Finished Pics! Rebody of a Fender Rascal bass

Andyjr1515

Hi

I'll do a brief summary of this rather than an Andyjr1515 endless tome...

Mike from Basschat contacted me to ask if I could do a fully reversible rebody of this Fender Rascal:


...using some of this walnut wood (the last tree cut down by his late friend Merv, an axeman from youth to retirement and whom Mike wrote a published biography of):


...in this, Fender Precision Lyte, shape:


Reason being that he loves the sound of and the neck of the Rascal, but can't get on with the body shape and weight.  BUT, he might want to sell it later and hence the request for it to be reversible.

The answer was always going to be yes

I post the progress summary next.

Andyjr1515

First was, could I get out a decent bookmatched top out of the timber - which was only just wide enough.  Professional luthier Rob Hodgson (he builds some great guitars!) helped me out with his 'proper' bandsaw:

That should do!

Yes - actually, that would do very nicely



But hang on - this is a shortscale with a large headstock that is surely going to be a very distracting colour (and that's going to further emphasise the slightly odd proportions) if this is to remain fully reversible ?


So...I wonder if my own hobby bandsaw could cut a thin enough sliver from walnut offcut and could I bend the end on my heated pipe?

Yes to both (phew!) 



Final major component, was the back.  It would need to be deep enough to accommodate the crazily deep Fender 5-way so, to be any chance at all of being lighter than the Rascal, it would need to be chambered.  Also - how would I be able to fit the lipstick pickups without a scratchplate or pickup rings?

 

Andyjr1515

Answer - by fitting them from the back.  But this would need a great big covered swimming pool...and that would take out more weight    :


But, because of the 5-way resulting in a very thick body, it was going to need chambering, and scooping and more.  I covered the sapele in 2mm wenge veneer:

The titebond squeeze-through shows just how void-ridden wenge is!

So - lipstick seatings routed:



And top glued and back trimmed (Yes - I still do the highly not recommended method of using the fancy expensive / irreplaceable top as the trimmer routing template.  Yes, I know)

Andyjr1515

And bringing all the way up to present status, the body carve was done, including this slimming down from the crazy 'standard' Fender thickness accommodating the 5-way to a lighter and less bulky front end:


But hang on, you say - that means your swimming pool hatch needs to be curved?  Yes it does:


Then the carve:


(all the angles are parallel and square - camera lens distortion here...honest )  And yes - the hatch edges still have to be fitted properly


Note the access for the trussrod spanner:


I'll cover the finishing (in progress) as a specific post over the next couple of days as there's some stuff the builders here might be interested in, so build wise, the last task was getting some swifts in there somewhere.

The headstock plate is too thin for inlays and, besides we want a passing nod to the original colour of the Rascal.  The plate will be held on by the string tree and tuner bushes, and some thin double sided tape to stop it lifting at the edges - so fully reversible   I'll fit this once the edges have been sanded to precise shape, but this is the general idea:

impmann

Genius as ever Andy!!

Andyjr1515

impmann said:

Genius as ever Andy!!

Thanks, Tim

mart

Andyjr1515 said:

...
Then the carve:


...

There is so much to like here, as with all your builds, but the cute face for the controls is just the best thing! 

Andyjr1515

mart said:

Andyjr1515 said:

...
Then the carve:


...

There is so much to like here, as with all your builds, but the cute face for the controls is just the best thing! 

DartmoorHedgehog

Very nice.  Have you done all that since you finished impmann's guitar or are these projects all running in parallel?  Either way, you're a one-man production line!

thermionic

Andyjr1515 said:

First was, could I get out a decent bookmatched top out of the timber - which was only just wide enough.  Professional luthier Rob Hodgson (he builds some great guitars!) helped me out with his 'proper' bandsaw:

That should do!



 

Anybody else thinking of Munch’s “The Scream”?

Great thread btw.

paulnb57

Awesome Andy! Liking the body a lot, but the veneer over the headstock is inspired!

DannyP

Andyjr1515

DartmoorHedgehog said:

Very nice.  Have you done all that since you finished impmann's guitar or are these projects all running in parallel?  Either way, you're a one-man production line!

Thanks folks

It's been a fill-in job, @DartmoorHedgehog , over the past 3 or 4 months.  The major progress started when Tim's was in the 'varnish then wait for a day' stage and since Tim's guitar has been finished, it's been my major live project

Andyjr1515

Since the carve, I've been working on the finishing. 

I'll bring you up to date here but will also add a new thread relating to some experiments I've been doing with finishing.

For this, Mike wanted satin rather than semi-gloss and to control the level of darkening usually associated with adding any finish to freshly sanded wood.

There's a final satin coat to do, but this is how it's starting to look:

BigMonka

As ever Andy, a brilliantly executed project.
I have to share my embarrassment that when I read the beginning when you said it'd be a fully reversible bass, my initial thought went straight to it being a bass with strings on both the front and back!  #-o

Andyjr1515

BigMonka said:

As ever Andy, a brilliantly executed project.
I have to share my embarrassment that when I read the beginning when you said it'd be a fully reversible bass, my initial thought went straight to it being a bass with strings on both the front and back!  #-o

That made me laugh - and then think....hmmmmm

Jalapeno

Lovely job chief !!!!!

Andyjr1515

Thanks, folks

TTony

Walnut is a beautiful wood.

And - of course - you're doing it full justice.

Andyjr1515

A couple more coats of Osmo has given me this at the front:


...and - although I will be darkening the hatches and still have to tidy up the edges, the sapele is looking like this:


Ref the headstock plate, after drilling the hole in position for the string tree, I added the double-sided tape:


...which finished looks like this and remains fully reversible:


...which makes the full bass start looking like this:


It's coming along

paulnb57

Its fabulous!