September 23, 2006: I begin work on a new customer project: A 5-string Oakhurst bass similar to the one I built for myself in early 2006. This one will have the following specifications:

  • The body will be a three-layer sandwich of figured claro walnut with a layer of curly maple between
  • The neck will be bolt-on, with a core of quarter-sawn hard maple and two accent stripes of purpleheart
  • The neck will have the Oakhurst style headstock with a claro walnut overlay and inlaid CYR logo in white MOP, black MOP, and Paua abalone
  • The neck will have an asymmetrical back profile, similar to that available on some Carvin basses, as well as the Gecko(tm) series made by Warmoth
  • The headstock will also feature two additional accent stripes of curly koa
  • The fingerboard will be Pau Ferro (Bolivian Rosewood) with white MOP 1/4" position marker dots. The side markers will be 3/32" white plastic.
  • The pickups will be Bartolini soapbars, model MM45CBC
  • The bass will have a Bartolini 3-band EQ with switchable midrange and an active/passive switch.
  • The bass will have a Hipshot Model A bridge with through-the-body string attachment and 18mm string spacing
  • The bass will have Gotoh miniature bass tuning machines
  • All hardware will be black

October 18, 2006: First pictures of the neck for Mark's bass: The neck has been glued up. Under that fingerboard is a double-action truss rod and two 1/8" x 3/8" carbon-fibre stabilizing rods. Next step for the neck will be to glue up and install a boomatched figured-walnut overlay, then do the neck carving.

The back side of the headstock is shown here:

The neck is shown here with three others I'm working on:

  • In the back is the neck for the Electric Upright Bass I started work on a couple of weeks ago
  • Next is the neck for Mark's bass
  • In front of that is another 5-string neck in Northen White Ash with a zebrawood fingerboard
  • The one in the front is a guitar neck in Northern hard ash, fingerboard and all

Other progress so far:

  • The Claro walnut for the back side of the body has been resawn on the band saw, and is ready to be planed to thickness
  • The curly maple for the center layer of the body has been selected (it's already been resawn)
  • The figured claro walnut (a combination of flame figure and marbling) has been selected for the top, but still needs to be resawn into a bookmatched set
  • All of the parts have been received (tuners, bridge, pickups, preamp, etc.)

October 22, 2006: Today I made up the layers of the body. The back layer is a bookmatched set of marbled claro walnut 15/16" thick. The center layer of the sandwich is 3/8" thick bookmatched curly maple, and the top is a 5/16" thick bookmatched curly claro walnut. In these pictures, the maple center layer is being glued to the clao walnut back layer:

Some new pictures of the progress we've made on the neck for this bass. Here's a view of the headstock after carving, shown with another neck we're working on:

The same two necks, showing the full length of both necks:

The heel end of Mark's bass neck:

The headstock again, ready for the bookmatched walnut overlay:

The position marker dots are in place. There are 1/4" diameter white mother-of-pearl dots on the fingerboard, plus 3/32" white plastic dots on the edge:

The same two necks again, showing the position markers:

Here's a batch of necks we're working on:

Finally, the headstock with the walnut overlay and the logo inlay:

We've gotten the following done on this bass:

  • The body is sanded to 220-grit and is ready for finishing
  • The neck is fully carved
  • The position markers are installed
  • The frets are installed
  • The neck is sanded to 400-grit and is readty fopr finishing

Now we've fitted the neck to the body, as shown below:

Walnut is a very porous wood, and it will soak up vast quantities of finish if left unsealed. So I have applied a coat of epoxy pore-filling sealer to the heastock front surface - and here's what it looks like:

And since the body is almost all walnut, I've applied the same epoxy pore filler to that as well - and the curl figure in the walnut shows really well now:

This next five pictures show the body after the poly/acrylic lacquer has been applied, level-sanded, and polished:

As soon as the finishing of the neck is completed, we'll be ready to start assembly of the bass!

The neck has been bolted on:

The headstock after refinishing with KTM-9 water-borne lacquer:

The bass getting acquainted with its case:


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(c) Copyright 2007, 2008 by Stephen Cyr
Last updated March 3, 2008		 Best experienced with

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