Got the fretboard done and glued to the neck. Frets have been pressed in, beveled, leveled, crowned, and polished. I still need to dress the ends.
I think it may have been somebody here who gave me the idea, but apologies - I can’t find the post now. Basically I wound up making side dots and front dots out of polymer clay, baked them to solidify, then glued them in and sanded it all to the proper radius. I’m really digging the clay dots!
EDIT TO ADD: Fender “clay” dots were actually fiberboard, not clay.
Getting really close now! Have to carve the back of the neck, then attach the neck to the body, carve the nut, and wire it all up.
Headstock thicknessed and curved transition to the nut complete.
Tuners installed
Nut was borrowed from another pbass and used to ensure neck and bridge were aligned and straight. Because of reasons that will be addressed the next time around, the pocket was a little loose and had to be shimmed. It was also a little off the centerline so had to problem solve. In the end it looked pretty spot on with (cord, not bass) strings I used for alignment. Will string it up for real soon enough.
Bridge was attached.
Ferrules for neck screws were inset, neck was screwed to the body. I can finally take a picture without laying it on the tablecloth.
The body and pickguard had to be routed and slotted respectively for access to the truss rod adjustment wheel. Not my cleanest work.
I’m tempted to go ahead and install the electronics and string it up for a preview play through before carving the neck, so probably will do so this weekend.
That is quite a show piece! Looks fantastic. We have a future bass builder on this forum, look out Fennario guitars is now in business! Great great job @fennario!
I of course dig the project as well - though I’m clearly biased. There’s not much skill involved here that couldn’t be acquired by just jumping in and doing it - with maybe a book, video or something thrown in - however I appreciate that the right tools have made it significantly easier. (And take up quite a bit of garage space at the moment. I need to reorganize - not my strong suit )
You and me both, @kamikos ! Hell, at this point I just hope that it lines up right when the strings go on
I will continue building basses. While this one took quite a while, having that little bit of experience under my belt and having already built out the tool set I will need, the next one will go much faster. I need to get a lot better with the fine details before I even think about selling one. I was going to do a different style but now I’m half tempted to do another P-Bass so I can improve the process. But building this one has been incredibly rewarding and I’m happy to do it as a hobby.
There’s a local guy that’s been handcrafting basses that are some real art pieces and selling on his website and FB marketplace (not sure about elsewhere). I’ve been watching the prices drop like a rock as they’re not selling.
Thank you for the kind words, though this is definitely overstating it! It’s not perfect by any means and I love every “oops” it has. I am really happy with how it’s turning out! This is way beyond my expectations for a first build.
I took it back apart and got most of the neck carve done today. But after this I need to spend some time cleaning it up a bit and going back over the rest of the neck to sand through the grits to get it ready for oil.
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