1st project - 5 string bass rebuild

Amongst my collection of guitars and basses, the one I have used the most is an old 5 string bass guitar from a no name brand known as Fleetwood (and no relation to anyone involved with Peter Green). The hardware and neck of this bass were both very good, especially for the price (it was the cheapest 5 string I could find at the time) but the pick-ups are a bit naff and the body is made of some MDF like substance. I am therefore looking to make a new body for it.

In setting my goals, I have decided that If I am to do this I should go to the max and put in all the features I'll ever want and then some. I have made some inquiries with some suppliers recommended on this site for wood, but as yet most of the bodies I find on sale cost the same as a basic instrument. My goals at the moment are as follows:

Solid wood body - This is my first project so I want to keep it simple by just routing from 1 block and not messing with glue or fancy woodwork joints as the last woodwork I did at school some 17 years ago.

Reuse 5 string Neck and hardware from my old bass - A necessity for financial reasons, plus there is nothing wrong with this stuff a bit of brasso wont fix.

Customise electronics - I want to make this a high end passive bass. I am fed up with the way I have to keep feeding my active Yamaha batteries and I am always nervous of gigging with it if I haven't changed it - what if it runs out?

My current ideas are based on a mutation of Fender Precision and the Rickenbacker 4001/4003 bass guitars. The idea is this, use blade style pickups from guitar to seperate the frequencies between the A D and G strings to their own individual output that can be hooked up to a guitar amplifier (ala Chris Squier) and a full frequency output that can go straight to a bass amp. One idea is to wire them P-bass style to get that hum cancelling effect which could be a bit tricky with the wiring. I have managed to come up with a wiring diagram I think could work but it does look complexed even though I was mostly adapting diagrams from the Seymour Duncan website. I am tempted to scratch this and just go for a 5 string version of the Rickenbacker type sound but I cant find the pick-ups to do it.

Any queries, tips or ideas on how to go about this would be welcome. At the moment the bit I am most unsure about are what body shape to go for, the colour and the electronics.

James

The other little bit of info that prompted me to work the pick-ups this way is a piece from an old edition of Bassist magazine where they took an old Fender Mustang bass that had a Strat style pick-up in it and replaced it for a Seymour Duncan Hotrails Stacked humbucker to great effect. And since the P bass split coil is thought by some to be one of the best bass pick-ups ever made, I thought it made sense to combine these ideas using the single coil version for the Hotrails wired in P bass format.

Hi James,
Welcome to the forum.

Sounds like a nice project you've got for yourself.
As for wood, it might be worth giving David Dyke an email, he has some body blanks at some good prices. All depends what your after really. I've had mine from him in the past.

Bass electronics aren't my strong point, but I'm sure you'll get them figured out, if you get stuck I'm sure if I can't help somebody will be able too if your confident about it I say be adventurous, just get some practice in with a soldering iron!

Best thing about using some old bits is that you get a good idea on customising, and when the finances permit your confident to upgrade them yourself if you want too, I did this on my first project, and it's now my first choice guitar!

Keep us posted
Tom.

Thanks for the advice. I have looked on his site since you suggested it and I note it seems a lot easier to understand what I'm buying into than many of the others I have been looking at.

Also I agree, there is something special about making a guitar your own. I have done this only once which was more repair than rebuild. I took a beat up old no-name 5 string which had what looked like 4 string emg select pickups (which were awfull), re-painted it badly because I had no patience at the age of 20 and installed a musicman style bridge pick-up. It wasn't great but it was mine. Unfortunatly that was stolen when my flat got burgled not long after along with my Jap Jazz bass.

Ironically the bass I am making a body for is the one that replaced these 2 that were stolen.

Sorry to hear!


He's pretty good, always worth keeping an eye out on eBay too though, you get some blanks come up occasionally.
I've got three sitting around which I need to do something with, I just havn't got the time now days, so considering selling selling two and keeping one for when time permits, don't know if they would be big enough for your needs though as they're as tight as tight can be for getting a strat/tele out of them.

I'd go for something basswood or ash to keep the cost down for your first body build, they're not too hard either so won't nacker up your tools. I did a mahogany body a few years back, got through about three good quality router bits routing it out, it was ridiculously hard to get through. Never again!

Tom.

OK, I'll leave mahogany to Gibson. Its too expensive as a wood anyway and I doubt I would be able to do it justice as a material on the visual department. What is your opinion on maple as a body material?

Difinately!

Maple is a good choice, nice and easy to work with with too.

That's made up my mind on the material. Thanks for all the advice.

Glad you've got some plans now keep us posted and feel free to ask any advice you need.