LeftyBassist.com

Being sick of such limited options as a lefty, I'm working on putting together a custom fretless jazz bass with a body and neck that luthier/machinist is building for me. As of right now, I am still deciding on a color scheme, but I am almost definitely going with white; my final decision at this point is whether to go with chrome or gold hardware. Below are some options that I was considering. The first bass in the frame is a product shot that I got online, and the rest that follow it are my renders.

I like the last four the most. These have no pickguard or control plate. I was also playing with some different patterns for the pots/knobs, but I haven't put those into renders yet.

You'll see that I was messing around with different inlays, but I think I'm going to go with white or pearloid blocks. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about the nut yet. I'll probably try and get something in white — bone perhaps.

I also drew a template in Illustrator (vector format) so that changing colors is really simple. If anyone wants that, let me know. I'd be happy to share it with other lefties.

This is actually going to be a fretless, so it will look more like this:

- maple neck
- no dots or blocks… it's a fretless! (fret lines are acceptable….)
- gold hardware
- white knobs/blk position mark - no control cavity plate
-triple layer white pickguard - wht/blk/wht

of course, this is the Verdine White model! Otherwise, all of the above, with chrome hardware....

I think you should build it to constantly morph like that gif file

Thanks. Normally I do not like gold hardware AT ALL, but something about a white bass with gold has a nice look to it in my eyes. The Verdine White model is pretty slick. My inspiration was actually the Larry Graham Moon bass, but the Verdine White bass is similar in its look and I could get behind that. I just did some quick Googling and found what you see in the attachment. It looks like he's a gold knobs guy, at least with this version of his bass.

I really like the concept of having a pickguard with no control plate and was playing with that a little bit last night as well. Part of me wants to keep this as "clean" as possible, but I am not ruling out anything. I'll render up the version you suggested and see what I think (I'll also post it here). Interesting idea to have white knobs; I hadn't considered that and will also try that!

I saw a picture of a DIY fretless maple fingerboard with pearloid block inlays and I was hooked. The render doesn't do it justice. Here are a few images below.

Nice. I'd need some pretty special stuff for that. Maybe Misa makes a morphing hardware model.

More renders:

More renders (I could only upload four attachments so I split them up 3/2 in these last two messages):

Your Custom 11 is the closest to my list... I like it!

A matching white headstock would be killer!
Also, my preference would be no pickguard, white control knobs, chrome hardware and a blank maple fretboard.
One thing you haven't tried in your renders yet are white pickup covers.
That would make the all-white bass body awesome.

Thanks. I like that one as well. Custom 10 and 11 are the same with the exception of the knobs and the painted headstock. One thing you may have noticed is I started introducing the matching-paint headstock now. I'm not 100% sold on this yet, but I think in real life it would look way better than on a render.

Totally blank maple fretboard or just no fret markers? I'll add a couple like you are recommending and see how that looks. Look for that in a couple posts down...

Part of me is now starting to lean toward a black nickel look. Here are a few more renders. I've added black block inlays for kicks and giggles. I probably won't go with that, though:

I am destroying the thread here with these pics. I wish there was a way to post the images side by side; that would save a ton of room and make them a lot easier to view. Maybe I should just start putting them sideways...

The über-white look is looking pretty flippin' hot! Nice suggestion, sblueplanet! I like 23 and 24 a lot!

Trying to save some screen real estate here. Here's all of them so far (in addition to the first couple animated GIFs I posted):



The über-white look is looking pretty flippin' hot! Nice suggestion, sblueplanet! I like 23 and 24 a lot!

Now all you have to do is have one of each made!

Actually, if you can decide on hardware colour and neck style, the control knobs and pup covers would be in-expensive to interchange later for different looks.

If you are really going for the uber-white look stain the neck white too, like Larry Grahm's Moon Bass:

Yes, and I think I am going to almost certainly go with the white body, white headstock, and faint fret lines; I haven't decided for sure on whether I'll be going with the white block inlays but I am leaning toward that. Ideally I would purchase the bridge and tuners in the finish I want from the get-go, and that is currently a decision I'm trying to make. I can't decide between gold, chrome, or black nickel! They all look good! You're right, though: I can always change that stuff if I want.

This originally started out so innocently, as I was just going to go with all gold hardware and be done with it.

That is the exact inspiration for this whole project. His bass is one of my favorite signature models of all time.