Arzi's Hybrid Bass "HEMI"

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Originally Posted by Arzi

Hi Andy

Here it' almost impossible to buy small pieces of steel unless you know someone who works with it. And the cost of a square meter is TOO MUCH to spend on a guitar project. And for a reference the pack of smokes costs about 8 euros here after raised taxes in the beginning of the year. An expensive way to ruin one's health and I was a smoker for 20 years. Now have been using a vaporizer for about 5 months and loosing that too when I turn 40. Whitch is in 3,5 months... Too soon..

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Looking good mate, real nice.

A pack of cigs here is about 16-19euro, i dont smoke and havent for 30 years ,but i do like beer and bourbon, in moderation of course.

Wow - and I thought they were expensive here... And just across the border in Estonia or especially russia you get ten packs for 25 euros tax free...

No wonder half of russians seem to smoke....

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Arzi

Hi Andy

Here it' almost impossible to buy small pieces of steel unless you know someone who works with it. And the cost of a square meter is TOO MUCH to spend on a guitar project. And for a reference the pack of smokes costs about 8 euros here after raised taxes in the beginning of the year. An expensive way to ruin one's health and I was a smoker for 20 years. Now have been using a vaporizer for about 5 months and loosing that too when I turn 40. Whitch is in 3,5 months... Too soon..

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Hey Arzi, Tones is bang on. its very expensive here as the govt taxes in Aust on tobacco products increase every 6 months as part of a national heath policy. I am heartened to hear that you are already non-smoker and will do away with your vaporiser soon. Hmmm talented guitar builder and a picture of health has a nice ring to it! ha ha best of luck I too was a smoker for 20 years and am now over 5 years quit, best decision i ever made (only just beats guitar building by a smidge) ;)

Yep

Already I can feel the difference - the amount of pain killers I used for my neck/shoulders/back before quitting has gone down by 80%. A massive effect on blood circulation and no more stiff/numb back. Recommend sincerely to everyone with a back pain to try quitting the "cancer rolls".

Good move, Arzi! It takes a lot of willpower. I smoked for nearly 20 years, quit nearly 10 years ago. I took up cycling about 4 years ago, which has made me feel younger than my nearly 50 years! It's lowered my blood pressure, I don't use anti-inflammatory tablets for back pain, and I can outrun my kids any day.

Anyway, great job on the scratchplate and control panel... you're putting together another quality build!

Hi

Also started cycling last summer after 20 years. Feels great to ride to work and back. Good excercise in the morning going 20km. Makes you wake up properly.

I'll try to post some pics in a couple of days. The TO is going on slowly.

An update

I put on 7 layers of TO with a steel wooling between coats. Was anxious and went with satin finish, assembled the whole thing to see what it will look like. I like it... :)

Did the fretwork on the neck, changed a bone nut, put on the tuning pegs.

Tried to take pictures but for some reason I can't get pics where the colors would be even close to the real deal.

On my next work shift the aim is to finish wiring. I'm gonna go with one volume and one tone with a mini switch to split the humbucker front/series/back in addition to the 4-way Grigsby. With the kind and valuable help from Scott (Weirdbits) I'm able to move forward with this.

I think I'll go with D'addario Chromes on this build. The half rounds I bought to go with my last build are dying on me already. Some notes all across the fretboard on different strings lack sustain and it's not because of a poor fretwork cause they've worked perfectly until last week. Can't recommend those after this. Got the feel of flats now and they are so much more comfortable to play than rounds. I don't know if it goes like: "once you go flat you'll never go back".... The chromes seem to have had great reviews and are selling well.

Anyway - sorry I still don't have any pics for you guys but I'm trying to get good shots for you.

It´s been a while but the whole family have been sick for almost a week - the s**t and puke syndrome a k a gastroenteritis....

But - It´s almost DONE! After the TO had dried I put the pieces together and did the wiring. Too bad the mini switch I had turned out to be broke so I had to bypass it for now. Already took it out to band practice and what can I say except I'm very pleased of the results! Sorry - don't have pics from this stage.

The neck pup is not so muddy that I suspected at first and has some nice growl to it. The single coil on the other hand seems very "thin" compared to the neck pup. Have to maybe raise the pup a bit so that I may get more bass to it (?) - although now it works almost like a bridge pup and works very well with the neck both in series and parallel. Also gives a totally different type of tone by itself. Especially the sound when it´s on series is awesome - had to dial my amp down almost 50% compared to my low power jazz pups!... :)

So far I love the D'addario Chromes - silky smooth strings as!....

These pics are the closest I got to the real color which is a little more gray and darker still. Hope they give some kind of idea on the color though. My first plan was to put a coat of orange on this but it actually looks very much like old used and weather worn + smoked wood and I just could not hide it.

My plan is to make the truss rod cover from the same wood I have left from the body and finish it the same way to put some of the color on the laquered headstock which is just a bit pale compared to the body. Also I have to figure out a way to use some wood on the knob for the 4-way switch. Other than that it's finished.

