I already built a bass for my son a few years ago. It’s gotten some heavy use being played every day. About a year ago he joined our band as a bass player and soon realized he had to borrow a 5-string from a friend because some of the songs needed that “extra heavy” bottom.
The borrowed bass was actually a 4 string converted to a “5-string” by removing the G and shifting everything up one slot – (B-E-A-D). It worked fine but sometimes you need the G as well. Since I hadn’t built anything in a long time and was getting restless at home, I decided to fulfill my son’s wish, No.2, and build him a StingRay Music Man.
About two years ago we moved back to our small flat in the city and I lost my workspace for this kind of project. The only way to build this bass without creating a mess was in the garden at our cottage in the countryside. It was quite challenging as everything was kind of wobbly – the table, benches, drill stand, and sometimes it started to rain so I had to move everything inside and wait for the rain to stop. But I gotta say, it was so much fun when it was sunny outside and my family was hanging around in the garden and chatting and having a good time. I especially enjoyed going out there on the weekends just with my dad. We would talk, work on the bass or help him work on his stained glass project at the same time.
It took me about 3 months to finish it. I tried to make this one better than the last. This time I built the neck myself and put some optical wires inside the side dots for the night shows. There is only one pickup, EMG MM5TW, controlled by EMG BQC System and I used a 5-String KickAss™ Bass Bridge. The tuning machines are Music Man originals. The body is a calibrated 2-piece swamp ash, the neck is a roasted maple, and the fretboard is flamed maple that I baked in our kitchen oven to match the neck. I got all the wood from Sivcak Guitars, other materials, supplies and tools from Stewmac and TLC Guitar Goods.
The inlay on the 12th fret says emet אמת – Truth. One of the legends says that when this word was written on Golem’s forehead he would come alive, and to ‘deactivate’ him you would wipe off the letter alef, leaving just the word met מת – Dead.
