Basvarken

Brooks family update. Per theme (TB, EB, EXP, EBN, (another)TB, 12):

Ah, yes the Blues!

About last night: The other day I was approached by Jimi Crutchley (ex-Quireboys, Dead Sea Skulls) regarding the Brooks Fenderbird I had built. He is on a world tour as tour manager with Glenn Hughes. And yesterday the caravan visited De Boerderij in Zoetermeer for Glenn's Deep Purple show. Which is only an hours drive from where I live. Jimi invited me to the soundcheck to put the Brooks Fenderbird through its paces, over Glenn's bass rig. Jimi turns out to be a huge John Entwistle fanatic. And for years he had been looking for a good Fenderbird like the one Peter Cook built for John Entwistle. He had previously bought one from another builder, but that one was very disappointing. And he is very happy that he has finally found a proper Fenderbird!

I recently built two Fenderbirds as a tribute to Peter Cook. About a year ago I was approached by a former fellow student of my brother. His passion is woodworking and in particular collecting tools, such as very exclusive planes, chisels, rasps, etc. Now he had bought a very nice CNC mill a while ago. And he was looking for a nice project to play around with. Anyway, we decided to make a complete bass guitar together with that CNC-machine. I would give him all the dimensions and specifications and he would make the 3D files. Together we went to my local wood supplier to select rough planks of mahogany and maple. I bought the hardware and electronic components. And two months ago - after countless samples of scrap wood- two bodies and two necks were ready to be processed into a bass guitar. I glued the fingerboard to the neck, tapped in frets, lacquered, sanded and polished it. Filled the pores of the body. Lacquered, sanded and polished that one. Then mounted everything. Today they were finally finished. The funny thing is that it is absolutely no less work than making it yourself by hand. Only if there is a series production, then all the efforts will be able to bear fruit. The Brooks Fenderbird (Jufferschans Edition) - Mahogany body - Brooks all maple P-bass neck - Fiesta Red finish - EY Guitar Thunderbird humbuckers - 34" scale - Bone nut - Wide travel Thunderbird bridge plus tailstop. Nickel - Black three ply pickguard - Gotoh Res-o-lite GB528 tuners - Gotoh extra large strapbuttons. Nickel - CTS potentiometers - Silver reflector cap knobs - Switchcraft output jack - Rotosound RS66LDN strings - Weight: 4.3 kg Twins!

Here's the inevitable video demo 😉 I injured my left hand a few weeks ago, so my playing is a bit sloppy. I just don't have enough strength in my fingers yet. But the video does give a good enough idea how the FV-12 sounds. 😉

After lots of layers of clear and lots of sanding in between I could apply the decals. Sanded it with 800 grits > 1200 grit > 2000 grit > 3000 grit. And then polished it I painted the cavities with shielding paint. But I'm horrible at soldering. So I had my good friend Sjoerd take care of the wiring for me. He did a very neat job.

Now was the time to make a decision about the "armpit" in the body. On my previous (long scale) Flying V Bass builds I had used and extra part in the armpit to allow the bridge to be as far back as possible. This would keep the original V shape visually in tact. And my original plan for this bass was to do exactly the same. I was going to use 24 ferrules for the 12 string through body attachment. I figured since it is a short scale bass it was not really a problem to have the bridge a bit away from the edge. And I had my doubts about the strength of the wood with all the holes that would have to be drilled quite close to each other. With all the string pull it might snap a chunk off? And the binding would ba a quite complex affair. One part would have to follow the original V shape and the other would have to follow the black part. So after some restless nights I decided not to used the extra part. I routed the binding channel (sorry no pics) and glued the pearloid binding in https://www.brooksbassguitars.com/uploads/1/3/3/7/13376708/brooks-fv-12-qm-binding-glued-in_orig.jpeg Drilled the output hole for the Telecaster style cup And holes for the potentiometers Holes for the bridge screws Time to stain the bass! First I did a yellow stain all over. I really like the korina with the yellow stain. But my customer wanted a mahogany colour for the back and sides. Then took to the burst. I used a light red stain for the trabsition to yellow. Plus a darker red stain for the outline. After a few layers of clear lacquer:

The beautiful set of bookmatched quilted maple that I found at Holz Faszination was ready to be glued onto the body. Then routed along the mdf template to give it the body shape Looks like a Flying V already! Shaped the heel area. Routed the controls cavity form the back Routed the pickup cavities Not the neatest routing job I've ever done. But I was going to use pickup rings so I didn't mind that much. Wetted the top with a damp rag to make the quilt pop.

Drilled the holes for the side position markers Made a special marker for the 12th position. Using a small aluminum tube. And a regular black inlay that fits inside the tube. Glued the markers in. Didn't take a pic where I saw off the headstock angle. So fast forward to the headstock shape. Clamped the neckthrough part to the workbench and started shaping the neck. With a shinto rasp, a spoke shave and strips of very coarse sand paper. Shaped the volute. Drilled the tuner holes. I don't drill all the way through. I leave about 1.5 mm thickness on the back. Because I like the holes on the back to be smaller. That makes sure you won't see any gaps when the tuners are installed. Glued the body wings on. I cut steps into the sides to make sure the clamps had proper grip. Since you can't clamp a diagonal piece 😉 Free hand routed the wiring channel.It was going to be covered up by the maple top. So I didn't bother to make a template.

