Considering building a bass

[rauchman]

Greetings,

Looking for bass building advice. I rarely play bass, but when recording my stuff, I'll do the bass tracks. I enjoy playing bass too, as I originally started on one waaaaaaaaay back, and then quickly transitioned to guitar.

I have a Fender MIM PJ bass (marries the P bass with the Jazz bass pickups), and I like the sound, but the neck is kinda big as is the whole bass. I've a mid tier Ibanez something or other that I loved playing, but it had some electronic gremlins.

I am very not versed in the nerdiness of bass specs, vs I'm pretty well versed in 6 string guitar nerdiness.

I'd think I'd be going for a 4 string due to nut width. Which begs the question, what is a standard nut width for a 4 string bass? 5 string?

Pickups - I know zero about for bass pups, except for most offerings seem to have active pickups. I do not want active pickups. I hate the idea of having to need batteries. Are there pickups that "rock" that are not active? As for tone, again, this is where I acknowledge my lack of bass nerdiness.

Neck length - I like the idea of shorter neck, but not sure how that impacts tone? I'd guess it's kinda like a 25.5" scale vs 24.75" scale tonal differences. More spank on the longer length?

Warmoth specific - "W" has what looks like a very cool offerings in their Gecko (yeah, I know it's a 5 string), but I don't understand the differences between the small, medium and wide bodies? Is this relative to a neck length or sizing?

Hardware - Recommended bridges and what not, again, my lack of bass nerdiness is showing

Greatly appreciated

 

[Jebberz]

Hello

I played and owned many different basses over the last 35 years. Here my insight regarding few of your questions.

For the scale lenght, it makes a slight difference. Shors scale tends to have a stronger fundamental and less harmonics, though the choice of strings makes a biffer difference than Scale Length. My advice on this one is choose what will be most comfortable. I really like 32" scale myself, but coming from guitar, you might find 30" comfortable.

For the pickups, passive pickus totally rocks. Quality passive tends to sound best that cheap ative in my opinion. My favorite one for passive ewith a tone that rocks are Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounds. I owned a P-Bass and also a Jazz with those pickups, and the sound was just perfect. And very versatile too. Precision, Jazz, or PJ configuration are the most used, ans unless looking for a specific sound (like Music Man) they will do the job. Don't cheap on the pickups, but thee is no need to go active to have a good sound.

For the nut, threre are P and J standard, J being narrower, and sometimes more comfortable (it is a mattter of personnal taste).

Hardware : good quality tuner is a must. I tend to prefer for the bridge the traditionnal fender bridge, but I know people that prefer a High Mass bridge.

 

[aarontunes]

I agree that Duncan Quarter Pounders are great pickups.

J or P style is the way to go for recording, IMO.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

Love my J5 with the EMG’s, and simple control layout of one volume, one blend, and the truth.

Love to see all the different variations that people come up with, looking forward to seeing yours.

 

[Bruce Campbell]

Hello

I played and owned many different basses over the last 35 years. Here my insight regarding few of your questions.

For the scale lenght, it makes a slight difference. Shors scale tends to have a stronger fundamental and less harmonics, though the choice of strings makes a biffer difference than Scale Length. My advice on this one is choose what will be most comfortable. I really like 32" scale myself, but coming from guitar, you might find 30" comfortable.

For the pickups, passive pickus totally rocks. Quality passive tends to sound best that cheap ative in my opinion. My favorite one for passive ewith a tone that rocks are Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounds. I owned a P-Bass and also a Jazz with those pickups, and the sound was just perfect. And very versatile too. Precision, Jazz, or PJ configuration are the most used, ans unless looking for a specific sound (like Music Man) they will do the job. Don't cheap on the pickups, but thee is no need to go active to have a good sound.

For the nut, threre are P and J standard, J being narrower, and sometimes more comfortable (it is a mattter of personnal taste).

Hardware : good quality tuner is a must. I tend to prefer for the bridge the traditionnal fender bridge, but I know people that prefer a High Mass bridge.

These are excellent guidelines IMO. As many wiser forum members have echoed before, one more thing to consider with scale length, nut width, and neck size is that they influence the feel of each other - the shorter the scale length, the wider of a nut and larger of a neck back profile you may be comfortable with. Personally the standard P-bass wide nut and 34" scale are combined more than my hand likes to deal with - it prefers the Jazz nut width/neck with a 34" scale. On a shorter scale, I wouldn't be surprised if the bigger neck & wider nut felt more appropriate to me.

