So it’s winter here in Chiberia, and while that usually translates to a slow down in gigs for me, I also had my hip replaced the day after New Years.
Probably the closest I’ll ever get to saying “new year, new me” and actually meaning it
To keep my mind occupied before the surgery and keep myself motivated to keep doing the required physical therapy after, my incredible wife had the foresight to give me a project for Christmas.
She acquired this carved soft maple precision bass body made by B. Woodruff Artworks (Whom I believe are based somewhere in NY).
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They have a Facebook page and seem to be really motivated by the many interesting guitars made famous by Jerry Garcia.
Personally, I always loved Lemmy’s signature carved Rickenbacker basses, but seeing as they only made 60 of them and I’m not a wealthy man, this seems like the next coolest thing.
I almost immediately set out to building this bass researching different finish options and getting a big picture of what I wanted the overall theme to be.
Reading that soft maple can be difficult to stain evenly, I decided to go for a sort of “found vintage barn art” vibe.
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The first thing I did after sanding everything to about 600 grit was tape off the body leaving a thin line for a faux binding.
I hit that with a coat of clear lacquer knowing that once it cured, it would not allow any stain to take.
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I almost changed my plans once I saw how beautiful the end grain was with a clear coat.
However, I really wanted the carved parts of the bass to “pop” a bit more, so I pressed on.
Next I decided what parts of the carving I wanted to be different colors. I had all oil based stains at home already, so I went and picked up some colored oil paints as well.
In some old baby food jars I mixed stains and paints and tested them on an old piece of plywood to get an idea of what they’d look like after they dried. Then, I used small paint brushes to apply the colors I made and chose.
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Here you can see it almost looks like a totem pole.
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After I sanded back the stronger colors to reveal some more wood grain, I opted for a nice amber stain over the top to darken everything up a little.
The control cover is actually hard maple so I hit it with some off the shelf “barn red” stain to darken it up and try to make the grain pop a little more. I also left the comfort cutaway on top alone because my idea was to match it to the back of the body.
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For the back I opted for this sort of worn jeans color I made using blue and yellow oil paints with the amber stain. I wanted to see the wood grain but still provide a contrast to the top. To be honest this was probably the part I was most nervous about because I didn’t want it to look “splotchy” and it took me a few days to get the desired results.
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In between coats of stain I started wondering what to do about a neck. I have a FrankenSquier I don’t play often that I could steal the neck from, but that seemed silly.
Having spent most of my cash on my kids for Christmas I started trolling the usual spots for affordable options.
A really nice Vintera P neck popped up in the TB classifieds, but I just couldn’t swing it.
Ultimately I decided to take a chance on a Chinese fleabay neck.
One of the reasons being that I always wanted a blocked & bound Precision neck, but aside from Warmoth and a few Fender signature models, I couldn’t find one.
The fleabay neck was maple/rosewood, bound and blocked with some “mother of toilet seat”, and claimed Precision neck dimensions, so for $80 I took a chance.
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While waiting, I also took advantage of the Sweetwater gift card I got and ordered a Fender high mass bridge. I already had the stock pickups from my MIM Player Precision as well as a set of bushings and tuning machines. The only other hardware I needed was a neck plate and a string tree.
Back to trying to finish out the body, I ended up applying about eight coats of rub on polyurethane with a little experimental surprise mixed in and ended up applying the last coat the day before my scheduled surgery.
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I also added a little bling via a gold paint marker to the rear “makers medallion” to make it pop. Underneath is a stamp with the folks who made it (which I protected with a light spritz of clear coat). I was torn between mounting it so that the “W” was even with the bottom of the bass or matching the wood grain which left the “W” cockeyed. Ultimately I matched the wood grains because I thought if the W looks wonky it doesn’t matter to me.
After the poly cured, I set about to insulating the cavity and mounting the pickups. It was about the only thing I could do without having a neck yet.
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I used a roll of industrial aluminum foil tape to line the cavity and ran a bridge ground.
I also decided to swap out the stock Player series tone cap because I’m a tinkerer and can’t leave well enough alone.
I was really please with how the body turned out, but if the neck didn’t show up soon, I was going to start cannibalizing basses.
Luckily, the neck showed up after about two weeks; which really isn’t bad considering it came from China.
First impressions of the neck were that it wasn’t that bad. I bought it knowing that I’d have to put some work into it, but the frets were surprisingly well seated and level. I’ve tried more expensive basses with more fret sprout than this had. The nut was absolute garbage, so I ordered a TUSQ precision nut to replace it.
The VERY first thing I did was sand off the “Fender” logo and fake serial number. It wouldn’t sit right with me to keep them. Plus, I wanted to paint the headstock in a way that would compliment the bass body.
I will say that the Chinese necks aren’t finished in your typical varnish/clearcoat/lacquer. The smell I got sanding the headstock reminded me of fiberglass resin. Pungent.
I had saved some of the stain I used for the back of the bass body, but I doubted I could get the two very different types of maple to match. I decided to go for it anyway.
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I added just a hair of black oil paint to help simulate wood grain and felt like that was as close to matching as I was going to get.
After that, I installed the bushings for the tuners. I waxed them before pressing them in and didn’t have too many issues. I did have to ream one hole a small amount, but overall better than expected for the Chinese neck.
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The nut replacement even ended up going incredibly smoothly with only some light sanding and scraping for a solid fit.
The only other real work I had to do to the neck was sand the heel for a better fit in the neck pocket. After that, my only other concern was the truss rod.
I had checked to made sure that it moved before starting any work, but moving and operating correctly are two different things.
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I also added this smiling skull wearing a bowler had to the headstock. Partly as a nod to the whole “Grateful Dead” thing, but also as sort of an inside joke with my Uncle. He’s an incredible Luthier who likes to give me grief for putting skulls on my projects, so I couldn’t resist
I won’t bore anyone with the minute details of the rest of the build except to say that I’m really pleased with the final results. The neck is old school P bass beefy (which created some neck dive issues) and it sounds like a P bass should. Which of course means that I need to change the pickups, lol
I ordered a set of the G&L MFD SB-1 pickups because I’m hoping to use this in my punk band and want a bit hotter “full range” pickup (though the stock Fenders sound fine).
Here’s some pics of the final build:
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Oh, and because I had some glow in the dark epoxy powder lying around, I decided to mix it in with the polyurethane for no other reason than to see what happened
Sorry the picture quality stinks, but my phone takes crappy low light images.
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Overall, I’m really pleased with the final result.
Here’s a clip of me playing it high on pain medication from my surgery.
Hope you enjoyed reading about the process as much as I enjoyed building this bass.
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