Vulcana solid body bass guitar

[Markku Nyytäjä]

I just posted a topic with a new six-string. Here comes a bass guitar I planned a long tome to build and eventually finished last Thursday. The body is a bit like a more pointed version of a reversed Thunderbird. Like the T-bird this one also is a little neck-heavy but not to a disturbing extent. The neck is thin and the action is pleasantly low, so it's comfortable to play. The neck pickup, the "Molten Lead Pb" is equipped with neodymium rod magnets and of my own design and make. The bridge pickup is a Belcat BJ-78 Soap Bar. Due to the strong magnets the neck pickup has a higher output than the bridge pickup, despite the lower DC resistance. I'm quite pleased with its sound: it's clear and beefy, with a good definition and a lot of muscle. Sound clips are on the way some time later.

The body and headstock top finish are teal candy sparkle. I'm not completely happy with the body finish, as the transparent stain a bit uneven on the backside. I didn't notice this until I was polishing the lacquer. Of course I could have sprayed it all over again, but I decided to consider this individual a prototype and keep it myself. And I can repaint the body someday - if I live long enough.

Here come the specs:

Body alder, beveled front edges, colour teal candy sparkle, acrylic lacquer finish
Bolt-on neck maple 864 mm/34", walnut fretboard 22 frets, white MOP fret markers, bone nut, dual-action truss rod, elephant ear tuners, headstock top colour teal candy sparkle
Neck pickup NYDE Molten Lead Pb with neodymium rod magnets 10.3 kΩ, bridge pickup Belcat BJ-78 Soap Bar bass pickup with ceramic magnet 11.2 kΩ
2 volume pots 250 kΩ with treble bleed filters, 1 master tone 250 kΩ with 47nF cap
Vintage style chrome bridge, chrome hardware

Here come the studio pics:

Front view of the body

Headstock with logo & model name

Rear view

[Markku Nyytäjä]

Body from the rear

Headstock, rear view

Body detail

Another body detail pic

There are quite a few work-in-progress photos too, but I'm not done with them yet, so I'll post them a little later. This is it for now.

[Jason Rodgers]

More sparkle! I'm not usually a fan of pointy body shapes, but this is working for me. I can see how it would be a little neck-heavy, though. You could probably extend the upper horn a bit more toward the 12th fret without messing with the design too much. The headstock is particularly cool.

Tell more about that neo P pickup.

[Markku Nyytäjä]

Yes, I seem to be going through a sparkle phase here. The next one will be solid black, though.
The longer upper horn would probably work. The instrument is also so little off balance that just choosing a lighter set of tuners might do the trick. A friend of mine wants me to build him a bass and this model might be what he needs. He must just see and try the prototype out first before making his choice.
The neo P pickup is very simple. Instead of using AlNiCo rods I used 12.5 mm long 5mm diameter neodymium rods that I ordered from the German web store http://www.supermagnete.de. When I ordered 80 of them, they cost just 0.36€ apiece. Then I just made sure I wouldn't wind the coils too much, as I didn't want to lose the clarity of sound the combination of powerful magnets and moderate winding offers. These ones turned out good. I'll post links to sound clips when I have recorded them.

[Jason Rodgers]

The neo P pickup is very simple. Instead of using AlNiCo rods I used 12.5 mm long 5mm diameter neodymium rods that I ordered from the German web store http://www.supermagnete.de. When I ordered 80 of them, they cost just 0.36€ apiece. Then I just made sure I wouldn't wind the coils too much, as I didn't want to lose the clarity of sound the combination of powerful magnets and moderate winding offers. These ones turned out good. I'll post links to sound clips when I have recorded them.

Vintage P specs are in the 10k to 11k range, right? With the neos, I bet you could bring those turns down even farther and get something with plenty of top end and balance a bit better off your bridge pickup (if you did this same combine again). I've only experimented with neos under the hood against blades or slugs, so I don't have much to go on. My first blades were wound hot, and I just got mud.

