Jon Posted July 13, 2007 Report Share Posted July 13, 2007 Now that I'm about to finish up my 6-string project, it's time to move onto the next project. A body for a Spector neck I've had laying around for nearly 3 years now. I didn't want to start this one until I had all the parts because it's no fun waiting around for everything, so that's all taken care of except the bridge I plan on replacing in this project. So onto the project we go! Specs: 35" scale, 24 frets, 5-string bolt-on bassMahogany body with Wenge center laminatePadauk TopWenge accent lines(2) Musicman Pickups17mm or 17.5mm string spacing The design roughly cut out with an Xacto blade. So I decided on the woods on stuff I've had laying around for a while. I didn't want to get a start on this one until I had some kind of vacuum pump for gluing the veneers, because gluing veneers any other way can be very difficult and time consuming. So the solution? A skateboarding vacuum press kit! Found here. This was suggested in a woodworking magazine, I'll see if I can find the exact edition for you guys (I always get great ideas from these magazines). Woodcraft didn't have the wider size I needed, so I plan on getting that soon so I can glue the top the same way I did the Wenge accent lines. And man, it's a hell of a lot more powerful than I thought it was. It sucked over half the glue through the pores! I spent 30 minutes using 220 grit sandpaper on the orbital just to clean up that mess. Mmm, check out that beautiful jointing job! Side-shot of the body with the top on. The body is currently gluing up, I'll probably get a little more progress done tomorrow but I doubt I'll have time. Running the fingerboard store takes a fair amount of time out of my day! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted July 14, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 14, 2007 Nothing going on tonight, so I'm trying to get as much progress done as possible! The body glued up flawlessly. Next shot is a good picture of the original sketch that I'm going to apply to some plywood or plexi-glass so I can make a template out of it. Note that the Mahogany wasn't lengthy enough for the design, so I'll just make the horn a little bit more bulky. Here's a better shot of my forstner bit idea, this saves me time and gets a nice clean cut in those hard to reach areas. The forstner bit slipped when I was tightening it into the drill press, landed on my big toe! Ye-ouch, note the blood on my toe in the last picture. That's what I get for working bare-foot. And here's where I'm at as of now. No sanding sleeves for my belt sander, so I'm on hold on this project until I pick up some new ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted July 15, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 15, 2007 I've got the body mostly shaped now that I've got some belt-sander sleeves. The bridge I'm needing for this project (5-string A-style Hipshot 18mm spacing) will be here sometime this upcoming week, now I just need the wider veneer bag to glue the top on and I'll have everything I need! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gibsonsg26 Posted July 15, 2007 Report Share Posted July 15, 2007 looks pretty good jon you build some pretty cool basses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheIRS Posted July 15, 2007 Report Share Posted July 15, 2007 Looks like this will become a pretty nice new instrument for you. Are you going to put a high c on it or a lower string? I'm not a huge fan of the body shape but I'm willing to bet that I'll like it much more when the whole thing is completed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted July 15, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 15, 2007 The body shape isn't complete yet. And I agree about it, I don't like the shape so far, but the final design is exactly what I'm going for. If you look closely, you'll see a couple pencil lines of where I should be shaping it. This will be my contra-bass. F#, B, E, A, D tuning. I forgot to mention that! With two other basses tuned to low B, and another with low B and high C, I need some low-end so I don't have to de-tune. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheIRS Posted July 16, 2007 Report Share Posted July 16, 2007 Nice! I like the 'sound' of that tuning! That was both a pun and not a pun.. anyway,... My younger brother (who happens to be a very good bassist for his age) wanted me to build him a 5 string with a high C one day but I wasn't completely sure how to go about that, and i was hoping that was what you were making so i could look at it to figure out how to go about making one with a high C. But i think this will be a great bass anyway, especially with that contra tuning! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
travismoore Posted July 17, 2007 Report Share Posted July 17, 2007 (edited) you can change any 5 string to have a high C just buy a 6 string set and string it E, A, D, G, C Edited July 17, 2007 by travismoore Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted July 17, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 17, 2007 you can change any 5 string to have a high C just buy a 6 string set and string it E, A, D, G, C Or buy the a .032-.028 gauge single string off the internet. www.juststrings.com. This is where I get my custom strings for my basses. The rest come from http://www.conklinguitars.com/accessories.html. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
