Chocobass Pt. 2: Prepping the Parts (and drinking your pudding)

Choosing the right parts for the correct bass build is one thing; prepping and getting them to fit together should be easy, but is usually just the opposite. I suppose if I bought only Fender or Fender-authorized parts, then they would all fit perfectly, but even that is not true. Fender's specs for the same bass made in the US, Mexico, Japan or elsewhere in Asia can vary wildly, and after-market parts manufacturers can copy specs from any of these, or make up new ones, without even knowing the difference.

Something as simple as the correct bridge for this bass required parts from three different sources. The original 1951 P Bass bridge had Bakelite saddles, an early type of plastic very common in 1920s-1950s manufacturing. This material affects the sound of the bass, as well as the sustain, and was regularly replaced with metal saddle pieces as they aged, cracked or worn out (even Fender switched the bridge design within a few years to all-metal).

An original 51 P Bass bridge with old, worn-out Bakelite saddles. 

But I have enough bright P Basses with long sustain and perfect intonation... The whole purpose of building this bass was to get something with a different visual and aural character, including an authentic vintage sound. I started with an Asian-made bridge, a correct 2-saddle model, but with metal saddles. I then ordered off of eBay plastic saddles (not sure if they are actually Bakelite) hand-made to match the originals. After stamping the bridge with similar (if not perfect) markings based on vintage photos (FUNSTER instead of FENDER, and for the date 2015) I aged the metal along with the rest of the metal parts in muriatic acid fumes. 

After a day, the finish surface of the parts is eaten away; cleaning them up with a brush and steel wool gets the gunk and rust off. New repro parts now look 60 years old, but still function as new, ready to install.

Of course, it's never that easy. The new saddles required different and larger adjustment screws and fatter springs, which I found amongst my spare parts. The final bridge looks quite old, but with new plastic saddles. Even though I also aged the correct bridge and pickup covers and may never see the bridge, the Art is in the details.  

The Moses neck I am using was originally made to my specs for a different bass (my Swiss Army Knife Jaguar bass), which, on a whim, I ordered with a 51 P Bass headstock profile. It looked fine on the Jag, but it's perfect for this bass (and the Jazz Bass neck profile will be much more comfortable for me to play). But the shallower, more modern radius (the curve on the face of the neck) and the rounded butt-end of the neck (where it fits into the body) would create more problems with the fit, assembly and voicing of this bass.

Three attempts at replacing the gold Funster sticker with white ones ended in disaster, so I went back to my last gold one, still not perfect, but since I can no longer get a hold of the guy who printed them for me, it will do have to do. 

Then the relic' vintage style Grover tuners needed to be installed in the neck head. These things are huge, and I would have never used them if the body wasn't so heavy. They were also a very tight fit in the back of the headstock, requiring some elongating of the holes and some aluminum tape inside the front ferrules for a tighter fit.

These graphite necks are also very difficult to screw into. It proved almost impossible to get any of them flush into the back of the tuners without snapping off the screw heads. Eventually, I figured out the proper length to cut them in order to hold the tuners with a flush fit. With wood, this is SO much easier...

The Body

The only part of this bass that has to be built from scratch is the body. The whole point of this build was Walnut, and after receiving the one-piece Walnut Jaguar body mentioned in Pt. 1, my mind was made up. My first shot at this was purchasing an already-cut Walnut body from eBay. Unfortunately, they planed it a bit too thin, and tried using a router to contour the front and back, but used too large of a bit, and the edges were way too deeply rounded.

I returned it, and instead ordered the new, one-piece Walnut blank from the same tonewood who sold me the Jag bass body. This time I needed the uncut rectangular piece In order to get it CnC'd. I have all the tools to cut and route it myself, but I didn't have all the correct templates. I also wanted perfect placement of the neck pocket, pickup and bridge that only a computer could provide. Unfortunately, there were still more variables that I had not considered. 

After getting the bass body cut and routed, I realize that all of these basses were originally matched with a square-end neck. Even though I brought the Moses neck with me to confirm the neck pocket shape, there was still an unsightly gap between the bottom corners of the neckand the body. It was tight and usable, but it was not the perfect neck pocket fit I had hoped for, and dashed any chances I had of eliminating the need for a pickguard (which would now be needed to hide the gaps).

I expected the Squire pickguard I had to need some modification, but bad end route also meant I'd have to cut a custom pickguard for a cleaner fit. At least I can get glossy black pickguard material to match the original - for some reason the Fender Japanese reissues and Squires come with a black matte pickguard.

