Can't look in her eyes / She's out of my league~

[Schlieren]

Tele bass headstock, reverse right-handed (why the heck not, keepin' it funky y'all)
Padouk neck / Goncalo Alves fretboard (an ~individual choice~ board)
Abalone inlay, SS 6615 frets
24 fret extension (mostly because I like abalone inlay)
black TUSQ nut

Here's a teaser:

Here's a link to an imgur album of photos of the bass neck:

http://imgur.com/a/MJWcH

The first few are brighter in the day on a dry neck, the next few are later in the (more overcast) day with a few aggressive coats of lemon oil.

It's going on an SX swamp ash J-bass body I'm currently re-finishing with some Behlen master gel.

Other stats of interest:

Lollipop key Ultralites
Nordstrand NJ4SV neck
Delano Delano Xtender 4 D/HE-M2 - 4 String Splitcoil Humbucker (gonna have to rout that out spayshul)
electronics: not sure yet, but probably series / parallel for each individual pickup (?), along with series / parallel for the sum of the pickups as well as in-phase, out-of-phase, using two DPDT pots and a switch most likely, and a Stellar Tonestyler (I LIKE OPTIONS OK)

Will post pics as progress occurs...

 

[Schlieren]

A thought: that Padouk is going to look much better in combination with the GA once it oxidizes a bit.  I was really torn between Bloodwood / Padouk and went with my pops' suggestion and now that I see how the red in the Padouk kinda clashes with the GA, I'm glad I didn't go with the super-duper red of the Bloodwood.

It's just gonna get better  :glasses10:


OH I forgot to mention 1 3/4" width / slim taper.  I really like how that feels and even though I've got long spindley fingers, I really think that thin, wide-ish fretboards are more comfortable to my hands than thick, narrow ones.

OH I forgot to mention: graphite support truss rods.  The neck... I'd be surprised if it weighed more than 2.5 pounds.  I should weigh it at work and see

The Tele clone guitar I built (someday I'll post a finished product thread, once I get a few electronics / knobs things finalized and once I finally get the neck plate engraved) was dubbed The Thirsty Whore by my pops (I've leaned on him for some aesthetic choices with my builds).  This one I've decided to dub She's Like The Wind~

 

[bagman67]

That's a mindboggling slice of goncalo ya got there.  Looking forward to where you take this next.  I concur that some of the more, er, spirited colors of exotic lumber don't do as well mated with highly figured fancy parts.

 

[Disco Scottie]

I looked at the pic before reading the details and thought it was zebrawood!

 

[line6man]

This is quite possibly one of the nicest fretboards I have ever seen! :icon_thumright:

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

I've got 2 righty reverse headstocks and a 3rd in the mail.  I ain't got the cahones for a reverse Tele bass headstock though.  You win this one...for now.  LOL

 

[Doughboy]

WOW!!!!! Just W O W ! ! ! !

That's one of the most beautiful fingerboards I have ever seen & has me jonesing for one now.

Was this picked up from the list of fingerboards on the site or did Warmoth pick it out for you.

Bu really, WOW!!!! Just freeeeaaaking  WOW!!!!!!  :blob7:

 

[KainThornn]

That fingerboard is hypnotic, excellent choice!

 

[NonsenseTele]

Lovely!!

 

[OzziePete]

Wow that really is a beautiful neck.  :blob7: :blob7: :blob7:

Love the edging of the fretboard and the figuring following through on the edge, looks wonderful.

I think the redness of the Padouk will settle down in time to a more mellower brownish colour....so I wouldn't worry about the brightness of that at this stage.

 

[Schlieren]

I've got 2 righty reverse headstocks and a 3rd in the mail.  I ain't got the cahones for a reverse Tele bass headstock though.  You win this one...for now.  LOL

My Warmoth guitar has a reverse Tele headstock... the bridge pickup, the pickguard, the strat controls, the strat pickup switch all basically go from bottom left to top right, and so does the headstock, so there's a rhythm to it of a repeated motif.  Honestly to my eyes it doesn't look much like a backwards headstock at this point, but kinda more like its own thing.

At first it was just going to be a regular J-bass headstock, but the more I thought about it the more I felt like doing something else.  I'm a sucker for the Tele headstock shape - it really looks elegant to me - but on a bass it looks a little bit pinched.  We'll see.  I know the aesthetics are kinda out there, but I have zero intention of ever selling a Warmoth instrument, so why not branch out a bit?

WOW!!!!! Just W O W ! ! ! !

That's one of the most beautiful fingerboards I have ever seen & has me jonesing for one now.

Was this picked up from the list of fingerboards on the site or did Warmoth pick it out for you.

Bu really, WOW!!!! Just freeeeaaaking  WOW!!!!!!  :blob7:

They had two really similar ones for quite some time and then they only had one, so I jumped on it, but yeah it was one of the "unique choices".  I thought it was going to be more of a dark wood with light streaks, but it turns out in person it's much more a light wood with dark streaks, if you get my meaning.

It is really pretty though... I keep picking it up and feeling how light it is and how nice the wood feels in my hands and can't wait to play it

 

[Cagey]

That thing looks so good, if I didn't know any better I'd say it was fake. Just an amazing piece of GC.

 

[tomroffey666]

Oh my that is the most beautiful fretboard i've seen! Love the inlays as well!

 

[Corey P.]

Gorgeous wood!

 

[llmtelecaster]

I got nothin but love for the reverse headstocks.

