First Bass Build - The Music Moth

Booty Shaman

Booty Shaman

Nov 1, 2016
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Northern California
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#1
Okay - I am expecting everyone to get a good laugh out of my design but I like it! I decided to do something totally wacky for my first bass build - a flying v style bass / music man hybrid. I fell in love with the Ibanez rocket roll bass when I saw it and my bass design is based (pun intended) on a rocket roll or Greco style flying V. I really love the tailpiece on the Rocket Roll so am going to fabricate a facsimile for my bass. Since I have absolutely no idea what I am doing with regard to instrument design (although I do possess woodworking skills), I am asking for constructive criticism and for those with experience to point out what I may have overlooked. I know that ergonomics are an issue with this shape. Here are the specs:

Spalted Maple Top
Alder Back (stained black) - Semi Hollow
Rock Maple thru neck w/ Ebony or Rock Maple fingerboard
Gold Evo frets
Hipshot Type D bridge
Bartolini Music Man dual coil pickup
Bartolini NBTB-918 Pre-Amp
Hipshot ultralight machines w/ clover leaf tuners

I will post progress photos once I source my wood. Okay - have at it!
 

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  • Bass Build - Music Moth.pdf
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#2
Weird. Kewl. :cool: I'm seeing a retro-futuristic pastel George Jetson finish job, maybe? :D I think there's a spot reserved for it in the weird basses thread already! :thumbsup:
 
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#3
bholder said:
Weird. Kewl. :cool: I'm seeing a retro-futuristic pastel George Jetson finish job, maybe? :D I think there's a spot reserved for it in the weird basses thread already! :thumbsup:
Click to expand...
I'm going for a mid century modern look so I am going to keep the wood tone - probably going to use a hand rubbed oil finish like Rubio Monocoat or Spar Vanish/Turpentine/boiled linseed oil.
 
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#7
I sent the design to my brother, who is bass player and his comment was that it was phallic (the pdf was oriented vertically). He said you have to get rid of the male part and turn it into a female part (not his exact words) - he said no men would ever want to play that bass. I was going for the anatomy of a moth, not a human. Oh well. He also suggested adding another pick up. So here is a revised female version - should it be a "p" bass or a "v" bass?
 

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  • Bass Build #2.pdf
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#8
While looking in my shop for wood to build the 'Music Moth', I came across a stash of California Bay Laurel that I have been saving for about 20 years for a furniture project - just the perfect amount to build a bass - but not the Music Moth. So I have decided to build 2 basses concurrently so that i can use this beautiful wood on one (I will post pics of the wood tomorrow - no fancy grain pattern - but a beautiful fine grained chocolate brown). Bay Laurel is quite beautiful with a hand rubbed oil finish. This particular wood was salvaged from a river bottom and is a deep brown tone, not green or blond tones. Bass #2 will be called "Princess Fela". She was inspired by Jans Ritter's Princess Isabella guitar. I have been following Mapleglo's devil bass thread and am intrigued by the Delano pickup she is using and decided to use it on mine too. I am not happy with the headstock yet. I think I have gone through 10-12 different designs and am still not satisfied. Many refinements need to be made and electronics worked out. She is named after my cat, Fela Kitty, who has black fur with beautiful chocolate brown highlights- and in honor of cool cats everywhere. I will have to purchase wood for the Music Moth.
 

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  • Princess Fela Bass.pdf
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#9
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View attachment 1077039 View attachment 1077039 Attached are photos of the California Bay wood I will be using for the Fela bass.
 
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#12
Well, I went to Berkeley today and got the alder wood for the body and the rock maple for the neck for the Music Moth bass. Also stopped by Haida tools and picked up a new rasp, fret saw and a few other tools so I am ready to roll. Tomorrow I plan to cut out full size templates of both basses from
some scrap 1/4" plywood I have laying around. I want to check out how they balance and fine tune the dimensions. Both bass bodies are quite large so it will be a challenge to make them as light as possible. I happened to stop into Subway guitars while I was over there and got some really good pointers from Fat Dog so am really excited to be starting these builds tomorrow. Will post photos when I have something to show.
 
