I have a bought a jazz bass kit. I’m wanting to know what would be the first step in building this jazz bass? If I can get some information, and help. I would greatly appreciate it.
Cool! Sounds like a great project.
There are a lot of people who can help with this here.
The pictures you posted aren’t showing up. Try to edit your post and see what isn’t working. If that doesn’t work, post a link to what you bought. That’ll give folks a better idea of what you working with.
Thank you for letting me know about my pictures not showing up. I’ll definitely get it straightened out.
It’s a long read but If you’ve got some time there’s an existing thread from forum members posting about their various projects.
You might gleam some useful information in there.
Right on Barney I definitely appreciate that. This my absolute first build. I would take used cheap plywood bodied basses and guitars. Then say I built it. When in reality all I did was change the strings, and completely rewire it, and change the pots and the values. But, this is actually a first for me. I’ve got the ebony wood stain coming tomorrow. Also a sanding block so I’m not holding the sandpaper in my. Also got an electronic sander.
OK. Just something to consider. Depending on the wood type, you might want to use a wood conditioner before staining the body.
The wood conditioner fills all the voids in the wood with liquid so when you stain it doesn’t appear blotchy.
Make sure if the stain is water based you use a water based conditioner and oil using oil. Don’t mix and match.
Thank you for that information. I truly appreciate it! The body is ash and the neck is maple. I’ll definitely check out that link you sent me.
I paid $150 for a jazz bass kit. Comes complete with everything you need to build it. Basically all your doing is painting the bass, and soldering the pickups to their own pot.
I have some evil genius ideas. I want to do to her. She will be beautiful and sexy with side of darkness and sinister. I’ve bought a set of jazz bass humbuckers. I still have to get a set of strings. Which I’m thinking about flat or tape. With the white nylon tape wound. Even go old school with both the bridge and pickup covers.
The neck is probably pre finished so unless you really want to I’d leave it and just stain the body of the bass.
The body normally comes pre sanded ready to go on kits.
Post your progress please over in the Project bass thread.
Any questions post them over there. Someone is always willing to help. Good luck.
The neck is not pre finished. That and the body has not been pre sanded. I have to prep the body and neck both. Before I start staining it. I also want to burn Generic Jazzy Bass in the headstock. Near the bottom of the fender style headstock. Burn Evil Genius Creations. I most definitely will post my progress. Because this is my very first build. I will need all the knowledge from everyone on here. Out of every bass forum I’ve been on. BassBuzz is my absolute favorite forum. Plus there is a lot more respect, and understanding that everyone doesn’t have the same amount of knowledge. So they don’t give any sarcastic answers. Making the other one feel like crap.
Cool man!
In the nutshell, it’s the look then the functions assembly. After that you’d do the setup.
First you’d need to do the body finish, sanding, pore filling, leveling then paint or oil rub.
Then address the fret sprout issues if any this would be the best time to do fret polish, install electronics, then neck, then strings tune it up, then check neck relief and setup.
If this the first time you are doing this, masking tape and newspaper is your friends.
Have fun.
Yes this is the first I’m doing anything of this caliber. I’ve had another account on here, but couldn’t get back into my account. Anyway, you have just provided me a lot more information that I had before.
What grit sandpaper should I start with?
I have found that it is the paint finish that will drive you mad.
I did Pitbull kit that worked out well last year, but still had trouble getting a smooth finish- luckily I was not after a glass like finish.
I am currently refinishing another bass but the paintjob is driving me nuts, perfect is the enemy of good and I keep stuffing it up striving for perfection, so I stopped. Should be done soon.
I also have another on the way, started like so many other projects because I had spare parts, this will need a bit of neck pocket reshaping potentially stuff-up-able.
Waiting on a few parts to start this and it will likely be a deep transparent red finish.
I like the link above to the stain preparer too
Depending on the level of smoothness you have there. I’d start with 200 or 400 then work all the way up to 1000. Actually I went all the way up to 10k which is at that point is just polishing, lol. At 800 to 1000 you can’t really tell the roughness already.
I have grits as rough as 40 grit up to 3000 grit. Until I get my sanding block. I’m going to use my orbital sander. I don’t want to hold the same paper in my hand. I’ve done seen what your fingers do.
I’m going all the up 3000 grit. I want it as smooth as baby skin, and to have a high gloss shine.
You got it! You described it perfectly. I started sanding the body with 240 grit sandpaper then it is 320. When should you change to next grit sandpaper?
The body has been sanded with 240 grit then 320 grit. I believe that is all I can do till I get a sanding block. I don’t want to hold the sandpaper in my hand.
Yeah you can totally destroy your entire project. When thriving for perfection. I’ve been there many times. Especially when I was building model cars.
These front and back pictures was sanded with 240 grit and 320 grit sandpaper. That is about all I’m going to do. Until I get finer grits for my mouse orbital sander. Or get me a sanding block.
just make sure that you don’t use the orbital sander on the neck. hands only, lol.
