Show US the Guitar that Speaks to You...

Terrible photo, but this one speaks the longest and loudest to me:

full
 
chilipeppermaniac said:
OK Col, I have to ask, WHAT about that other Jazz Bass? How did I miss that one?
Click to expand...

"Luretta, she's my bar room girl... wears them sevens on her sleeve.
Dances like a diamond shines, tells me lies I love to b'lieve.
Her age is always twenty two, laughin' eyes of hazel hue
spends my money like water falls, loves me like I want her to..." --Townes Van Zandt

Luretta she is... I believe I have posted her a number of times, but since you asked...
...and since this is a thread about guitars that speak to us, I'll tell her story, but I'll
try to keep it from sprawling too much.

Warmoth Fretless J-bass... I built her in 2009, after seeing a 1966 Jazz Bass like my old one
for sale at Elderly Intruments, asking price $18,000. I couldn't believe it. But I thought,
I should have a backup bass, in case I have a chance to turn my old one into big bucks.

I still don't believe it. My old Fender '66 isn't worth that much. If I get $3500 for it, I'll
be satisfied. Of course, mine's been stripped. I'm the culprit. So all that money disappears.
Like smoke in the midnight wind.

Anyway, I've always loved the sound of the fretless electric bass. So by about 2009 I figured I had
developed enough guitar tech skills to attempt a build, and I decided to build my dream bass.
I started with this:
01 Warmoth Swamp Ash body.jpg
I bought a fine fretless maple neck with Rosewood fingerboard and maple inlays instead of
frets. I need the 'sissy lines" because we don't always get good sound, and I need to see as
well as hear where I put my fingers. I sanded the neck just a tiny bit, and it fit right into
the pocket. I inserted one of the screws through the body, and it went right into the hole in the neck.
Can't beat that. Here I am, checking alignment of the strings (twine in this case) the bridge, the neck
the nut and the tuners. NO PROBLEMS!
05a Checking alignment.jpg
Then I went to work staining and varnishing the body. Lots of coats of tung oil...
like two coats a day for several weeks. While doing that, I made the pick guard out
of a plank of cabinet maker's walnut. There's a burl in this, that maybe he couldn't use.
But I loved it. It's in the upper horn area.

02 Walnut pickguard.jpg
I drew around the pick guard of my old '66, and marked where the screw holes were
and the cutout. Then I sanded it down to 600 grit and finished it with Tung oil.
I had enough walnut left to make a control cover too.
03 Walnut control plate 1.jpg
05 Walnut control plate 3.jpg
When I began putting it all together, it went like this:
08 wiring.jpg
and then this:
09 Control Plate finished.jpg
Here's the body, my dream bass, Luretta...
Body_5x@100.jpg
Gotoh black bridge, Fender 'Vintage Jazz Bass" pickups, 45-105 half round strings, Schaller Black tuners... All the best
of everything I could buy or make. For the headstock, I carved the hammer of Thor out of a piece of an oak tree that
had been blown to smithereens by lightning.
07 Headstock detail.jpg
So this bass sings to me, she's got a great growl in the low end, and a fine high M-Wah sound
that I can't get from any other instrument. I chose the J-bass shape and neck because that's what
I'd been playing for years, with frets. So I figured it would be easier to make the jump to fretless
on a familiar neck. And so it proved. Thanks for asking. More pictures than text here... tryin' to
keep it readable. Luretta is a remarkable instrument, totally unique like my other favorites.
13 Onstage close.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top