HB-4S with a few improvements. And a lot of chemical ebonising. A lot.

[Fnord]

I've been shopping around for a hollow body bass for a while. I nearly bought a fake Hofner from AliExpress - but then I saw some close up photos of the terrible fit and finish on those <$500 guitars.

I thought to myself, 'I'm quite capable of doing my own terrible finish at half the price.' And so here I am.

Seriously though, I am really excited by this kit and I am hoping to make it into a spectacular bass. I can tell right away that a lot of that stock hardware is not going to be used.

Attached is a shot of the raw bass. I was planning to buy a plain top kit so I could chemically ebonise the body with various iron-acetate treatments. Then I found a spalt top on special (and an Ebay coupon too!) - and that spalt is so nice I just can't bring myself to kill it.

That won't stop me from ebonising just about every other part of the guitar though. I have different solutions and treatments in mind for the sides, back, neck etc.

As for the stock hardware, the pickup surrounds and control plate are just not good enough to use. Have a look at the close-up of the control plate. Those non-square holes with the rounded out corners? The switches that are mounted so that they are in the centre of the slot when in the 'down' position but at the top of the slot in the 'up' position? The white stripes are crooked on the knobs and knobs have casting flash on them. Rejected.

The pickup surrounds are flat. For an archtop. I know I can bend them, but I have a Rose-Morris arch-top guitar losing screws because of the same design decision.

The last photo shows some pickup blanks I'm cutting down to size - the strip of wood along the top shows the colour they will go after treatment.

Finally, I have a question for anyone who has done a glued in neck build (this is my first). The neck is way larger than the pocket. Do you typically widen the pocket for the neck? or trim the neck for the pocket?

[wokkaboy]

Hi Fnord, great looking spalted cap you scored. Love the pup surrounds you are making. I've not built one of these kits, how much wider is the neck heel than the pocket ?
I'd try and sand the width of the neck pocket, try and sand each side equally and check regularly if the neck fits. Most of the set neck kits the neck fit quite snug in the pocket

[pablopepper]

Sounds like fun! You've lucked out with a great looking top. Can't wait to see some progress.

[moody]

What will the heat of the valves do to the paisely material on the amp chassis?

[pablopepper]

For the pickup surrounds, tape a piece of sandpaper to the top of the body, around where the pickups will go, and use the arch of the top to shape the base of the surrounds.

[Fnord]

What will the heat of the valves do to the paisely material on the amp chassis?

This one (in the attached photo) is five months old. I coat them with really thick poured epoxy and I've never noticed any heat damage. I've only made three amps with the paisley though, so they are still a bit of an experiment.

If you look at the thread for http://www.buildyourownguitar.com.au...ll=1#post63092 you may see a resemblance. This amp was built to match that guitar!

[BenWA]

did the paisley tele ever get finished? i wanted to see how it looked with all the hardware fitted, cos the body was looking so good

[stan]

great start, love the custom pup surrounds.
went back and had a look at the paisley Teles, please put up finished pics and decent ones of the amps!

[Fnord]

For the pickup surrounds, tape a piece of sandpaper to the top of the body, around where the pickups will go, and use the arch of the top to shape the base of the surrounds.

That is such a good idea, and a far better way to approach the job than the way I chose.

Here's my approach.

1. Take the shape from the front of the guitar using a flexible curve.
2. Scan the curve.
3. Convert the scanned image to a simplified, closed SVG shape in Inkscape.
4. Import the SVG into Blender and create a 3D model of the pickup.
5. Use BlenderCAM to turn the model into a cut pattern for my mill.
6. Get halfway through the cut job and discover that the mill is slipping on the Y axis.

The mill is getting some attention and should be ready to cut again sometime during the week.

Maybe I should do the sandpaper idea instead... the advantage of using the mill is that I can cut as many pickup surrounds as I want. I'm also laying out a generic pattern for cutting normal humbucker surrounds for some of my other guitars.

I've attached a photo of my little 3020 mill. The working area is roughly A4 sized. I mostly use it to cut faceplates for my valve amps.

[Fnord]

Hi Fnord, great looking spalted cap you scored. Love the pup surrounds you are making. I've not built one of these kits, how much wider is the neck heel than the pocket ?
I'd try and sand the width of the neck pocket, try and sand each side equally and check regularly if the neck fits. Most of the set neck kits the neck fit quite snug in the pocket

It seems that the neck pocket is wider at the pickup opening end than it is at the heel. I hope that this is by design.

Since the neck pocket and the first pickup hole are joined together you can insert the neck with the heel in the pickup hole. The neck tapers, so it easily drops into the pocket. Then you have to push it into place against the narrowing of the pocket.

It's still too big, but it's manageable.Trying to go butt-end first it was ~3mm to big! The pocket itself has some problems - there is a big tool channel down one side of it and the block is not straight, but I think that it will come out OK it I am careful.

The real problem now is that one of my frets is substantially kinked in the middle - either from an impact or a kink in the fretwire when it was installed in the neck.

It the kink makes it higher than the rest of the frets, I'll dress it and live with it looking a bit funny.

If it kinks lower I'll pull every fret out of this neck and go fretless. They look easy to take out, and I don't have a fretless yet.