Finished - First ever build - Ampeg inspired fretless bass

Sporky

That looks glorious. 

idiotwind

I've been applying some finish to the neck and board.  Sanded it all then two coats of Tru Oil for the neck and a coat of Briwax for both the neck and board.  I might do another wax coat, but it's looking good so far.  The neck has a large birdseye on it which has come out well, and the ziricote board has darkened up but still maintained contrast.









Also pictured, my ragged looking nut slot and ramshackle dot markers - the perils of a hard wood and a not so sharp bit.

I've also routed the pickup cavity and have been preparing for the next big thing - the neck pocket. When planning it all, I'd got the radius on the corners to match that of my router bit. Unfortunately when making the neck, the template shifted slightly on one of the corners, so they are now some more arbitrary shape. This means I'll have to route the pocket leaving the corners and then sort them out slowly by hand.

idiotwind

I've made a fair bit of progress on this after a knock to the headstock (looking accusingly at the 2 year old for that one) which meant a load of sanding and refinishing to get it back to where it was.



I managed to get the neck pocket routed without any major issues.  The neck fits ok and I've drilled the holes for the neck plate. Not tackled actually fitting the neck yet.



With that done I rounded over the outside. 1/4" except for by the neck plate which is 1/8".

Next I did the control cavity.  Again no major issues, just a bit of blowout on one hole which be mainly covered by the knob.  Then the three holes going into it, done in order of scariness.  First the output jack hole, ready for an Electrosocket.  Then the bridge ground wire.  Finally, the pickup wire.  For that, I managed to avoid the classic "going through the back of the guitar" and instead blasted all the way through and hit the lip of the control cavity on the other side.  It should get cleaned up by the rebate for the cover.  That's up next, followed by a whole stack of sanding.



A quick mockup with the bridge, controls and pickup.  For now I've just knocked the sharp edges of the f holes.  I think I might leave it like that - I quite like the sharp punch out in contrast to the rounded body outline.

WezV

That is looking great.   

I've always wanted to do one of these since starting to build guitars, but the closest I've got is painted on F-holes

Do you know roughly how much weight the f-holes removed?

idiotwind

WezV said:

That is looking great.   

I've always wanted to do one of these since starting to build guitars, but the closest I've got is painted on F-holes

Do you know roughly how much weight the f-holes removed?

Thanks Wez.  The f holes took out 11oz, from 7lb 3oz to 6lb 8oz.  With the neck pocket, pickup and control cavities I'm now down to 6lb 1oz

stickyfiddle

Man how have I missed this thread?! 

It looks awesome. I’d want frets, I think, but otherwise… do you want to do another one…?

impmann

Gorgeous!

idiotwind

stickyfiddle said:

Man how have I missed this thread?! 

It looks awesome. I’d want frets, I think, but otherwise… do you want to do another one…?

Thanks, it's been good fun so far.  It's my first time working with something that isn't pine or MDF so it's been interesting carving the neck for example.

The fretless thing was my justification for building it.  I have plenty of guitars, but just a single fretted Jazz bass.  So that lead me to think of a fretless, which also has the benefit of skipping a load of steps with fret installation and setup.  I played Bridgehouse's Shuker at a jam and didn't struggle too badly - though it may be different playing on my own without drums and a phalanx of guitars covering up all the tuning issues.

dcg

This looks wonderful; the Ampeg fretless is one of the great basses, and I vividly recall its unique tonality in the hands of Rick Danko of The Band - and for that matter when Ollie Blanchflower played one in a long forgotten band of mine.  It takes fantastic ambition and persistence to undertake this idiosyncratic build, but I'm confident the results will be stellar... 

idiotwind

dcg said:

This looks wonderful; the Ampeg fretless is one of the great basses, and I vividly recall its unique tonality in the hands of Rick Danko of The Band - and for that matter when Ollie Blanchflower played one in a long forgotten band of mine.  It takes fantastic ambition and persistence to undertake this idiosyncratic build, but I'm confident the results will be stellar... 

Thanks. Yes, Rick Danko is the main influence for this build.  My original plan was a candy tangerine P Bass (with white competition stripes). But then I got to thinking about a fretless to make it more different (and avoid paying for finishing) and Rick is about the only fretless player I like.  Not a fan of that stereotypical "fretless" playing (sorry Pino).  So him playing a distinctive type of bass lead me down this road.  I still don't particularly like the huge scratchplate on the original though, so mine's all about the wood.

Here's Rick playing his:

PeteC

Superb.   That headstock and board look amazing.  What a lovely instrument.   

idiotwind

Made  a simple control cavity cover using an offcut of the ziricote and some 4x1.5mm neodymium  magnets.







All relatively drama free.  Hit one snag where a magnet in the body was a bit proud, so had to be removed.  This put a minor ding in the edge, so I put the little finger pull there.  Also the light coloured sapwood is only a very thin layer on the surface, so sanding it flush was rapidly shrinking it and I had to try and juggle taking more off the back with getting it flush on top.  Also the whole thing is about 5mm too close to the f hole, but it seems solid enough.  It's all passive electronics anyway, so I can't say I'm planning on ever really opening it up anyway.

I'll probably get the wiring harness done next as I'm putting off the bit that's worrying me - drilling the screw holes in the neck.  Then sand/oil/wax the body and I'm pretty much there.

idiotwind

Made up the wiring harness, standard P Bass stuff with a treble bypass.



Then on with some finish.  I sanded the body up to 600, then used the 600 to apply some Tru Oil.  Repeated this at 800 and 1200, then on with 2 coats of Briwax.



I've fitted in the harness, just need to attach the pickups and jack, then on with the neck.

paulnb57

Thats lovely

idiotwind

Basically done except for stringing up.



Got the pickups and jack wired up and everything works with a screwdriver tap test.  Neck attached, tuners fitted.  Now, just need to actually get some strings bought...  Or I might be able to get away with swapping my Jazz back to its original rounds and using the flats off that.







It's certainly not one for people who don't like brown guitars.  The original plan of ebony may have worked better, but I just loved that ziricote.

JGTay

That has come out beautifully.
What is the final weight? 

paulnb57

Fabulous! Looks classy!

idiotwind

JGTay said:

That has come out beautifully.
What is the final weight? 

Seems to be 9lb 3oz.  I checked my other bass, which is a Squier VM Jazz, and that's actually 9lb 10oz.  Set of strings is 3oz, so quite close really.  Feels fine on a quick strap test.

PeteC

Lovely - elegant and well executed 
That will be a joy to play 

idiotwind

And we're done.  Started planning in April 2020, started building June 2022 and plugged in playing for the first time today.

In the end I took the strings off my other bass to put on this one.  Everything seems alright as a first attempt, it's playable at least.  I need to bring the saddles down a little and haven't touched the intonation - that's the sort of stuff I'm least familiar with.  I can cut up the wood, work the router etc but I've never tweaked a truss rod in 25+ years of guitar playing.

Pickup sounds good, and the treble bypass seems to work well.