Medium Scale J Bass

[bob7point7]

Woo! The parts just arrived for my 32" scale J bass! I've attached pics comparing it to my long scale bass. Here are my impressions:

The parts are beautiful - typical Warmoth. The sunburst is much nicer than the Fender. The neck is canary/pau ferro, but the canary is more pale than my canary Tele neck (a little oil may change that).

The body and tuners are both super light, and the neck itself doesn't seem overly heavy. I think this thing will be pretty easy on the back. They really did a nice job of scaling this thing down while keeping the J bass look. Everything looks very proportional.

I can't wait to get this thing put together and try it out!

-Bobbie

 

[Nando Vallart]

Very very nice!!
Tell us what you think about it! Some guys here are really interested on it! Are you using the same pickups as the 34" JB??

 

[bob7point7]

I'll be sure post my impressions once it's assembled. Yes, I'll be pulling the pickups (SD Classic Stacks) preamp (Audere) and bridge (Gotoh) from the 34" bass. If I like the 32" bass as much as I think I will, the 34"er will be put back to stock and sold.

Thanks,
-Bobbie

 

[JimBeed]

Shame, if i was going music man route with my z instead of a three jazz pickup almost, i would of loved that jazz neck and body haha, plus i cant justify a third bass at the moment, but hope the 32 turns out well!

 

[OzziePete]

I think you are the first one to post a project with the shorter scaled basses on this forum, so there'll be a lot of interest on how it all goes together and sounds. You're right, the scaling down does look vey well managed.

 

[bob7point7]

Just a quick update: I got most of the way through the assembly last night. I've had 3 small issues so far. 1. The hole for the jack was drilled a towards the top rather than being centered in the body. I was able to compensate a little bit by not centering the jack plate over the hole. 2. The football jack plate does not have enough curvature to match the J bass body. I massaged it with a mallet and a piece of wood cut to match the J bass body, which got it pretty close. 3. The 'V' in the pickguard didn't match up with the chrome control plate. When the control plate was touching the pickguard in the middle of the V, the edges were 1/16"~1/8" from touching. A little work with a file took car of this.

Despite these small issues, I'm very happy with how it's turning out. It's lightweight, well balanced, and looks fantastic. A little orange oil really brought out the richness of the canary. All that's left is wiring, stringing, and setup!

-Bobbie

 

[Nando Vallart]

PICS!!! hehehehe

I think people at Warmoth would like to hear these problems, would be good to email them with it!

 

[bob7point7]

Yeah, I was thinking about contacting them. The problems with the jack hole and plate didn't bother me much since this bass is supposed to have the jack mounted in the control plate anyway, but the pickguard thing was a little irritating and should be easy for them to fix. I should have taken a picture of the mismatch before I modified it, but I was on a roll and didn't think about stopping to snap a photo. I'm sure this will all seem trivial once I'm actually playing it!

Thanks,
-Bobbie

 

[SacredGroove]

I'm going to be trying this on the first of next month! 'll post the results.

 

[RIPeturs]

Smashing build so far, would love to see what that orange oil did to the canary. :rock-on:

 

[bob7point7]

If you guys want to see the pics of this bass you can check them out here: http://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=13267.0

RIPetrus: The orange oil definitely makes the colors in the canary a little more deep and rich. It's a subtle difference, but it's nice.