Anyone out there with a Fender P-bass or Jazz bass? Not necessarily a true fender but copies too. Can you pls measure the body thickness for me and let me know? I'm in the process of making a P-bass body from a Bubinga blank billet for a new project.
It's really heavy, dense hard wood but I want to plane some thickness off it.
Thanks!
Al

Hey, nice bass indeed! The players in both my bands play Jazzes and they sound gorgeous, as you probably know by now. I'll ask them and get back to ya. As it happens, both guys are named Lachlan, freakishly tall and prodigious drinkers. Hmmm..

edit: one of them just IM'd me. Seems a Jazz is about 1.75 inches thick. I'd be interested to see some pics of your project if you take any.

Thanks Hankstar - I guessed about 1 3/4" would be pretty standard for the Fenders. Think I'm going to have to take mine a touch thinner, the damn wood's so heavy. It'll still resonate far better than Alder or Poplar 2 or 3 piece that most Fenders use.
Here's an in-prog pic with most of the basic outline cut out and my paper template for the pickguard laid on.

Planed it down to about 1.6" and finished shaping the horns, belly cut and forearm contour. Routed for pickups and a quick wipe of Danish oil to bring out the grain and colour in the wood.

Lookin' pretty good so far
~Bryan~

Good progress today, neck pocket routed, body shaping finished and neck fitting very snugly. Need to wait for the rest of the hardware to arrive now

Bloody hell. My bass has a bubinga body, but it's pretty small (it's a Warwick Thumb) and it still weighs a ton. I wouldn't want to be swinging a P-bass made from bubinga!

Quote from Hankstar :

Hey, nice bass indeed! The players in both my bands play Jazzes and they sound gorgeous, as you probably know by now.

Assuming you get a decent one (rare, but it does sometimes happen), and replace most of the lousy stock hardware. The only stock parts left on my old jazzer by the time I'd finished with it were the body wood and the machine heads. It was probably the biggest piece of **** bass I ever owned. If I'd actually paid for it I would've been gutted.

The best bass Leo Fender ever came up with IMO was the G&L L2000. The new ones aren't so great but if you can get an '80s model they are lovely. They've also got about the most versatile electronics of any bass on the market, and the different sounds are actually usable.

Quote from thisnameistaken :

Bloody hell. My bass has a bubinga body, but it's pretty small (it's a Warwick Thumb) and it still weighs a ton. I wouldn't want to be swinging a P-bass made from bubinga!

Y3es, it's h e a v y alright! I planed it thinner than a standard P-bass and took as much wood off as I could with the belly cut and contouring but it's still a big sheavy lab, which should hopefully make it sound really rich and juicy. Warwick choose well for their materials, I reckon Bubinga is one of the best woods going for full bodied bass sounds.

Lovely looking timber Al, hope it sounds as good :up:

Nearly done, need to drop in the pickups and set the action.

Looks great! Better sound good aswell, should have lots of resonance with that wood. What kind of pickups and strings do you plan on putting on it?
~Bryan~

Since its a budget build I got some cheap squier Jap pups off ebay, the staggered humbucker pair for the P-bass.
Strings as always, D'Addario 45-100's. (34" scale)
Just struggling to get the hole routed through for the earth bridge wire, one of my most hated jobs when building a guitar

I know what you mean about getting the holes spot-on. A good mate of mine is a professional luthier who used to build solid-body electrics. He told me he used to lie awake at night in a cold sweat, thinking about routing

I might hip him to this thread actually, I've always wanted him to build basses and he might get inspired ...

Well if it helps, this is by far the simplest build I've ever done (apart from the hardness of the wood) The P-bass is a great first project if he's interested in getting into it - there's nothing like playing an instrument you've put together yourself.

Wow dude, I've always LOVED routing, such a 'progressive' step (you actually see quiet a lot of work quickly) I hate the final touches before paint, and after (and handing is REALLY tiring, and 2000grit wet sanding is just labor)

If you actually want to HEAR your good sounding wood, good pickups are necessary, of course you could use a 'fancy' digital amp to 'suck' the tone out and spit it out raped, but we all hate that. It'll have loud and smooth acoustics tho, I'll give you that.
~Bryan~

EDIT: Now that I think of it, prepping the neck and board for frets and a nut is a pain in the ass, I guess thats why I always slow down and work only bits at a time...

Well she's finished - I quickly wired in an old set of cheap split humbuckers from a fretless to see how she went and I must say the wood has done me proud. This was a pretty rough'n'quick budget build but even thru my little practice amp there's a huge slab of warm fruity tone, lovely sustain and a good depth. Quite a weight but no worse than my alder 5-string. Not bad at all for 5 days work. Just some tweaks here and there to get the setup dialled in - I'll be looking forward to the practice on friday evening

I must say I like the matte (or is it semi-gloss?) finish. Is it really just the camera flash? Doesn't give the guitar a 'bold look-at-my-gpenis' look, more laid back and genuine

You should post up some sort of rhythm or backing and I'll see if I can improv over it, it could be fun
~Bryan~

Thx Bryan, it's a dead easy cheap fast finish, with a nice slab of wood like this I just rub in several coats of Danish Oil, sometimes with wire wool, then after a few days when dried and hardened I spend a night rubbing in carnauba wax for furniture/cabinet finishing - leaves a really soft natural semi-gloss, and easy to maintain. A lot of the manufacturers refer to this as 'oil-finished' and I really like the look on a nice piece of wood.
I think you hit on a great idea with the music collaboration - I'll have to see what I can come up with. plenty of other good guitarists on the forum here too, could be fun

I'd be interested in hearing what you all can come up with. I don't play anything myself, but I loves to listen

Beautiful :up:

Listen for Structure?

Well my Strat was finished in a couple coats of rubbed on Tung Oil on the neck (turned out the smoothest neck anybody whos picked up this guitar has felt) I sanded the maple with a few thousand grit before rubbing in three coats. If I had a camera that could take good close ups I'd show you the finish, tis the best part of the entire guitar. I've got a crude recording setup right now, just lemme know when you throw up something. (I'm a blues freak, obey my wishes...just kidding)
~Bryan~

What style music do you like to play? I can lay down a few dozen bars of bass for you on my digital multitrack and post it here as an MP3.

Ahh you must have missed the white when it comes to improv, or general lead, I play blues. My rhythm work is based on rock, but some funk/jazz flair.
~Bryan~

Thats really nice Al, hats of to you man.

Something like that must take alot of skill and stuff Well done