ES-Jazz bass hybrid build

Some will be aware that I began this build over a long time ago...about a year and a half, I think.

What I really like about this kit is that it is very light, yet the center block makes it very stable. My vicarious experience with gibson ES guitars is that the 335 types are actually pretty heavy, and the 330 types (no center block) go out of tune with every little temperature or humidity change. The nice thing about the PB body is that it uses a very light wood for the center-block so the body is considerably lighter than an 335, but much more stable than a 330.

What I don't particularly like is the neck. It's not bad, but it just does not have the Fender Jazz feel that I like best. It has Dano pickups that sound cool, but have the Dano weakness of lots of hum.

I wanted to take what I have learned from building the ES4-B. So I set out to see if I could make a bass with a humbucker in the P bass position, a Jazz Bass style neck. An ES4 type body. I started to consult with folks here in the "mods" section...

https://www.buildyourownguitar.com.a...ck+gibson+body

...After six pages there this is beginning to seem like a build diary, so better here I think, since it's not a PB guitar. Better late than never?

Finishing has always been my nemesis...and that remains true. The perfect finish would be fast, easy, non-toxic, and applicable without spray equipment. This does not exist--or perhaps I am too good an idiot for anything to be truly idiot proof. After much gnashing of teeth I settled MTN 94 rattle cans for color, and General Finishes Satin Clear, applied with a foam brush as clear coat. Grain filled but did not seal.

This worked great on the neck. Started with 220, and sanded down to 7000, then finished with car wax.

Attachment 32216

The idea with the body was to do something similar...Solid color top to cover all problems with veneer and holes around the bridge. Natural back and sides. I was a bit more nervous with the body so I used a little 220, but switched pretty quickly to 400...and that is as far as I have gotten, because I ran into a problem...

I did a test piece of pine, and the headstock without incident--which seems to have made me overconfident. My test piece was flat. The headstock was mostly flat, and where it was curved, there was already some finish on the neck. What I should have been thinking, however was about road signs...

Attachment 32215

ES type guitars have all those beautiful curves. The hardest place for me to level on this is at the base of the curves. Unfortunately, when I was finishing off with 400, I was concentrating too much on the base of the curve, and not enough on the top. So, on the lower horn, I sanded through the clearcoat at the top of the curve. So I had a spot about 2cm at it's largest, with color (fortunately I did not sand through that), but no clearcoat.

So I have put two more coats of clearcoat on the lower horn. Will do at least two or three more. The can says 2-3 should be enough... I think I had 10 coats on and still managed to sand through.

The MTN 94 lays down lots of solids. It does not look great when it goes on, but sands beautifully flat. It feels thin, but is actually reasonably thick. I am pretty happy with it. It's also acrylic...so less toxic...and it fills and sticks nicely even to bare wood.

I worried more about the clearcoat. Also acrylic (which I like), and cure time much shorter than oils. However it does not level all that well, so there are steaks to sand out when applied with a brush. I worried I'd go through it on the bare wood--but that went fine. I worried I would go through it near the binding, but that went fine. I was not that worried that I would go through it in the middle of the top, because I put 10+ coats on to have enough to sand flat over the color...and that was my undoing.

Hopefully this will be fixable relatively easily... but the waiting now begins again, while I wait for the finish to dry. <insert heavy sigh here>

Feel your pain brother, I just sanded through a colour coat trying to even out a small run.

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Originally Posted by FrankenWashie

Feel your pain brother, I just sanded through a colour coat trying to even out a small run.

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Argh! I did that multiple times with my ESB-4. I must have sanded back ad refinished 3 times. Finishing is definitely my least favorite part. Patience that I don't have punctuated by feelings of "oh sh*t!"

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Short reflection on the name... I liked the name anachronistic because I have been going for builds that are like old instruments, but are not really faithful to any period or manufacturer.

I called this one "Laureado" because the bass it is probably most like is a Fender Coronado, but it is also quite different. What I really wanted was a semi-hollow, with a bolt on 34" scale Jazz bass neck. I also wanted a pickup that bucks hum in the p-bass position. The old Coronados are cool and sound great, but have none of these features.

So it's not a Coronado...but it's closer to that than anything else. So I looked for a synonym in Spanish. "Coronado" means "Crowned" in Spanish. The closest synonym was "Laureado" translates roughly to "crowned with laurels." My last name is a variation on "laurier" which is laurel tree in French. When I saw that, I could almost hear my grandmother exclaim "voila!"

I find “steaks” will give you an uneven finish. (Sorry).

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Originally Posted by fender3x

Argh! I did that multiple times with my ESB-4. I must have sanded back ad refinished 3 times. Finishing is definitely my least favorite part. Patience that I don't have punctuated by feelings of "oh sh*t!"

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That describes my Paint/Stain efforts exactly.

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Originally Posted by DarkMark

I find “steaks” will give you an uneven finish. (Sorry).

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Autocorrect evidently does not know I am talking about painting.

I got it nice and even on the headstock and on my test pieces in spite of light brush marks. I think the problem this time was in trying to sand in the "valley" I put too much pressure on the "hill top".

It was a bit of a sub-genius move on my part. I thought if I used a hotel card key as a flexible sanding block I could get the finish flatter. That worked fine where I was sanding something convex, but in places where the curve is concave it tends to put more pressure on the sides than base of the curve. That would have been obvious to some people.... I think I am lucky only to have had a sand-through in one place.

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We've all been there fender3x.
I'm still searching for the perfect material and perfect process. Despite the experience I do have, I'm still a relative newbie in finishing. It's also hard to become expert when doing 3 builds a year. I wish I had the time/space/money to practise everyday for month. Then maybe I'd get closer to (nearly) perfect.

