HB-4 Bass kit (Hofner Style)

[blaine63]

Building a bass for a graduating high school senior.

My best friend is a high school band teacher. I went to their spring concert recently and when the Jazz band took the stage I saw the bass played with a very familiar bass. In fact...it was the bass* I built for my best friend nine years ago! We talked because he asked if I wouldn't mind he gave the bass to the young musician as he was getting ready to head to an Arts university and didn't have the money to afford his own bass. I told him...no, you can't. I'll build him a bass as a graduation gift. He's a Beatles fan and has small hands. A 30 inch scale "Hofner" style bass is actually perfect for him.

*Picture of me and my best friend with the bass I built for him 9-10 years ago.

[agus]

I made one - PBG kit - and I've gotta tell you - it is my favorite by far for me personally. It cracks me up when I start playing it. Any questions fire away. I literally start giggling when I play it.

[blaine63]

Thanks. Doing a Tung Oil finish...and I'm changing one thing in the wiring: I'm customizing it by adding a PTB (passive treble/bass) circuit. I have a guy making a custom control plate to replace the one that came with it and rewiring the circuitry.

I'm a little reticent about the floating bridge...I may need your advice when I get to that part of the set-up.

[agus]

Re the bridge, I was a bit intimidated by that, but it turned out to be a non-event. The key is taping sandpaper to the crown and just getting the bridge to match exactly. The intonation lucked out with no individual bridge adjustment <shrug>. And then I played it, and immediately had a huge smile on my face.

[blaine63]

Thanks.

When I did the "pre-build" making sure things generally fit together correctly I noticed that the action was waaay high. I lowered the bridge adjustment all of the way down and it was still high. Of course this is without any truss rod adjustments. I did sand down the piece that contacts the body of the bass with sandpaper attached in order to get the curvature correct...but there's still room for more work. I'll do a little more sanding when I get to the set up and after the truss rod.