I promised to post photos when my I finished my workshop, it’s not completely finished but operational, albeit very basic.

I have finished the V-string version of my Paradox bass design. It has Delano JMVC 5 FE pickups. Furthermore, I changed the bridge to an Aluminum Hipshot A-Style bridge with .750" string spacing.

Body shape’s the same, and the headstock only slightly altered to fit the straight fretted neck. Oh, and I replaced the block inlays with 1/4" MoP dots.

I’m currently working on a 5-string non-fanned version with Delano JMVC pickups. When finished, I will make a choice between the fanned and the non-fanned version.

I’m in doubt about a lot of constructional difficulties like the volute, frets that have to be twisted on a medium curved fingerboard, bridge grounding (not a big problem but still) and the block inlays that are fanned and made of MoP (expensive and unable to route them flush with the compound radius and due to the compound radius I cannot use a radiused sanding block) and lastly, the hybrid pickup cannot be rotated and is effectively contra angled with the bass side much more to the neck then you would normally do, I do not know if that’s okay, since Dingwall always slants the pickups.

When I ‘played’ on the MDF template it didn’t seem to be comfortable, so compared to all the extra effort I wonder if it’s worth it, that’s why I tried the Dingwall to help me in my decision.

So.. that’s why I am investigating how it would look as a regular V, being the more safe option.

Today the flamed maple top arrived!

I contacted two suppliers of Delano products (since Delano itself did not reply to any email I’ve sent) and they both confirmed that I can simply swap the bass and treble pot with a 50k/50k stacked bass/treble pot. Bass-Parts from Germany sells them: Stacked Potentiometer (bass/treble) – BassParts.de

As far as I know I can simply solder the wires to this one and I’m done.

After completing the neck template I noticed it didn’t feel the way I wanted, so today I tried a few different basses to make up my mind:
– Dingwall Afterburner (4 strings, fanned, banjo frets)
– Fender JB Deluxe (5 strings, larger bridge spacing, smaller radius)
– Warwick Streamer (5 strings, narrow bridge, large fb radius)

Conclusion: I don’t like fanned frets as much as I thought. Also, I like the wider bridge better, gonna stay with 5 strings and I don’t like banjo frets. The radius of 20" I planned is too flat and I am gonna go with a smaller (compound) radius.

Good thing is I can keep the master template for the body. I will of course store the neck template with the fanned version. Now I am going to do some redesigning…

Some more template work in progress going on..

Sexy, isn’t it?

Though I’m a bit in doubt about the neck width and fanned frets now I’ve got the template. The first fret on the low B seems hard to reach, and the first frets do not feel very natural, despite my modest fan (34.5" – 33"). However, the mid section feels very good. Just not sure if it’s okay for me, 5 strings and fanned… if I invest all this time and money it must be perfect, so at the moment I am rethinking the plan. Checking my options.

Yesterday I went to a local luthier to show my first bass, ask for some criticism and give me some tips to enhance playability. I needed some advice from a professional to give me enough confidence to proceed building my next bass.

Turns out he was quite positive. Said I’m on the right track. Of course, there were some improvements to make. I knew of some points, but he gave some good tips on how to solve them.

Things I need to change are:

• neck thickness is okay, but the profile could be more smooth towards the fingerboard edges
• frets are beveled okay, but still have sharp edges were the bevel meets the sides of the frets – he showed me how to fix that
• fine tuning is not perfect, distance from open string to twelfth fret sounds okay, but from open to 19th fret is off, need to correct that
• the slots in the nut are to shallow, need to be deeper to lower the strings above the first fret – this is the main reason the action is not low enough
• the lower body contour is located to the bridge side too much, causing the bass to neck dive while playing seated.. kind of design failure, saw that coming and I’ll try to avoid it on the next one, not sure the current design does, but I will have to check when the templates are done

The neck relief and straightness is good, which made me happy because I was worried that could be the problem.

So all are very solvable issues, I can make this bass a lot better with small adjustments. Except the body design, but that’s okay… I knew that and will improve my designs.

Since I’m figuring things out and mostly sourcing materials, getting price quotes and deciding on the wood, I spent the last few days making a nice flat workbench that doubles as a very basic router table.

This is the result (without the router attached). I may stain it with transparant wood stain for protection, note sure..

It’s 1.5" thick (high quality plywood and MDF sandwich) and it has aluminum profiles on the sides to keep it from bending. That’s also the reason the legs aren’t on the outer corners.. Behind the hole I routed a seat for my router, so I can basically swap the base plate of my router with this table . Not very easy to attach, but it works and the whole thing only cost me like 50 dollars.

Back to the bass:

The fingerboard probably is going to be Macassar Ebony (or maybe Pau Ferro but I think not). The body could be a two piece Swamp Ash, which is easy to drill the wiring channels before glueing the body halves together, but I’d rather buy a single piece for the looks. Furthermore I’m probably going to put an accent veneer between top and body.

I’m almost sure the headstock will be angled (13 degrees) and I almost finished the drawing of the volute.

Not a very exciting update, but I finished the master template of the body. I found that MDF is better material for a template because it is a lot easier to get the sides very smooth. But I will transfer the templates to plywood for durability (and the possibility of reuse without wear).

So the sides are smooth:

What’s up next? I’m thinking of throwing together a small and simple router table from parts lying around the garage.. that’ll make routing easier. But the oak table top I had lying around isn’t perfectly flat. So more on that later.

Furthermore I’m figuring things out concerning my design:

• I have only room for three knobs but the Delano Sonar 2 has four. So I emailed Delano if it’s possible to stack the tone knobs (tone / bass), but after more than a week and two emails still no reply. I found someone else on the forum with the same problem but no report of success.
• I’m still in doubt about the headstock construction. Angled back or flat? How to shape the volute? Et cetera. I’m currently drawing things out but no satisfying result yet.
• I am waiting for an offer from an exotic wood supplier.
• I’m pondering over a way to ground those individual bridges. I’m thinking of routing a channel in the body, covering it with a wooden strip (so the glue doesn’t get in) and then glueing the top on. When installing the bridges (and pups) I can drill into these channels from above and put the wiring in there.