travismoore Posted July 18, 2007 Report Share Posted July 18, 2007 Fair enough =D i get my strings here: http://www.stringbusters.com/ 4 string set of red label warwick strings cost me £10 with postage take about 2-3 days to come and they arrive on weekends =D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregP Posted July 18, 2007 Report Share Posted July 18, 2007 Skateboard vacuum pump seems too ingenious to be true! lol Great stuff. Have you sourced your MM-style pickups yet? If so, which ones are you going for? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted July 18, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 18, 2007 Skateboard vacuum pump seems too ingenious to be true! lol Great stuff. Have you sourced your MM-style pickups yet? If so, which ones are you going for? Wilkinson's. They cost about $25 total. I don't plan on them sounding nice, I just want a signal to test prototype builds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheIRS Posted July 18, 2007 Report Share Posted July 18, 2007 you can change any 5 string to have a high C just buy a 6 string set and string it E, A, D, G, C Or buy the a .032-.028 gauge single string off the internet. www.juststrings.com. This is where I get my custom strings for my basses. The rest come from http://www.conklinguitars.com/accessories.html. Thanks guys, thats some good information to have! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregP Posted July 19, 2007 Report Share Posted July 19, 2007 Skateboard vacuum pump seems too ingenious to be true! lol Great stuff. Have you sourced your MM-style pickups yet? If so, which ones are you going for? Wilkinson's. They cost about $25 total. I don't plan on them sounding nice, I just want a signal to test prototype builds. I'm sure they'll sound just fine. What kind of active electronics are available? Do the Wilkinsons -require- active electronics, or are they just recommended? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted July 19, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 19, 2007 I have no idea, I think they're recommended. I'll be using a Jackson pre-amp until I'm able to afford an Aguilar pre-amp. With the Aguilar I'll be able to wire it for more knobs - master volume, blend, low, mid, high, active/passive switch, and a mid frequency selector. Honestly, I just want a ton of crap on my bass, I love the look of wooden knobs! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted July 24, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 24, 2007 I'll have some more work done on this bass when the 26"x28" vacuum bag comes in, hoping late this week or early next week. I'll also have the Aguilar pre-amp ordered very soon, so I can save another Jackson pre-amp for other test builds. I'm quite positive I'll be going with a string-thru body on this build, so I'll be ordering some black ferrules along with the pre-amp. I think that would look pretty sweet. I'm not 100% positive if the F# string will be long enough to go this route, but this is where the handy Hipshot bridge comes in, you can string it however you want, not to mention have 3D adjustable saddles. Left, right, up or down, it does it all! Don't forget to check out roarockit's site. I'm glad I didn't have to invest in $300-400 for an electric pump and my own bags to glue veneers and tops. Going this route cost me less than $100. http://www.roarockit.com/rc_wood.php?id=49 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregP Posted July 24, 2007 Report Share Posted July 24, 2007 Sorry for the dum questions-- where do you find these Jackson preamps that you speak of? Are they just pillaged from Jackson basses, or available as 3rd-party items? Greg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted July 24, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 24, 2007 Pillaged. These were salvaged from beat up instruments when Fender bought the company out. The guitarist in my band used to work for them but lost his job when they were bought out, so I've got a fair amount of Jackson parts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted August 2, 2007 Author Report Share Posted August 2, 2007 The other vacuum press bag finally came in about 40 minutes ago. So I cut the top to size and glued it up. Can't wait to get started on this Saturday night / Sunday! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thegarehanman Posted August 2, 2007 Report Share Posted August 2, 2007 Good to see you're using the vacuum bag a lot. It's a very usefull tool and I anticipate you'll be finding new uses for it as you continue building, especially if you branch into acoustics. However, you may consider switching over to an automatic, cycling pump to reduce your work load. Check out JoeWoodworker.com and look at the different types of pumps. peace, russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted August 5, 2007 Author Report Share Posted August 5, 2007 I'd love to upgrade to an electric when I can afford it. But this definitely works since I'm just a weekend warrior right now! I cleaned up the sides with the router, I've still got a fair amount of sanding to do, as well as carve the body and route the neck and pickup cavities. Hoping to have that complete within two weeks since I've got a lot going on now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheIRS Posted August 5, 2007 Report Share Posted August 5, 2007 This project is shaping up quite nicely, I already like it much more than I did when you started out on it. Amazing work Jon, can't wait to see this one finished. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted August 6, 2007 Author Report Share Posted August 6, 2007 Thanks! It's shaping up pretty nicely. Got one pickup routed as well as the neck. The ball bearing locked up on the second (bridge) pickup and burnt into the template and body. I will probably do a binding channel to cover up the mistake, although I'm not sure what kind of binding I would use. I'm also about to order the strings for this bass and my 6-string project I'm about to finish up. It's going to cost right over $60 to string this bass up. A little less than 8-string basses. So the gauges will be: F# - .195" B - .145" E - .110" A - .075" D - .055" Calculates to be a pretty balanced set, I just hope I don't break any strings! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted August 7, 2007 Author Report Share Posted August 7, 2007 I used a router bit with the ball bearing on the bottom to copy the original neck pocket. Came out perfect. Then I got a little work done on the carve. I still need to shape bottom of the body a bit, once I figure out the final shape I'll do a little more thought out work for the carve in that area. I'll work on fixing the pickup cavity soon, although I'd prefer to fix the mistake when I have more time to think on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted August 18, 2007 Author Report Share Posted August 18, 2007 Got a little more work done. I'm going to do more work on the carve and smooth it into the flat top. Kind of like a Les Paul. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.