The other detail I was not asked about before routing and drilling was the rear body string ferrels. All of these basses originally had the string-through the body type bridges, which could also effect the tone and resonance.

The back of an original 51 P Bass body. 

The original Fender string ferrules were large 1/2" diameter cups, but all of the later reissues of this bass used smaller 3/8" ferrules. Of course, I was not asked which I was using, and when I got the body home I found they cut and drilled for the smaller ferrules, even though I wanted the larger ones (on further thought, perhaps the neck pocket also matches the reissues, but still not correct for my neck). I hesitated re-drilling them for a couple of weeks, afraid I would ruin it somehow, then finally mustered up the courage, fired up my drill press, and the results were fine.

I wanted to contour the body myself, to make it a bit rounder and organic than the 2nd generation P Basses (Fender only started offering a contoured body around 1953 after complaints from players). I figured that eliminating more wood than normal for this model would still not significantly affect the density and weight, since Walnut is already heavier and denser than either Ash or Alder, the original P Bass body woods. After confirming the neck fit, I used some files to create a slot for the truss rod adjustment hex wrench. Then the rough filing, power sanding and hand sanding commenced.

A standard late 50s-style P Bass body served as a guide for the contouring. 

The shaping process is more like sculpting, and brings back all of those sense memories of the flavor of Walnut dust in the nose and mouth. 

For the finish, I wanted a beautiful dark chocolate brown. After reading about and watching many YouTube videos dealing with different Walnut finishing techniques, came upon a group of postings from rifle owners and refinishers about Walnut rifle butt refinishing. Thanks to American's well documented love affair with firearms, there are enough rifle rebuilding enthusiasts to warrant a pre-packaged kit for just staining and sealing Walnut.

This Birchwood-Casey Tru-Oil kit is all about using natural oils instead of either laquer or poly finishes, and I have heard a lot about how oil finishes allow more of the natural wood resonance of musical instruments. All of my basses have paint finishes, so this would be the first bass I have purchased or built with only stain and oil to seal the body (and the neck, being made of graphite composites, also has no clear top coat finish as well). It took quite a few coats of stain and oil, then fine and wet sanding, and finally three steps of buffing to get a finish that, although not flawless, was glossy with a gorgeous rich from brown color tone, with more than enough grain showing through.

Next up in Pt. 3: assembly. 

Drink your Pudding!

In my 2013 trip to Europe, I searched for drinking chocolates in various cities in Italy and France, as well as in Barcelona. Drinking chocolate, although usually warm to hot, is NOT the same thing hot chocolate as Americans know it. In Italy it can be like a thick pure chocolate shot; the motherland for this is the Cafe Rivorie in Florence, directly across from the museum that houses Michelangelo's David (I managed three mornings in a row there). In France, there is much more (too much?) milk in their drinking chocolate, but in Barcelona it's so thick that you can leave your churro upright in it without it falling (I had one in Venice and in London very similar). In a quick trip to NYC taken while still shaping Chocobass's body, I got in a couple more European-style drinking chocolates. The first, from the Jaques Torres Cholcolates in Rockefeller Center, was not too thick and very nice, but costs $9 (tried it once, that's enough thank you)! 

The other I tried (on the same day no less) was at Eataly in the Flatiron district. The dark chocolatta from Cafe Lavazza was as thick as the ones I had in Barcelona. 

It needed to be eaten with a spoon. I ordered the large, but a little goes a long way, and my stomach regretted the decision a few hours later. Hopefully, when Eataly opens their Los Angeles location in 2016, Cafe Lavazza will be there as well. 

And so will I. But I'll just order the regular. 

Japanese and Swiss Army Knife Basses (and Chocolate)

I'm returning from a brief trip and gig in Japan, the second in a month. Japan is beautiful and the food is wonderful, even for a vegetarian and - sometimes - bad vegan like me. The culture is very organized and efficient, and the level of pride in work and craftsmanship seems very high. It also has a very strange famous clown troupe, wearing very odd vertical heads, and I had to get a photo with them before a gig in Fassu:

Having built a number of new basses since the last entry, this bass, and the chocolate that follows, has a Japan connection (of sorts).

Back as far as the 1960s Japanese companies were knocking off many US and European guitars and basses, and I believe the first Fender Squiers were made in Japan. By the 90s "Crafted in Japan" Fenders were considered as good if not better made than US Fenders, and they also offered many models not made in the US (especially vintage-style reissues). Up until this year Fender has only manufactured Jaguar basses, a hybrid of a Jaguar guitar body, a Jazz bass neck and an array of different active/passive pickup combinations, in Asia, although they have just started marketing an American Series Jag bass. Besides the very high-quality Japanese switchable active/passive Jaguars, they also sell variations of Indonesian and Chinese-made Squier Jaguars, some passive, some active (which are actually pretty good sounding), and even some with short-scale necks and painted headstocks matching the body.

