the thickness of the body, I find it helpful to route out the shape and thin out the outline, then use the saw to finish cutting.

Sat, Dec 31

In an excessive epoxy incident, I spent most of this afternoon with a razor blade slicing off the epoxy so that I could glue on the ebony fingerboard.

Sun, Jan 1

Once the fingerboard has been glued on, we can use the scroll saw to cut the rough shape of the neck, and then use the router table to clean up the lines. Then its time to get sanding with the radius block to put some curve on the fingerboard.

Mon, Jan 2

To shape the back of the neck, we use a rasp and a belt sander to carve facets, essentially turning the block into a polygon. The edges of the polygon are smoothed out to get a curved shape to the back of the neck.

Today was extra productive, I was also able to do more work on finalizing the shape of the body, including smoothing out some edges, and using the router table to round-over the sides.

I finished the day by clamping some ash slices to the front and back of the headstock.

Tue, Jan 3

Today, I shaped down the Ash headstock facades and glued up a template for the neck pocket in the body. I ran into some issues with my MDF drying together so rather than rush things, I waited to save routing for tomorrow.

Wed, Jan 4

Neck pocket routing went great, the neck fits snugly. There is a tiny bit of router slip that we'll have to deal with somehow. Drilling holes into the side of the headstock went great as well as we didn't split any wood. However, I'm nervous that the headstock isn't thick enough to support the tension of the strings. The holes extend to the edge of the wenge, so the only support in the direction of string pull is the ash, which is not quite as strong. So, I suppose the best thing to do is to make wenge-ash ply to go on top and bottom of the possible too-thin headstock.

It is also the case that school is starting soon, so I really need to get some stuff done now so I don't lose the project in the semester. This means working in the shed at night, of course with proper protection.

Thu, Jan 5

Alright, electronics cavity time! Plus a Wenge Cover! Also, some hole saw experimentation to test the feasibility of making ebony control knobs.

Fri, Jan 6

Its time to figure out what to do with this super-massive headstock. Step one is at least to open the middle of it up. It looks pretty awkward at the moment, but at least it seems more stable than it was before.

Sat, Jan 7

After a slight router mishap on the pickup cavity, we figure out how to make it a feature. I turned a router slip into a place to inlay ebony triangles.

I also drill the holes for the bolt-on neck. It fits!

Mon, Jan 9

Winter term started today, so I didn't get any time to work on this yesterday, and only a tiny bit of time today. I was able to shape the headstock a little bit in hopes of turning it from a giant block of nonsense into something intentional.

Tue, Jan 10

Today I was able to do a bit of body shaping, using a belt sander to take off some wood in the belly curves.

Wed, Jan 11

Today, I did more body shaping, making sure all of the curves and bevels feel good. There is a bit more granular work to do, but overall, I think the body is in good shape for some final sanding.

Sat, Jan 14

I had to take a few days off because of dumb work. I also had to get a few more things from the tool library. I dremeled out some shaping for the headstock, and use the long drill bit to drill the body cavity wiring holes as well as truss rod access. I routed out a small recess for the bridge tailpiece as well.

Mon, Jan 16

Today I had to troubleshoot an issue with the post spacing for the bridge, they were a bit too far apart. I needed to plug the hole so I could re-drill the post. I also did more headstock shaping with the dremel.

Tue, Jan 17

More headstock shaping, trying to add some contour to the chunkiness.

Fri, Jan 20

Dremeling in some ornametnation to the volute.

Sat, Jan 21

The goal with the body is to stain it black, then sand back the stain on the harder parts of the wood, leaving the black stain in the grain.

Sun, Jan 22

Today, I stained the headstock, then sanded back the stain on both parts. Then I reapplied lighter stain on top to give a golden color with accented grains.

Early February

It takes a week or so to finish the body and headstock using TruOil, and then another few weeks to let the oil cure. In the meanwhile, I built some knobs with inlaid ebony triangles. Once the oil is in a good place, its time to wire up the electronics, put in all the hardware and string it up!

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