Bettiecaster; Purpleheart/ebody fretless Jazz neck, Carved Dinky P body (comp.)

amigarobbo

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Hello everyone!

I'm working on my first Warmoth bass build, I've got the Purpleheart neck with selected (as black as I could find) ebony Fretboard fingerboard.

AF51526E-372B-427F-90AF-85A6C6F8BEEF_zps92lr7a9w.jpg


Lightweight Gotoh traditional looking machine heads, can you see the one that's slightly off?

94C6EDB2-BEB6-4D23-BA12-1658A3F1DBB8_zpssobe8o8e.jpg~original


Measure twiced but I'm blaming it was so much effort drilling into the incredibly hard wood, I must have widened them a bit too much a certain way. Or something. I've seen worse on new guitars to be honest. Anyway...

Pickups will be a Lace Alumatone 3.5 Bar and a Lace Alumatone jazz pickup (closer to the bridge). Bridge will be a Schaller 4D thingy as I'm used to narrower string spacing.

Body is on order, I wait till it turns up before telling you what it is, suffice to say the finish should be:


687474703a2f2f692e696d6775722e636f6d2f494d7972342e706e67


:cool01:
 
Almost forgot the explanation for the Bettiecaster name, here's the neck plate on the back of the neck, note the 24 fret (  :dontknow: ) extended fingerboard.

3649B8D2-69C0-434F-B522-BADDF6FCB35D_zpsi1f6efs1.jpg
 
And last one till the Metallic fuchsia Flake Carved top Dinky P body turns up, which should be in the er.. counts weeks.. runs out of fingers, err.. next 3 weeks or so.  :guitarplayer2:

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Sorry about the terrible Liquorish all sorts bed spread, it was the only large flat surface I could find in the time.  :sad1:


Also that is how the pickups will be, the wider Lace 3.5 bassbar, which given the larger sample area will give the most bass nearer the neck, with the (again I'm only guessing) brighter sounding jazz pickup (in 70s relocation)  near the bridge, probably will be a volume unbalance but I tend to use the bridge pickups to add a bit of bightness to the mostly neck tone.  and it'll give me the option for Jaco Tones (c).

Maybe, won't be able to tell till it's all stuck together.  :icon_scratch:
 
That is awesome! Its gonna look great and it will be interesting to see the body you are matching it with. I looked at purple heart for a strat neck order but just could not cross the finish line. I went with Bubinga for that instead. But keep posting. I notice people must be pretty busy these days as it takes a bit for folks to get around to reading posts, but keep posting. The bed spread in the pic doesn't do that neck justice so do post the body. (I can't really talk though since mine is orange and makes for some......interesting... pictures with my strats.) Even as a guitar guy I'd like to know how you think the purple heart works out tone wise.
 
That really goes together well. I like Purpleheart, - it's got a fast, waxy feel like Wenge - but it's a difficult wood to match up to most body finishes other than black or white. Can't argue with this one, though. Be sure to review the "Burnishing Raw Necks" thread before you commit the thing. Purpleheart will repay you well for your efforts.
 
Too late! I was too excited, I've nailed put it all together and strung it up!

I'll see if I can do the electrics tomorrow. I'm was waiting to see what it looked like before I ordered the String tree, side jack type (I'm going Oval) and volume/tone knobs. The 19mm side output input jack socket seems a bit tight, even just putting the  next time I'll go for the 22mm one. Anyway...

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I haven't listened to Don Juan's Reckless Daughter in a few years, but it's a fantastic album!

Purpleheart is indeed a hard wood to pair with most bodies, but you got lucky with this one. The colors work together. Do keep in mind that the wood will darken into a warm brown, within the next few years.
 
You can count the number of Dinky Ps seen on here on the fingers of one elbow and it's a carve top AND in that finish. Great choices, it looks really good*. Like the matching carpet too - and the Quads!

*From what I can see of it anyway. Suggestion for everyone - get a camera! Even a cheap one will do a better job than most phones - especially in less than ideal light.
 
line6man said:
Do keep in mind that the wood will darken into a warm brown, within the next few years. 

You can slow the color change by finishing it with damn near anything, but then you lose the feel of raw wood. What does it is exposure to UV light, so if you keep it indoors and in the case as much as possible it'll stay the way it is longer. We're talking years, so don't get panicky.
 
So when do you audition for Prince's band?


That's a fine fiddle.  Nice work, and great embrace of the possibilities of purpleness.

 
Fat Pete said:
*From what I can see of it anyway. Suggestion for everyone - get a camera! Even a cheap one will do a better job than most phones - especially in less than ideal light.

I'll see if I can get some in focus pictures when I've finished it.  :sad1:

Anyway, here are the stats, with comments by me.

Strings are Status black nylon tape, i love them on my Steinberger (converted) Fretless bass, 45- 105, not at all like the Rotosound Nylons at all. (IMHO) Hardware is Black, I don't think chrome would have looked as nice, and gold would have been just too fruity, but then it always does.  :evil4:

Lightweight Gotoh tuners, expensive and to be honest slight cheap feeling, probably the aluminum they used to bring the weight down. but they look great though!