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#13
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Today I cut the two bass shapes out of 1/4" plywood. I still have to finish shape and smooth the edges. I was worried that both basses would feel too big but I decided I like their proportions. The Fela Kitty bass headstock needs refining. I'm not quite happy with it. But in honor of the bass' namesake, Fela, I am going to shape the headstock with cat ears and inlay it with cat eyes (from a taxidermist supply) and maybe carve or burn a little nose just above the tuners. The shape of the Fela bass is borrowed from the shape of an electric guitar by the european luthier, Ulrich Teuffel, who in turn borrowed the shape from the famous Spanish luthier, Antonio Torres. I had another shape for this bass originally but decided to go with this more classic shape. The cool thing I liked about Teuffel's guitar is that he referenced the classic hole in an acoustic guitar with a round pick up cover carved out of rosewood. I am going to do a similar round pick up cover but I am thinking of doing something more unusual - like copper enamel or maybe gold leafed. Seems like that material should be okay since there are so many brass pickup covers out there. Here are a few pics of the rough cut templates modeled by my better half (in his favorite tattered work sweater - he is not a bass player btw).IMG_1989.JPGIMG_1986.JPG
 
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#14
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I had a good day in the shop today. I had a really nice piece of quarter sawn rock maple (3-21/2" x 3-1/2" net) that I want to use for the neck of the Moth. Unfortunately, it was 8" too short for the through neck design. I decided to re-saw it and make a lap joint in the body section of the bass. I planned it so that the joint on the top will be under the delano oval pickup I plan to use (thank you Mapleglo for bringing my attention to those).
 
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#15
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I also worked on the neck of the Fela Kitty bass. For this bass, I am using some very well seasoned California Myrtle wood that I've had for twenty years and it just so happens to be just enough to make a bass out of. I have odd pieces so I am kind of piecing it together. I figured since this is my first bass build, I want to keep the costs down in case it doesn't come out so good. It is really beautiful wood but who knows what a bass neck made out of Myrtle will be like.
 
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#18
Booty Shaman said:
View attachment 1094842 View attachment 1094843 I had a good day in the shop today. I had a really nice piece of quarter sawn rock maple (3-21/2" x 3-1/2" net) that I want to use for the neck of the Moth. Unfortunately, it was 8" too short for the through neck design. I decided to re-saw it and make a lap joint in the body section of the bass. I planned it so that the joint on the top will be under the delano oval pickup I plan to use (thank you Mapleglo for bringing my attention to those).
Click to expand...

I think you'll be happy with the Delano pickup. It has a really thick, fat sound, that's quite versatile. I have the two coils wired in series. If I had more room on the control panel, I would have had a switch to go to parallel and single coil as well, for even more options.
 
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#19
I spent a few hours in the shop today. I glued the quilted maple tops to the alder blanks. I also inlayed a piece of dark myrtle wood to hide an ugly glue joint on the bottom of the neck. I got a couple of electric guitar/bass building books by Leonardo Lospennato and am using them to guide my progress (as well as what I learn here on TB and Youtube). Both of my designs are neck through and Lospennato recommends that once you have the neck wood squared up, cutting the side profile of the neck (lateral profile) and joining the top face of the neck and then routing the channel for the truss rod. This doesn't make sense to me. It would seem that routing the truss rod should be done while the wood is all squared up so that it is the most stable - then cutting the the side profile and the final shape. I need to ponder the order of doing things for a while so I don't make a cut I'll regret. So I am going to slow down and finish designing the bass - figuring out the cavity shapes and all the wiring holes to be drilled and also where to drill some holes from the sides of the wings to lighten it up and give a semi-hollowness to it. Next, plan on making some jigs for the next phases. I'm chicken to cut anymore out right now. I made the mistake of cutting the fretboard to size and cutting a soft arc on the end - before radiusing the fretboard. I now realize it would have been much easier to draw the radius on the ends if they were flat. I would only have to cut 1/4" off to straighten it again but not sure I want to loose that much of it. Not looking forward to the radiusing task. I purchased a radius sanding block that will arrive soon and also have a good belt sander for the task but it works FAST! so it seems dicey.

I am unhappy with the bay wood neck. I didn't want to have a striped laminate look but still had to laminate three pieces of bay together and when squared up, they are not quite wide enough. and I don't have any more of that length. So I am considering resawing it and buying some walnut or other dark wood to insert into the inner laminations. Or, I could use the bay wood if I orient it the other way - so that the laminations are horizontally oriented. I know this is probably a no no - highly unorthodox - but the wood is quarter sawn and very dry and stable. I was thinking that I should maybe add carbon fiber rods in the neck to counter any structural issues with the wood. This would actually create a nicer looking top. So much to ponder...
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