NBD - Frost Custom Basses PJ5

[TRBboy]

Hey folks! A dream of mine for many years has been to build my own bass, from scratch. I was formally a carpenter, and I've done repairs, services, setups and mods on guitars and basses for many years. However, making the neck from scratch always scared me too much!

 

My long time friend and guitarist/singer in my band started building guitars a few years ago, and has made quite a few now, with great results! I asked if he would help me build a bass, and at the start of this year we began.

 

Finally, in early December we finished it, and I have already gigged it! I'm so happy with how the neck turned out, and it sounds incredible. I still have a few minor setup tweaks to resolve, and I did mess the paint job up not once but twice, so a respray might be on the cards in the spring.

I had it in my head that I wanted to use native British woods, so the body is solid Poplar, and the neck and fretboard are Sycamore. It's nice and lightweight!

 

I based the shape roughly on my old Yamaha BBN5, as it's just a good, generic, comfortable shape, but nut width, fretboard radius and string spacing are based on my Sandberg California TT5 passive.

 

I struggled to find Alnico V PJ5 pickups at the right spacing, and was recommended Catswhisker pickups. Allan did a fantastic job, and they sound amazing!

I'm really pleased with it, and I really look forward to playing it more next year! I'll try to take some better photos when I can.

 

I did mess up the paint job not once, but twice, so a respray is probably on the cards in the spring! 😅

 

Specs:

Solid Poplar body
Sycamore neck and fretboard
Black dot inlays
Dual action truss rod with carbon fibre reinforcing bars
Gotoh hardware
Graphtech nut
Custom Catswhisker Alnico V PJ5 pickups
VBT 'no load' passive controls
Lychee pink Matt finish

Edited January 1, 2024 by TRBboy

[Old Horse Murphy]

That's lovely, especially for a first attempt. Well done.
 

I have a lot of respect for people who can craft things like this as I possess no skills whatsoever to even begin to start something of this nature, let alone finish it. 
 

Loving the colour too. 

[TheGreek]

21 minutes ago, TRBboy said:

the body is solid Poplar, and the neck and fretboard are Sycamore. It's nice and light

 

My Psilos are made of similar timbers. As you say, nice and light. 

Yamaha shapes are very ergonomic and usable.

[cocco]

This looks amazing! I'd really like to do something like this. 

[Thump]

Oh that is nice!

 

If this is something you will continue to do , i would be interested for the future

[TRBboy]

22 minutes ago, Thump said:

Oh that is nice!

 

If this is something you will continue to do , i would be interested for the future

Thank you, I'm flattered! If I had the time and facilities to be able to make basses for people I'd love to, but really can't see it happening in the near future. 😔