Catching up on Bass Builds at the End of 2025

I realize I have not updated this blog/website in a while, generally posting regular music activity on my Facebook account facebook.com/johnpauljoelpelleter and my tribute projects website johnpauljoel.com, But since SO MANY people miss this website (like, the entire planet that does not see it) I thought I would add a few more photos of basses I have or are still building since my 2022 Voorman Jazz (as of December 2025).

I have to admit (finally) that I REALLY don't need or even want more basses. Since COVID, opportunities to perform with the basses I have - and especially the many basses I built during COVID when there was little else to do - are getting fewer and farther between. I feel I may be finally tiring of the greed/burden involved in owning so many wonderful instruments that I never get a chance to play, even though I built them and have way less $$ invested in this than your typical "collector." My problem is that I have gotten pretty good at this, and each bass I build is as good or better of a playing and sounding instrument as any I have built before, but I am only one human being. I cannot possibly play them all and have no particular interest in being a "collector," but because these are not factory instruments they have little or no value to other collectors (or players, for that matter).

Except for me, I guess. I try to follow my inspiration, and that includes building these beautiful instruments. I have sold off most all of my factory-made basses (except for my Steinbergers, mostly) and all of my electric guitars (because I don't play guitar, too many strings for these older slightly arthritic hands). I'll have to figure out how to lighten the load eventually, since only so many will fit in my box at the crematorium.

Plus, these are not just pretty things - they are MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS, and should be played by humans for other humans. Lets hope that continues to be a thing, both for me and the planet.

The 2023-2025 Bass Hall of Shame

According to my Photo Library, after the 2022 Voorman Jazz I built another Faux-Rhodes and another double stack of Acoostic 360 bass heads and cabinets, which have since been converted to one fold up and one empty cab (to save weight) as I have switched to IEM in-ear monitoring and a pedal preamp for most of my live bass playing (more at johnpauljoel.com). This MIDI Rhodes and the bass stack lives in the No Quarter trailer for all of our Pacific Northwest shows.

In January 2023 I did put some time into a never-ending Fender Squier 70s Telecaster Bass project. I had sold off the neck years ago and messed with the routing pocket for the controls in the past. so it required a bit of body repair and refinishing, a new neck, VERY light strings, and then - in an attempt to get more mids and highs out of that mudbucker pickup, I also added phase push-pull pot. It does sound a bit better, a bit more like a standard Precision Bass (which is a great improvement), but I'm still not loving this thing. Much. At all.😕 I also have a wonderful 54-style Precision I built to match JPJs natural finish/refinished P bass, and that sounds and plays great, so not sure what to do with this one...

In April 2023 I changed out the knobs on this fantastic and super-lightweight Deluxe Jazz build I've had sitting around, with some active EMGs and preamps. The neck is incredibly straight, the action is super low, and the bass only weighs 7.9lbs, which I would love if I EVER perform for hours onstage with it (but I have not - ever).

At the other end of the weight spectrum, this 11lb beast of a Sunburst Precision was brought out of the closet, set up and had a nice set of flats installed to play a QUEEN tribute set. It's an outstanding bass up and down the neck, and the extra body weight pays off in the great full low end tone.

In May 2023 I did some tweaking and upgrading to what has turned out to continue to be an outstanding fretless Precision Bass, which I am starting to feature regularly with No Quarter performing Led Zeppelin's IN MY TIME OF DYING. The body on this build was from a cheap two-tone sunburst bass I purchased (disposing of the neck, hardware and electronics), where I used a spray can of red and black to achieve the 3-tone sunburst seen on John Paul Jone's 1970s-era fretless Fender Precision. It continues to be used for this and other occasional Zeppelin tunes requiring a fretless, and holds up well next to my 3-tone Jazz Basses used on all these shows (my #5 Sunburst Jazz, the greatest bass I've ever built and played, as featured in this photo taken at home).

I spent the Summer-Winter 2023 modifying a white mini baby grand piano case to fit a Studiologic Grand weighted controller and building a few more Pellotrons, thinking that I might actually be able to sell a  them. I have not - as it turns out. people WANT them, but they do not want to spend $$ getting them. I now have 6 of them.

I was able to take a newer bass player promo shot, which better expresses my attitude these days.

I posted it on Facebook, and a kind gentleman created this composite photo for me. I take no credit for it, but was and continue to be delighted by it.

Moving into 2024, it still seems I was spending more time building keyboard controller shells (Rhodes, Mellotron and Clavinet-types for my Zeppelin bands) and facade guitar amps and cabinets (for the guitarist in No Quarter) than making more basses. I also delved into some old original music nostalgia, re-acquainting myself with some of my self-penned tunes and original band recordings from the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, when my Steinberger L2 was all I wanted and needed. Those were the days, before I got into the whole theatrical tribute thing, where playing other people's choice of instruments required more options.