Anyway, one thing I can suggest is picking up a decent but inexpensive airbrush kit. They do require applying lots of thin coats but you can get a smooth sprayed finish, and are bit more beginner friendly than a full size gun set up IME.
Also, if work space is limited, they create very little overspray and clean up easily.

I can only imagine applying any finish with a bristled or foam brush being difficult to get a smooth finish.
As we know, the smoother the finish coat, the less sanding required, thus the less risk of sand-through.
(I say that as a reminder to myself as much as anyone :))

Three a year has me beat by a lot. The air brush is an intreaguing idea.

I now have 10 new coats over the sand-through spot. Now I just need to wait a couple of weeks for it to cure to return to sanding.

In spite of the light brush strokes I have gotten things to glassy with this stuff, so I know it can be done.



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I finished my 2nd round with clear coat on the 21st of September. I have been letting the finish harden the entire 21 days the mfg says I should. Over the course of the last week, I have stared to do some dry sanding. I have got it about as good as it's going to get with 400, 800 and 3M gray sanding pads. It's looking reasonably good...

Attachment 32447Attachment 32448

I did nothing at all to color the finish on the back and sides, but really like the natural. The mfg warns not to wet sand with water (which I have already done somewhat...), so I will be using odor free mineral spirits as I move to 1000 and higher grits. I don' think water will really hurt it, as I used wet sanded with water on the neck and it came out quite well. On the body though, maybe water as a lube contributed to the sand-through that i am now just about through repairing. So, trying to do it right this time... Will report as I have results!

That front colour is cool, but I'm really into the way that back came up. Looks great

Sanded to 7000 grit. then Meguires. Then turtle wax. Not perfect, but probably as good as I am going to get it. Pics to follow.

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I haven't even pulled the old newspaper out of the f-holes, but I had to see how it looks. Attachment 32555

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Some better picsAttachment 32557Attachment 32558Attachment 32559

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That's very different, Great work FX3!

Thanks! Just got the hardware on. I need a trip to the hardware store for screws to mount the pickups, which is why they are not there. Also will need to work on the wiring harness...setup... But it's starting to look like it may be a bass one day ;-)

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Hardware on...Attachment 32562Attachment 32563

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Put on the pickups and the strings. It definitely needs a proper setup, but I got a few notes out of it. Can't put off doing the wiring harness much longer either...

Near the beginning of the build I found a couple of NOS Bill Lawrence EB-50 bass pickups. They had cream bobbins, and that led to almost all the other color choices for better or worse. I did not want to use the stock rings, which were black, so I made an insert out of old hotel card keys that would fit inside the cream rings, and spray painted them black. So far it all seems to fit...

Attachment 32577

...also beginning to realize that I am going to need a case if I am every to take it out of the house ;-)

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You've got to be happy with that!

Pretty happy, yeah. Got two of the four steps completed on setup. Will need to file the nut a little...but it's close and actually playable now. Looks pretty good. Starting to feel pretty good (really like the feel of the J neck)... If it sounds as good I'll be ecstatic ;-)

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Nice. It has a very '60s vibe to it.

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Originally Posted by Simon Barden

Nice. It has a very '60s vibe to it.

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That was the idea. I really love those old two-tone cars with lots of chrome from the 50s and 60s. But this feels like it just evolved on its own. The pickups, by coincidence had cream bobbins. Every other choice was either to compensate for a problem or to go with a previous choice.

Finally finished! It fought me until the very end. Last problem was that a chunk of wood I had glued against the center block was just wide enough to keep the jack from fitting. Fortunately this was fixable by using a thin chisel through to hole.

It sounds great! The pickup in the mudbucker position is nice and dark, but not muddy. The one in the middle position is very p-bass like. It has four distinct humbucking settings--the fourth is when both single coils are engaged.

Single coil sounds are good, but there's a little buzz. But in any humbucking setting it's dead quiet. I used shielded cable in the wiring harness and that may have helped.

Thanks to all who provided advice, counsel and moral support! I am very grateful for all of your help.Attachment 32652Attachment 32653

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Seems reasonably well balanced. I think the hipshot ultralight tuners may help with that. Weighs in at 3.45 Kg., Which my back will like ;-)

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Very nice indeed. Really glad it all came together for you.

The 'mudbucker' position is only really muddy if you have a Gibson 'mudbucker' pickup. It had/has a very high inductance that moves the resonant peak of the pickup well down into the mids, with almost no treble. Otherwise the position will pick up a lot more of the first and second harmonics than a bridge pickup will, but there will still be all the higher harmonics present.

Thanks, Simon. This project has benefitted quite a lot from you suggestions.

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Originally Posted by Simon Barden

The 'mudbucker' position is only really muddy if you have a Gibson 'mudbucker' pickup. It had/has a very high inductance that moves the resonant peak of the pickup well down into the mids, with almost no treble. Otherwise the position will pick up a lot more of the first and second harmonics than a bridge pickup will, but there will still be all the higher harmonics present.

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That seems right on all counts. My first bass is the only one that I have ever had with an actual mudbucker. It was single pickup Epiphone Newport. It was a very high quality bass construction-wise, but it only had one sound. My next bass was a '75 Precision, bought in '78 which I have had ever since. I have avoided pickups in that location ever since. We'll have to see how it does in a mix, but I can totally see soloing the neck pickup, the coils of which are right where the 22nd and 23rd frets would be.

These might be a very good replacement for the PB stock pups that come with ESB-4 basses. They are a drop in replacement for a standard humbucker, but with wider rails for bass spacing. Of course you have to find them, or convince one of the Bill Lawrence companies to reissue them.