Thanks For making me feel guilty about not following this up.
Your scale length will be dependant on the strings you get. I do all my best design using CAD - or Cardboard aided design using Ruler paper and pencil and scisors/knife. This neck template has a bit of cardboard extra at the top for attaching the headstock template to and the rest is to lay on the body.
It is as you can see from what is written on it 45ish wide at the nut, has a scale length of 512 and around 10mm compensation at the saddle/bridge another 20 or 30 mm may be needed to give wiggle room for the adjustable/ floating bridge (fixed is OK for fretless). The saddle is at least 70mm wide to fit the acoustic bass piezo pickup.
View attachment 117716
You will need to buy some parts - I haven't got them all here and not all of them are absolutely essential.
In the picture
- top left a pre-wired passive volume tone control or variant
- second from left an acoustic bass piezo pickup (it is about 70mm wide and has 4 big lumps which are the individual pickups for each string.
- third from left, a Fender style neck attachment plate (Stick through or other designs are also possible)
Bottom A set of open Tuners for a regular bass (this type can be easily flipped left or right the far right one has been disassembled) or you can splurge on the purpose built bass ukulele tuners.
Far right Something to quickly and easily widen those slots to fit the thick bass uke strings - this 2 inch diamond wheel is a little flimsy but does the trick
View attachment 117717
More things to consider or order
- Fret wire - I used 2.4mm for the Fenwick Rodmaster Or not - The Chanenbacker is fretless Dan Hulbert used full bass size frets which looks a little wrong for some reason..
- Alternate to that passive control there are plenty of active and passive controllers and preamps. I much prefer the final look of the bass active preamp I used for the Rodmaster rather than the sit in top box preamp I put on the Chanenbacker. Some of these active preamps include tuners which some people find handy.
- Bass Ukulele Strings.
- Tools you might need - eg Fret slotting saw, Forstner Drill bits (14 and 18mm for these tuning pegs).
Wood for neck and body, pick-guard material, nut and saddle material etc
Now you need to work out what body shape and head shape you want. See
https://sites.google.com/site/guitarplanscollection/home they have a great collection of classic Fenderish, Gibsonesque and Other templates. Next one I am working on I may go smaller on the Body size or squash it for length. After looking at the Ashbury bass (
http://www.largesound.com/) I feel a bit more relaxed about having a smaller body.
View attachment 117718
I have just had an order come in for another one but I have yet to hear back on preferred body shape and a lot of parts (eg strings and preamp) are in the mail. I hope to turn the design and build process into an instructable.
https://www.instructables.com/member/titchtheclown I will share that when it is finished.
