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So I picked this up from @Tuckstir this morning...

Really happy with how it came out, and very excited to get this finished. Thanks to @Tuckstir and the company for getting this made- I still get a kick out of drawing something and having it turned into reality like this. Going down the road later on to hire a router for the weekend- after practicing on the scraps, I’ll cut the front and back round over this weekend

That crack down the front is a pitch pocket in the wood- It doesn't appear to be causing any structural problems so I'll fill it with superglue, and probably leave it exposed.

peterleroux
only a pleasure hope it finishes up and plays great..

for those that are interested here are some action shots

First we machined it flat, we ended up taking about 3,5mm off.

we first did the neck pocket and pickup cavity, before taking off 5mm on the outside of the guitar, and then we cut the outer profile. leaving behind 5mm material

next we recessed the sacrificial bed material so we could accurately position the blank

back pockets done

all hands on deck

and done

    Tuckstir Pity I can only hit the like button once! Very cool, nioce one gents!!!! ? ?

        Yesterday I hired a router from a local tool hire place, and this morning i spent some time reading up and watching YouTube tutorials. After getting an idea of how to work (feeding the woods in from the router’s Left at all times) and putting on my goggles and earplugs, I practiced on the scrap pieces first:

        I went around the whole bass in a few passes, getting deeper each time, and ended up going out to buy a bigger roundover big- the ones I had were all too small and might look ok on a Tele but were not smooth enough for a Jazz bass.

        After a few hours I had this:

        -pretty happy with most of it, except a few spots on the horns where I didn’t keep the router level:

        I used a belt sander, surform rasps and 80grit sandpaper to shape out the arm and tummy contours, and sanded out the gouges on the horn and generally blended the shape.

        Tomorrow I’ll drill all the cavity links, drill the neckplate and position the bridge, before spending the next week or so working on the finish- sanding to 220 or 300 grit, then doing Danish Oil over the course of a couple of days before I can out everything together. I also need to cut control cavity covers and drill for the pot and jack positions

        damnn, looking good - waiting in anticipation for the danish oil coats!

          a month later

          Body has been sanded, oiled, and the pot, pickup and jack holes drilled- hanging up for the night- neck, neck plate and bridge to be done in the morning- with a bit of luck I might be able to play it tomorrow!

          That looks awesome! Love the fretless fingerboard into the raw wood.

            That is shweet..
            Well done.. hope it brings you years of joy

              a month later
              10 days later

              RodneyVikens
              thanks! I'm trying to sort out an electronics problem (lots of hissing, popping and dropouts) that makes it pretty unpleasant to play plugged in at the moment- looking forward to being able to record it.

                  16 days later

                  So I heard from my local guitar tech today that he has re-wired the bass and solved the earthing problem, so I’ll be picking it up from him tomorrow morning, audio clips to follow this weekend ?

                  Tuckstir
                  Pretty good, thanks- it has great sustain, I think partly because the neck is quite thick, and partly because the neck joint is a tight fit.

                  It's pretty comfortable to play but I noticed that I was working quite hard to 'fret' the strings- it could probably do with having the action lowered now that it's working. I brought it to rehearsal on Sunday afternoon and ended up playing it in the service, so it has been a fairly natural transition - I think keeping the same body shape and scale length as my fretted bass might have helped

                    peterleroux please excuse the intonation:

                    No need to, you're fairly good already! Lots of fretless goodness in them slides ? Some big low end too, very nice!