The tele bass build has begun! Pics!

[ccrnnr9]

Well as promised I would start another thread with my bass build pics. Here is a teaser:




For more pics and details see this thread: http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tele-home...cs-inside.html

I am currently awaiting the rest of the parts. It sure is fun and it will be even more fun to have my own bass made by me! For now I decided to fore go the humbucker idea and just use a Curtis Novak single coil p-bass pup. I may decide to do another route at a later date for a rickenbacker neck humbucker. I wanted to play around with just this pickup for the time being. The resistance on it is a hair shy of 9k so I may get what I want with just that pickup and my new Tech21 VT bass pedal.

Check back for more updates. The build should be done next week and then it is back to my garage to get it finished. I am going to do either a BSB or Vintage Blonde paint (highly leaning towards vintage blonde) with a nitro lacquer finish. Your input is appreciated!
~Nick

[TELE_BLUES]

Slab bodied tele bass wit ha single coil.That's something i've been wanting to do.I had a chance at a recent reissue '51 p-bass but sadly that deal fell through.I gotto play it and wanted to buy it on the spot,but the guy needed it as it was his only bass and he had a 2 day out of town gig.When he got back he had traded it away for a jazz bass.

[ccrnnr9]

Wow...I didn't think anyone cared about the thread. Check back a lot more work will be done by Tuesday and the build will probably be done by Thursday minus wiring and painting. I will continue to update and post pics. Thanks for the interest!
~Nick

[Tim Armstrong]

What neck are you using?

edit: just looked at the linked thread. You're making a neck from scratch? Mister, you're a better man than I!



Tim

[ccrnnr9]

What you meant to say is that I am going to attempt to make a neck from scratch...haha. Check back Tuesday evening and if all goes well and as planned I will have a nearly complete bass. The long process will be the finishing as I am going to do a blonde finish with a nitro lacquer which I hear takes forever to dry.
~Nick

[ccrnnr9]

UPDATE DAY! We started on the neck today and got through all the quick work. From here on out the rest of the build is pretty tedious. We started with my piece of rock maple. We used a mill to slowly file out a slot in the back of the blank to put the truss rod in. We ended up having to make a slot at 3/8in so for those of you purists, this bass does not comply! The skunk stripe is slightly wider for that reason...makes no difference to me but I know that some of you may curse my name now. Anyways the milling went smooth and we made a groove in the bottom of channel so that the truss rod sits in there really well. This pic shows the body with the neck blank in front with the channel milled out and the walnut skunk stripe sitting next to it (not yet inserted)...did I mention I am a terrible photographer?
[IMG] [/IMG]

Next step was to flip her over and use the table saw to cut the fingerboard for the fret wire. This was a bit interesting since I am using a 1 piece maple neck and we cut the slots on the 6in wide board. It would have been a bear had I had to do it with a hand saw but luckily I had access to a table saw and work was easy going. Here is a bad pic of the board with the slots cut but not yet shaped into a neck:

[IMG] [/IMG]

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[ccrnnr9]

A side few of the board with fret slots cut:


Next step was to make a tracing of the neck using specs from a p-bass my bass teacher has that I love the profile of. We got that traced on, drew a center line, and then used a tele headstock template to make the headstock cut out. I used the band saw to do a rough cut of the body. The result:


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[ccrnnr9]

Here is a close up of the headstock:




You notice how rough it is. I will post pics tomorrow after everything is cleaned up, routed, and sanded to spec.

A few of the neck from the heel onwards:

[ccrnnr9]

One more:




And lastly we drilled a hole at the heel for the truss rod nut to fit into. I just used a hand drill for this and it worked out well. As of now the truss rod is in, skunk stripe glued in, just not yet filed and sanded down.



I am going back tomorrow to do a lot more work. There is a possibility of finishing tomorrow but likely Thursday. I will keep you guys updated!
~Nick

[Tuxedo]

Schweet!

[muddy bottom]

good work buddy.i too want to put together a slab body p- bass like yours,but i bought a neck.ive glued up a couple of blanks using demolition timber but havent made much progress lately.i also bought a curtis novak single coil so ill be real interested to see how yours turns out.my problem is i dont have a pickguard template so i dont know where to place the pickup. i used a 72 telecaster bass to cut a pattern for the body.it looks very similar to your body shape.keep up the good work.its always inspiring to see someone going for it.

[hwunch]

This is great. Looking forward to seeing the rest of the build!