finished my bass

**black_labb** · 16th September 2008, 03:05 AM

i've finally finished the bass i've been playing for over 7 months. i pulled the thing apart, sanded it, oiled it, rewound the pickups, wired the thing up properly (as opposed to a single pup and a vol control), made some pickup covers, made a control cavity cover and dropped the bridge a bit. just need to finish the truss rod cover. may danish oil it or laquer it.

some details
33" scale, 22 frets
neck is a 1pc, but 5 piece laminate (new guinea rosewood, wenge, zebrano, wenge, ng rosewood). fillet strip is american walnut
body wings are also ng rosewood.
jumbo frets

the instrument was originally going to be active, but i decided that i prefered the passive sound, as i tend to like alot of mids. had band practice today, and am very happy with the choice to rewind the pickups to be used without a preamp, as it sounded excellent imo (and the other 2 in the band as well).

pickups are home made. they both have 10,000 turns each, but the magnets are larger on the bridge pup (6mmx20mm, as opposed to 5mmx20mm)

instrument is wired like a jazz bass (vol neck, vol bridge tone) but with a series/paralell and a phase switch. used 500k vol pots, and a 1M tone pot with a 47pf cap. i use 1M tone pots almost exclusively, as they are more versatile than lower values (they act a variable resistors, so they can be turned down a bit to get the equivalent effect of a 500 or 250k pot on full.
the instrument sounds great. the bridge gives a great middy sound, the neck gives a nice clean and fat sound and blending them can get quite a few great tones. the series position gives a very fat, full and somewhat loose sound (like a p bass, but maybe fuller). the use of the bridge pup makes it not muddy, but still sounds very fat with lots of low mids. used that all of band practice, and everyone loved the sound(use a pick for band, as we are a trio where the guitar uses a slide almost exclusively, and the bass fills out more of the mids that a guitar usually would). im sure i'll use the other settings more when i am playing fingerstyle. i thought i really liked the sound before i rewound the pups and wired up the bass, but now i am absolutely stunned with how well it sounds. after shielding it it is silent, with a tiny bit of hum when on a single pup (they are set up to cancel hum when they are equal, like a humbucker)

the instrument has a really round neck. its the same width as a pbass neck, but less flat and more rounded. a very stiff and thick neck. action is also pretty high. doesnt sound great, but i absoluetly love it like this. played a friends squier p bass (p's are known to have thick necks) and it felt too thin to me and gave my hands cramps. the roundness of this neck just feels right, and means i dont need to close my hands too far, which should be better for the use of the hand. the balance is perfect due to the long upper horn, decent sized body and small headstock.

here are some pics

the pups (before i rewound them) just to show the magnet configuration,

im very happy

**RufflyRustic** · 16th September 2008, 09:15 AM

You should be very happy. Lovely work on the bass

cheers
Wendy

**black_labb** · 16th September 2008, 12:30 PM

thanks wendy

here are 2 extra photos. realised that the neck/headstock werent covered very well by the other photos.

now you can see the g string tuner was drilled in the wrong spot

still works though.

**old_picker** · 16th September 2008, 10:35 PM

mmm very nice looking bass
i love that finish - what is it? danish?

the g string mmm
you could string it backwards - wouldnt be so noticeable

personally i would plug the hole
lay a veneer over the headstock face and redrill
if you wanna be fussy and the tuner dont cover the plug
you could do the same on the back of the headstock
or cunningly cut the plug outa the same material and line her up real carefull

you will hate always that its off
if you put it in the right spot you always just see the real nice veneer overlay

**black_labb** · 16th September 2008, 11:37 PM

thanks ray

finish is indeed danish. i love the feel of danish, so smooth, and you can feel the texture of the timber (love feeling the grain on the wenge).

i need to take some front on photo's. the g string isn't as bad as it looks, the angle of the photo makes it look a bit worse than it is. the angle of the photo's also makes the body look wider/shorter than it really is as well.

at some stage i may record some songs with the 3piece i'm in, so i will post up some sound clips, but that may be for a while. after how good we sounded yesterday, the drummer and i both thought we should see about recording sometime soon with a friend of mine that wants some practice. singer/guitarist is a bit hesetant as shes nervous about playing infront of people. that will change though.

