Short-scale Flamed-Maple Bass Guitar

[Justin Tugaoen]

Though I'd share with you a recent bass guitar I built:

30" short-scale.
Body: Flamed-maple top with alder body, matching maple electronic cavity and truss-rod covers with magnets,
Neck: 3-piece flamed-maple with black veneer accents, bolt-on
Headstock: Unstained flamed-maple headplate with figured-makore veneer backstrap
Fingerboard: Wenge with abalone inlay and LED at 12th fret; LED side markers, all yellow except for red LEDs at frets 12 and 24
Electronics: Passive with volume and tone pots, Fender precision pickups, vintage-style pickup and bridge covers, Gotoh bridge and tuners (engraved), on-off switch for LEDs
Finish: Tru-oil (~10 coats) with satin finish

I built this originally for my wonderful wife (who expressed interest in learning to play) and thus the short-scale size. Turned out I'm the one using it all the time and has become my favorite bass because it's so easy to reach the frets and it's lightweight! Thinking of building a 32" scale bass now.....

[Justin Tugaoen]

.....a closer look at the body.....

[Justin Tugaoen]

.....and headstock.....

[Jamie Unden]

Great job! Do you have to use different strings for that scale?

[Justin Tugaoen]

I did use specific short-scale strings on this, but you could use regular strings. The advantage of short-scale strings I think is that the length is already correct and the ends are wrapped to prevent unwinding

[Hans Bezemer]

Nice work Justin. I like the inlays, do you have a more close up picture of it?

[Warren May]

Very nice bass. I like the upper horn and the body contours a lot. Did you do the etching on the tailpiece? That's a nice touch, too, as well as the body inlay.

[Justin Tugaoen]

Hans, here's the closeup of the inlay. If it seems like a strange place for an inlay, yes it is and it's because it wasn't planned. When I first routed out the rear cavity, I went ahead and also drilled out the pot shaft holes from the rear; but when I looked at them from the front, the holes didn't match the lower bout's curve aesthetically, so I plugged them and inlayed to cover them up.
As for the covers, yes I engraved them using a Dremel; the bridge cover I engraved my logo/signature (ala the "F" on a fender cover), and a cross and leaves on the pickup cover. I also engraved the tuners. Overall not even close to a professional engraver's work, using gravers, but good enough for me.

[Hans Bezemer]

Thanks for the close up, Justin.
I like the "odd" place for the inlay. Nice that a mistake becomes a unique feature!

[Bob Francis]

I really like the surprize inlay!
Nice work

[Justin Tugaoen]

Thanks guys! Yes, unplanned inlays are my treatment of choice for covering mistakes, unexpected cracks, and "discovered" wood defects and mineral deposits during carving. Works great and their unexpected locations give them added interest (I think).

[James Tonguet]

Very nice work !

[Micah Covington]

Beautiful.

[Steve Benford]

Looks great. I love everything about it.

For the finish, did you hand rub the burst, then seal that up with the Tru-oil? What did you use for the burst finish? Ive tried this before and got a lot of bleeding within the color coat when I applied the Tru-oil.

STEVE