The Luthier Community

Say hello to our new builder Steve M.





Steve has recently dove head first into the new builder, electric avenue, other stringed instruments, research and development, etc, pond.

Left handed parter bass, pretty much explains it. The first thing that we did was make a template to route the pocket in the neck wider, so that the neck would fit into it.





We made a test cut on a piece of scrap wood.





Screwed the neck on.





Ash body, maple neck.





The machine heads came 3 of one style and 1 of another style.





The screw holes of both styles don't line up. Either direction.







He's going to figure out what he wants to do with that. Get 3 more to match the 1 or, 1 to match the 3. Or do nothing and use what he has.







He has all of his electronics and hardware. He gets these pre-wired, wiring harnesses from somewhere. He has done a lot of modifications on his other guitars and basses so he knows where to get this stuff. Steve comes to work with all of his parts and pieces, print outs of all his wiring diagrams, pick-up info, installation instructions, and anything else that he can get his hands on, whether he needs it or not. He calls it, "Bass in a box".

He only has time to work on this one evening a week. He seems to be making very good use of his time.

Glen

Right on!

I say if all 4 tune, leave 'em as they are - Gives it character!

E

Looks like fun! So what's the game plan for finish and cover plate? Vintage tobacco burst perhaps?

Don't know what he is going to do with the tuners. maybe he will sign up and start postin' about it.

The finish plan is natural for the neck. Which came already finished. And Banana Split Yellow for the body with a white or black pick guard. Maybe he will start postin' here and tell us more about his plans.

Glen

Cool. I vote white for the pick guard.

FWIW...my wife said a black pick guard would make it look like the banana split was made with rotten bananas!

For this Precision bass I would like to color it a very light yellow. I had two choices that came very close: Bananna Split and Pale Sunshine. This color works great with a white pickguard. I do not like the yellow with the black pickguard as it does look rotton.

Back around 1974 I bought a guitar just like this at a store called Bordman's with my Grandmothers H&R Green Stamps for about $150.00 which back then was a lot of money. Unfortunately it was the only one the store had and the Bass turned out to have a broken truss rod. Since then I have always wanted either a Yellow Precision style bass with a white pickguard or a Brown Burst Hi Flyer (standard length neck) Univox style bass which was my second and final bass guitar during High School. This is therefore the two builder projects I have planned to be added to my two MIM Fender Jazz Basses and my all white no name semi-precision style bass.

On the keys that were mismatched I went back to the dealer in the UK and told him that I wanted another set but, to send me 1 of one kind and 3 of the other kind so I would have two matched sets. Cost of each set of keys with shipping is a mere $29.00 including the 16 screws the 4 furrels and the 4 tuning keys. These keys are as good as my MIM Fender Jazz bass keys. In fact they look identical in size and shape.

Sounds like you've got a winner in the works Steve! Good move on the tuners too.

SteveM wrote: On the keys that were mismatched I went back to the dealer in the UK and told him that I wanted another set but, to send me 1 of one kind and 3 of the other kind so I would have two matched sets. Cost of each set of keys with shipping is a mere $29.00 including the 16 screws the 4 furrels and the 4 tuning keys. These keys are as good as my MIM Fender Jazz bass keys. In fact they look identical in size and shape.

There's a very good likelyhood they are made by the same main company. I don't think Fender makes their own tuning machines. There are a lot of companies getting parts from the same manufacturers. Also, it seems to be common that the screw holes don't match up from assembly to assembly. I see this a lot. You can have two sets fro the same company and you'd probably have to pick through the backing plates to match up the screw holes.

Ok, hi everybody. Sorry for spilling coffee all over the floor . . .

I'm Brian