Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

It all began several months ago when I decided to give myself a second chance in playing the bass. Well, that didn't work, Again. But this doesn't mean I can't try and make one. It only took me two lockdowns to complete. My first ever encounter with woodworking, epoxy, and of course making a musical instrument. The neck was the easiest part - ordered cheap from Aliexpress (I'm actually working at the moment on some jigs for making my own necks).
I used the offcuts from another kauri bass project (still work in progress) to make this one. The idea was to make some "river" like "thing", but instead of making two layers - a solid color and clear on top, I decided to make the epoxy semi-translucent, so the "slopes" of the natural edge tree are visible. Well, now I don't think this was a brilliant idea- all the cables, etc. are visible. So this was one of the many lessons learned.

So, the synopsis of the project:
21 fret, 34 inch scale Jazz Bass copy. P bass neck. Standard wiring (volume, volume, tone). Finished with wipe-on poly.
For this one, I used only cheap hardware from Aliexpress with the exception of the pickups, which although not expensive have some nice feedback over the net. The only tools I used were a router, a jigsaw, and a random orbital sander. I don't have anything else except a cheap and who knows how old table saw, to which I can attach the router to use it as a router table.
The best part (for me) is that it actually plays . On the downside, it is heavy (due to the epoxy I reckon). I don't have a suitable scale to measure it, but it is obviously heavier than my other bass (Cort).
Happy to hear your thought, guys.

Looks pretty cool to me!
If you have the guitar building bug, then the next one will be even better.

Thanks, Richard!
Seems like I have the bug . The next step is making my own necks. The one good thing about this lockdown is I have a bit more spare time, so I'm on it now.
The one thing I learned from making this one is how much I hate working with poly. I'm trying something different for the next one. Danish oil or shellac probably.

I'm a french polish (shellac) convert. Its easy, cheap, quick, convenient and cheap. Supposedly not so good for gigging guitars because of durability issues but very simple to re-finish if you have to.

Hi Nikolav. The blue resin and brown/black timber look great together. You could be getting into a signature style there. You might like hand applied oil finishes. Danish Oil looks good but is not the most durable option, and the lots of different brands all calling themselves Danish Oil are a mixed bunch. Tru Oil, which is marketed as a finish for gun stocks, has all the advantages of a hand rubbed oil finish but it forms a harder surface than Danish oil mixes. It might be a good choice for your next one There are lots of Youtube videos about its use as a guitar finish. Keep going mate, I think your work looks great.

Thanks Mark!
I'm also consiering Tru oil and funny you mentioned it, but I emailed yesterday the guys I buy the epoxy from if they have any idea if their epoxy could have some issues with the tru oil, as I read some mixed reviews about that. Still waiting for their response. I even read a suggestion to use shellac as a bond between the epoxy and the oil.
And I'm working on my own necks now and for at least one of them, I'll use tru-oil. As a comparison for myself with the other one, which will be covered with boiled linseed oil.
And I'm also working on a couple of other bodies (again kauri+epoxy, so yeah, this gonna be my signature I guess ) so I can use and compare some different finishes and techniques.