My SO wants a bass guitar. And I'm getting bored watching the lacquer cure on the other guitar.

I took some 1:1 scaled drawings of bass guitars, glued them to 1/4" MDF, and started cutting templates. The neck and back are completed, with the exception of the neck heel. I don't want to cut that until we decide what pickguard will be used.

Based on the p-Bass.


Based on the jazz bass.

When we were at Sam Ash, my SO picks up a Rickenbacker and loved how it felt and remarked how much lighter it was over the Fender P-Bass. I guess the Rick is 1-1/4" thick vs. the 1-3/4" Fenders. Also the Rick has a through neck. But there's always the issue of neck dive, so I don't know how that's countered. The Rick has a decent sized headstock, probably about the same overall weight as the Fender.

Anyway, where we are right now is trying to decide what components to use. My SO wants something that is versatile (rock, jazz, blues), something lightweight (as much as possible) and something that's comfortable (easy) to play.

As far as woods, the only thing for certain is an ebony fretboard. I have a really pretty piece we bought just for this purpose. In stock, I have a slab of 6/4 bubinga that is wide enough for a one-piece body. I have a slab of very straight grained 8/4 African mahogany, but my SO seems totally uninterested in that for a body. For the neck, I have some medium figure BE maple and some curly maple. I also have walnut, jatoba, figured cherry, sapele (figured and straight-grained) and padauk.

This is the bubinga slab:


There are more options if we went with a through-neck but I'm not so sure about my abilities/knowledge venturing into that. So for this build, I'm kind of pushing toward a bolt-on neck.

My SO wants as much of the wood as possible to show - small pickguard. This is a JP-90 and it has about the smallest pickguard I've found so far.



The body looks like a jazz bass body but with the horns being cut a bit sharper. I kind of like it buy my SO likes the one I have the template for.

Questions:


  1. Would basing this build on the JP-90 create a bass that is versatile, sounds good for jazz, rock and blues, is easy to play and comfortable?
  2. Would the above pickup configuration satisfy the sound desired?
  3. Would the bubinga be too heavy for the body?
  4. If the bubinga would be too heavy, would maple be any better?
  5. Would you trim the headstock? I think the JP-90 and maybe the jazz neck have trimmed headstocks.


You guys helped me so much on the other build, you created a monster!