 

[stratamania]

I'd think I'd be going for a 4 string due to nut width. Which begs the question, what is a standard nut width for a 4 string bass? 5 string?

It depends on the bass. A P Bass neck will be wider than a J Bass for example. Have a gander through the showcase and bass builders.

I prefer the J Bass of those two.

 

[WarmothRules]

Longer scale will be clearer more bright. As far as rocking passive pickups I highly recommend dimarzio model J for the neck and the bridge. They are hum cancelling passive jazz pickups. You could go short scale or medium scale. Tone woods matter for bass. You can make a shorter scale bass brighter with either an ash or maple body and a maple neck with ebony fret board. If you want real easy playability just go for the warmoth 30 inch scale and maple neck and maple body with ebony fretboard and a pair of dimarzio model J pickups. If it’s going to be a non painted body just pick a lam top to make it look nicer.

 

[rauchman]

Awesome info all.....thank you

Any recommendations on a bridge?

 

[Jebberz]

Awesome info all.....thank you

Any recommendations on a bridge?

I always prefered the simplicity of a "Standard" bridge, just be sure to buy a good quality one

Warmoth sells this one which is more than decent

https://warmoth.com/g201

 

[u.9]

Warmoth specific - "W" has what looks like a very cool offerings in their Gecko (yeah, I know it's a 5 string), but I don't understand the differences between the small, medium and wide bodies? Is this relative to a neck length or sizing?

I'd still like to see an answer for this as well, please...

 

[Jebberz]

Neck size from different Geckos:

Small:

• 1-7/8" (48mm) nut width
• 2-7/8" (73mm) wide at 24th fret

Medium:

• 1-7/8" (48mm) nut width
• 3" (76mm) wide at 24th fret

Wide:

• 2-3/16" (56mm) nut width
• 3-1/8" (79mm) wide at 24th fret

Also, all Geckos are 35' scale length and 5 strings (or 6 strings) and will only fit the corresponding body.

Similar to Gecko for 4 strings is the G4 (available as regular or short scale body) - you will miss however the cool gecko inlay...

 

[WarmothRules]

Awesome info all.....thank you

Any recommendations on a bridge?

I’d recommend the Schaller fixed bass bridge warmoth offers. The string spacing adjustment feature is amazing.

 

[NedRyerson]

My primary basses are Conklin GrooveTools, a GT-4 and a GT-5 (they show up on Reverb somewhat regularly in low volumes, and it's hard not to try to save them all ). The 4-string has a 1 5/8" nut and the 5-string is 1 3/4". At the 24th fret (for comparison's sake with Jebberz' post about the Gecko's measurements), the 4 is 2 1/2" at the 24th, the 5 is 2 3/4". But I don't play that high.

I play some harmonies and complementary fills up near the middle of the fretboard, playing between frets 9 - 15 but rarely higher than that. The neck profile is also very thin on both of them.

I can play both very comfortably, though I suppose comparatively speaking, I do have mid-length, narrow fingers. I use them as the litmus test for bass specs, which will govern what my first scratch-build bass will be like.

 

[ghotiphry]

My favorite bridge is the badass 2, which I think is still unavailable and has been reincarnated as the omega. Solid as a rock and looks cool as hell.

My go to tuners are the fender f-stamps. Solid as a rock, and look cool as hell. These have a couple pin holes that need drilling, just FYI.

I've owned the quarter pounders in a p bass. Always thought they were a bit too fat sounding, but that's just me. I guess I'm just more into the traditional sounds of a good jazz or precision config. I've also done active before with John East and Audere, but imo passive just sound better. More organic.

Pickups are subjective. Fralin and Nordstrand are my personal favorites, although I've got more mooncasters than those, and they are TV Jones only. My suggestion? Decide on the tone you want and go listen to some YouTube comparisons. Pay attention to string selection when listening, it makes a big difference.

At the end, when you're all done and consider the bass finished, experiment with strings.

And yes, I absolutely love my mooncasters. All with 30" necks.

 

[stratamania]

Warmoth specific - "W" has what looks like a very cool offerings in their Gecko (yeah, I know it's a 5 string), but I don't understand the differences between the small, medium and wide bodies? Is this relative to a neck length or sizing?

I'd still like to see an answer for this as well, please...

The difference is related to the string spacing and width of the neck. Small, medium, and wide go from narrower to wider. You also need to use a corresponding size neck. At the 22nd fret dimensions at the 22nd fret is small - 2 7/8", medium - 3", wide - 3 1/8".

Small and Wide need a different bridge. Medium tends to work with both bridges Warmoth offers.

Check the details sections of the custom builders for more information.