First build: JBA-4M bass

Received my first kit today. So excited. Keen to get stuck in, but of course will do a mock build first, and then I guess shape the headstock and buy some grain filler (still got some reading to do).

One thing I did take the liberty of doing is to print out a J-style headstock template, and try to line it up. It doesn't seem to quite fit within the bounds of the headstock. Is this expected? Is there another template anyone can point to? (I'm not completely opposed to making a custom solution, but though there may be some intel.)
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You'll never get it perfect, but most of the early headstocks were done by hand and had considerable variations in the dimensions. Nobody else is going to know. Just get it as close as you can and don't worry about it.

For my headstock, I left the top edge closest to the tuners alone, so I only had to worry about lining up my template to get the other curves in the right position. I would rotate your template so that the circular curve lines up smoothly with the top-edge and then see how the areas to cut look. That's pretty much what I did for mine:
Attachment 35469Attachment 35470

Thanks guys, I'll sort something out.

First weekend with my new hobby, and most of the morning was spent tidying and re-arranging my storage shed so I have somewhere for drying.

Did a mock build, and it's all mostly fine. The neck is really snug, which is nice (I may make a tiny sandpaper adjustment though). The pickguard will need a little bit of work as well. I can't get it around the neck at the moment. I'm assuming a little shave with a stanley blade should do the trick (though I'd welcome any tips if there are any).

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So my next steps plan is:
- Fix pickguard
- Quick 180 grit sand and tidy up of earthing wire hole
- Sort out bridge placement
- Sanding
- Grain filler
- Etc.

Yesterday I trimmed the pickguard, and did an initial sand. This morning I sorted out bridge placement using Brendan's guide, and now have the bridge, pickguard and neck holes drilled. It's obviously a bit fiddly, and I think I've managed a decent job, but the proof is a long way off...

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Hoping for the weather to dry up a bit before I start some more sanding.

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Happy with that.

I would be happy too, that's a well proportioned headstock.

Cheers, and thanks to you and Simon for your jedi mind tricks, making me feel like I didn't have any problems here. I ended up exaggerating the bottom curve a bit to double-down on the difference.

Can anyone tell me what the fret radius of this would be? 12 is the standard for most PB electrics I believe, but not sure that applies to JBs. Reading the internet, I keep seeing mention of 7.5 ...

All the kits have a 12" radius neck. Real current JBs have 9.5", but not the kits. Some early ones may even have a 7.25" radius. Those are the two main standard neck radius's Fender have used. They did do 12" for a year or so in the early 80's but not for long.

Awesome, thanks Simon.

Progress over the weekend: Ebony grain filler, sanded back. Wasn't really sure where I was going to go with finishing on this until I could see if the grain would pop at all. Now that I've seen it, I'm pretty sure I'll go for a stain. I was looking at the Dingotone Nullarbor Ochre, but it's out of stock, so looking for other options.

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Also, I'm wondering if I should take the same approach on the maple neck, or if that will be too much of a contrast with the ash body.

The maple is closed-pore, as opposed to open-pored ash, so won't really have any small holes to accept grain filler. You are likely to simply tint the whole neck the grain filler colour. If the neck has any figuring - flame or quilt or birds-eye etc, then the figure will absorb more of any stain than the plain wood will, and could make it pop more, but you'll need to sand back and really add another stain over the top as the darker stain will just make the maple look dirty.

TBH I'd avoid it, and maybe just tint the neck a bit if it's on the pale side.

Yeah, I was wondering about that. There is a bit of nice grain in the neck though.
Attachment 35906

When you say "tint", what do you mean? Darken the stain on the neck specifically?

Just a light amber colour for the neck. Any clear finish will normally add a bit of depth to the look, but that is a fairly pale neck.

Gotcha. Thanks again.

A lot of progress made over the weekend.

Two coats of Birchwood Casey Walnut Stain over the ebony grain fill (the stain is water-based, so obviously some of the grain raised...). Two coats of Birchwood Casey Sealer & Filler (clear), which was very delicately sanded-back over the curves to deal with the raised grain. Then the first coat of Tru-Oil down. Really happy with the early results.

https://i.imgur.com/GP0xNKs.jpg

Also did a bunch of fret-levelling work, and fretboard sanding. First coat of Tru-oil went over the whole neck. I decided against any staining of the neck, as I didn't want it to look dirty (as Simon suggested, and validated by a couple of google searches).

Not much to see right now, but on the weekend I fell to impatience and said "yeah, that's enough, I just want to build it now". So after only 4 or 5 coats of Tru-oil, I attached the neck and body and was thinking it was looking pretty good. Surely I can partially put it together now and let it cure.

https://i.imgur.com/5WpdJGm.jpg?1

But I only had to look at it at the right/wrong angle, for me to realise some more patience was required. I'm now on to about the 11th coat, and so glad I saw the error of my ways.

Trying very hard not to slip and buy a 2nd kit to keep me busy during waiting periods...

Black hardware is going to look killer with that colour/grain fill combination. Nice job.

Looking good .... Hows it progressing?

The body is curing after ~20 coats of tru-oil, and I've installed the tuning pegs. I'll start assembling more things this weekend. Very much looking forward to it, but hoping intonation isn't too much of a trial...

Anyone had good experiences with fret decals? I ordered these ages ago, and they've turned up pretty much just in time if I want to use them.

I feel like they could work well, in terms of adding a bit of balance to the black hardware and the pale neck, but I also don't want it to look too tacky.

