Next up are the body "wings", the shapely chunks of maple that will be glued to the sides of the neck plank, making the distictive Ricky 4000 series bass shape. For those of you in the dark about guitar building practices, there are "bolt on" models - guitars that have a neck bolted onto a body, the most common variety being just about any Fender style guitar or bass. Then there are the "neck through" guitars, which means the main chunk(s) of wood that the neck is made from extends past the end of the fretboard, and "through" the body. This here bass, as most Rickenbacker basses are, will be a "neck through".
People (geeks, internet tough guys, and mr. know-it-alls) can argue all day long that a "neck through" bass will give you much more sustain, punch, sexual prowess, what have you - but personally I have never met a Fender Precision bass (yes, bolt-on) that I didn't like for the most part. In fact one of the best sounding and playing basses the world has ever known, happens to be a bolted together Precision Bass, and as luck would have it, this holy grail of basses belongs to me.
Don't get me wrong, the Sethenbacker will no doubt kick a ton of ass in oh so many ways, I am 100% sure of it, my point is, there are lots of ways to build great instruments - all of them good.
back to the action....
After some extra shaping and sanding of the headstock, by hand and by spindle, it was time to rough cut the body wings. and rough cutting is exactly what happened.
looking like Fred Flinstone's ® bass
Tracing spray mounted in place
That's about as accurate as I am capable of. not so bad!
After an hour or so with the band saw.
New blades are a great idea when doing this kind of work.
I could have had this done in half the time, had I discovered that
new blade earlier. D'OH!
Aaaaahhhhh, my friend The Spindle Sander makes everything better....and smoother.
Clamp that crap together, it's time to go home, Son.
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