Solid body, Ashbory type bass

[Steve Senseney]

Continuing on with trying to get the "perfect" bass, I have another Ashbory type instument--

Siberian Elm body,
Walnut with maple stripes in the middle for fingerboard,
Maple neck,
Walnut headplate
Tuners from Largesound.com
Strings from Bassuke.com

Electronics from China
under saddle pickup from China

Battery held in place by piece of mouse pad

22 inch scale

Bone saddle,
Walnut nut

Back view of guitar

Face view of guitar

[Steve Senseney]

The preamp is an endjack type of preamp--

One side of label

Small electronic view.JPG (24.82 KiB) Viewed 9517 times

Other side of label

Installed in Guitar

[Steve Senseney]

The battery box was a problem.

I decided to have this on the back side and lined it with a piece of computer mouse pad. It is snug enough to hold the battery securely, but it can be removed easily.

Battery box

[Steve Senseney]

I saw a picture of a vintage ukulele which someone was repairing. I copied this somewhat.

After it was together, it was quite nice. I hated to use any position markers on the face, so I just placed dots on the side.

The open grain of the walnut had me concerned about getting dirty. I decided to put several coats of shellac on the surface. I did not porefill however. I may regret this later.

Fingerboard no strings

The fingerboard with strings is not quite as dramatic, as the big polyurethane strings hide a lot of the stripes.

Fingerboard with strings

[Steve Senseney]

A couple of other problems--The elm body is quite light, and soft. I had a lot of dents to steam out when I got close to final finishing.

The adjustable bridge , strings and all of the electronics were in a relatively tight space. I had to enlarge the string holes a little on the back to get them into the slots and pulled up.

The center 2 strings do not quite sit flush with the body of the guitar as there was not much room to pull them through.

I may have to feed them in from an angle on the next guitar to give the preamp a little more room.

I considered placing the preamp to the side of the bridge, past where the string through holes are placed.

I thought about using this as one of the challenge builds.

I really didn't think I would get this finished this quickly.

The maple and elm are trees I processed from log to wood. The walnut is from Minnesota. I traded a campfire mandolin for a few boards.

4 drywall screws for the neck attachment.

Medium frets.

2 pan head 10/24 screws to hold the bridge in position.

Shellac finish.

I don't have any final accounting as far as cost.

[david frassetto]

Way cool Steve. I like the shape and your wood choices. I gotta build one of these someday. Where did you source your pickup and preamp?

[Steve Senseney]

If you search ebay for "Active Endpin jack preamp pickup kit for Acoustic Guitar", you will find sellers from China. I bought from one of the 5 star sellers.

I bought the undersaddle piezo pickup for ukuleles from another China 5 star seller.

[Rodger Knox]

Steve, did you ever get an amp to test these out?
I have to say these Ashbory basses are pretty appealing, I may have to try one.

[Steve Senseney]

I used a larger amp, and they do sound better than with the small amp.

I am impressed by the sensitivity of the piezo pick up, and the the pre-amp.