Projects with custom-built necks.
This bass is a 21" scale, with a piezo saddle mounted in an adjustable bridge. The soundhole is just for looks. The strings are metal-wound Kalas. The fretboard is cut out of the ugliest piece of wood I ever received. For such a small neck, I managed to cut around most of the ugly, and the result isn't half bad.
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Built as a testbed for a number of ideas:
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This started as a stock Squier Jaguar bass body. This 32" conversion neck was my first bass neck build. Stock pickups ( which are pretty decent ) with cream-colored covers and upgraded electronics. I used a MusicMan bridge to evoke the round Jazzmaster tailpiece, and likewise cream Strat knobs. I think it is a vast improvement over the Jaguar it started out as. The Cowbell inherited some of the Jaguar electronics.
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Sort of like a Kubicki, but not really.
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I was so pleased with the bass that I thought I'd try a guitar. This is a little more complicated, as there are six tuners rather than four, but it worked out well. The battery is for an Artec tone control that I wanted to try. More later ...
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This one went through a long and torturous build process over almost two years. All I can say is don't believe the "advice" you find on talk_ass. However, in the end, it turned out to be a pretty nice instrument.
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These were my first two tries at a 325 bass. Both are plywood over pine hollow-bodies. The one on the left - #1 - used an experimental neck mounting that I didn't like. The one on the right - #2 - suffered a router mishap. I took all the good parts and built the solid-body, and both of these spent years on the scrap heap.
More: Rickenbacker 325 Bass 1 ...
These were my first two tries at a 325 bass. Both are plywood over pine hollow-bodies. The one on the left - #1 - used an experimental neck mounting that I didn't like. The one on the right - #2 - suffered a router mishap. I took all the good parts and built the solid-body, and both of these bodies spent years on the scrap heap.
More: Rickenbacker 325 Bass 2 ...
This was my third go at a 325 bass. The first one was unbalanced with this long neck, and the second suffered a router mishap. Eventually, I salvaged both of those, but first I took all the good parts and did this. Fender-type alder body with 3-tone sunburst, single binding. Surface-mounted pickups, active electronics. Finished entirely in polyurethane.
More: Rickenbacker 325 Bass 3 ...
A faithful reproduction of John Lennon's Rickenbacker, but built as a Danelectro. Masonite over hollow plywood body. Poplar neck. Passive electronics with active distortion on the fifth knob.
More: Rickenbacker 325 Guitar ...