Which P body?

[inthedoghouse]

I'm not sure if this is the right area to ask this, but here goes.

I'm thinking about another P project to go with a Mex neck. 

Is there any advantage in buying a MiM body (£249) over one from Northwest guitars (£165) apart from the price difference?  Both are alder and roughly the same weight and finish.

I suppose in the unlikely event that I wanted to sell it the Mex body with a Mex neck would be worth more, but that isn't really a consideration for me.

I've had a Strat body and neck from NWG and both were good quality, and their customer service is very good.

Any thoughts or experiences?

Edited June 18, 2020 by inthedoghouse
Typo

[Rexel Matador]

This falls firmly into the category of "thoughts" as opposed to "experiences", as I've not owned either, but for what it's worth, I would go with Northwest. I've had good experiences buying parts from them and I really can't imagine the wood selection, quality control, etc are £100 worth of better on the Fender.

Based solely on the pictures online, I do see a couple of differences. The fender bodies appear to have pre-drilled bridge screw holes, which would just be an inconvenience if you were using any kind of non-standard bridge. Also they have a big all-in-one pickup & control rout, while the Northwest body has two separate smaller cavities. It would all be hidden under a normal p-bass scratchplate anyway, but I thought it was worth noting. With the Northwest, you could even go scratchplate-free, although you would need some kind of control plate.

[inthedoghouse]

54 minutes ago, Rexel Matador said:

This falls firmly into the category of "thoughts" as opposed to "experiences", as I've not owned either, but for what it's worth, I would go with Northwest. I've had good experiences buying parts from them and I really can't imagine the wood selection, quality control, etc are £100 worth of better on the Fender.

Based solely on the pictures online, I do see a couple of differences. The fender bodies appear to have pre-drilled bridge screw holes, which would just be an inconvenience if you were using any kind of non-standard bridge. Also they have a big all-in-one pickup & control rout, while the Northwest body has two separate smaller cavities. It would all be hidden under a normal p-bass scratchplate anyway, but I thought it was worth noting. With the Northwest, you could even go scratchplate-free, although you would need some kind of control plate.

Thank, Rexel.  I'm having the same thoughts about if the Fender body is worth the extra £100 or so.  Like you, I've only had good experiences with NWG.  The Strat neck I got from them in 'vintage tint' had a very thickly coated sticky fingerboard, but that was easily rectified and it fitted their body perfectly - the body was excellent quality too.

I'd probably fit a standard bridge for no better reason than I have one spare.  Drilling the holes to mount it in the correct position on the NWG would take a lot of care on my part.  The two cavities don't concern me, I'd put a (shhhh) .. tort plate on.

I'm in rush so have plenty of time to think about it, but NWG is looking a good bet given my good experiences of their products and customer service.

[thebrig]

I've built two P basses with Northwest bodies and I have to say that you will not find a better body for the price.

Mine both cost £149.99 although they are now £169.99 but still well worth the money imo.

One is sunburst and the other is olympic white and the finish is superb on both, and what I like about the Northwest P bodies is that the pickup cavities have ears and the wiring holes are drilled through to the control cavity allowing you the choice of whether or not to have a pickguard, whereas, the MIM bodies are routed in a way that means a pickguard is essential.

I've used both Northwest and MIM bodies for my builds and both are very nice, but for the price and the fact that you can choose to not have a pickguard, it has to be Northwest for me.

Pic 1 is the Northwest

Pic 2 is the MIM

[inthedoghouse]

4 minutes ago, thebrig said:

I've built two P basses with Northwest bodies and I have to say that you will not find a better body for the price.

Mine both cost £149.99 although they are now £169.99 but still well worth the money imo.

One is sunburst and the other is olympic white and the finish is superb on both, and what I like about the Northwest P bodies is that the pickup cavities have ears and the wiring holes are drilled through to the control cavity allowing you the choice of whether or not to have a pickguard, whereas, the MIM bodies are routed in a way that means a pickguard is essential.

I've used both Northwest and MIM bodies for my builds and both are very nice, but for the price and the fact that you can choose to not have a pickguard, it has to be Northwest for me.

Pic 1 is the Northwest

Pic 2 is the MIM

 

Thank you. 

So that's two votes for NWG.  As you do when you've got a build on your mind, I've been thinking about this a lot and I can't really think of a good reason not to buy NWG either.  The Strat body I got from NWG was just as good as my Mex Strats.

I've got a guitar (not bass) on eBay at the moment so I'll see how much that brings in.  I'm trying to work on the principal of selling stuff to pay for a build so that it doesn't cost me much.

Thanks again 🙂

[thebrig]

2 minutes ago, inthedoghouse said:

Thank you. 

So that's two votes for NWG.  As you do when you've got a build on your mind, I've been thinking about this a lot and I can't really think of a good reason not to buy NWG either.  The Strat body I got from NWG was just as good as my Mex Strats.

I've got a guitar (not bass) on eBay at the moment so I'll see how much that brings in.  I'm trying to work on the principal of selling stuff to pay for a build so that it doesn't cost me much.

