LeftyBassist.com

I'd like to see a render using chrome hardware with white knobs, white pickups, white headstock, no pickguard and a blank fretless neck (unlined).

Ask and you shall receive:

Thanks! Very cool look and my favourite look for the fretless neck but there are so many good options.
A pair would be fab, fretless and fretted.
I

It is a top choice for me as well. This is tough decision. I have to really knuckle down here and make up my mind on the fretboard. I think I am leaning slightly toward the white block inlays with faint lines. I also thing my renders don't do much justice to maple wood. That color looks kind of like skin tone to me. I'm going to play some more to see if I can make an acceptable wood grain. I think once I have that, I'll be all set and the decision will be easier. Also, I think I am over-blackening the black nickel; it should be more of a normal chrome color than what I've been doing. I wanted it that way for contrast between that and normal chrome, though, if that makes sense.

I saved a couple of the renders you have done onto my phone and with a black background they look even better given that everything is light-coloured.
I suppose if you go with fret lines etc you could always re-fret the bass in the future.

Aw shucks. You saved some of my renders? Awesome!

I'm getting closer to getting this thing going. I am very certain about the following:

White body (100%)
Maple neck/fretboard (100%)
White headstock (100%)
White block inlays (99%)
Faint fret lines (99%)
No pickguard (100%)
No control plate (95%) [will be rear rout regardless; if there is a control plate it would be purely cosmetic]
White pickup covers (95%)
Pot/knob configuration: standard J bass — three in a diagonal row (99.5%), but will likely throw some concentrics in there for flexibility (99.5%)
White knobs (50%) / Other kind of knobs TBD (50%)
Black nickel tuners and bridge (51%) / Chrome tuners and bridge (49%)

Here are my two favorites for now, I think. I also upgraded the fretboard to look more like wood:

My hardware came in the other day, and I have shipped it off to my machinist. He'll be starting shortly.

Here's what I got (below). It's all chrome; no black nickel or gold ... for now ...

I'm really stoked on the bridge and the tuning machines I got. The bridge is an American Series Bass High-mass Big Block. The tuning machines are Fender by Schaller and have a super-sexy (to my eyes) Fender "F" engraved in each one. They also have a really cool profile to them.

I like the looks of the bridge - looks like you can play with the string spacing because of the notches in the barrels - very cool!

Thanks. I'm hoping that playing it in real life is very cool, too. I've been working on my bridge fingering technique quite a bit more lately, trying to attain that "Jaco growl," and I think adjusting string spacing will be a welcome attribute of a new bass because it'll be a little easier to transition into that style of playing. Almost all of my playing prior to recently in my "bass career" has been on a (generic) P bass, and I always have played at the pickup or closer to the neck. I recently purchased two J basses and have really been "exploring the space" (to quote a classic SNL skit).

My neck and body are being manufactured right now and my guy is asking whether I want a cutout on the body for accessing the nut on the truss rod. I'm conflicted here: on the one hand it will be nice for when an adjustment is needed, but on the other it will change the "clean" look on the body that I'm trying to achieve. Ugh. My gut says no cutout.

Ladies and gentlemen, things just got real:



These are the pieces shortly after being cut. The body is in its truest raw state, and as you can see the neck has just had its inlays installed. Coming up next is the major body finishing: cutting of the pockets, profiling of the contours, drilling of the holes, etc. After that this stuff will be sent to me for the painting and staining and such. Needless to say I'm pretty flippin' excited.

Great-looking piece of wood! Are you going to have a see-through finish so the grain can be seen?

dang late to this thread due to my workload

I'm not a fan of blocks on a fretless due to how the tonality changes between wood and plastic (or different wood, depending on what you use for the block material) ... sure the tonal change is subtle, but it's there as verified by my clients who make their living playing sessions and tours. same thing for lined fretless - even with the board perfectly leveled (even epoxied), there is a zing - zing - zing tonal shift when sliding across a fret line.

but here's the beauty of building a great looking/playing bass for yourself - you only need to please you and so you have liberties in what you build that may not be marketably viable from a builder's perspective.


you new build looks like it's off to a great start! looking forward to seeing how things progress and also the finished project

all the best,

R

As nice as block inlays are (especially to the audience) I find myself more focused in on my side-dots for fret reference.... which is why I also like to put on the FretFX LED lights when I can afford them (have two basses with them on so far)....

Got to say that I had no idea your neck was going to be fretless until I read Rod's post, and can't say as I recall a fretless neck with block inlays.... that'll fool some people!

Yeah, fretless. Sorry! It's going to be pretty unique, to say the least. It'll be my first fretless I've ever even played; the exception being one time many many years ago I played an acoustic fretless at a local guitar shop because they just so happened to have one in our handedness. I haven't seen or touched one since. I just got inspired to do something different, and, well, here we are: different indeed!

Regarding the painting (from a couple posts ago), at first I was thinking white, as my inspiration for the project originally came from Larry Graham's Moon bass. My original concept has shifted quite a bit since then, though, so who knows where it'll end up. That grain does look pretty killer, so on one hand painting it might be blasphemy. On the other hand, I have two MIM Fender Jazz basses already that have the wood look: one is just a straight-up natural wood grain with a clear coat (purchased from this forum, in fact), and the other is a burst that has an obvious and visible wood grain. It seems only fitting that I round out the collection with a painted axe. I could also do something where I mix and match this neck with one of my other bodies, and then keep this as a fretted bass by using one of those other necks with this body.

Thanks for your input, R. This is my first go at a DIY guitar, so I'm learning as I go. In the end, you could very well be spot-on regarding the tonality issues you mention. If it turns out to be an issue and I can't stand it -- or if it even just bugs me a little -- then I will fix it and have myself ANOTHER NEW project!

The project is really just a way for me to get my feet wet with this sort of thing, so I'm open to feedback and learning from mistakes I make. If the inlay fretboard turns out to be totally sucky, I'll own up to that and let everyone here know. You won't see me getting defensive about anything people offer, unless they say "that thing is ugly" which even in that case I probably won't mind too much because I know beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Plus I know with my perfectionist ways I won't stop until it looks like a pro did it -- even if it takes me a year to get it done. The final project won't be posted here and labeled as "final" until I am confident that it would pass as a professional job.

I like how it's turning out. Those Fender Bridges are nice.

This is the type of finish I had in mind... a translucent white, with just enough opacity to allow the grain to show through....

Thanks! Stay tuned for more pics as this thing comes together.

That's not a bad look. I've done a little "research" (Google Image) over the past few days for examples of whitewash style paint/stain jobs. I would like to see that on a Jazz bass; it seems like most examples are on Les Pauls, Telecasters, or other super-vintage style bodies. Do you have an image of the front of that guitar?

Click this link and scroll down to see more pics of the front..... http://www.tdpri.com/forum/telecaster-d ... -tele.html