Chopthebass

Finished rough shaping. Can’t glue the wings on as I’m waiting for a delivery of wire. I need to extend the headphone amp wires and need to thread through holes though the neck laminates.

Started roughing the neck shape. I’ll do most of the shaping before glueing the wings to the neck. No quick way to do a single cut!

i Decided the black walnut top was a bit bland so I hit the bandsaw, and stuck a rosewood top on!

Couldn’t resist mocking it up to get a feel for it. Still deciding between chrome or black bridge and tuners

Thanks JTG! Not a bad weight either at 8.5 pounds.

Damn nuisance!

Thanks Simon! I didn’t install the headphone amp in the end. I was waiting for a batch of them but thing have been delayed with the apocalypse and I got impatient and completed it without. But the headphone amp works with the preamp on the bass so you have full control of eq and volume. It has a custom mini jack that turns both the amp and preamp on once a mini headphone jack is inserted. Owen on bass hat bought two from me but not sure if has fitted them yet.

Finished and set up. Wow this 3-Leaf preamp is the best I’ve come across so far. The Lollar pickups are very warm and vintage sounding in passive mode but in active it comes alive and all settings sound good. It’s similar to an OBP3 as it has a mini switch for mid frequencies rather than semi parametric. I couldn’t be happier with the sound and playability

I have gold knobs on order but thought I’d see what Sadowsky style aluminum knobs look like. Not bad

Finished wiring in the Red 3-Leaf 3 band preamp. I just need to steal some batteries to check it works!

Perfect join!

Edges glued back on

Fret slots cut in the flame maple fingerboard. It’s going to be bound in the same wood so I cut sides off first. I’ll glue them back on and it should be pretty seamless.

I have a euro 5LT and agree those Barts with the DG preamp do make an awesome combination!

Thanks Andy. Its frustrating waiting for parts to be delivered. Can't do much without truss rods!

Here’s the two basses mocked up.

I’m building 2 Basses. The first pics are alder back with cottonwood burl top. I decided to finish the solid black walnut bass first. So pics are now walnut wings.

Mocked up to see how it looks. I’m liking the proportions!

Figuring out the headphone amp installation. The two mini jacks will be accessible on the top wing once I undercut a slot with my router. You may notice this is black walnut. I decided to make two basses. I’ll do the walnut first before I work on the burl

I have PDFs. I just pasted into CAD and modified there.

Thanks Mr The-Gut!

Yes Andy! I can’t mount the module vertically as it’s slightly too tall. The wires do bend ok so it fits no problem. But 24 gauge wire would have worked better!

I’m going to try a new preamp. Made by 3-Leaf audio. They do a Red and Blue version that are modern sounding and rock biased respectively. It has a quick release so you can swap the preamp module. Not cheap but hoping it sounds good with the Lollars. I’m going to have to install the headphone amp in the other end of the cavity.

I made the wings using alder, black veneer and cottonwood burl top. I have to rout the battery boxes. What you see here are cavities for the controls, and the headphone amp.

I always fancied a Mayones Cali 4 mini bass. Great build and great looks. And they sound good too. But thought I would make my own five string mini bass with a few differences. The Cali is 17" scale, same as 12 fret onwards on a 34". I am going for an 18.5" scale (equiv to a 37"). Like Mayones, I am using offcuts that are too small to make a full size bass.