[Markku Nyytäjä]

Yep. This P-bass pickup is very bright wound up to over 10 k. If I had wound it to a lower DC resistance, it might have been a better match for the soapbar, but it might have become even too bright. I still want the low end muscle and I think the coil is wound just right. Next time I'll just wind the bridge pickup myself too, so I can balance them better.

I promised to post some work-in-process pics. Here comes a bunch.

As usual I started with the neck. I have some purchased 34" scale bass fretboards in stock, but they all have 20 frets and I wanted the bass to have 22 - so I decided to make my own out of walnut. It turned out nice. The neck itself is a 2-piece maple neck with a glued-on angled headstock and a dual-action truss rod. I made the neck thin and as narrow as a Jazz bass neck. None of my bassist friends has tried it out, But I find it comfortable.

The headstock and the rest of the neck are cut from the same piece of maple and then glued together.

Clamped together.

I had some nice walnut fretboard blanks. This one had the honour to be chosen and cut to shape.

After measuring fret positions and cutting the slots with a dozuki saw and a mitre box I radiused the fretboard with a 20" radius caul and different grit sanding papers, starting with 60 and ending with 1200.

Drilling pits for MOP fret markers using a 6 mm brad point bit on a drill press.

[Markku Nyytäjä]

I get my MOP dots mailed from Australia. The site is http://orders.mopsupplies.com/ They have nice array of different sizes and colours.

The dots had to be sanded flush with the surface, so another sanding round was needed.

After installing side markers I cut the frets and hammered them into their slots. I mask the slot edges and put a few drops of CA glue into the slot prior to installing the fret. I have also made a radiused fret pressing caul to use with the drill press, but I'm more comfortable doing it this way.

The fretboard was then glued to the neck and the neck sshaped with sanders and scrapers. I dressed the fret ends first with a file and finished the job with a belt sander and the finest grit belt I had. Then it was time for body work. I cut the body out of the alder blank with a band saw, screwed the template on and evened out the edges with a table router and a flush trim router bit. The sides were then carefully sanded.

Before I rout any cavities in a body I remove most of the excess wood with forstner drill bits.

The cavity is then routed using a template.

[Markku Nyytäjä]

Routing the jack cavity in the side of the body

Routing neck pocket.

I have made routing templates for each pickup type I use in my builds and a good set of router bits for most purposes. Here I round off the body badck edge on a table router.

Bevelling the body front edge with a 45° angle router bit.

Drilling neck attachment screw holes.

[Markku Nyytäjä]

With all the woodwork done I assembed the bass for setup. The neck angle had to be checked, the frets levelled and the action and the intonation set.

Temporarilry assembled.

Levelling and crowning frets.

The bass was now ready for a paint job. First came a couple of layers of filler primer.

Spraying primer

Then came a layer of 100 micron silver sparkle flake. The flake is mixed with a mixture of 20% clearcoat and 80% thinner. Instead of the 3-4 bar air pressure I use with HVLP spray guns I blow the flake with a 6 bar pressure. The spraygun is kept in a whirling motion when not spraying to prevent the flake from setting at the bottom of the can

I sprayed a transparent teal coloured stain over the flake. I should have been more careful, the stain came out a little uneven in the back of the body. The neck headstock looks great, though.

OK. It's 2.08 AM again. I need some sleep. I'll leave this all to dry overnight and come back some time tomorrow.

[Markku Nyytäjä]

Spraying clearcoat. Every instrument I build gets at least 4 layers of clear lacquer and I wet sand between coats.

The clearcoat is wet sanded first with my rookie sander, a nice 250W Bosch plane sander (Ryobi R.I.P.)...

...and then by hand. I start the final sanding with 800 grit and end it with 2500 grit.

The smooth sanded surface is then polished. I use a random orbital sander with a sponge buffer and Farécla polishing compounds - medium G3 2-3 times and fine G10 twice. I wipe the buffing dust away with a microfibre cloth.