Thanks again 🙂

That's the approach that I take, sell one to pay for another new build, it keeps the missus happy too! 😉

Unfortunately, Northwest are out of stock at the moment but they usually get new stock in pretty quickly, give them a call, I always find them very helpful.

[JohnDaBass]

I have had first class success with a black alder P body from Northwest Guitars and  a mahogany P body from Guitar Build. The mahogany P body I finished myself with Tru-oil and achieved a very satisfying finish. Both great quality bodies.

[inthedoghouse]

10 minutes ago, JohnDaBass said:

I have had first class success with a black alder P body from Northwest Guitars and  a mahogany P body from Guitar Build. The mahogany P body I finished myself with Tru-oil and achieved a very satisfying finish. Both great quality bodies.

Thank you also - it's looking like a no context decision 🙂

[inthedoghouse]

30 minutes ago, JohnDaBass said:

I have had first class success with a black alder P body from Northwest Guitars and  a mahogany P body from Guitar Build. The mahogany P body I finished myself with Tru-oil and achieved a very satisfying finish. Both great quality bodies.

How did you get the bridge properly positioned to drill the mounting holes? 

I'd be using a standard BBOT.  I'm thinking I'd probably take a measurement from another P from the nut to the front of the bridge plate and put E & G strings on to get it aligned to the neck.  Is there a better way?

[JohnDaBass]

There are a huge number of expert builders on Basschat and I have learnt from their experiences. Do some reading & research on the Build thread  before second guessing any task you are not sure about, it will save you time, effort, money and "tears".

[inthedoghouse]

Thanks, I was just about to start looking it up as your post arrived.

[Rexel Matador]

8 hours ago, inthedoghouse said:

How did you get the bridge properly positioned to drill the mounting holes? 

I'd be using a standard BBOT.  I'm thinking I'd probably take a measurement from another P from the nut to the front of the bridge plate and put E & G strings on to get it aligned to the neck.  Is there a better way?

Measuring another P that you're happy with would probably be a safe enough way to do it.

Also the stewmac website says that the screw holes for a standard Fender style bridge should be one inch back from where the scale length ends.

I find that for correct intonation, you almost always need to move the saddles back (away from the nut) to make the strings longer than the scale length, so when placing a bridge, I put it so that the saddles are in line with the actual end of the scale length when they're in (or very nearly in) their forewardmost position, so you have plenty of scope to move them back - does that make sense?

But then you still have to get it centred. You can put a long ruler/straightedge against the side of the fretboard and mark a line that essentially extends the line of the neck all the way down the body. Do this for both sides of the fretboard - use masking tape if you don't want to mark the body - and then centre the bridge in between the two lines. then, instead of using actual strings, which you won't really be able to pull straight if the bridge isn't screwed down, use pieces of string in place of the outer strings to check that they run correctly along the fretboard. If you're using two pieces of string of the same thickness, remember that the one representing the low string should be a bit further from the edge of the board to account for the string being thicker.

[inthedoghouse]

20 minutes ago, Rexel Matador said:

Measuring another P that you're happy with would probably be a safe enough way to do it.

Also the stewmac website says that the screw holes for a standard Fender style bridge should be one inch back from where the scale length ends.

I find that for correct intonation, you almost always need to move the saddles back (away from the nut) to make the strings longer than the scale length, so when placing a bridge, I put it so that the saddles are in line with the actual end of the scale length when they're in (or very nearly in) their forewardmost position, so you have plenty of scope to move them back - does that make sense?

But then you still have to get it centred. You can put a long ruler/straightedge against the side of the fretboard and mark a line that essentially extends the line of the neck all the way down the body. Do this for both sides of the fretboard - use masking tape if you don't want to mark the body - and then centre the bridge in between the two lines. then, instead of using actual strings, which you won't really be able to pull straight if the bridge isn't screwed down, use pieces of string in place of the outer strings to check that they run correctly along the fretboard. If you're using two pieces of string of the same thickness, remember that the one representing the low string should be a bit further from the edge of the board to account for the string being thicker.

Thank you so much for all that valuable advice from experience 🙂 

I watched a couple of Youtube vids and read quite a few different pages today and it seems that the method you suggest is a tried and trusted way to go.  I had an 'imaginary run-through' with one of my other Ps and the masking tape method seems like it would work well.  Common advice for placing the bridge lenghtways seems to be to have the 34" mark at the centre of the bridge's adjustment.   However, I agree with you that I tend to only usually have to move the saddles backwards more than forwards.  What a great idea to use pieces of string to assess where the strings should lay on the fingerboard! 

I'm not the most confident DiY-er but I've had small triumphs (to me) such as when I replaced a BBOT with a Gotoh style bridge and installing a 'proper' tailpiece on my 335 after someone had fitted one from an Ibanez!!  I thought I was very brave to take a drill and filler to a 335 but it worked out perfectly.

I see NWG are out of stock of the sunburst P body.  I'm in no rush though and I need to see how much my eBay sale brings in - it should more than cover it though.

