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Hi! Thought I'd share a P bass build. There may not be a lot of interest in this thread, since I'm a beginner(3rd instrument from scratch), and since this is a straight ahead P Bass build, not something more unique. But I'm trying to do my part to promote this area of the forum as best I can.
The wood for this comes from a very old piece of antique furniture. My mother-in-law, who used to be in the antiques trade, gave it to me. She says it's at least 100 years old. I believe her. I've never seen or worked a more well seasoned( very dry) piece of wood in my life. It also weighs next to nothing.
I had to laminate the body to make a blank thick enough to use. The wood was slightly over 3/4" thick. After glue up and level sanding of both sides, it comes in a 1.5" thick. A little thin, but good enough for me. I won't bore you with pics of that process(since I don't have any, lol). Here it is with the body shape drawn on the blank.



After rough cutting with the jigsaw.



After routing to the template.



Using the template to mark the location for the forearm contour.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

Forearm contour done.



Belly cut.



Hit it with a roundover bit.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

A little deep with the roundover bit, but otherwise - spot on!~

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Saw that, huh? I only have a 1/4" roundover bit. Really need a 1/2" or 7/16" for this. So I routed it a little deeper so the roundover will come out larger.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

Some pics after sanding.









Will post more tomorrow. Thanks for looking.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

Looking good!

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Brad
Avon, OH

Nice, Mike!
Contours look great.
That's a nice wide piece of pine.
Looks like you're joining the softwood git body club!

Well done! Keep us posted.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Thanks a lot, guys!
Alan,it's not as wide as you might think. The blank was actually 4 pieces. both halves were joined to give me the width I needed, and then they were sandwiched together to give me the thickness.
As for the softwood git club, I'm proud to be a member. As you know, I build with whatever I can find. And while I would hesitate building with pine from the local lumber place, this stuff is so old and well seasoned that it was just begging me to build with it.
The only problem I can see is the possibility of neck dive. The body weighs about 2 lbs as it sits. Won't be a problem for me. My aging back will welcome the lightness, lol.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

Time to start on the neck. Here it is drawn out on the blank.



A closeup of the headstock.



Pilot drilling for the tuner holes.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

Follow that up with the proper sized bit.



I drill part way through from the front, then flip it and drill the rest from the back.
Here's the neck after rough cutting with the jigsaw.



Once it is rough cut to shape, I take a pencil and mark hash marks on the side.



Then i take a long sanding beam with some sandpaper attached, and use it to sand the edges of the neck down level and to the line.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

Sorry, double post.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

Looks great Mike. What are your plans for the finish?

Thanks, Mike. Not sure about the finish yet. My original plan was a Chrysler color called Intense Blue Pearl. I already have that color here ask I type. But I have had a couple of folks beg me not to finish it in a solid color, but instead do something transparent. I will probably go with my original idea, but I'm still running it over in my mind.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

You could always do a little of each...
translucent burst to black.... or blue pearl... or whatever you figgure you can make work...

It took me a while to see the joints top and back.
Nice placement.
Looks like you're using the "thingy" again!

Thanks, guys. Alan, yeah, "Thing" is irreplaceable. If I ever finally get a drill press, it'll take me a while to switch my mind over to it, lol.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

I'm baaack!
So after getting the headstock shaped properly, it was time to thin it down to proper thickness. So I broke out my trusty handsaw...



...and got rid of anything I didn't need.



I spent some time on how I would get the transition from the headstock to the fretboard plane. I don't have a sanding station, or a drill press with a robo sander or luthier's sanding station.
My first thought was to use a half round rasp or file. But then, roaming around Lowes, I spotted this.



Worked like a charm!

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

Now it's time to rout the neck, pickup and electronics cavities. If you look at some of my earlier posts in this thread, you'll see the pup cavity already routed. Originally I had planned for this to be a non pickguard build. Perhaps it's personal bias, but the P Bass is, at least to me, the quintessential bass. When I think of or hear bass, the P is the image that immediately enters my mind. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that, at least for me, the pickguard is a huge part of the bass's look and design. And since this build is to be my personal instrument......

Template attached...



...and cavities routed.

_________________
Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

Time to rout for the truss rod slot.



Adjustment will be at the heel.



Glueing up the fretboard.



and routed for truss rod access at heel.



That's all for today. Thanks for looking. Hope you've enjoyed it so far.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

Nice figure in that neck wood!
One good thing about the pick guard done that way is that it's all together,
easy to pull out and everything.
Leo wasn't no dummy..

Yeah, I got lucky on that. But it looks like I lost a lot of the figure on the headstock when I thicknessed it. I've never worked figured wood before, so I don't know, it may still be there, and might show up after I sand it to 220. I hope so.



I was trying to be a little different and go sans guard, but the P bass is such an icon to me, that it just looks wrong without the guard. In the end, on my personal instrument, I want that guard!
And yeah, having it all together in one place is nice, too. And no, Leo definately wasn't a dummy. What gets me about him, is that, according to most sources, Leo wasn't even a player. Yet he created some of the best loved (and copied)guitars and basses out there.
When it comes to bass, there's Leo's, and then there's everything else. And a great majority of them are trying to recreate what he did.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

Sorry there have been no updates lately. I have been pretty busy with other things, and haven't had time to return to work on this. Hopefully I'll be able to get some more work done on it tomorrow, weather permitting. This build is still in progress. Stay tuned!

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

Yup. I used to tell my clients Leo was just a smart cookie with a screwdriver in his pocket.
When they asked if he played, I usually told them he couldn't even hold a pick.

And as a bassist, I did love P-basses immensely, until I built a Jazz body. More comfortable, and better looking in my opinion. Never did like Jazz necks - too narrow. Preferred something about 1 3/4 inches wide.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Not a fan of the Jazz neck. I know a lot of players tout that feature, but to me, like you, it's way too narrow.
As for the Jazz body, i love that. But I absolutely cannot stand the pickup configuration. Single coils can be noisy. And unless you have both pickups adjusted to close to the same volume, they're even noisier. Give me a good P pickup any day of the week.
I'm actually contemplating building a Jazz body/P neck bass with P pickup in the future. I think that would be, for me, the best of both worlds. But nothing will ever replace the mighty P bass for me, lol.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.