About 10 years ago I owned a black Japanese Fender Jaguar bass. I had a custom tortoise pickguard made to replace the stock white one, and with the Jazz neck profile found it very comfortable to play. 

After a handful of performances, however, I found it impossible to voice the inner and outer strings correctly, the inners (esp. the  D) never as hot as the E and G, even with cheats to the bridge. I decided this was a design flaw with the pickups, and eventually sold it (although I probably should have just replaced the pickups, but whatever...). I always loved the body shape and thought it was a great looking bass, but really preferred a Sunburst body (which were much more rare), so a Jag bass has remained in the clutter that is the back of my mind.

Sometime in 2012 that brain clutter cleared a bit, and slowly I started acculumating parts to build my own Jaguar bass. I found a mint condition Squier Sunburst Jaguar body on EBay, acceptable even if it was Basswood (not Ash or Alder, which would have been a bit heavier and denser). I had ordered a couple Jazz necks from Eden, including a vintage-finish maple one I intended for this Jaguar. I liked the wider tonal choices available on the PJ-config Squiers, so instead of two Jazz pickups I ordered a hand wound, vintage-spec PJ set from Mark Lariccia, and for the head I ordered a set of Hipshot Chrome Clover Ultralight tuners with a D-drop and Hipshot chrome bridge with brass saddles. This looked like it was going to be a very nice instrument.

Then the first little challenge presented itself. A tortoise Squier Jaguar pickguard was turning out to be be difficult to find, and having one custom made was impossible because everyone needed an existing pickguard to work from, something I didn't have. It eventually took about 6 months to track down, all the while the body sat piled up on my shop bench. I then found it impossible to find a correct chrome electronics plate - it is a different shape from the standard Jazz bass plate. I purchased one from the same seller as the body, who thought it came from that Squier Jag, only to find it was a regular Jazz Bass plate. I then ordered another, and although that it was a better match, it still required that I modify the pickguard a bit for a correct fit. Meanwhile the body (with the pickguard) sat in a pile with others, waiting for months to track down the correct electronics plate:

During this exercise in patience I ended up using the P bass set on another bass. Realizing I had both a set of EMG Precision pickups and a spare EMG Jazz pickup, I decided instead to make this Jaguar bass fully active, and added EMG bass/treble and midrange control preamps. Instead of a vintage passive set-up, this bass would now be a modern and versatile "Swiss army knife" bass with a range of pickup and tonal options.

Since the vintage look was no longer so important, I reconsidered the neck. Sitting around my shop for about 10 years was a Moses graphite upright bass fingerboard purchased directly from Steve Moser, intended for a custom electric upright I had hoped to build. Sometime around then I also purchased a Steinberger Electric Upright (which I slightly altered and refinished in black, freaking Ned Steinberger out a bit, another story for a future writeup here).

This bass, as are all Steinberger basses, is far superior to anything I could make myself, so the homemade upright with the Moses fingerboard was never built. Sometime around 2011, after joining the Led Zeppelin tribute HEARTBREAKER (now ZEPPELIN LIVE), I instead made tentative plans to return the Moses fingerboard and have Steve make a custom neck for a proposed 8-string bass like the one John Paul Jones used to perform "Nobody's Fault" and "Achilles Last Stand" (it looks like an Alembic, but it was actually made by a former Alembic employee, and features very intricate fingerboard inlays). 

After a year or so of knocking this idea around, I decided the asian-made Hagstrom 8-string bass I found was certainly good enough for the few times I would actually play it (the bridge needs to be upgraded and repositioned, yet another story...). So at NAMM 2014 I spoke with Steve again, this time about building a custom graphite neck with a Jazz Bass profile, white block markers (Jag basses feature 70s style blocks instead of dots), and a Tele Bass headstock (to lighten the neck a bit more and add uniqueness of this bass). It took a couple more months, but I knew this bass would FINALLY come together when I received an email with the subject line "Ye ole' neck is already" and this attached photo:

All parts in place, I carefully modded the pickguard so the the pickups and electronics fit in the factory routes and lined up with the neck pocket. 

