25.5'' scale 4 string bass

[Bastav]

So im gonna go short scale on my next build which will be my second. Without further blablabla, here are some pics of whats been goin on so far.

Body wood. Black Limba


Neck wood. Wenge Maple. Probably gonna throw some veneers in there aswell


Fingerboard. Pau ferro


My workspace and my planers. Got started on the neck. And the view from my workspace also




Went to town on the body with my jigsaw, cut out the rough shape. For size reference I put a long scale bass next to it.




And thats it for now, off to study which is what I should have been doing today...

[BassBus]

[quote name='Bastav' timestamp='1448546205' post='2916323']

[/quote]

Is that what they call a barbecue summer?

I like the body shape. Look forward to seeing this come together.

[Norris]

Wild top horn! I'm liking it so far

[Bastav]

Glad you like it! Snows all melted away and the bass is coming along...

Thing ive done since last;
Glued up the neck with some veneers and a back block.
Sawed out some thin bits from the big limba chunk i had left to be used on headstock and back cavity cover.
Got started on body shaping... not entirely sure where it'll end up but im having fun

Neck





Body

[sblueplanet]

Interesting stuff going on here.

[Andyjr1515]

That is some VERY cool carving...

[Matteo Marziali]

Very strange body shape... I love it!

[PlungerModerno]

Bizarre! Odd! Awesome!

Thanks for sharing your progress, and your creative efforts. As has been mentioned already, nice carve on the upper horn. Have you decided on a headstock? I'd consider either a slotted gibson type:


Or an Ampeg bass headstock (kind of a mini upright style):


Or - go ahead and come up with your own version of what you like the most in headstocks/headless designs.

[paulnb57]

Subscribed!

[Bastav]

Thanks for the replys all! Appreciate the ideas regarding headstock but in the end I opted for a little more traditional-looking type. Ive only roughed out the shape for now as i still havent shaped the neck to width.



Ive bound the fretboard and body (sort of) with wenge strips. I also made an inlay block out of ovangkol for the 12th fret. Not glued in yet but the scary routing of the fretboard is out of the way (for now).




Also got started on the back carve


And lastly Im making a dowel out of ovangkol that, if it works out, will be used for dot inlays. What I did was drill a hole in a swedish krona and now im pushing the ovangkol through.


Happy holidays!

[Andyjr1515]

I love the carving on this and the overall shape. As for the dowel...ingenious!

[Bastav]

Thanks Andy!

[PlungerModerno]

Very nice!

[Bastav]

So progress has been slow lately, but I got a few hours in today, mainly spent them doing boring stuff like making sure stuff is flat... but also started making a wooden bridge (with standard fender type saddles). Here are som pics!





my drilling was less than perfect.. but it works I managed to align the saddles a little better after taking this pic




This is where its gonna sit...


but as you can see its still a bit chunky. Im gonna slim it down some more.






Hopefully inspiration will be plentyful as we move into brighter days. Thanks for looking!

[paulnb57]

This is looking very special indeed!

[Bastav]

Thanks Paul

[EmmettC]

I was hooked from the start, but that bridge has made it really outstanding.

[Twigman]

[quote name='Bastav' timestamp='1454857140' post='2973564']




[/quote]

My eyes are playing tricks on me - that looks like you've routed out the floor!!!

[Andyjr1515]

I like the look of that bridge, Bastav. I think this whole thing looks brilliant!

[Bastav]

Thanks all, ive not routed into the floor as of yet

[Bastav]

Did a bit of routing and glueing in the days past.

One wing


control cavity... im a very sloppy routerer, rarely taking my time to make a functioning jig/template.. hopefully i will learn with time.


... and a cavity cover...


... and heres the whole thing in front of a 34'' bass to show of its petiteness...


Thats all for now. Whats next? Neck carve?

[Bastav]

started some work on the back/neck. You can see I've lighly started shaping the neck, not quite sure where the veneer layers will end up yet but will probably sand them back quite a bit still... also in this picture, a rough routing in pursuit of a smooth body/neck transistion.


And here it is after the orbital sander... still some work left but I'll leave it like this for now.

[Dazed]

I love posts like this. Brilliant. Envious and inspired! Really looking forward to following this.

[Bastav]

[quote name='Dazed' timestamp='1456787568' post='2992367']
I love posts like this. Brilliant. Envious and inspired! Really looking forward to following this.
[/quote]

Thanks for that, glad you like it

[Bastav]

Some more progress. Fitted the control cavity cover, carved the body some more, carved the neck some more, made som wooden saddles for my bridge (if these will work I'm not sure but I figured I'd give it a shot).