Mark Warner’s first build

This week’s Bass of the Week is the first ever build from Mark Warner

It’s a 4-string fretless bass with a 35″ scale. It is a scratch build, constructed from lumber. The neck is wenge, the body is wenge and maple, and the fingerboard is ebony with aluminum position markers. The tuners are Hipshot Ultralite HB6Y, and the bridge is a Hipshot brass type A bridge with .75″ spacing. The pickups are matched Bartolini X44CBJD narrow soapbar humbuckers. The controls are passive, with only master volume, pickup blend, and master tone. The nut is graphtech tusq xl, and the knobs are ebony. It is presently strung with DR Legend stainless steel flatwound strings, which along with the pickups give the bass a soft, mellow texture. There is little natural “mwah”, but technique can exaggerate it easily enough. The body and headstock face are finished with Birchwood-Casey Tru-Oil. The neck and fingerboard were polished with 3M polishing papers, but were otherwise left unfinished.

It is my first build, and in fact my first woodworking project ever. It was my first experience with most of the tools I used in its construction.

Featuring:

– Hipshot Ultralite HB6Y Tuners
– Hipshot A Bridge
– Bartolini X44CBJD Pickups
– DR Flatwound Strings