After a few weeks of germination, I finally pulled the trigger on the neck & body for my first bass build today after selling ~3/4 of their cost in old pickups & pedals this week.
I landed on a 32" scale Warhead neck in maple/maple w/ black block inlays & SS6230 frets (it'll get a bone nut from my luthier friend) paired up w/ a 3lb. 14 oz. roasted alder short scale P-Bass body w/ a 7/8" side jack rout for an Electrosocket & a '70s repositioned Jazz pickup rout, both unfinished from the Warmoth showcase:
Here's what I managed to get setup to start working on a mockup so far, not sure if the relative scaling is exactly right on the neck yet or not & I have no idea on the absolute measurement of either at this point so it'll be of limited use to me until I have the bits in hand to confirm, but it helps to get the ideas going any way
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I'm thinking I'll go for semi-80s G&L-esque shape on the headstock & am planning to mockup a bit of a mod for the beveled .09" thick white gloss one ply guard I ordered that cuts off the lower horn carrying the curve of the control section to the high side of the neck pocket.
I'll also likely come up w/ a decal design for the headstock as blank ones usually look unfinished for me & it's usually one of the more fun parts of the build process for me
The plan at the moment is to finish the body w/ the color matched from my car (Rising Blue Metallic) over a grey primer, maybe try some of the Duplicolor Clear Effex to make it a bit more interesting in the light, & clear gloss nitro lacquer for the finish. Here's a couple of shots of the color on my car & someone else's under less direct lighting w/ a darker reflection:
The car has a much lighter primer than I'm thinking I'll use on the bass at this point, but we'll see how it works out when I get the stuff in & do some sample runs on some cherry veneer swatches.
The neck I'm planning to sand to 600 grit & go pretty thin (somewhere around 6-8 coats) w/ StewMac satin lacquer maybe mixing a couple passes of extremely light dusting w/ their aged clear if it's looking too stark white to me after the first couple coats of clear, then rub to a frictionless smooth feel w/ a white 3M pad. This produced one of the best feeling nitro finished necks I've got for me on the last guitar build I finished.
My luthier friend is going to order up the hardware for me direct from Hipshot on Monday: a B style FM2 model bridge in brass, a set of the 1/2" Ultralites w/ lollipop keys, & one of their string retainers (all chrome plated):
For the electronics I'm planning on the Geezer P/J set from EMG unless anyone has some good recommendations for a better set for old school sounding, healthy but not crazy output P/Js.
Thanks for taking a look!
I landed on a 32" scale Warhead neck in maple/maple w/ black block inlays & SS6230 frets (it'll get a bone nut from my luthier friend) paired up w/ a 3lb. 14 oz. roasted alder short scale P-Bass body w/ a 7/8" side jack rout for an Electrosocket & a '70s repositioned Jazz pickup rout, both unfinished from the Warmoth showcase:
Here's what I managed to get setup to start working on a mockup so far, not sure if the relative scaling is exactly right on the neck yet or not & I have no idea on the absolute measurement of either at this point so it'll be of limited use to me until I have the bits in hand to confirm, but it helps to get the ideas going any way
:I'm thinking I'll go for semi-80s G&L-esque shape on the headstock & am planning to mockup a bit of a mod for the beveled .09" thick white gloss one ply guard I ordered that cuts off the lower horn carrying the curve of the control section to the high side of the neck pocket.
I'll also likely come up w/ a decal design for the headstock as blank ones usually look unfinished for me & it's usually one of the more fun parts of the build process for me
The plan at the moment is to finish the body w/ the color matched from my car (Rising Blue Metallic) over a grey primer, maybe try some of the Duplicolor Clear Effex to make it a bit more interesting in the light, & clear gloss nitro lacquer for the finish. Here's a couple of shots of the color on my car & someone else's under less direct lighting w/ a darker reflection:
The car has a much lighter primer than I'm thinking I'll use on the bass at this point, but we'll see how it works out when I get the stuff in & do some sample runs on some cherry veneer swatches.
The neck I'm planning to sand to 600 grit & go pretty thin (somewhere around 6-8 coats) w/ StewMac satin lacquer maybe mixing a couple passes of extremely light dusting w/ their aged clear if it's looking too stark white to me after the first couple coats of clear, then rub to a frictionless smooth feel w/ a white 3M pad. This produced one of the best feeling nitro finished necks I've got for me on the last guitar build I finished.
My luthier friend is going to order up the hardware for me direct from Hipshot on Monday: a B style FM2 model bridge in brass, a set of the 1/2" Ultralites w/ lollipop keys, & one of their string retainers (all chrome plated):
For the electronics I'm planning on the Geezer P/J set from EMG unless anyone has some good recommendations for a better set for old school sounding, healthy but not crazy output P/Js.
Thanks for taking a look!
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It was slated for delivery yesterday but transitioned back to In Transit today & detail has had it sitting in Hodgkins, IL since Saturday w/ no other update... Guess I'll need to get in touch w/ Warmoth if there's no movement on it today.
