Hi there,
This is the first time I’ve done anything like this and I’m really happy with the way it turned out. Thanks to the members of the forum for all their help and to PBG for facilitating this sort of fun :)
The bass is named “ETB Basses – Tali”. ETB were my father’s initials – he used to love working with wood, so this is sort of an homage to him, and Tali is one of my dogs.
This certainly isn;t my last build. Paint is coming along nicely on the next one – “ETB Basses – Kirra”, and plans are afoot for ETB -Nissa and a couple of others :)
Details:
• PBG JBA-4 Jazz bass shape, Ash body. The body is fairly heavily routed and reshaped around the front horns and the rest of the body had a lot of rounding off done on it so it is really comfortable to hold.
• EMG Hz passive pickups, with lots of copper foil shielding throughout all the cavities.
• Pickguard – cut by Pablopepper – Thanks!
• Gotoh bridge and machine heads
• Dingobass bone nut
• Abalone fret markers
• Warwick strings
• Straplocks, string retainer and neck plate from ebay
• The strap was bought for me by my wife a while back - I think it really suits this bass though and is now permanent on Tali.
Finish:
Body – After reshaping and sanding I used dark Timbermate to seal the body and highlight the grain. Then DingoTone Coolangatta Gold (3 coats each of stain, intensifier and final). This was polished with car polish and then a final coat of Gilly Stephenson gun wax to give a smooth, satin finish.
Neck – Lemon Oil on the fretboard. Feast Watson Old Baltic stain on the maple and then lots of Tru Oil over the stain for a nice smooth, fast surface.
Headstock – Tru oil. The ETB Basses logos are waterslide decals designed by my brother-in-law – Thanks Jace! I’ve coated them with Tamiya gloss laquer from a rattle can.
Setup
After a good fret level, crown and polish everything went together nicely. The action is a fast and quite low. There’s no fret buzz (unless I miss the fret when I’m playing it), nor is there any hum/crackle/noise etc. from the electrics.
The tone is pretty even across the fretboard, even up above the 12th fret where no self-respecting bass player should ever venture!
Noises
It's already had a lot of use, and I think it plays really well and sounds like I was hoping it would, the Ash body also gives it a really nice weight and balance. There’s a lot of variety available through the controls, esp. the tone knob, and I’m really happy with the way the whole thing turned out!
Now I just need to be a better player!
Sorry for the essay on to the colour and noise.
Photos
Reply With Quote