Marcus Miller 5 string Jazz

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Way back I purchased two pieces of swamp ash to save on shipping just one from USA to AUS.
The first was for a P bass build.

I thought for this piece I'd build a jazz bass.
I used to have a natural finish MIJ marcus miller 4 string that I quite enjoyed but had to sell to make ends meet.

This bass will be a 5 string along those lines.
I did start this build at the very end of 2019 but had to shelve it due to the world ending. I have since finished the P bass (I might do a build thread for that too) and have gotten back to this one recently.

Specs that i have nailed down:
BODY - swamp ash
NECK - Maple 22 fret
SCALE - 35
HARDWARE - Chrome
BRIDGE - Babicz
PICKUPS - Bartolini singularity P2
PREAMP - East Marcus Miller
TUNERS - Hipshot USA ultralight

Here's some pics from waaay back when I started

 

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I started the neck a couple of weeks ago. 4 piece maple with a nice flame.
Probably should have gone 3 pieces and glued an off cut on for the extra bit of headstock

That's the P bass I recently finished using the other blank of swamp ash.
I used it to trace the headstock and then altered it to make it work with the tuning machine locations

Got the truss rod channel routed out before calling it a day

 

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Here's a bit more i got done over the weekend

Routed the channels for carbon fibre reinforcement and cut out the basic shape

Sanded the rough edges off the headstock

Got the neck to fit the neck pocket (had a little help with this)

Glued in the carbon fibre rods. Had to leave it there for the epoxy to dry.

Back at it this weekend coming...

 

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Did a little more on Friday, I had the day off work.

Routed out some pickup cavities. Unfortunately I left the east preamp at home otherwise I would have routed for that too.

Filed a truss rod access slot

Cut a piece of flame maple for the fretboard.
One of the guys who frequents the workshop has a CNC machine and does a bit of work for the rest of us. I'll be asking him to sort out some cream blocks and binding for me.

 

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Got to the workshop a little late yesterday but got a few hours of work done

I bought the East Marcus Miller Pre new for this build a while back and of course one came up used for a good price straight after
I bought that too - I might make a 4 string version down the track.
The controls are:
POTS - Vol/Blend, Mid level/Mid Freq, Bass/Treb with push/pull treble bright switch,
Passive tone with push/pull active passive switch.
SWITCH - passive mode pickup selector (both pickups/bridge only)

I'll be wiring the pickups backwards so I can select between both or neck only I passive mode.

A lot of sticky tape goes into making a bass

All those pots in the control plate means the jack will be in the side of the body.

even more tape. Here its protecting the body from the drill chuck while make holes to connect wiring from here, there, and everywhere.

I didn't get pics of the battery box route in the back.
Also I forgot to route space for the pickup selector switch. That will end up in front of the pots in the pickguard

 

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Here's a shot of the battery cavity I cut last week

This week I routed a spot for the battery cover

I wanted to use a neck plate for the aesthetic, however the carbon rods in the neck lined up with the holes in a standard plate so I went with plan B

This way will show off more grain i guess

Last job for the day was persuading a thin strip to fit into the truss rod route and glue it in.
I managed to forget again to route space for the preamp switch.

 

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Its been a minute.
I had to move house.

Got back into the workshop today

spent way too long hand sanding the body down with 180.
had done the front and back last time with an orbital.

Next up I used that red bristled little guy (pictured above) in the impact driver/drill to tear out the grain.
The lighting at the workshop is to enable good vision of what you're working on, so finding shadows for this pic was difficult.
the contrast in grain height was a more noticeable in person. The valleys appeared a lot deeper.

Then a couple of clear coats. The colour contrast really becomes noticeable here. Unfortunately so do all the imperfections.

I realised here that I should have sanded a little before tearing the grain and been meticulous afterwards.
There are brush marks from tearing out the grain.
I could have sanded the clear coat off and gone for it but I'd just spend about 1.5 - 2 hours sanding so wasn't in the mood to do it all over again.

This bass will now be having a matte finish.
this isn't so bad. Im not sure the grain contours, my skill/patience level and a high gloss are compatible.

While waiting for coats to dry I machined down the truss rod shim to close to level then finished it by hand with scraper and block sander.

Finished the day off with two coats of "Japanese brown". Here the valleys in the grain that was torn out really becomes noticeable.

The intention from here is to lightly sand back so the brown remains in the grain valleys only but leaving bare timber on the high sections. Then spraying a yellow tint, think the middle of a 3 tier sunburst. The brown should show through the tint and contrast well against yellow.
I'm leaning towards leaving it there but there is a part of me contemplating not sanding the sides and having a tobacco burst.