  

In July 2024 I finally focused on a long-term project and headache, building John Paul Jones' ALEMBIC 4-string and 8-string basses. I custom ordered a so-called Alembic Series 2 based on the JPJ specs off of a maker on Alibaba, which turned out to be a pretty awful experience. What I did manage to get out of it was a serviceable thru-neck bass that needed EVERYTHING ELSE modified and replaced. I finally found a metal builder that could make me the correct bridge (this hardware is crucial to the proper look and a weak point of most Alembic knock-offs, but even that took almost a year), which kept me from moving forward with all of the rebuilding and reshaping. I will write a more complete post on this build if and when it is finally completed, but I have to admit that fear of ruining the fretboard with the required intricate inlays has stalled this project AGAIN, as well as trying to lighten it as much as possible (it's still almost 15lbs, which is NOT ACCEPTABLE). Let's hope 2026 sees it completed...

   

Besides this Alembic beast (and upgrading my Voorman Jazz Bass with a set of EMG passive Geezer Butler pickups, which are now in a few of my basses), I found myself distracted just once in 2025 with another build. I made the mistake of regularly perusing OfferUp bass listings, and someone posted a Mighty Mite jazz bass fiesta red alder body and rosewood neck, new in the box and never assembled, for $200. I don't have a red bass, and always loved the Mighty Mite necks, so I went for it. Not sure if I had to buy much of anything else in the way of parts to complete this (including custom mixing red artist acrylics for the matching red headstock), and it turned out fantastic.

 

I've also had the privilege of starting to do some dates as BILL WYMAN in the ROLLING STONES tribute Mick Adams and the Stones, where I get to play some long-mothballed basses, including a modified Squier Mustang with an outstanding set of Pyramid Gold flats (on which I finally remade the pickguard to my taste with a pickguard blank I purchased for this bass over 10 years ago) and my long-loved Steinberger L2, now sporting a fresh setup with a set of Thomastic Jazz Flat strings (the finest strings in the world). This is a whole new thing for me, as this bass has always had roundwounds on it since I purchased it new in 1984 (it feels slightly blasphemous), and playing this thing again is a joy.

 

 

To wrap up 2025, I did some maintenance (including splicing/repairing a broken string) on a quite nice Epiphone Jack Casady gold-top bass I've had sitting in the case since the LAST time I played some Stones gigs back in 2014, as well as a fresh setup and neck adjust to finally get my #3 "fully dressed" 1967-style Sunburst Funster Jazz Bass to play well, so it could finally get it's premier live stage time since assembling it in 2020.

...and now, for the chocolate

During all of this time I've traveled a few continents as a musician, actor and tourist, and sampled much chocolate, mostly these days in the form of pastries or dark chocolate drinks. Japan continues to delight in their French pastry prowess along with their NAMA chocolate, available in bulk at Tokyo airports for around $7 each (vs over $25 in the US). And, of course, in France, where the chocolate drinks, pastries and mousses (especially in Paris) are second to none. So it's not like I've been doing nothing...

 Voormann Jazz Bass 2022

Klaus Voormann’s hand painted Precision Bass was the inspiration for this Jazz Bass.

 

The neck was a heavily worked over Chinese-made aftermarket jazz neck that, even after getting it to feel and look “like butter,” wasn’t quite the match with what was my BLUBOY Jazz (a heavily relic’d light blue bass that did find the right neck). The body was a blem alder badly-relic’d Seafoam/Surf green from Allen Eden Guitars. Their wood is always great, so I ordered the discounted body, slapped this neck on it with a set of Custom Shop Fender Jazz Bass pickups, and it actually sounded and played great.

But I just couldn’t live with the color, nor the bad scratch job inflicted on it to cheaply relic it. I still had an admiration for bassist/artist Klaus Voormann’s famous self-painted Precision Bass, and even built and painted a personalized version of a similar Precision last year, inspired by a Facebook post of someone else’s hand painted 60’s bass with King Crimson’s sun face - mine has The Mayor himself, HR PUFNSTUFF. 

With another great playing and sounding bass that badly needed a reface, I decided to research Klaus’ design a bit more. On the entire internet I could only find 3 photos: a small B/W shot of him playing it, a good color one of him holding it (but with his right hand covering part of it), and a more contemporary photo with most of the painted design worn off from years of playing (I’m guessing he didn’t seal it). His was an Ash P, but whatevs. 

My version, an Alder Jazz, copies his design as much as possible, with some adjustment for the different geometry and pickguard design, plus making up the mystery bits while maintaining his style. With a can of clear satin enamel over the acrylic design to hopefully help it not wear off (and I will admittedly never play this one bass as much nor as long as Klaus obviously played his) I now have a very pretty jazz bass with a very full and bright sound (with La Bella Strings stainless roundwounds, although I’m sure Klaus used flats along with the foam under the strings at the bridge to cut the high end and give it more thump).

 

Of course, since "finishing" this bass, I realize I have a photo that shows the back with the additional painting work, so I modified it a bit and put Klaus right on the bass.