Dolando

Hi stu, Thanks for the reply. What thickness is your oak? If rolled flat, would it be strong enough for a control cover. If so, i would be Interested in getting a bit from you. Thanks, Adam

Well I rang up the people you gave the lik for, and he was really helpful. He seemed to think zebrano should be ok, but I'd have to buy a lot (well more than i need) to be eligible for postage, I only need a a square of it. So if anone knows where I could order smaller amounts wood be great. If not, he did say it might be worth getting a 3mm plywood, and venering that on both sides....I cold cheat and glue veneer to the plastic, but would like it to be made of wood, but i don't like to cheat. Any thoughts?

Thanks, I did think there must be a reason why I can't find it. I wasn't sure where the veneer measurement cutoff would be. I'll check that out. Thanks again.

Hi, Hopefully someone can point me in the right direction. I'm building this; http://basschat.co.uk/topic/189801-warmoth-jazz-5-swamp-ashzebra-wood-top-new-pics/page__fromsearch__1 I'm wanting to make a control cover out of wood, and I've been told that gluing a thin zebra wood veneer to some maple is the best way to go, but I can't find anywhere that sells what I'm after. I'd need a piece around 150mm x 230mm that would be about 3-4mm thick. So, does anyone know of anywhere in the UK I could get some from, or if someone has an offcut I'd be happy to send money to pay for the wood plus postage. Thanks in advance, Adam

So far I have drilled the holes for the controls(will post pics soon). Not much else to report, holes for neck bushing are getting done by someone with a pillar drill. I tried and it didn't go so well, so he's re drilling them a little bigger. I'm thinking about making a control cavity out of zebra wood. It would be a out 3mm thick, would zebra wood be stable enough at this thickness? Thanks.

Thanks! I've had plenty of people say that, so I'm confident it will be ok.

Thanks Myke. I've not completely ditched it, I keep going back and forth to be honest. I might z-poxy it and see what it's like, an maybe do a test piece and compare the two.

Sorry this has been a slow build. I've been waiting on some parts from Best Bass Gear that had to be custom ordered from hipshot and Nordstrand. Here is a sneaky peak at the body with the parts on. I think I'm going to just put on z-epoxy to enhance the grain and slightly tint it, and then spray clear lacquer over and buff to a gloss....decisions decisions....

Thanks. So to burst or not to burst...?

Looks great. I still want a flame maple jazz bass, but id leave it natural. Should finish my warmoth swamp ash/zebra wood jazz V build first though. Got a build diary if you fancy a look.

I have all the parts to get building this now. Custom nordstrand pickup came along with the hipshot bridge and string retainers. Still need to order the z epoxy. Thinking I might go with a natural finish, not sure I can cover any of that grain with a brown burst. I was looking at doing something similar to guitars attached...what do you think?

Thanks Andy, it think I've got my head round it all. I see what you mean by difficult to explain in words. Thanks for posting that, appreciate it.

That's looking great! I would like a bubinga bass at some point, ill be keeping a close eye on this.

Thanks so much for all the info guys. Much appreciated. I have literally no idea where to start, so will give that PDF a read to build up a a bit of knowledge before I start on some wood. And I will definitely be doing plenty of practice pieces. I won't be starting anything just yet, as I'm moving house soon, just doing a bit of digging. This may be a silly question, but what do you make the templates out of? Surely if its wood, there is risk of cutting the template and ended up with the wrong shape, or is it just the case of being careful not to? Thanks,

Great, will look into those parts/makes. Its only been used a couple of times, if that, so should be practically new. Don't think its half inch though, it says 6.3 and 8mm. Is that an Issue? It's one of these; http://www.diy.com/nav/fix/power-tools/grinding-routing/Performance-Power-Router-1020W-12389422?skuId=12910126 Thanks, Adam

Hi, I have built a few basses and guitars from parts and would like to try build a body from scratch for a stock neck, would like to build a neck as well, but I'd better walk before I run. My dad has a performance power router, that he said I can have, but it is a cheap one. Is it worth getting a good one or will this get me started? Also, any recommendations on essential bits I will need for pickup routing etc? Thanks for the help and guidance.

[quote name='yorks5stringer' timestamp='1356819780' post='1914085'] Don't know if it will work but in the £1 Shops you can get a set of 3 marker pens for covering scratches in wood. They are 3 different colours and you can build up the colour, letting each coat dry first. [/quote] They might be a bit better than a marker. Will check them out. Thanks.

I have contacted nordstrand and best bass gear and they don't see there would be a problem with having the same pickup but in the 4 string neck size. I really like the body, so I'm going with that option, it will just have a slightly smaller jazz pickup, might actually look a bit tidier. So I'm happy again.

The nickel round wound roto sounds made a huge difference. Really happy with it now. Messing around with the pickup height also changes th tone, so worth playing around with that too.

I'm a little annoyed, I just checked the neck pickup route and it looks like they have routed for a standard 4 neck pickup size where I asked for a standard 4 bridge pickup size for a 5 string which is the size of the nordstrand NJ5S, which i have custom pickup ordered. I have emailed warmoth, but don't think I'll here anything till after Christmas. Basically the length of the route should be 95mm long, the one routed measures at 93mm and just won't fit a bridge size pickup cover. The Neck cover i have fits perfectly. I'm pretty gutted! Someone tell me if I have odd size jazz covers.