A customer came to collect a Tele style guitar and asked if I could make a bass to his design. “Of course” I replied. “How much do you want to spend and what would you like it to look like?” My client had a budget of £800 and apart from a few requirements such as a purpleheart fretboard and Schecter style body which included some hand carving, the rest was left to me. The build process and result is below.
The build started with a couple of heavy pieces of Ash which were joined together with a Mahogany strip down the center line. Shape marked out, cut then quite a bit of handwork to get the correct profile. Then the carving was marked out. Very difficult to carve into solid Ash, but I managed it. The finish was clear lacquer.
Next was the neck. Maple neck with purpleheart fretboard. 10.5″ radius on the fretboard and a scale length of 34″. Abalone dot markers and side markers and a graphtec nut. The neck was eventually finished with oil.
Hardware used was Wilkinson bridge, knobs and tuners. The pickups are hand wound Gemini Devastator SB pickups which give an awesome sound.
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Everything now finished.