 

[DustyCat]

:rock-on:

 

[Schlieren]

I guess this could be moved to the work-in-progress subforum...  :icon_scratch:


Well I finally got the body I chose to use back from the guitar shop.  I had them do the following:

• Fill the bridge pickup cavity with a nice piece of bubinga <--they put a thickness of about 1/4" worth of bubinga in there, what is behind it I'm not sure (I'll have to ask Monday).  The fit is tight though.
• ream the tuner holes to fit these Ultralites (I called Warmoth and asked which diameter to use and they gave me the wrong one) <--the rear of the holes on the headstock are bigger than the body of the tuners, so they show
• drill new holes for the neck pocket <--this was done well
• put in some threaded inserts <--there was tearout on the wood here so this was done sloppily
• shim the body so the neck fit (cheap chinese body but it's got mojo) <--i dont have a photo of this yet but it fits "O.K.".  Not as tight as a Warmoth neck to a Warmoth body.

.
.
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Needless to say, considering the 8 weeks I waited and the money I paid, I was a bit disappointed after taking everything home and getting a careful look at it.  A few things I asked were one-off things that hadn't probably been done very often, but this place came as highly recommended as could be.  Oh well, I won't let it ruin the experience of building this guitar

Some new photos!

The inserts with tearout.  Not a big deal, but an indication of the time and care put into the work.

The tuning machines with the gaps showing.  If they'd known ahead of time, I assume they would've drilled from the front to a certain depth, keeping the back of the headstock untouched, instead of reaming them all the way out.  Maybe something someone else might've known, in any event, not a huge deal... just another data point - this one excusable - showing the difference between a superlative job worthy of praise (and a name-drop), and simply "better than I could've done" work

Lollipop tuning heads! (plastic not included)  I don't like clovers and I don't like keys, so these work for me

The bubinga insert!  It looks cool as it is.  Hopefully it'll still look cool when I re-rout for the bridge pickup.  I think it gives it a certain slap-dash look that, once the body is finished, will create visual interest.

 

[Schlieren]

Finishing the body!

This thing had some sort of godawful finish that was hell to remove.  I tried a heat gun and that was no good.  So instead I just sanded it all off, sending weird little bits of strange-smelling crap flying everywhere.  Do this outside.

Sanding the back of it.  I took all the original finish off the back and front, but left it on the sides.  Who knows, maybe it'll create some visual interest.  All i know is I wasn't going to hand-sand anything that wasn't a nice, mostly-flat surface.

The parts list!  Naptha and tack cloth, a few old t-shirts, Behlen's Master Gel, sandpaper of all sorts, micromesh or whatever it's called, and those scotch-brite pads (gray and white).  An orbital sander which I probably won't use anymore.

The clamp I use to hold the cut-up piece of t-shirt, folded neatly, so that I don't touch the rag.  I might just try this next time with some latex gloves, since the gel gets tacky really quickly.

"How are you filling the body wood, since it's swamp ash??" you ask.  Well, funny you should ask: I'm doing what this guy does, and wet sanding with my finishing agent (the master gel), creating a slurry of sawdust which i'll work in with the master gel.  Then I'll dry sand this coat off just to the wood, and see how it looks, and then the next coat is my first finish coat.  It's an experiment for me, but to be honest TruOil looked like too much of a pain, with too long of intervals between coats.  We'll see how this goes!

The preliminary naptha wipe-down caught only one nick.  Can you spot it?

That that's all I found gives me confidence I sanded this baby down well.  Since it's getting a custom pickguard, I'm not sweating this nick, and it's small enough that I'm confident my wet-sanding technique will either fill it, or it won't matter, since it'll be beneath the guard.

More photos as I continue finishing the body and then mate it to the neck and the electronics!

 

[DangerousR6]

far right lower corner...Looks absolutely fabulous.... :icon_thumright:

 

[Schlieren]

Close!  The nick is actually dead center.  I sanded it off though, but not for perfectionism's sake  :toothy11:

Here's a general flash-photography overview of the back of the body, done in Behlen's Master Gel.  The glowing praises I've read are all false, and the skepticism all correct.  The stuff has the smell and consistency of rubber cement, as well as the same drying time.  Not a good finish for working on something where perfection is important.  But, I think I might keep it on the back of the guitar as a reminder.

Natural light.  As you can see, it's not terrible, but it isn't particularly great either.  I haven't finish sanded it  yet, I'm going to give it a couple weeks or so while I do the front in TruOil.

As you could see here, the grain-filling strategy I devised didn't work out all that well.  I suppose with ten more coats, it might be smoother, but to be honest, I think it looks O.K. enough.  You can see some sort of streak here, which will get buffed out in the final sanding undoubtedly.

A new experimental finish???  :icon_biggrin:  Just kidding; I noticed I screwed up the front with little fingerprints of finish while doing the back, so I decided to nip that in the bud.  Hopefully the adhesive on the painter's tape likes the master gel...

A very aggressive attempt at grain filling here!  TruOil is just head-and-shoulders a superior product.  The wood drank it up, it smells better, it's of lighter viscosity... you could tell this is more of a gunstock finish rather than a floor or brightwork finish.  I got an idea here as well; instead of merely sanding the front a final time, I also dumped a bunch of the collected sawdust from my random orbital sander onto the body, and created a very thick paste with a bunch of TruOil to fill in the grain on the front.  I'm going to leave this for a couple days to dry good and proper, then sand it down with some 1200 grit just to the surface, leaving the slurry in the grain.  I think this is going to work out much better than the Master Gel.