The tricky parts of the body are polished with a conical buffer attached to a power drill with a wire extension.

[Markku Nyytäjä]

A rag wheel also helps me get the more difficult parts polished.

The neck gets the same treatment as the body.

When all the wooden parts are shiny, I start assembling the bass again. First I hammer the tuner bushings into their holes and install the tuners.

Soldering the electronics together. I usually build a control module on a piece of copper sheet in advance and then just solder the pickups to it...

...and of course the jack. I used a Start type recessed jack plate in this build. With the jack located in the side of the body the signal cord won't get in the way - and I think it looks cool.

[Markku Nyytäjä]

Right?

With everything in place the final step was to string and tune the bass, set the action and check the intonation. See how the powerful neodymium magnet of the neck pickup traps the loose string.
This is my last build photo. I was in a hurry and preferred to finish the instrument over taking pictures. The bass turned out a little neck-heavy and the stain on the backside of the body could be more even, but otherwise I consider this build a successfully finished prototype. With its thin neck it's comfortable to play and I'm especially pleased with the sound of the neck pickup.

I'll have some bassist friends test drive this bass before I decide whether it's going to be a production model. I have a feeling that with some minor modifications it is. Choosing a lighter set of tuners and taking into account Jason's advice of extending the upper horn a bit would certainly get the balance right. Otherwise I find no issues here. I think I can live with this prototype and, if I'm lucky, get it sold.

[David King]

Nice one Markku!
Who holds the camera for you or do you have 3 arms?
The photo of bashing the tuner bushings in looks painfully self destructive at first glance.

[Markku Nyytäjä]

I have the camera on a tripod and self timer. It takes 3 or 4 four frames at a time and I then pick the best one. My workshop camera, by the way, died today and will join the endless line of heroes killed in action at my workshop. Fortunately I have a replacement, but I am definitely going to miss my late companion. Caps off and three shots! (The replacement rookie can take 3 consecutive shots on self timer.)

Yes, my voice went up a few pitches hammering in the bushings. I used to be a bass, but now I sing soprano. Actually I can't hit any high notes any more. I'm somewhere between baritone and bass. So much for the metal vocalist carer.

[Thomas Ruthardt]

Very nice Work.
Nice Documention.

[Jason Rodgers]

So much for the metal vocalist carer.

Don't throw away your dreams quite yet. All the death/dark/black metal coming out of your neck of the woods prefers low, gravely, bowels-of-hell vocalists. There's still a chance!

[Markku Nyytäjä]

I've tried growling. That would quickly kill the remains of my vocal chords.

I managed to revive the workshop camera at home today. I guess it just had a bad battery contact.

[Beate Ritzert]

Nice Bass.

The neck heaviness would probably have disappeared if You had placed the bridge strap lock button at the bridge side more toward the upper edge of the shape instead of the center.

[Gordon Bellerose]

Nice pictures of the build, and a nice result.
I've been thinking about a sparkle finish on a future build, and your technique seems easy enough.
Any advice for those of us thinking similarly?

[Markku Nyytäjä]

Make the primer as even as possible. Spray several layers and sand it as minituously as you can. For best results first spray a fine grain silver lacquer with 6 bar pressure and a siphon type gun, 2 mm nozzle. 1 tbsp of silver powder in 250 millitres of thin (50% clearcoat, 50% thinner or even more diluted) gives a good mixture. Then spray the flake using the same settings. The tint can then be sprayed on the flake right away, with a normal 3-4 bar pressure on a HVLP gun. I use Stewmac's Color Tone liquid stains diluted in 80% thinner and 20% of clearcoat. Make a thin stain solution to get more control of the tone. Then spray several layers of clear, let cure and wet sand between coats. I spray at least 4 coats, sometimes 7. Final sanding with 800, 1200, 1500, 2000 and 2500 grit papers, buffing with Farécla G3 and G10 compounds. It takes a lot of work but pays off.