This thread is for anyone working on personal projects to share their progress, and hold themselves somewhat accountable to a group of peers.
Post your project, your progress from last week, and what you hope to accomplish this week.
If you want to be pinged with a reminder asking about your project, let me know, and I'll harass you each week until you cancel the service
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Notes -
Notes on finish: I’ve done tru oil on walnut, ash, and a random 80’s Ibanez p-copy that I stripped.
I didn’t do a stain but you’d do that first. I’d probably hand rub it with a rag.
I also didn’t bother with filling the grain past a certain point on the walnut or ash - those are open grained and I like the look. That said you can fill the grain by sanding wet with the oil and wiping the residue away. TO is best applied gradually in small thin amounts.
I appreciate all the feedback.
It sounds like I can save a ton of effort buying a premade body over cutting it out on a CNC machine
Sorry for the slow reply.
you for sure will have a major head start and avoid a slew of potential headaches buying at least a basic formed body - the brodge/neck/pickup alignment is the key and MOST aftermarket is based on Fender specs, so even a rather unfinished body will get you there and allow you to experiment with the finish. Of course you can also buy a fully finished or paint ready body or one parted out from a factory guitar. If you’re in the States/North America, there’s an eBay seller called Tone Bomb that does good basic shaping and they’re inexpensive. Warmoth, Allparts, and WD all make finished and unfinished bodies at various prices, etc.
I have gotten away from too much sanding and finishing, in the interest of spending more time on the wiring and setup and to avoid the dust and fumes, but it was an invaluable experience to start from a rougher stage for sure.
I’d be interested in hearing what parts you are thinking about - pickups and wiring options and such. even with simple circuit like on a P bass there a lot of options depending on your preference and price. I’ve had fun and good results working on everything from $200 Indonesian Squiers to fancy American Fender stuff, the main suggestion I’d make here is to not mix spec quality too much.
The current plan is to do a fully passive setup with Seymour Duncan Antiquity II split coil pickups (or some custom wrapped pickups with similar response) connected to a tone and volume knob. To be honest, I've even considered skipping the knobs entirely and using a pair of fixed resisters that leave both tone and volume wide open. That's how I tend to play a P anyway.
My goal is to create the warmest, darkest tone I can manage with a prominent fundamental. Concepts like "sustain" or "resonance" are distant secondary concerns. In conjunction with the BEAD tuning, I want this thing to sound like a hammer on a coffin nail.
In terms of comparable tone, think JPJ and not John Entwhistle.
Based on everything I've played previously, my current plan is the following:
For the neck, I'm probably just going to bite the bullet and shell out for a warmoth model in flame roasted maple with the graphite stiffeners and a tusq nut, unless you have any other suggestions.
Love this plan overall.
For wiring - for a kind of best of all worlds scheme that’s not too complicated: Standard V/T controls with a .68 or 1.0 microfarad capacitor (dark) and a push-pull to bypass the tone completely/or have different cap values (bright switch) or use a no load pot for the tone so it’s completely out of the mix when dimed.
Pickups: Duncans are great. I built a very vintage-sounding P with an SPB-1 and GHS precision flats (and a foam mute over steel threaded saddles). Not crazy high output but it has that thud and is warm and dark for sure. I would guess AII’s are a bit more 60’s voiced than the SPB-1, but we are not talking modern here in any case.
My favorite boutique P pickup is the Arcane 65, and I’ve had good luck with a few others too, Fralin and Fender vintage ‘63 come to mind. Any of these and more will get there. Pickups are a matter of personal taste and voodoo guitar parts synergy anyway. The right flatwounds are most of it probably.
Necks: I usually buy a Fender neck unless I need something specific. For example, I play fretless and I hate lined fretboards, so I have used Warmoth fretless bass necks almost exclusively. I’ve got one that’s about 30y old and one that’s about 5Y old. they’re consistent and high quality.
Oh, invest in lightweight tuners :)
Hipshots all the way, baby!
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