And I'm wondering if a fresh coat of tru-oil over the top off the decals would be a good idea.

https://i.imgur.com/a/Hb4HFrZ.jpg?1

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I guess it would help if I added the image...

https://i.imgur.com/s9wzAi9.jpg

You'd want several coats of TruOil over them for protection unless you want them being rubbed away pretty quickly.

Pretty happy with how the fret markers turned out. I've gone over them with 4 coats of tru-oil.

https://i.imgur.com/TvQ6g3X.jpg

HOWEVER, I've had a catastrophe today, installing the bridge. I suspect I didn't pre-drill the holes quite deep enough, and 3 screws broke :mad:

https://i.imgur.com/1tAt5eT.jpg

I mate of mine has suggested "easy outs", but that sounds like voodoo to me. Another option would be to move the bridge position, but I'm fairly confident it's in the right spot. If I did move it, is it closer to the neck that is preferable? (I think I read that somewhere else a couple of days ago).

I had a similar issue with my DSM-1 kit.

I'd get a smaller drill bit and drill out the centre of it.
Then try to break the remnants out.
If you get 'most' of it out that should be good enough.

cheers, Mark.

Or use a bigger bit and a drill press or pillar drill and then plug the holes. They won't be seen so it doesn't have to be invisibly done. And definitely get some decent screws for the next go. You could also try digging out the wood around the top of the screws enough to get some thin-nosed pliers on them to turn them. The damage won't be seen with the bridge on, but you can then always drill and plug the holes if you want to.

If you set the position of the bridge with the saddles all the way forwards, then you could move the bridge forwards slightly, but not by much. Maybe just enough to drill holes in front of the existing ones (plug up the empty holes first). They'd need to be moved far enough so the complete screw width is clear of the existing screw remains by approx. 1mm so one screw didn't catch on the other (remembering that the threads will be wider then the visible holes). But you then risk having the bottom E and maybe A saddles all the way back with the springs fully compressed, so you'd need to cut them in half.

If you set the position of the bridge with the saddles at halfway, then you'd definitely need to move the bridge back, not forwards, as you will run out of intonation adjustment if you did so. In addition, the intonation screws may end up sticking up in the air and interfering with your plucking hand. You could of course cut them down to size. But backwards is the way to go in this case, and again, by as small an amount as possible, just enough to be able to drill new holes.

But drilling out or removing the broken screws is really the better option IMO.

Not a disaster, as Simon says, the good news is that the bridge hides everything, so it really doesn't matter what you have to do to get them out. Within reason you can butcher it until you are ready to cry at the mess and no-one (except us) will ever know.

Easy outs/broken screw extractors can work, but there's a certain amount of voodoo about them. I think they are one of those tools where practice helps, and the first time you use them it goes wrong. If you have a mate who has used them successfully rope him in, but I'm not sure I'd bother buying a set yourself. They work much better if the screw head is just rounded off rather than broken.

To be honest I'd probably get something like a 2mm drill bit and drill holes all round the broken screws as close as I possibly could so there's nothing left for the screw to grip on, and then chop away enough wood near the surface to get a grip on the screw end with pliers. If you can drill down the centre as King Casey says that can work too, but it can be very hard to get the drill to stay in the centre of the screw without a pillar drill. Still, if it slips off to one side that's only one of the surrounding holes I suggested. Then when whatever ghastly mess has ensued, just drill the holes out bigger to whatever size of dowel will fill them, glue in the dowel, probably titebond or similar, then you can start again with good quality screws (i tend to use boat shop stainless steel) and a size larger guide hole... I had to do this recently with my first bass, which had one broken screw and others pulling out, and you'd never know to look at it.

Thanks all. I took the suggested approach of gouging them out with as little damage as possible, trying to keep the mess on the inside of the affected area (and broke 2 crappy drill bits in the process!).

https://i.imgur.com/DpPyoFV.jpg

Placing the bridge over the intended placement, I can't see any damage. So far so good.

https://i.imgur.com/5pfD63G.jpg

Off to the big green shed for some dowel and some new drill bits...

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So good! Looking forward to seeing the finished product. Am enjoying the fret markers!

Well done!

Dowel pieces stuck in place with titebond overnight, then brought down flush with assistance from the trusty Dremel. Bridge then attached with new screws.

https://i.imgur.com/b8tjWe4.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/zkRUucA.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/o1XFdTm.jpg

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I wanted to add some sort of signature to the headstock, and my surname stats with an F. But I wasn't really happy with how that was looking, so I went with a geometric detail instead, matching some tattoo work I've had done over the last year.

I also had some leftover fret marker decals to work with, so the finish is nice and consistent for an added bonus.

https://i.imgur.com/6nd7EsJ.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/00pMX13.jpg

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And... the finished product.

https://i.imgur.com/kKSWOJJ.jpg

The intonation is mostly good. I do need to adjust the action though, but I've got some proper measurement tools on the way, so I'll probably stop tinkering for now. As it is, I'm loving the tone, even with the kit pickups. The flatwounds I've got on it are probably helping.

Very nice work. Glad the bridge screw fix worked.

If the saddles need to come back even more to get the intonation correct, then just make sure that the ball-end wrap doesn't end up resting on the saddles. You'll need to cut it back if it does, and maybe secure any loose ends with a small drop of CA.

That looks great. The black hardware and fret markers go well together.

Yes, well done that has come up a treat in its entirety

Nice job. I’ve never felt the need to upgrade the pickups on my JB-4. Which makes if the only build I have with a full set of the kit pickups....

I missed this one... Nice work dozy.
I agree the brown/black/maple work really well together.