A bass for my dad

[Hodgo]

I decided to put together a project for my pops. He is a blues bass player and a big fan of Tommy Shannon and Double Trouble amongst many others. He also grew up on Sly Stone and Grand Funk, and definitely prefers the P-Bass sound.

The basis of this build will be a short-scale P style bass body I snagged from the Screaming Deals. It’s got a P/J pickup rout and a rear cavity rout, so the options are pretty open for how we skin the electronics cat. The best part? The body was listed at 3.75lbs - this is going to be a very light and easy to play bass.

To finish it out, I added a gloss Vintage White paint option and a 30” scale SSB Warhead neck to the cart, along with a set of the Schaller Lite bass tuners. I’m hoping all said and done this bass checks in somewhere between 6.5-7.5lbs.

Pickups are coming from Arcane, a 60’ Experience J bridge and a ‘65 Precision. These are supposedly replicas of the same era pickups found in the J and P basses played by Mr. Tommy Shannon, and seem well liked over on the bass forums.

Likewise I am going to use a Fender Vintage bridge, a Tort guard, and some Jazz bass knobs to round out the build.

 

[Rick]

Sounds good. I miss my dad. We just buried him at Arlington last Thursday. Sometimes I find myself saying , I gotta tell him about something, but then I realize I can't.

I hope you get a chance to play with your dad, making music makes us the most human

 

[teleme01]

Sorry for your loss, its hard loosing a parent.

 

[Spud]

Sounds good. I miss my dad. We just buried him at Arlington last Thursday. Sometimes I find myself saying , I gotta tell him about something, but then I realize I can't.

I hope you get a chance to play with your dad, making music makes us the most human

I am sorry for your loss.

 

[stratamania]

Sounds good. I miss my dad. We just buried him at Arlington last Thursday. Sometimes I find myself saying , I gotta tell him about something, but then I realize I can't.

I hope you get a chance to play with your dad, making music makes us the most human

My most heartfelt condolences, Rick.

 

[Rick]

Sorry for bringing this up in your thread big H. You all are good guys. Thank you. Take care of yourselves.

 

[Hodgo]

Sorry for bringing this up in your thread big H. You all are good guys. Thank you. Take care of yourselves.

No worries. Time is precious. Sorry for your loss.

 

[TBurst Std]

Rick. I’m sorry for your loss. I loss mine 18 years ago and I still want to talk to him.

 

[Flufene]

Sounds good. I miss my dad. We just buried him at Arlington last Thursday. Sometimes I find myself saying , I gotta tell him about something, but then I realize I can't.

I hope you get a chance to play with your dad, making music makes us the most human

Prayers out for you and your Dad. You will see him again. Hoping the good memories get you past this difficult time.

 

[ghostrider]

Sounds good. I miss my dad. We just buried him at Arlington last Thursday. Sometimes I find myself saying , I gotta tell him about something, but then I realize I can't.

I hope you get a chance to play with your dad, making music makes us the most human

I know exactly what you mean and I feel for you, brother.

My dad unexpectedly passed over 2 years ago. I spent most of a day writing his eulogy and, after I was done, I turned on the TV to relax. About 30 minutes later I saw something and had a knee jerk reaction thought, "Oh! I gotta tell Dad about this!" That was the first moment it became real for me even though I spent the whole day writing a eulogy. It's funny how our brains work sometimes.

I still find myself doing that from time to time.

I do my best to talk about him as much as possible, especially with the kids, which has helped me. I don't know what you're situation was with your dad, but it's also helped me to tell myself, "My dad raised me to be able to carry on and not to be reliant on him. Now's my chance to prove that he did an awesome job." Of course, there's a period of mourning in there which needs to happen first to be healthy about it.

To the OP, I don't know really anything about the bass, but I think what you're doing for your dad is awesome and I know he's going to love and cherish whatever you build because it's a thoughtful and creative thing from you.

 

[Hodgo]

89 days later:

Sadly I made an assumption instead of calling the W that the rear rout control locations are the same as the pickguard. Nope!

Luckily there is no overlap, but unfortunately the rear most control would drill right into the butt of the rear cavity rout where the screw location is.

So, options:

1. Get a new pickguard with no control routs and drill them through the body to match. Simple, but will put the rear control in an ugly spot. I could omit that rear control altogether since this has an output jack on the side, and make this a two-knob bass… that probably means at least one concentric control (either vol/tone+blend or vol/vol+tone)

2. Drill new holes using the pickguard as a template mount the rear cavity cover with only two screws - low cost but will leave additional speed holes in the body

3. Build this sans-pickguard as the good W intended. I’m meh on this idea, but honestly it kind of fits my dads style (cue Skynard Simple Man)

 

[supertruper1988]

would that last control fit with a smaller diameter pot or does the hole destroy the screw support? You could also only drill part way leaving ~1/2" of material to accept the screw and still have room for the pot.

 

[Hodgo]

would that last control fit with a smaller diameter pot or does the hole destroy the screw support? You could also only drill part way leaving ~1/2" of material to accept the screw and still have room for the pot.

I think there is an opportunity to drill the whole and rabbit it out underneath the edge of the cavity to place a pot

 

[Eddie-Applegate]

Sounds good. I miss my dad. We just buried him at Arlington last Thursday. Sometimes I find myself saying , I gotta tell him about something, but then I realize I can't.

I hope you get a chance to play with your dad, making music makes us the most human

Very sorry for your loss man

 

[Eddie-Applegate]

89 days later:
View attachment 61704
Sadly I made an assumption instead of calling the W that the rear rout control locations are the same as the pickguard. Nope!

Luckily there is no overlap, but unfortunately the rear most control would drill right into the butt of the rear cavity rout where the screw location is.

So, options:

1. Get a new pickguard with no control routs and drill them through the body to match. Simple, but will put the rear control in an ugly spot. I could omit that rear control altogether since this has an output jack on the side, and make this a two-knob bass… that probably means at least one concentric control (either vol/tone+blend or vol/vol+tone)

2. Drill new holes using the pickguard as a template mount the rear cavity cover with only two screws - low cost but will leave additional speed holes in the body

3. Build this sans-pickguard as the good W intended. I’m meh on this idea, but honestly it kind of fits my dads style (cue Skynard Simple Man)

It’s a beautiful thing you’re doing — I personally prefer the non-pickguard look, i’d go with that fer shure

 

[NedRyerson]

Can you post a side-by-side of the pickguard next to the existing control holes so we can see what you're referring to? It's hard for me to visualize what's misaligned.

Personally, if I can avoid using a pickguard, I will. I much prefer the solid aesthetic, but that's just me.

 

[Rick]

If you're dad would've done it that way, then ...

 

[Hodgo]

I came up with a different idea:

 

[Hodgo]

A little reshaping of the Warhead SSB based on a profile trace from my Squier ‘51. Foolishly I didn’t realize I only had an 80 grit built, so the remaining work will wait until tomorrow. Dad gets into town in two weeks, so this will be wrapped before then!

 

[JacobJames]

Nice work, looks like a tele head.