HazBeen Posted June 20, 2020 Posted June 20, 2020 (edited) So my son Harvey came up to me last week and said: “Dad, I’d like to play bass just like you”. At almost 8 clearly he can’t use my basses, but then I remembered I still have a 30” Hofner neck in storage, and almost all the wood and hardware required. Tuners are the only thing I would need. Thanks to @Shaggy I now also have these sorted, so once I have finished the fretless I will be doing a shortscale for Harvey. It must be red, but for the rest I can do what I please the Guv’ tells me. Okay son! If it turns out he isn’t picking up the instrument, then I have a travel bass I’ll remodel the headstock and stick on some bookmatched facings, do a body in ash, and for the rest I am thinking single pickup in a P-ish location. Watch this space. Edited August 19, 2020 by HazBeen 2 Quote
Matt P Posted June 20, 2020 Posted June 20, 2020 (edited) subscribed, i have a 30" bass with a p-pickup and it sounds excellent, i can take some measurements for the position if you want. I'm not happy with that last sentence as i know you have lots of experience of bass building so let me re-word this, i have been doing some measuring and calculating for a design that i want to build and in the process i have found an excel file that had some measurements for pickup positions, i did some measuring of my own instruments and some scaling of the classic instruments into a 30" scale and found that the pickup on my little short scale Aria was nearly 20mm closer to the bridge than the numbers would suggest, it sounds really good this way. the numbers suggest the centreline of a p-pickup should be 641mm from the nut but this Aria is at 673mm, it has a great tone and cuts through really well. Matt Edited June 20, 2020 by Matt P re-wording 1 Quote
HazBeen Posted June 20, 2020 Author Posted June 20, 2020 5 hours ago, Matt P said: subscribed, i have a 30" bass with a p-pickup and it sounds excellent, i can take some measurements for the position if you want. I'm not happy with that last sentence as i know you have lots of experience of bass building so let me re-word this, i have been doing some measuring and calculating for a design that i want to build and in the process i have found an excel file that had some measurements for pickup positions, i did some measuring of my own instruments and some scaling of the classic instruments into a 30" scale and found that the pickup on my little short scale Aria was nearly 20mm closer to the bridge than the numbers would suggest, it sounds really good this way. the numbers suggest the centreline of a p-pickup should be 641mm from the nut but this Aria is at 673mm, it has a great tone and cuts through really well. Matt I will most likely use a soapbar pickup at around 650. At least that is what my 1st mockup looks like 1 Quote
Matt P Posted June 22, 2020 Posted June 22, 2020 I'm looking forward to seeing this come together, i've been following your status necked build and i can't wait to see what you do with the shorter scale neck. Matt 1 Quote
HazBeen Posted June 30, 2020 Author Posted June 30, 2020 Took some time away following my last build, but now started on this bass. Only got as far as designing the body, keeping it nice and small, but it should be balanced due to the upper horn. Not making a routing template for this one, so just traced directly into a block of rather heavy ash (may need cavities). Then decided to saw, but my bandsaw clearly needs a new blade as it was more crooked than Eastender’s Dirty Den (oops, showing my age here aren’t I). 2 Quote
Jabba_the_gut Posted June 30, 2020 Posted June 30, 2020 Beautiful grain on that ash - should lovely when it's done. 1 Quote
HazBeen Posted June 30, 2020 Author Posted June 30, 2020 35 minutes ago, Jabba_the_gut said: Beautiful grain on that ash - should lovely when it's done. I am staining it red as well, so should pop Quote
HazBeen Posted June 30, 2020 Author Posted June 30, 2020 Hmmmm, I am not at all sure about this..... body seems a little skinny. But then again that is what I think of Fender Mustangs too. It clearly needs a proper P pickup, that much is clear. 1 Quote
Si600 Posted June 30, 2020 Posted June 30, 2020 8 minutes ago, HazBeen said: And the headstock needs a rethink. It does seem a trifle big. And very square 😉 1 Quote
HazBeen Posted June 30, 2020 Author Posted June 30, 2020 Better like this.... amazing what a little mm here and there do.... happy now Quote
HazBeen Posted July 2, 2020 Author Posted July 2, 2020 This Ash is remarkably dense, I cannot remember ever having a piece this dense. My band saw was really struggling, but we got there in the end. Nice grain though..... Rough body shape done. And a pic of a cross cut of the Ash. Lovely... 😂 Lots more to do... 1 Quote
HazBeen Posted July 2, 2020 Author Posted July 2, 2020 Would Zebrano look good as a headstock veneer? Red stain, oil finish body with a Zebrano headstock.... could be different. 1 Quote
Andyjr1515 Posted July 2, 2020 Posted July 2, 2020 3 hours ago, HazBeen said: Would Zebrano look good as a headstock veneer? Red stain, oil finish body with a Zebrano headstock.... could be different. Sounds good to me Quote
SpondonBassed Posted July 3, 2020 Posted July 3, 2020 The Zebrano would be a nice touch. It emphasizes grain in the smaller area of the headstock where Ash might not reveal much grain. What does your son think? Quote
HazBeen Posted July 3, 2020 Author Posted July 3, 2020 1 hour ago, SpondonBassed said: The Zebrano would be a nice touch. It emphasizes grain in the smaller area of the headstock where Ash might not reveal much grain. What does your son think? My son? Lego or Minecraft 😂 But seriously....., he is just really happy Dad is building him a bass that is red. Having slept on it, I am going to go with the Zebrano front and back headstock and do a front route for the control knobs and jack and do a Zebrano cavity cover (as small as possible) to hold them. As long as I keep the red “translucent” I think that’ll look nice. 1 Quote
HazBeen Posted July 3, 2020 Author Posted July 3, 2020 Just did little bits today: - sanded and remodeled the headstock - stuck a bunch of dowels and toothpick into existing holes - cut several pieces of Zebrano to size so I can bookmatch them next time - finalised the body shape (shortened upper and lower horn a bit) ready for sanding/routing/contouring - procured a cheap and cheerful P pickup Not much worth snapping, but here are a few pics. 3 Quote
HazBeen Posted July 9, 2020 Author Posted July 9, 2020 So finally had some time tonight. - Sanded the body ready for routing - Created some bookmatched bits (needs to be thicknessed) - Cut a recess for the back veneer - Then fully sanded the neck/headstock 2 Quote
HazBeen Posted July 16, 2020 Author Posted July 16, 2020 As a matter of brief update. Been too busy preparing for a few gigs, should be posting more progress pics in August. Quote
HazBeen Posted July 17, 2020 Author Posted July 17, 2020 Okay, so had some time unexpectedly! Body rounded, tummy cut and arm contour sorted! 6 Quote
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