Gumbo!

What do you get when you cross:

with:

Give up? The Gumbo bass!

As a surprise, I thought I'd put my newly acquired hand skills to work and build a new instrument for my lady. Over the course of the last 4 months, I quietly squeezed in a few minutes here and there to finish what I'm calling the Gumbo bass: a 30" short scale bass version of Bo Diddley's "Jupiter Thunderbird" guitar. It's finished in a Gumby-esque candy apple green and outfitted with a hotrod style single volume pot to jack setup. My goal was to make a simple, compact and killer looking bass. Christmas came too soon for this project so I just gave it to Carolyn Thursday night. There was much rejoicing.

I took some photos of the build process here and there. Let's start with a look at the current "Billy-Bo Jupiter Thunderbird" guitar currently made by Gretsch:

My Lady Bass has long been a fan of this space age shape. It makes me think of something from a Flash Gordon serial. It's futuristic and vintage at the same time. I wanted to make this thing as light weight and resonant as possible so I chambered the body, removing pockets of wood from the mahogany body blank before gluing on a 1/4" maple top. Below, a photo of the chambered body (left) and the chamber template I made (right):

I left the center solid to mount the pickup and bridge and create a solid line of wood from the nut to the saddle. The chambered body close up:

The top glued up:

The body cut out, top glued on and edges rounded over:

Another angle:

Close up of the "G" headstock inlay:

The neck glued up to the body:

I did a pre-finish mock up to make sure all the parts fit. The unusual pickup is made by Hammon Engineering. It's a copy of the Hagstrom single coil bass pickup from the '60s. The thing sounds fat and juicy and looks dynamite. Heck, it's larger than the bridge! The mock up:

The candy apple green finish was the toughest part of this project. To achieve the iridescent look, I sprayed a layer of gold and then a layer of green on top. This was a technique Fender borrowed from the auto industry in the late '50s. Photos don't do the deep green justice but here's a shot of the newly minted bass in the middle of the lacquering process:

After a couple weeks of curing time, the bass was ready for final buff and assembly. I surprised Carolyn with it the other night. Now THAT was fun! Here she is opening the case:

Playing it for the first time:

Some outdoor glamor shots:

I built this with a string-through-the-body design a la Fender's Telecaster. It's kind of small but you can just make out the string ferrules on the back on the bass. The bass features a 30" scale length as opposed to the standard 34" for ease of playing with small hands. The string-through design counter acts some of the 'flubby' tone you might get with a short scale length. The best of both worlds! View of the back:

In the case:

On to the next one!