The New Four-String P-J Bass Build

Dear Friends and Family,

Here it is! The new David T Design Bass! This is a four-string P-J Bass. It has a Precision Bass style body shape and a Jazz Bass neck profile with P-Bass roundness at the first fret. This bass has a ‘Chambered‘ African Black Limba body and a Koa Wood cap (top). The neck is Quarter-Sawn, Roasted, Flamed Maple with a Koa headstock cap. The fingerboard is Rosewood. The frets and hardware are Gold. I’ve been enjoying gold frets. They are a little pricier than Nickel fretwire, are slightly harder but, not really harder to work with and look really cool.

The Gold Bridge is from Babicz. I love these Babicz bridges! They are lightweight and strong, and it’s very easy to adjust string height and length. A well-designed machine. The Gold Tuners are Schaller BM. Extremely lightweight tuners! The Electronic Knobs are Gold with Black Mother-Of-Pearl Caps. I fashioned the Fingerboard Dots from Gold and Black Mother-Of-Pearl Stock using a Plug Cutter with my drill press.

As usual, the body and neck are carved from solid wood slabs. And I hand-carve as much as I can using the bandsaw at first, then, filing, carving, and sanding until the wood becomes what I imagined it could be. The Finish is multiple coats of Tru-Oil (Gunstock Oil). I thought about staining a Sunburst on this bass but, the wood is just too beautiful au’ natural’. Check out how the lines in the Koa top blend in with the Black Limba body. I then hand-polished and buffed the finish to get a glass-like appearance. I did some artistic imaging in my head while I was designing this build to line up the grain of each type of wood with each other.

I have a very old violin in pieces (the neck had snapped off at the neck joint) that I stripped the old varnish off of on my next-up bench (the bullpen?). That will be a fun project to stain (probably a sunburst) and reassemble. I can’t wait to play it! Pics to come . . .

Then . . . I have a prebuilt and nicely painted Mary Kay White Stratocaster body that I am installing the electronics from a Line6 JTV Variax Modeling Guitar in the ‘bullpen’. It will have a Black Pearl pickguard. Some creative routing will be involved along with carving to make it all fit in the body . . . I love a challenge. More pics to come . . .

I also have a request from my neighbor to build an exotic-wood short-scale Mustang-type Bass. I’m looking through my wood inventory at wood choices for that.

Then, I’m making plans in my head to design and build an Acoustic Bass in the style of Fender’s Stratacoustic guitar. A fully chambered one-piece body with a Spruce top with a soundhole, an Acoustic-style Graphtech Piezo Bridge, and an electric pickup, probably Music Man style, with the ability to blend between the acoustic and electric pickups. It’ll be basically an electric bass that looks and sounds like an acoustic/electric bass.

Here are the New Four-String P/J Bass Build pics:

Enjoy . . .

**That’s Some Nice African Black Limba Wood**

**The Neck is Quartersawn, Flamed, Roasted Maple**

**A Coating of Tru-Oil Makes the Koa Shine!**

**Tru-Oil Makes the Flame Come Out On the Maple Neck**

**Check Out How the Black Limba Figure Blends Into The Koa Figure**

**The Body and Neck Are Lightly Sanded Between Coats**

**Look How The Black Limba ‘Melts’ Into the Koa Wood**

**It’s Always Cool To See Little Imperfections In The Wood. It Makes Each Piece Unique.**

OOPS!!!! When I Tried Adjusting The Truss Rod The Fingerboard Popped Off The Neck . . . Oops! I Used ‘Hide Glue’ To Glue The Fingerboard To The Neck Which is Good if You Want to Take A Musical Instrument Apart, Later. Not So Good For Neck/Fingerboard Joints. That Won’t Happen, Again. Good Ol’ Titebond Wood Glue Is The Way To Go.

**After Getting the Fingerboard Off the Neck Using Heat and Spatulas Meant For Neck Repairs, I Sand It Down And Reglue The Neck/Fingerboard with Titebond Wood Glue.**

**Using the Luthiers Mercantile Fingerboard Gluing Jig**. It Makes For Consistent Pressure Along the Neck.

**The Tuner Holes On the Back Of the Headstock**

**I Like To Use Total Ground Carbon Conductive Coating Rather Than Copper Shielding. Much Cleaner . . .**

**The Carbon Conductive Coating Helps ‘Ground’ The Electrical Components and Eliminate Hum.**

**That’s a Precision Bass Pickup at the Neck and a Jazz Bass Bridge Pickup**

**I’m Still Lining Up The Neck And Trying Different Knobs. These Are Real Ebony**

**That Flamed Headstock with Koa Cap Is Pretty. Don’t You Agree?**

**That’s a Babicz Bridge. I find them To Be Lightweight, Solid, and Easy to Adjust.**

**Cutting Fingerboard Dots From Gold Mother-Of-Pearl Using A Plug Cutter and Drill Press**

**See the MOP Dot Inside the Plug Cutter?**

**Here It Is!!! Inlays Are All Done. See the Bass Clef At the 12th Fret?**

**I changed the Knobs to Gold with Black Pearl Inlay. The Neck Dots Also Have Black Pearl At the ‘A’ Positions And the 24th Fret.**

Check Out the Flame Markings on the Neck and Headstock!

Those are Bolts Instead of Screws to Hold the Neck to the Body. Bolts Give A Much More Solid Connection, Add Sustain and Complete the Tone Connection Between the Body and Neck. The Control Cavity Cover Is Koa. Just Like the Top and Headstock Cap.

**I Love How the Koa Top Figure Transitions to the Body Figure!**

**The Bass Clef 12th Fret Inlay and Black Pearl Dot At the ‘A’ Octave**

**My Cousin, John Tschirhart Playing The First Of The P-Bass Based Custom David T Basses. The Basswood/Quilt Maple Body and Roasted Maple/Purple Heart Neck Are An Excellent Combination.**

3 Comments

Lawrence John Macks says:

September 3, 2022 at 11:19 pm

Sweet as 🍎 apple butter.

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1. bassman1954 says:
  
  November 5, 2022 at 5:40 pm
  
  Thanks, Larry. I’m concentrating on designing instruments that will appeal to most musicians while adding my own improvements to older concepts.
  
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allthingsal says:

February 4, 2024 at 10:12 pm

Very nice build David. Sweet! Love the Tung Oil finish too!

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