Request for advice regarding bass-scale fret templates

Kalimna

Greetings folks,

Following on from last years' 3/4 guitar duo, I am after a new 'Christmas' project, and the first one will be a 3/4 bass guitar for my eldest boy. To that end, does anyone know where I can source notched fret templates to fit the Stew-Mac mitre jig? I realise I could order from StewMac, but I reckon that postal/customs/exchange costs would be prohibitive, and Im sure Ive seen them over this side somewhere.

On a related note, what fretwire would be the recommendation, given that my experience of playing a bass guitar is zero?

Many thanks in advance, and for any/all future queries

Adam

WezV

Have you tried G&W in Portugal 

https://guitarsandwoods.com/

Kalimna

Ahhh, that's who I was thinking of! Cheers WezV

And regarding the fretwire?

Bridgehouse

What sort of frets do you like?  

Bit like Guitar - some like small and skinny, others fat and chunky..

Kalimna

And there's the rub. I have no experience of bass guitar playing. If it were for a guitar, then frets on the chunkier side would be my preference. Perhaps the other consideration is that it would be intended for an 8 yr old, who will have no preference whatsoever right now.

Cheers,

Adam

Bridgehouse

Kalimna said:

And there's the rub. I have no experience of bass guitar playing. If it were for a guitar, then frets on the chunkier side would be my preference. Perhaps the other consideration is that it would be intended for an 8 yr old, who will have no preference whatsoever right now.

Cheers,

Adam

I’d stick with something simple and common then. I’ve got an old 60s Precision with tiny fretwire on - would be a challenge for a beginner but the slides and glissando it delivers is close to fretless!

Andyjr1515

A 3/4 full size bass is 25.5" - Fender strat  size. G&W do an acrylic dual 25.5 & 25" one for 11 euros and a steel one for 17 euros. 
Means you can build the bass then build yourself a PRS!

Kalimna

Interesting. The mini-bass's i checked out (ESP and Fender had a 28.5" scale). As it happens, i do have a template for the scales you mentioned (bought back when it was nearer to 2$/£). Hmmm room for thought.
Cheers,
Adam

Andyjr1515

I'm just going on the basis that 3/4 of 34 is 25.5 

The problem, of course may be getting hold of suitable strings.  Maybe their mini basses are the smallest that readily available short scale strings will fit.  Have a peep at string lengths available first, just in case - although Newtone would make you a set if needs be anyway.

Sporky

Andyjr1515 said:

I'm just going on the basis that 3/4 of 34 is 25.5 

I do like that you think there's logic involved! 

Certainly for cello et al the scales aren't literal. 

GSPBASSES

 Quite a few years ago now I tried to make a small bass my grandson, failed miserably. The main reason being I wanted a 26"scale, having built the prototype the biggest problem was finding strings. I wanted the bass to be tuned conventionally E A D G, but at that scale it couldn't be done. The closest I got was to use very heavy gauge baritone strings, but to be honest tension on the strings wasn't right, to floppy. If I tuned up a couple of semitones the tension come right but didn't sound a bit like a bass, it did sound a bit like the Fender six bass, that would be all right if you wanted to play Jet Harris type music.

 

   After a lot of experimenting, I decided 30" was about the shortest scale that sounded like a bass, which still had good string tension.

 

   I  then decided as my grandson was quite small was to build a bass with a very small body something like the Sei Bass with a 30" scale (https://thebassgallery.com/collections/bass/products/sei-bass-original-short-scale). This worked out brilliantly, I didn't use all the fancy woods that Sei basses are normally made of, also I didn't have a through neck on it, I used to set neck three-piece quarter sawn maple set on a light Ash body, single P-Bass pickup.

Andyjr1515

GSPBASSES said:

 Quite a few years ago now I tried to make a small bass my grandson, failed miserably. The main reason being I wanted a 26"scale, having built the prototype the biggest problem was finding strings. I wanted the bass to be tuned conventionally E A D G, but at that scale it couldn't be done. The closest I got was to use very heavy gauge baritone strings, but to be honest tension on the strings wasn't right, to floppy. If I tuned up a couple of semitones the tension come right but didn't sound a bit like a bass, it did sound a bit like the Fender six bass, that would be all right if you wanted to play Jet Harris type music.

 

   After a lot of experimenting, I decided 30" was about the shortest scale that sounded like a bass, which still had good string tension.

 

   I  then decided as my grandson was quite small was to build a bass with a very small body something like the Sei Bass with a 30" scale (https://thebassgallery.com/collections/bass/products/sei-bass-original-short-scale). This worked out brilliantly, I didn't use all the fancy woods that Sei basses are normally made of, also I didn't have a through neck on it, I used to set neck three-piece quarter sawn maple set on a light Ash body, single P-Bass pickup.

Makes a lot of sense 

Andyjr1515

Sporky said:

Andyjr1515 said:

I'm just going on the basis that 3/4 of 34 is 25.5 

I do like that you think there's logic involved! 

Certainly for cello et al the scales aren't literal. 

I live in hope 

Like I'm sure there's a logic as to why all J-bass type pickups from different suppliers, and sometimes even from the same supplier, are all just slightly different sizes to each other... 

Kalimna

Thanks for the advice chaps - GSPBasses in particular (your post makes a lot of sense, and I recall one of the very first Guitarist mags I bought featured a Sei bass which got me thinking how utterly ridiculous the price was!).

30" it is then. Small body too. The guitars I built were made from horse chestnut which seems very lightweight, so may go there again.

Cheers,

Adam

Andyjr1515

Kalimna said:

Thanks for the advice chaps - GSPBasses in particular (your post makes a lot of sense, and I recall one of the very first Guitarist mags I bought featured a Sei bass which got me thinking how utterly ridiculous the price was!).

30" it is then. Small body too. The guitars I built were made from horse chestnut which seems very lightweight, so may go there again.

Cheers,

Adam

If you place the bridge well back (think Cort Curbow) then the fretboard comes back an inch or two compared with many other designs and the arm reach is also therefore reduced accordingly - arm reach to the first fret is often as big an issue to a smaller player on a bass as finger stretch...