I think you might plane if you’re making a neck from scratch but working on an existing one I think it would take way too much off. Also you would have to think about the fingerboard radius. Most people will not have a plane with a matching radius.
I would add that the guy in the video is probably an expert at judging that radius.
I realize planers can be set to shave super thin almost transparent shavings. What I did for a lot of it was scraping which is similar.
Bass project 20 is about 90% finished. It’s what Lemmy would have called a Rickenb*stard, and its made of offcuts (planed to 25mm square) glued back together, with an oak spine from a pre-tongue-and-groove floorboard (Mssrs. Google says that’s 1885). Inlaying the fretboard with oak triangles was some of the most frustrating woodwork I have ever finished.
Wow, looking great. Love the set neck.
Looks like it has lots of bells and whistles what’s the electronics going to be like?
Three passive single coil lipstick pickups, each with an in-phase / out-of-phase / off switch and a volume, one master tone (stolen from Brian May of course). This is my first attempt at holding covers on with neodymium magnets, highly recommended.
Yes.
Dang. What a good looking bass.
Any project with Lipstick pickup is under-rated in my book 
If I had the skills or was making it I would shape the heel.
What magnets are you using? I have tried but only got small ones which didn’t work
I bought a stack of 50, 5 mm diameter x 2 mm thick neodymium magnets from Aliexpress. They are surprisingly good. Superglue one side in, then put some marker pen ink on the magnet, insert the lid, and the other magnet position is marked for you.
Love this!
I’m thinking about buying a bass neck and building a bass out of some old wood chunks I have out in my shed.
Really wanted a mm type pickup and luckily I grabbed some electronics from Sam ash as they were closing. I took the neck from my squire jazz and a squire Jag neck from a friend I made these two bodies. Bought two 10ft boards of ash and sapele from my local lumber guy. ($160 and enough for about 7 bodies). The control plate on the Jazz is cocobolo. The fenderbird is active EMG setup and I made a brass nut for her. the Jazz is passive (Delano mm/fender P).
Beautiful work on both. That cocobolo control plate is a very cool touch.
Thats downright gorgeous
I was messing around on Reverb the other day and found this bass body. I’ve been looking for one to go with a spare squier neck that I changed out for an old SQ squier neck that I also picked on Reverb. I think I have a problem. Anyway, I bought this bass body and looked back at the SQ neck I had bought months ago. Same seller. So I messaged him and both are from the same guitar. He even included the SQ backing plate that came on it. I know the body is kinda ugly, but I’m more of a function rather than form person. I think I’m gonna polish it up, put a white pick guard on it (I have an SQ pickguard off another one) and call it a day. I also have what may or may not be some fender pickups from that era. Going to decide between those and some Quarter Pounders I have lying around. Also, ordered an Obsidian wire harness because I not great soldering and maybe a bit lazy. Here’s a pre project picture.
Hi, What stains did you use on the Fenderbird?
Put my latest project together last night.
I was never happy with the red body on the last one, it was too light and the saddles were slightly off centre.
I got a new mahogany body off ebay which was much better, even had a decent grain, so I stained it in 2 tones, not a burst but with a darker stain on the bevelled outside edge.
Re-did the headstock-took off the red paint it came with and stained it to match the body, stained the back in near black oak stain.
I got some GHS pressurewounds to test, this is a 5 set and I thought about BEAD but reconsidered and used standard tuning, they are ropelike strings though.
I am just waiting for the glue on the brass nut to set properly.
I did string and tune it last night and it sounds good, the action is high and I think it is because of the heavy strings, so I’ll tweak the truss rod when I get home tonight.
I had to put the saddle a long way back as the body is short, so adjusting saddle height is a little hard currently.
I’ll post picks later.
Right…
Here is the first version; looked ok but the body was super light and a bit difficult to play enjoyably, the saddles were also slightly off.
Here is the upgrade with a mahogany body from ebay, same neck (redone) P Pickup reused, J pickup from another bass I upgraded.
Same saddle and tuners, new pots as the old ones were short shank.
Stain is Ruby leather dye-I was hoping for redder but I like this, dark edging stain is Oak timber stain.
Final finish is a furniture buffing oil with waxes
Lemon oil in the fretboard.
Cavity cover is some clear plastic and I am tossing up getting a coloured on or making a proper transparent one.
Strings are GHS Pressurerounds, EADG from a 5 set (which was cheaper than a 4 set) and seem quite thick.
Had to play with the truss rod, intonation and saddle height and nearly happy.
Gets a deep but bright sound
Transtint , a friend gave me about 20 bottles of it and made some test samples on ash scraps. Don’t remember the exact colors I used but worked really well. A few drops of dye mixed with isopropyl alcohol. About to attempt dying my pau Ferro fretboard on a fender meteora bass, once a grow a pair…
Took it out for a play last night, sounds good.
It has a different tone to what I am used to which may or may not be the GHS Pressurewounds.
I can get a aggressive tone that “cuts through the mix” (not sure if it “plays like butter” but definitely carrots).
I had a small and strange issue with the jack and getting no sound, but it saw me playing the BL’s $2000 MusicMan and took the hint and behaved when I picked it up again.
The MusicMan was nice to play and I could tell the difference but I like playing my own instruments
I’ll fix the electrickery issues this morning-I suspect it was the red plug the jack came with and I will fix it with solder.
Issue fixed, just a loose ground wire
Got it all put together. Ended up going with some old, maybe original pickups that I took out of a bass of similar vintage. That bass had a little more buzzing than I could stand. Luckily was not the pickups, they sound great in this guitar. It was a fun project. My goal was to use mostly stuff I had around. The bridge and pickguard are also from the same era. I appreciated the obsidian wire harness. Put some old quarter pounder pickups in first, then I remembered why I took those out, bad wire or connection somewhere. Super easy to change pickups when you don’t have to solder. I went with some DR rounds. Definitely a different sound than the others I have with flats and I love it. If you’ve never picked up one of these early 80’s Squiers, give it a try. The neck is just great.