Next I shifted my attention to the neck blank. Starting with the slot for the carbon reinforcement strip. And then the two slots for the trussrods on either side of the carbon strip. They follow the taper of the neck. Made the truss rod access slot and cover. The body would get a 7mm thick bookmatched top of quilted maple. So I had to take away 7 mm thickness on that part of the neckblank. And it need to have a neck/body pitch in order to get the right action at the bridge. So I made a jig for my handheld router. Place the neck blank under an angle and routed away the desired depth. Here's the routed part. Still had to chisel away the parts next to the fretboard. But first I glued the fretboard on. Used a staple tacker and cut off just above the blank to prevent the fretboard from "swimming" away during the clamping. Then glued it on. Using rubber strip (of bicycle tubes) to get an even pressure Chiseled away the parts next to the fretboard.

My wood supplier made the neck blank for me. It's a nine ply korina with mahogany strips in between I had some triangular pieces of korina in my shop that could be used for the body wings On most builds I start with the fretboard. And in this particular case the 12th inlay. I sawed off a ring off an aluminum tube. Drilled the holes for all the inlays. In this pic you see the 12th position hole Glued the mother of pearl dots in. And also the ring for the 12th position. On the inside of the ring I used a black position dot marker (not very well visible in this pic, sorry) Sanded the inlays flush with the fretbaord using a 16" radius beam Taped off the fretboard to prevent superglue splattering all over the board while I hammered the frets in. After hammering each fret in I used the fretpress to make sure they were seated well.

Hooray, another Brooks bass is born! The Brooks FV-12 - Korina body wings - Bookmatched Quilted Maple top - Nine ply Korina/Mahogany Neck through - Cherry Burst high gloss finish - Pearloid binding - Ebony fretboard - Mother of Pearl position dots. Aluminium Circle dot for 12th - Jumbo frets - 30 1/2" scale - Buffalo horn nut - ETS Custom made twelve string brass bridge and tailpiece. Black - Two spokewheel double action trussrods - Carbon reinforcement strip in the neck - Pickups: Lace Alumitone DB7, Black - Controls : volume, volume, tone - 0.047mfd capacitor - Gotoh GB 350 lightweight bass tuners, Black - Gotoh ST-31 octave string tuners, Black - Output: Pure Tone Multi Contact jack - d'Addario custom strings - Weight: 4.3 kg In posts below I'll show pics of the build process.

Here's the Thinline Telebird that I built a whle ago Seafoam Green top. Semi-opaque Blonde on back and sides.

And here's the inevitable video demo

No worries! Thank you very much 🍻

You beat me to it 😉 Here it is:

I sincerely hope that when you pick up this bass, you can detach yourself from the Fender (type) basses you own or have owned in the past. 😉 This is an entirely different animal. Both ergonomically and sound wise. Can't wait to see and hear you play it! Cheers to a new chapter!🍻

Here we go! Be forwarned: it's a loooooong thread 😉

Also made a few pics of the bass without the pickguard

Laser cut the pickguard. Customer wasn't sure about the pickguard. I gave him the choice between none at all, White or Vintage White. In the end we chose for Vintage White When the bass was wet sanded to grit 2500 and polished with Meguiars I mounted the hardware and pickups It's hard to capture the color of this bass. Looks different in each light Final step was soldering the electronics

Cut the top nut for a piece of bone Filled the pores with Rustins porefiller And then took to staining the bass First a coat of yellow to give to that golden glow under a certain lighting and angle. I use Clou waterbased stain. Then did the edges with a light mahogany stain and feathered it out with a dry brush. Stained the neck and headstock And the last phase was to stain the sides of the body a very dark mahogany color mixed with dark walnut Then sprayed with sanding sealer And then started to build up layers of clear. With lots of wet sanding in between When the surface was completely smooth I applied the decals to the headstock Customer found out it is the 100th bass guitar he has ever owned. So he asked me to add the number 100 somewhere And I live in Velp 😉

Routed the pickup cavities. As you can see the customer had decided he wanted two pickups instead of just one. Glued the first wing on And then the other Drilled the bridge stud holes Roughly cut put the body shape, prior to routing it along the template Routed the body outline Didn't risk to route too close to the neck join area. So I had to clean that up by hand. Starting to look like it Routed the controls cavity Drilled some holes. Ready for the finishing process

Shaped the neck profile Prepared the ebony faceplate for glue up Cut out the moustache (or open book) shape with a jewelers saw, before I glued the faceplate onto the headstock Glued the faceplate to the headstock Drilled the tuner holes Didn't drill all the way through to prevent tear out. And to keep the diameter of the holes on the other side slightly narrower than the front. I've learned that the Hipshot Ultralites barely cover the entire width of the holes. Shaped the volute Shaped the headstock outline

Cut out the truss rod access slot And made the truss rod cover from a matching piece of rosewood Planed the centerpiece to the desired neck/body angle After the angle was done I roughly sawed the neck shape, in preparation to glue the fretboard on. Shot in a staple and cut it off just a little bit proud of the surface. This helps to prevent the fretboard from sliding off center when glueing onto the neck. The glued the fretboard onto the neck. Using inner bicycle tubes for a clamp. Drilled the holes for the side markers Glued the side markers in Filled the gaps underneath the fret tangs with a past of Titebond and rosewood sawdust.

As always the build starts with same blanks. I had my limber supplier make me a nice neck blank. He made it to the exact specs that I asked for (nine ply khaya mahogany with walnut strips in between. Plus two khaya body wings. Ordered parts and hardware. Initially the customer and I agreed upon a single pickup bass, so I ordered just one Thunderbird humbucker. Routed the slot for the spokewheel trussrod And chiseled out the spoke wheel part. Next I prepared the fretboard for the inlays Glued the inlays in After I had sanded the inlays flush to the radius of the fretboard, I prepared the fret slots for the frets. Cut the fretwire a little oversized to the width of the slots. And taped off the fretboard for protection. Hammered the frets in Cut off the excess ends. And filed them.