Lowe Shop Notes

[Dave W]

[BTL]

Night of the Lepus...

So, back to work.

That mahogany slab was milled, thicknessed  to 1 7/8" S4S, and cut to length at the lumberyard:



I had a few bass necks left that needed machines installed:





Also, several guitar necks that needed machines.

I just LOVE Sperzel Sound Loks:

[BTL]

Another project in the queue is building out the Rowka CNC Muzik Faktorie®  Teeluxe body.

This is an SPF body with a Fir top that served as the "proof of concept" for my Grove Guitars tribute build.

I confirmed the American Special Tele parts fit properly, so I'm converting it to a Lowe design for my personal use.

Laying it out for my Universal rout:



One down, one to go:



Ready for the Speedball Black finish demonstrated in another thread:



Ready for assembly:

[gearHed289]

That looks cool and fits into your line nicely!

[BTL]

Thanks!

So...back at it.

I have a few things in the pipeline, mostly on the guitar front.

Still, I have some fun stuff on the bass front, too.

The GFS XGP double-bound bodies are a bit too tempting not to try:



Of course, I can't leave well-enough alone:



That's a mirror finish.



Done.



I think these will be the last of the Mighty Mite necks I use...I got a letter.



All of my necks get threaded inserts...I guess I forgot to snap a shot of them installed.



A single pickup Ridler body in black with a walnut back:



A single pickup Chromasonic in Inca Silver with a walnut back:



And the latest gallery shot.

[Rob]

Lookin' good Brad

[Pilgrim]

Brad, what kind of pickup would go into that slanted pickup rout? I have a body with that rout on it and don't know what might fit...

[Dave W]

Brad, what kind of pickup would go into that slanted pickup rout? I have a body with that rout on it and don't know what might fit...

That's a standard Tele bridge pickup route. It has room for the base plate of the pickup, which is covered by the bridge plate.

[Pilgrim]

Gracias.  The route in the body I have is nice and clean, so when I get around to building that one I think I'll get a Tele bass pickup for it. All the Tele basses I have seen had the pickup mounted straight across the body, so the angled rout was throwing me off.  I guess it's a standard mount for a guitar pickup, but I don't know that it wouldn't work on a bass. I see all kinds of wacky angled pickups on other models.

[Dave W]

Gracias.  The route in the body I have is nice and clean, so when I get around to building that one I think I'll get a Tele bass pickup for it. All the Tele basses I have seen had the pickup mounted straight across the body, so the angled rout was throwing me off.  I guess it's a standard mount for a guitar pickup, but I don't know that it wouldn't work on a bass. I see all kinds of wacky angled pickups on other models.

I didn't realize you were thinking of making a bass out of a routed Tele guitar body. A single coil P Bass pickup is wider than a Tele guitar pickup, and even if it were the same size, it doesn't have a baseplate. You can get a humbucker style Tele guitar bridge plate to cover the opening, and TV Jones even makes one to fit his filtertron sized pickups, but you'd have to rout the opening and you'd still have a 6-saddle bridge plate with string-through holes, and it wouldn't be in the right location for a bass bridge.

Maybe Brad has a suggestion.

[BTL]

I recently noticed that the Eden 32" scale bass necks actually fit a Strat pocket, so that could work for the neck.

I'm not sure if the bridge needs to be moved, but my guess is yes.

A few quick ideas to cover that Tele rout:

Guild DS1



Lollar Thunderbird



Fralin Hum Canceling P90

[slinkp]

What do those P90s sound like for bass?

[BTL]

What do those P90s sound like for bass?

I think they sound absolutely fantastic, and they are my personal favorites.

It's been interesting to me to get feedback from different players on each pickup style.

All are very highly regarded, but each seems to garner its own fans.

I've given up on trying to predict who will prefer which.

[Pilgrim]

Thanks, Brad.  I will have some figuring to do when I get around to this, as I have a short scale Fender neck already in hand for a short scale tele bass. Looks like I'll have to modify that rout pretty much regardless of what pickup I use.

[BTL]

No problem, sounds like a fun project!