2022 Ancel's Kitbashed J-Style Set-Neck Electric Bass Guitar

Mr. Ancel has been diligently apprenticing a bit here at the shop and his first major task was finishing-off this oddball bass project and turning it into an instrument. I think he scored it as a husk for $25 or so? It had no frets, a lightly-planed fretboard, no pickups, no electronics, no bridge, no strap buttons, no tuners, no nut... you get the picture.

He sourced the hardware (and waited ages for the Hipshot tuners) and then set to work getting it going. The yin-yang inlay was already extant -- as was the peculiar (wrong-headed) fretboard cutaway and strange block of ebony where the neck pickup cavity is located. This was clearly intended to be an active instrument, too, as it has space for a 9V port in the back. It was unfinished and he spent some time fine-sanding it before it got here, though I did put on a few layers of wipe-on satin poly while he was away so he wouldn't have to wait around for that to dry.

While working on it he leveled the board, installed frets, inlaid dots in the board, wired it up and installed the hardware, made a new nut, and set it all up. It's basically a set-neck, J-style bass and it's sounding authoritative. The neck is nice and fast and has a distinct cut to it and its fairly lightweight, too, for a set-neck mystery bass project. The Babicz bridge helps with that, though, as do the light tuners.

As with any homebrew, there are spots here and there to iron-out and the journey was excruciating at times, but the pure joy of a completed, boutique-feeling instrument in a young man's hands goes a long way to keep one playing.

The neck on this is mahogany, it has an ebony fretboard, two-way truss rod, and a cherry body. It's good stuff.