My Maple neck PBASS

So this is what I received last week. Did want the Ash body but as it's a test bed for another bass I am putting together I kinda couldn't take the delay so just got the basswood version. Still waiting on my finishing materials (ordered Crimson Guitars white stunning stains and finishing oil, heard really good things about it).

Plans for this bass are to get practice in finishing and install lace p bass alumitone pups to get an idea of what kind of body wood I will get. Was thinking of getting a spalted maple topped body but locally we have access to African mahogany and maybe even mango wood so I might just build one from scratch.

This is the tools I bought to do the job. The sander I chose because as it's a 1/4 sheet I can purchase sheets of sandpaper and should be cheaper over the long run. 3 year warranty is also a good thing (was wanting to get the detail sander but had none in stock). The drill was chosen as it's powerful enough to do even masonry and is a rebadged Einhell tool (a reputable German brand) with a 5 year warranty so hopefully it will last. Also in the range is a nice jigsaw which I will probably get as it's inexpensive and will probably get use out of. The drill bits were only $24 and covers most of the smaller sizes with spares incase of breakage.

kit and plans looks good Burn George. Love the sound of the scratch build too. Look forward to see how the Crimson white finish goes on the basswood

The main reason for a practice build is that the real build is going to use expensive parts so definitely worth doing a cheap build first. Already have $500 into that build without a body. Managed to score a fender 2004 mij 62 reissue p bass neck for $50 so that was my start point (was offered it for my last resto project, an 83ish daion p bass). Definitely going high end with that one and was looking at getting a body sorta like this but with a rear rout (kinda like they did on 80's metal p basses). Seems stupid to build something with that nice wood and put a pickguard on it. Like the one in the link

http://spaltking.com/images/spalt_im...s/IMG_9993.JPG

Good luck BurnGeorge.. that will be a good kit to practice on as the basswood is very easy to sand and finish. I am working on a PBH-4 kit with an ash body and the grain patterns are a hope and a prayer of getting a good figured one. Mine has three pieces and two of the three look killer but the one in the middle doesn't match that well so I will have to do some work to make it blend well. You won't have that problem with mahogany, basswood but not familiar with mango.. can't wait to see your progress

One tip about and drilling in basswood that I learned the hard way. If you are drilling new holes you may want to drill with the drill in reverse direction unless your bits are brad point bits as the basswood tears out very easily. I experienced this when drilling my string thru bridge holes and had to do some repair work.. you may already know this but just making sure. Drilling in reverse direction takes a little more time but make a very clean hole in softwoods.

Btw thanks for the encouraging words. As for the headstock flirting with the idea of going with something like this as it's a bit different. Apart from that white stain I am going to experiment with adding some neon green glow in the dark powder to the finishing oil which I will test on some offcuts as I think it would look cool. Here's a link to the powder

https://www.glowinggecko.com.au/prod...nt=20193833667

Drummerdude will take that into consideration when I drill. Still haven't made up my mind on the wood for the main build but I am after stunning looking wood. There's a local tree lopping business that sells slabs of African mahogany (plenty of these trees were planted in the aftermath of cyclone Tracy) so I know that's available, mango wood I'm not 100% sure of availability wise but looks good. Also not sure if I will keep it or sell so trying to make a high end bass that I can make some profit on (and figure local wood if it looks good is going to be a good selling point).

Where are you located? I have two bass kits to complete and then I am gonna build a scratch body as well to get a killer piece of wood. Can't wait to see what you choose.