Jabba_the_gut

So I had great plans to do lots of jobs on this but for one reason and another it hasn't happened as quickly as I hoped. But I have got a few things done. 1. I've fitted side dots to neck. I find this much easier to do before radiusing the fretboard and shaping the neck as there is a nice square edge to work to. Here's the neck marked up for drilling (the neck in the background is the one off the semi hollow bass I built recently which is the same shape as this one). 2. Once the dots were fitted I started shaping the neck. I use a small sanding drum to shape close to the heel and head then use a rasp to shape the actual neck. To me, this is the time consuming bit as it needs to be right. Take a little off, check the profile, check everything is cutting straight and repeat. Lots of times...... 3. Once the neck was pretty much there I sanded the fretboard radius. Again, just a sanding block and patience!!

Here's a few pictures of a neck template I made: First, I used a couple of straight strips of wood running tight down the side of the neck. These could be checked against the centre line of the bass. These bits of wood are typically about 6mm thick then pinned to the mdf with panel pins A second row of wood was added but just to keep the router bass level when cutting the pocket in the template. Another piece of wood pinned in place to mark the end of the pocket (and a second short piece again to keep the router level) Then use the router with a bit like this one below to cut out the neck pocket from the template. This will give you a template a bit like this for cutting the actual pocket on the bass. Hope this makes sense! If not, drop me a message and I'll explain further. Cheers

And welcome HazzasDad! You can buy templates from places like StewMac for pockets and pickups. You can find small differences in dimensions in different brands of pickups (in my experience mainly around P pickup mounting lugs) and always watch out with J pickups as there are two lengths (one for bridge and one for neck). I've always made my own templates from MDF (6 or 9mm) for most things. MDF is pretty good for running the bearing on a router cutter against. I did take some pictures once of a making a neck pocket template - I'll dig them out and post them on here. Usual story is to make sure you have some scrap to practice on before you commit to the actual job!! Out of interest, where are you located? You might find that one of us is local which might be useful. Cheers

Welcome to the build diaries!! If you're trying to do this on a budget, I'd concentrate your funds on making it as playable as possible and get the best neck you can (I'm assuming you're buying a neck rather thanking one). You can always upgrade the pickup later. If the bass doesn't play right, you won't pick it up. I made a bass from wood from an old front door for the body I picked up from Freecycle (the build diary is on here) which kept costs down. That bass uses a second hand p pickup off eBay that was from a MIM Fender (the ad said...) for £10 and it sounds really good! Good luck and keep posting your progress!

You see, there are some people who shouldn't be allowed near technology!! Bloody predictive thing.... Mind you, I was writing some test document at work for a 'shut down' but 'u' and 'i' are right next to each other in the keyboard and the spell checker didn't see any errors....

It's been a couple of weeks busy with work and work related things but I have many to get a few things done. I've made a control cavity cover (I made two but didn't completely like the train on the first one when I tried it so I made another!!), I've suspected back of the neck and heel and I've started sanding on the body. I'll stick a few pictures up later in the week for anyone interested and hopefully I'll get to radius they fretboard and fit some frets this week!! Planning on having this bass finished for the bass bashes in April and May. Cheers

The heel of necks may vary from being square to rounded and there could well be a couple of mm difference in width. Sanding out a neck pocket might not be quite as easy as you think if you want to keep the sides square and maintain the centre line of the neck. Generally a router and a template would be used to cut a neck pocket to ensure these stay true. If you are local to me (Gloucestershire) give me a shout and I'll happily help you out with this. Cheers Jez

Hi Mike, Do you have any plans to use that second smaller room again? Last year it was a bit of a quiet room and was good to take any kit away from the noise of the main hall to try out. Cheers Jez

Not such a good idea...!!!

Yep, but I am going to ruin that by fitting two chrome knobs! I have found some really nice very domed knobs that fit the curvy look (I think anyway..)

Count me in!

I'm going to bring the short scale and fretless semi hollow basses I've built since the last bash. I'll at the medium scale and bodied bass I'm building as that will be done by them. Will probably bring my 5 String spalted beech bass and whatever else I have at home! Might bring my TC RS112 cabs but might just bring my PJB Cub. Looking forward to this bash!

This is my home built semi hollow, medium scale fretless. Really chuffed with it. Full details are in rebuild diaries if anyone is interested.

Not managed to get too much done in the last week or so but I have done the following: 1. Fitted the logo 2. Fitted the machine heads (one of the holes was marginally out of line - about a mm but I'm picky so I filled it and re-drilled. Much better now!) 3. Drilled the holes for the neck screws. The other job that need doing was mounting the bridge. The bridge I'm using has no left to right adjustment so it has to be in the right place of the strings will be out of line and there will be no way to fixt it. So measure. measure again, and again and again..... I marked up where it needed to go with tape and used some string so I could check the position of the strings. I made a couple of templates for the bridge and set to work... The bridge fits quire snugly and neatly. Access to the screws for intonation might be a little restricted but once set should be fine. I put it all back together and thankfully the strings are where I want them!!

Those cakes were fantastic, how could you forget?!!

Oh yeah, there is that problem.....

Bass bashes are very relaxed events - this one especially! Ability and experience makes no difference neither does gear, nobody judges. Folk take all sorts of gear to these events and it is a great opportunity to try out different kit and stuff you don't often see in normal music shops. This bash also has the bonus of great food - not to be missed! If it is close to you then come along - I'm sure you will enjoy it. Cheers, Jez

Looks nice and easier!! Will look into that binding - cheers

If you are tight on space for a normal neck pocket you could extend the pocket all the way to the neck pickup. This would give you more to p!ay with in terms of the shaping of the neck body join and also make it an easier to cut/route. You then could shape the end of the fretboard in any way you like as it wouldn't be determining the size of the pocket. Hope this makes sense!!

If you're thinking bolt on, then mark on your drawing where the neck screws will go to make sure you have enough neck. On you're current design you would probably need to extend the neck down to the neck pickup. I'd also look at where the neck is; it might look better if the mid line of the neck was in line with the point where the two curves Mick has drawn intersect (if that makes sense!). Cheers Jez

Hope you enjoy building this - really like the shape. Look forward to seeing how this develops.

Sold P-zarn an EMG balance pot. Really nice guy to deal with and straightforward. Hope it does what you need. Cheers Jez

Cheers for the comments! Hope everyone had a good Christmas and is enjoying a break. I've had a few hours spare so I've got on with a couple of little jobs. First I thought I'd sort out the logo inlay for this. Decided to use an offcut of the fretboard: I cut this to shape and then put an ebony veneer edge around it to create a defined line around it. I drilled the holes for the machine heads and tried the logo for size. Next job is to fit the logo and start shaping the neck.

Once the glue on the neck was fully set, I trimmed the neck to the finished shape and checked it fitted the neck pocket. It fitted nice and snuggly first time - well chuffed!! Just for an idea of how this is going to look when finished, I put bits of hardware in place and it looks like this: Still got lots to do but pleased with the progress so far.

Fret slots cut and went for 24 frets again. I'll need to be careful installing the 24th fret so it doesn't chip any pieces of the fretboard out. I've routed the channel for the truss rod and fitted that whilst I still have a full width neck blank. The neck blank has been trimmed to a rough size so I can keep the offcuts to make a neck for a short scale bass (or even one of those funny high pitched plinky 6 string things that some folk seem to use...). As per usual, I've used everything to clamp this together.