Medium Scale Jazz Build

Bridgehouse

A select few of you will know that I had a fairly serious health incident quite recently, and over the past month or so I've been spending a lot more time at home recuperating. I'm building work back up now, but one of the things advised was to spend plenty of down time relaxing but being active. 

I thought another bass build would be a good idea, and so I contacted the man himself (@GSPBASSES) to see if he had any projects kicking around whilst he was winding down ready for retirement. 

One suggestion was a Medium Scale Jazz neck and body. Interesting I thought - I've never had a medium scale bass of any description. I've had 30" short scale, but never 32" medium scale. Also, this was a maple board and rear control route so would make for a rather different looking and feeling bass generally. 

Well, needless to say it'll shortly be on it's way to me, and the process of gathering parts and planning has started.

Here's a sneak preview of the neck and body - photo from Graham on the bench 

Bridgehouse

After a conversation over on Basschat a very nice chap sent me a set of Knobs. 

I'm going to go for a multi-coloured stain with wipe on finish - probably Crimson Guitars, and I thought cream knobs and cream pickup covers would be a good contrast, with black bridge/tuners. 

Anyway, they turned up yesterday.. they are quite a bit more cream than they look in this photo tho..

Bridgehouse

There's a set of cream pickup covers on the way, and I'm going to use the Custom Shop set I took out of the recent Jazz purchase. Which pretty much leaves a bridge, some tuners and some stain/oil to get. Oh, and some electrics as well...

More to follow!

guitargeek62

Well that looks lovely! I'm getting serious Joe Dart vibes with that hardware:

Bridgehouse

guitargeek62 said:

Well that looks lovely! I'm getting serious Joe Dart vibes with that hardware:

Yeah - now I like that contrast. I'm thinking a colour rather than natural, but that's the sort of thing.

I could have stuck to what I know and gone Danish Oil and black all over:



..but I really want to try something a bit different.

Bridgehouse

Ordered some cream pickup covers, which arrived. Not a perfect colour match to the knobs, but close enough and will do the job!

Bridgehouse

Also, a couple of packages arrived today as well...

Bridgehouse

One was the neck (dur!)...

It's definitely a bit shorter (!) than usual, but looks great though

Bridgehouse

And then the body...

It's definitely got a really nice edge contour to it - more than the usual Jazz bass. Definitely a bit modern. 

paulnb57

Nice project, I love the grain on the body, I guess its Swamp Ash? I like to spray paint Swamp Ash, as few coats as I can get away with, no sealer, no primer and let it sink into the grain. It should look great stained and oiled, being one of Grahams creations it will be a nice base to work from, looking forward to seeing progress..

Bridgehouse

Well, I've ordered the full set of Crimson's Stunning Stains (12 in total) and a bag of scrap Ash offcuts so I can try a bunch of different combinations and colours to see what would suit..

In the meantime I've also tried a few mock-ups just to get a feel for it..

impmann

Thats lovely...

I've used the green crimson stain on this and it looks ace:



I finished over the top with Tru Oil and its really held up well (was used on heavy rotation around work for a while - and was gigged by a mate).

BTW - I hadn't heard you'd been ill, mate - I hope you're on the mend. 

Bridgehouse

impmann said:

Thats lovely...

I've used the green crimson stain on this and it looks ace:



I finished over the top with Tru Oil and its really held up well (was used on heavy rotation around work for a while - and was gigged by a mate).

BTW - I hadn't heard you'd been ill, mate - I hope you're on the mend. 

That's a lovely stain on that Tele!!! I'm thinking I might try their finishing oil as well and see how it goes. I've used Tru Oil and like it, but it can take a while to build up.

Feeling better now but probably 6 months before I'm back to normal. 

Bridgehouse

Today's oddball project related delivery:



A box of Ash offcuts from eBay for £8. 

I've ordered the 12 Crimson Stain Shots and I'm going to experiment with different colours and combos on these offcuts to see how they look. 

Should produce some interesting results!

Bridgehouse

Shots arrived from Crimson.

Started by getting the dilution rate right. Here's 3, 6 and 9 drops in 100ml of water:



10 drops in 100ml should be about right, so here's the first colour Phthalo Blue firstly wet, then dry:

Bridgehouse

Next up is Green:



And the colours do contrast nicely when put side to side:

Bridgehouse

Black next - which is an interesting one - it is quite light and I suspect a deep black would need a much more concentrated solution:

Bridgehouse

Next up is Yellow: 

Bridgehouse

Final one for today before the light failed and I timed out was Crimson

Bridgehouse

Here's all of this first batch together, first outside in the (failing) light and inside under artificial light:

Bridgehouse

7 more to go, which I'll hopefully do tomorrow/at the weekend, and then start combining colours...