Thanks again for you help!

Dave

[Geek99]

I’ll see if I can measure my E and G saddle length and distance from nut to bridge screws tmrw 

[Rexel Matador]

28 minutes ago, inthedoghouse said:

Common advice for placing the bridge lenghtways seems to be to have the 34" mark at the centre of the bridge's adjustment.   However, I agree with you that I tend to only usually have to move the saddles backwards more than forwards.

It wouldn't hurt to leave a little room to go forwards, just in case. It seems to me that there are so many little factors affecting intonation that you can never predict where it'll end up. But as you say, it almost always requires you to move it backwards.

[inthedoghouse]

1 hour ago, Geek99 said:

I’ll see if I can measure my E and G saddle length and distance from nut to bridge screws tmrw 

Good idea - I'll do the same.  Thanks

[Cuzzie]

This is how to measure a bridge placement copy pasted from my ‘files’

Bridge placement 34”

 

for reference this is for a 34" scale 4-string bass:

 

* if you want to protect the finish from scratches/nicks, not is the time to cover it with something like blue painting tape or similar

 

* insert the neck into the neck pocket and clamp it into place. be careful not to squash your frets with the clamp and clamping fressure

 

* using a long straight edge, draw a line from the neck to the body butt for each side of the neck. accurately measure from the last fret position about 3" on each line. do this again for a reference measurement that is near the butt end of the body

 

* accurately connect each pair of measurements to their counterpart on the other line

 

* accurately measure the center point of each connecting line, and then draw a line thru these two points - extend the line from the end of the neck to the butt end of the body. if you were accurate in all of your steps so far, you now have an accurate reference of where the centerline of the neck passes thru the body. this is critical for your strings to be aligned on the neck properly

 

* measure from the nut back 34" to obtain your theoretical 34" scale reference. accurately draw a line perpendicular to the centerline thru this point. extend the line several inches on each side of centerline

 

* determine the forward most travel of your bridge's saddles, move it back 1/16", and measure the distance from the string witness point on the saddle to the front edge of the bridge. draw a line parallel to the scale reference line (towards the neck side of the line) this same distance. you now have the front edge aligned for the bridge.

 

* measure the width of the bridge and draw a pair of lines parallel to the centerline that each are half the bridge with away. now you have your bridge aligned side-side

 

I know this seems like a lot of work, but it's really not that difficult. it's critical to measure and draw accurately, as any slop will easily be seen every time you look at the bass.

 

it's also important to note that the strings will always intonate longer than the 34" scale, not less, and thicker strings will intonate farther than thinner strings. because of this, only the G string will be relatively close to 34" ... the others may be as much as 34-3/8" from nut to witness point

 

all the best,

[inthedoghouse]

4 hours ago, Cuzzie said:

This is how to measure a bridge placement copy pasted from my ‘files’

Bridge placement 34”

Wow!  Thank you so much for all that - very much appreciated indeed!  It's great that you kept such a detailed record of your work.  I had to read one or two parts a couple of times but now it all makes sense.  I'll have a 'virtual' run through on one of my Precisions in the next day or two.  This project won't be happening immediately but I'm certainly going to save a copy of your notes.

Again, thank you so much!

Dave

[Cuzzie]

it’s really important as different bridges have different sized bass plates.
 

You end up with something like this....

[inthedoghouse]

3 hours ago, Cuzzie said:

it’s really important as different bridges have different sized bass plates.
 

You end up with something like this....

Thank you again! - that really is most helpful 🙂

How did that bass turn out?  I always loved that '51 style but never had one.

[Cuzzie]

37 minutes ago, inthedoghouse said:

Thank you again! - that really is most helpful 🙂

How did that bass turn out?  I always loved that '51 style but never had one.

Started as a slab of ash, carved and routed it, Did my own pick guard from a normal P one- currently like This

First 2 are a staining grain filler, sealed, 

Going to start turning it Candy Tangerine tonight, and allow a gentle relic maybe and more seasoned wood to show.

Here is it naked

[inthedoghouse]

31 minutes ago, Cuzzie said:

Started as a slab of ash, carved and routed it, Did my own pick guard from a normal P one- currently like This

First 2 are a staining grain filler, sealed, 

Going to start turning it Candy Tangerine tonight, and allow a gentle relic maybe and more seasoned wood to show.

Here is it naked

Thanks for the pics - that's going to be a beauty!  It must be good to have those woodworking skills.  Perhaps you'll share pics on BC when she's finished 🙂

 

[Cuzzie]

24 minutes ago, inthedoghouse said:

Thanks for the pics - that's going to be a beauty!  It must be good to have those woodworking skills.  Perhaps you'll share pics on BC when she's finished 🙂

 

Will do

I am not a master craftsman, more a happy hacker!

[inthedoghouse]

28 minutes ago, Cuzzie said:

Will do

I am not a master craftsman, more a happy hacker!

Happy hacker or craftsman, that's going to be a real reward for all your work 🙂

[Cuzzie]

Thanks - I hope it works!