I think this build is one example of what you could do with a "bare" kit if you had the option to just order the pre shaped body with just the neck pocket routed. You could more easily then route your own pup cavities of choice when you first just attach the neck and position the bridge. A blank canvas to experiment and put your own vision on it. One cool option would also be to order pre shaped scratchplates if one would for example want to make a P bass with p51 single coil pup, a humbucker, some sort of combo etc. The option would be good for people who have maybe done a few "all included" kits and want to move on to a little more challenging work but don't want a total scratch build just yet.

I've enjoyed this build very much and even though a scratchie it has been my fastest build so far. Took about 50-60 hours to finish and would have been about 20 hours less if I had the "bare option" to order. Considering it was my first time using a router, rasp etc I think it went quite well. Being the fourth build overall I now planned every step a couple of days before I took the tools out and this saved me a huge amount of time too.

So here are the pics I promised at last:

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to be continued...

And some more:

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Looks fabulous Arzi. Great effort for your first scratch build.

Glad you like the chromes, I got some for my fretless. I've never used flats before, so am anxious to see how they go.

Thanks Robin. Means a lot coming from you. :)

I put half rounds on my last build and after playing them for a while I could not go back to rounds as these are so much more comfortable to play. Not the same sounding of course but depending on the amp you can tweak the sound alot with these too. Don't get to work out my fingertips enough I guess...

Wow Arzi! What a great bass!

Wow, so different and so cool, you have really made this your own. Very nice work

Looks very vintage and authentic even though there is an additional neck humbucker PUP.

Thanks for the kind words guys! :)

My original plan was to try making the surface look old by steel wool / vinegar solution but that didn't work with TO finish so this is second closest to weather worn I got. Although the orange might have worked - I'll try that later maybe.

Next I'm gonna try to build a cigar box guitar and after that it's TELECASTER time. I'm looking forward to what happens with PBG kit options and go from there. Gonna pick up ideas along the way by keeping an eye on the builds here. :)

Love it, looks great, fantastic effort.

Shaped this kind of truss rod cover today. Gonna finish it with same color as the body to give some life to the pale headstock. I used the scraps from the body so it should have consistent color when I stain, sand and TO it.

I could not picture this one with a metal or plastic cover.

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Arzi

WOOOOWWW! im impressed! Really beautiful cover ARzi! Congrats...
S!

Thanks Sansan

Happened to have a bigger desk type belt sander at hand for a couple of hours so decided to try this. Otherwise would have dropped the idea but now I had the chance to sand and fit sand and fit sand and fit... Still was a pain in the a** but succeeded in the end. :)

Looks great Arzi, a nice touch for the headstock.

awesome build Arzi and I love the personal touches. You threw yourself in the deep end with a scratch build and succeeded well.

Can't wait to hear how it sounds

That's just outstanding! Well done- I'd love to hear a sample.

Nice one Arzi, love your bass build. Well done!

Oh wow, I missed this one. Unreal job, Arzi.

Thanks guys

I'll try to cook up a demo video for you at some point. First I'll have to find some kind of decent recorder for the job. Gonna go and adjust the pup height and play with my amp today. Haven't had any quality time ( by myself) to do it until now.

Still have to figure out a way to make a knob for the Grigsby. Want to use some wood and make it durable - that's challenging for the size of a swich knob.

Next a cbg and the a Tele - although I don't have a clue on what to aim for with these. Let's see if we can get some slides and twang for the band's two guitarists... :)

Hi

So I finished the truss rod cover and this is how it looks. Again - the lighting is off and the color is not what it actually is but you get the picture.

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I also made two custom knobs and can't seem to make up my mind on which would be better looking. One is made of wood except for the adjusting washer in between - other is made of pieces of scratch plate I glued together and the top of it is wood.

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The wooden one I made by gluing two pieces of wood together (washer in between) and squeezing them together with a clamp. Then sanded with a belt sander until I had a pole/cylinder shaped piece with the washer in between and the filed and sanded to current shape.

This is my last build diary post on this topic as the "Hemi" or nowadays known as "Ol' Dirty BASStard" is ready.

Thanks for all who were with me on this build and I hope I've had something to bring to the table so that you got something out of this one. Special thanks to Scott (Weirdbits) for the wiring diagrams.

I like the timber one. Overall gutsy job thoroughly well done.

Am I impressed?
Hellz yeah!

Might even forgive you for using poo oil...........

+1 for the timber knob... you wouldn't put plastic there after you made that truss rod cover at the other end! Beautiful bass!

Hi

The timber one it is. Has become clear now that I've thought about it more.

At DB ; I'd love to try different kind of finish on these but so far my options are limited. A good laquer would be more durable but until I get a little man cave or similar... Poo Oil it is. Hope you get your own line of tones accepted for international trade. Might just go for those.

Thanks for the kind words.