The Moses neck had the truss rod adjustment at the butt end, not the head, so the body pocket and pickguard had to be modified so that, if neck adjustment were required, the neck and puckguard would not have to be removed:

The Moses neck itself requires special taps installed for the neck bolts, where the neck attaches to the body. I was a bit paranoid about stripping the the graphite while installing the taps, and drilled and very carefully:

The factory side-mount jack was still mounted on the bass, and although it was not as solid as I liked, it had the required extra lead for turning in the active circuitry. The neck fit correctly in the pocket, and all body parts lined up. But this Zen exercise in patience was not quite over - I discovered that the holes drilled I the head were the wrong size for the Hipshop tuners. I contacted Hipshot and arranged for a swap, but this time with round Lollipop ends, a rather rare style used by Fender only briefly in the 60s. While awaiting delivery of the new tuners I applied the decal.  Although all of the hardware is chrome, I chose gold to go with the sunburst finish on the body, a decision I still have mixed feelings about:

The replacement tuners arrived two weeks later, and again were very carefully installed to avoid stripping the graphite material:

The final bass set up easily with some lighter gauge Rotosound roundwounds. Even the round string retainer proved a challenge - after assembling and setting the bass up, I brought it to a rehearsal to "open it up" and get a sense of the sound, with blue painters tape covering the rear battery and input jack holes. Upon opening the bag, I found that the string retainer had popped out because the wood screw holding it into the rather brittle grapite headstock had stripped and popped out, rendering the D and G strings unplayable. The next day I visited three hardware stores until a found a few choices of metal taps (similar to the ones holding the neck bolts, but much smaller). Again, you only get one shot at this, so I started with the smallest and eventually locked the tap in place using superglue:

A couple of rehearsals and gigs with this bass, and was sure it was a keeper. Some left over black pickguard pieces provided the material to make the rear access plates:

Because of the nature of the graphite material, I dated the bass with punches into the battery cover instead of the back it the headstock:

CONCLUSION

This bass plays as good or better than any bass I own, with loose comfortable string tension reminding me of some of my active basses. Sometimes it is true that, if you use the best parts, and take your time so as not to mess them up, you will probably get a great instrument. The only "consumer-grade" parts used were a Squire body, pickguard and neck plate; the body, because it's basswood, is OK if a bit light but with a nice, albeit poly finish, and pickguard required modding. All other parts were US made and absolute pro quality. The body could have been slightly heavier for my taste, and graphite necks are heavier than you would think (as opposed to carbon fiber, I guess). Because of this there is a very slight but very liveable neck dive (even with Ultralites and the smaller headstock). As much as a heavier/denser body might have been nice, sonically the bottom end fullness is not a problem with this bass, thanks in part to the seperate bass tone control which allows me to dial in as much low as need gwhich turns out to be little or none). The active electronics are also super quiet, with very high output. 

Besides the overall balance, my only complaint is, as my ear has grown accustomed to a warmer passive vintage tone, I wish the treble control on EMG electronics would allow me to dial down the brightness a bit more (I played with the little switches located on the preamp board, and it's as mellow as they allow). But for the right kind of music this bass is a monster, and I have had the pleasure of using it on enough gigs to validate my original feelings about it. My Funster Swiss Army Knife Jaguar Bass can sound like a modern Precision or a Jazz, or something in between, or something even bigger. It can be boomy or mid-squawky, and the neck is super slim and comfortable, speaking very clear in all positions. Perhaps a consultation with EMG may even help me figure out how to dial the treble down even more, allowing for more vintage tone as well. 

Chocolate (from Paris via Japan)

When searching for chocolate in Japan, think France. Apparently the Japanse do, and all of the chocolate I tried in Tokyo was deliberately copied/modelled after French pastry and chocolatiers. On my first trip I found this amazing chocolate pudding (or something like pudding) filled chocolate croissant at an airport French-style patisserie VENT ET LUNE:

Sadly, on my return trip to Tokyo a month later I went through Narita, the OTHER Tokyo airport, and could not find this same Patisserie. I did, however, find a chocolatier in the Shuguri section of Tokyo with a very familiar name:

The chocolates themselves were very expensive, so I only purchased a 2-pack box, and must report that although of obvious high quality and chocolate content, there were not amongst my favorites (especially the one with the name on it, which turned out to be coffee, not one I would have chosen deliberately). I also tried their chocolate covered old fashion donut, which could have been fresher, and can't compare to a Randy's chocolate old fashion. However, this Pelletier will be happy to try some of their other chocolates if I ever run across Peltier Patisserier & Chocolatier again - in Tokyo, Paris or wherever.