Pickups are Lace Alumatone 3.5 bass bar, which is. and will be 'Split' or possibly tapped.  :icon_scratch: with a Lace Alumatone Jazz in the bridge, the output is slightly mismatched, but I'm sure I can sort it out, I've asked Lace and they say there won't be any phase issues, well, we'll see.

I went for Lace, mostly because of online reviews, especially this guy

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-TVVVr-Jws[/youtube]
Hint, he thinks they suck. But then that's the problem when everything is either brilliant or Blows.  :tard: Oh, and they look great.  :toothy10:

Pots are Bourne, knobs will be Schaller Black just as soon as I've ordered them!

Neck:

Quantity Price
CUSTOMNECK
Style: J Bass®
Construction: Super Bass Construction $180.00
Scale: 34"
Orientation: Right Handed
Neck Wood: Purpleheart $80.00 **what can I say, I like purple. It seems a very good neck wood though, good tight grain, very dense, hard to drill!
Fingerboard Wood: Ebony (Black) $45.00
Unique Choice: FB2182 $75.00 ** I went for the purest, blackest Unique Choice I could find. Ebony for a fretless was a no-brainer as they say.
Nut Width: 1-1/2" (38mm)
Back Shape: Slim Taper $35.00 ** I think this may have been a mistake, early days, but it's a lot slimmer than I'm used to, and the lack of frets make the neck effectively a couple of milimeters thinner, I know the normal is only about 2mm thicker,I'm sure I'll get used to it, and wonder what all the fuss was.
Stiffening Rods: Standard Steel Rods
Fret Size: Fretless
Tuner Ream: BML (17.5mm)
Radius: Straight 10" ** Personally I'd have liked something more curvy, but they don't do them  :sad1:
Fret #: 24 $25.00
Mounting Holes: Standard 4 Bolt
Inlays: No Inlay ** well, yeah, it looks cooler dosn't it! not sure about the dots being at the frets, not between but I'm sure I'll get used to it.
Side Dots: White Side Dots **
String Nut: GraphTech Black TUSQ XL - Standard Nut $30.00 **I went for the slightly more expensive XL as it's apparently slightly more mid sounding which should match better with a fretless instrument, but it's unlikely I'll ever make a meaningful test to prove this. Or indeed get the urge to try.


Body:
Model: Carved Top Dinky P **Expensive, but looked loverly!
Orientation: Right handed
Scale: 34"
Wood: Walnut on Walnut $560.00 ** Yep, I went for figured Walnut, in that finish! Ha! How do you like that Mother nature!!! No seriously, it's normal walnut, I wanted a heavy dense wood, I was going to go for Maple, but I think that might have been too heavy, so I went for something almost as heavy, and although we all know wood doesn't have an effect on tone, but according to somethings I've read the sound and  'responsiveness' ( http://www.alembic.com/info/wood_body.html ) of walnut is what I wanted. I dunno if it'll turn out like that especially with those pickups, until I finished it, but I will say it very quiet played acoustically. 

Rout: Rear Rout
Pickup Rout: EMG 35, , J Bass® (Bridge, 3 3/4") ** It's actually a neck pickup size, I got a good deal on Lace Jazz- Alumatone neck, The neck and bridge Lace pickups are electrically identical. Also the smaller size looks more balanced between the bridge and 3.5" Lace Alumatone Bassbar. But it was mostly because I got it cheep  :laughing7:
70s Bridge Pickup Reposition: Yes $45.00 ** I might as well go for the most burble, if I'm fitting Jazz pickups.
Controls: V-T-I (PBass) ** Will be V-V-T standard Jazz bass wiring
Bridge: Schaller 463 **I've had a look at some youtube videos, and even through that I'd prefer the (very,very) slight improvement of a through body bridge, I would have gone for a Babicz, sorry, Babicz bridge, but as this is a fretless bass, with flatwounds which I would not like to put through a 90 degree bend that might damage the tape covering. Maybe I'm wrong, but the Schaller looks like a quality piece of engineering and will enable to get the stings spacing closer to what I'm used to. (Rickenbackers, Hofner and Steinberger, all of which have narrow string spacing)
Jack Rout: 3/4" (19mm) Side Jack Hole
Neck Pocket: Standard Bass Pocket
Mounting Holes: Standard 4 Bolt
Contours: Contoured Heel / Tummy Cut $35.00 **Actually I don't think this makes much difference on a bass, I'm not sure I'd bother next time, I did make sure to order the special screws from Warmoth!
 
amigarobbo said:
  **I've had a look at some youtube videos, and even through that I'd prefer the (very,very) slight improvement of a through body bridge, I would have gone for a Babicz, sorry, Babicz bridge

ROTFLMAO!

Those guys have a rather severe ego problem, amiright? I mean, they're relatively nice parts, but, come on!
 
speaking of purple rain, do you guys remember this?

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I wonder if she still has that thing.  The guitar that is.
 
Very quickly done video, just noodling about, the guy next door works nights, to it's a bit quiet, but you get the general idea.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnMyl6yihKY[/youtube]


Just waiting on the knobs now.  :icon_jokercolor:

Talking about which, sorry about the Crotch-cam angle.
 
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