**old_picker** · 17th September 2008, 01:05 AM

mmm strange combo
shy ? guitarist ?

most are showoffs, play too loud, never shutup, worst than singers

maybe you have a real gem there

btw what do you call a guitarist without a girlfriend?

**black_labb** · 17th September 2008, 01:41 AM

haha, well the guitarist/singer is my girlfriend, and learnt guitar for the band. its good as she doesnt have the usual "guitarist mentality". we were having trouble finding a suitable bass player, and really liked the band dynamics with the 3 piece, so she started learning bass, but teaching her made me want to play bass, and she was happy to move to guitar, as it tends to suit playing and singing better. she plays slide with an open tuning. works out pretty well as she has a great ear (been getting singing lessons in jazz and contemporary for years). works pretty well, as were aiming for a somewhat minimalistic sound. drummer is also a young 18 or 19 yr old girl, so im the odd one out. nothing wrong with being surrounded by attractive female musicians

here are some straight on pics. tuner doesnt look any better, maybe im just used to it, and dont think its too bad.

**bulldozed** · 17th September 2008, 10:06 PM

The timber pickup covers look terrific - How do you find the timber affects the responsiveness of the pickups (if it does anything at all)? How thick is the timber above the poles?

**black_labb** · 17th September 2008, 10:11 PM

timber wont do anything other than stop you from getting too close to the strings. something that is electrically conductive, or magnetic will though. timber is 2 or 2.5mm guessing over the poles. pups are stuck in by double sided tape. works fine, and i can take them out easily. if they come out ever i'll epoxy them in. wanted to make sure i can get at them for the first while of having the bass so anything i dont like can be changed easily.

**bulldozed** · 17th September 2008, 10:17 PM

That's pretty cool. I've seen other people using wooden covers, I wasn't sure if it would have any kind of dampening effect or not.

The large rear rout cover is a great idea as well!

**black_labb** · 18th September 2008, 04:20 PM

thanks bulldozed. rear cover was easy to do, as all you need to fit is the corner, and then carve the edges to match the rest of the carve. alot easier than trying to make a perfectly fit cover with 4 sides and radius's.

i had a think about redrilling the tuner hole, and bid on a plug cutter set (needed it anyway) so i may just do that. may not be until i finish another bass though.

**Sebastiaan56** · 18th September 2008, 05:24 PM

Originally Posted by black_labb

haha, well the guitarist/singer is my girlfriend, and learnt guitar for the band. its good as she doesnt have the usual "guitarist mentality". we were having trouble finding a suitable bass player, and really liked the band dynamics with the 3 piece, so she started learning bass, but teaching her made me want to play bass, and she was happy to move to guitar, as it tends to suit playing and singing better. she plays slide with an open tuning. works out pretty well as she has a great ear (been getting singing lessons in jazz and contemporary for years). works pretty well, as were aiming for a somewhat minimalistic sound. drummer is also a young 18 or 19 yr old girl, so im the odd one out. nothing wrong with being surrounded by attractive female musicians

Nice bass Labb, The G string is a feature for me, but then Im a bit of a fan of the intentional feature. Zen potters used to make a these kinds of things the feature of their pots. Love the timber combo!

Sebastiaan

**black_labb** · 18th September 2008, 11:40 PM

thanks sebatiaan. im a bit unsure wether i will move the g string still. i understand what you are saying. im thinking that i may leave it, atleast for now. i may do something about it at a later date.

**old_picker** · 20th September 2008, 12:33 PM

Originally Posted by black_labb

thanks sebatiaan. im a bit unsure wether i will move the g string still. i understand what you are saying. im thinking that i may leave it, atleast for now. i may do something about it at a later date.

funny thing about these kind of issues, what was a glaringly horrifyng balls up at the time you realised what you did, becomes a bit of a ho hum as time passes and you get into the guitar- especially when it is a great playing guitar

**oz tradie** · 21st September 2008, 01:04 AM

I think this bass is streets ahead of your other builds, Blacklabb.
The roundover really suits and it looks like it would be a well balanced player.
You must have felt gutted about the G string though. Fixable in time.............

What sort of music genre did you make the bass to suit ?
Or is the aim for versatility to cover all bases ( or is that basses ..... he he)

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