DIY Bass Build - How I Built a Custom Jazz Bass at Home

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I am by no means a professional at building instruments but I hope you enjoy following along on my DIY journey! This was my second time building a bass from "scratch," the first being my sky blue 5-string P Bass. Please feel free to ask any questions! I will answer to the best of my ability or even send you to another video that covers it better.
Some specs of the bass:
Wood - Alder
Neck - Squier Vintage Modified '70s Jazz Bass
Pickups - Fender Original Jazz Bass Pickups
Wiring Harness - ObsidianWire
Bridge - Wilkinson 4 string Vintage Style
Strings - D'Addario EXL220
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*Each song on this channel is tabbed completely to my interpretation and played to the best of my ability. Have an edit suggestion? Leave it in the comments!

[@Jordaninspace]

Really awesome job! Looks and sounds great. Funny timing, I JUST tried building a jazz bass(ish) from scratch too. Yours looks a million times better than mine lol. I kinda got to a point where I just wanted the dang thing to be done so I didn't care if it was perfect, so having gone through the process massive respect for the time and effort gone into this

[@playalongtabs]

I feel that!! Near the end I was ready to just throw in the towel 😂 thanks for watching!

[@marclouis-boyard]

This calls for admiration. Top-tier dedication. Nice vid! I built a precision bass a few years ago, but it didn't age too well over time. Still, I featured it in a recent video with a tube head, and the Danish Peerless Alnico speaker really made it shine despite the wear. Now I'm thinking about building a jazz bass to see if I can improve on my last project.

[@playalongtabs]

I find the finishing process so hard to do properly on a budget/DIY. Two years after now it's doing ok, not the most graceful of aging. Practice makes perfect I guess, you should totally do it!!

[@marclouis-boyard]

@@playalongtabs thank you for your strength, it's precious 🪩

[@eliakuiper4266]

What a tremendous amount of effort. The tools at your disposal seem endless. A great result and a terrific, informative video.

[@playalongtabs]

Glad you enjoyed it!! Appreciate the support :)

[@gavinyeomans]

it's such an incredible skill that you can take these raw materials and create a beautiful instrument out of them that sounds amazing too! great work, thanks for sharing the whole process with us

[@playalongtabs]

I'm glad you enjoyed Gavin!

[@cannonpearson7767]

I thought I was trippin when I was hearing the Pink Floyd in the back ground. Great tast my friend. (This build is really fantastic)

[@playalongtabs]

Had to break out the garage rock playlist 😎 thanks so much!

[@bapt_andthebasses]

Good job. I'm currently not equipped nor able to make a body, and even less a neck, which I think is the hardest part to manufacture. A small subjective comment: I would have kept the Squier logo. Putting Fender logos on Squier necks is a no go.

[@MarcG7424]

Either the Squier logo or a custom logo but definitely not a Fender logo

[@skalewilly]

Fantastic!!! What a great job in this bass, congrats!!!!

[@playalongtabs]

Thanks a lot!

[@renejrhodes88]

Can't stop addicted to the shinding!

[@iamgribs]

Sounds great. If only I had a garage of my own.

[@dnate697]

Love the low string action!

[@playalongtabs]

Took some fiddling but we got there!

[@adamdavenport6421]

my expertise is building home stereo amplifiers and pre amplifiers tubes really make a difference in the way the stereo system sounds

[@dandiestpig65]

amazing!!!

[@normg2242]

Beautiful bass!

[@jeromecollin262]

Wooow that's a beautiful bass! I would've messed it up at so many steps haha! First bass line is dark necessities but the others I don't know.

[@playalongtabs]

Thank you!! You got it 😎😎

[@joannamilligan689]

Really impressive Jotham. I truly 'get' how important it is to have your instrument be a comfortable fit next to your body. I've tried Telecasters and could never tolerate the constant bruising and 'jabbiness'-(that's proper English, by the way) to my rib cage......I'm strictly a Strat girl! The guys in the band never seemed to understand. It's cool that you get it! Keep doing what your doing.It's all great.

[@playalongtabs]

Thanks so much Joanna :) I feel that 100%! Telecasters sure are a lot to handle at times. Appreciate your support!!

[@adele_m43]

this is just a miracle! Incredible tool).

[@playalongtabs]

Glad I could help! Thanks for your support

[@aarln3703]

congrats on a year!!🎉🎉

[@playalongtabs]

Thank you so much!!

[@AllAboutBasses]

Turned out pretty awesome in my opinion. I'm trying a few DYI bass kits myself. Subscribed :)

[@playalongtabs]

Thanks so much!! 🙌

[@DanielSilverman]

Sick video Jotham! Never knew you had a channel! You’ve earned a new subscriber! It sounds and looks very good! No idea what any of the bass lines were though😂

[@playalongtabs]

Thanks Daniel! Haha they are pretty obscure 😂

[@CMRWoodworks]

Cool build!

[@playalongtabs]

Thanks!

[@DanGentry]

Nice work! I'm in the middle of my first bass build now.

[@playalongtabs]

Best of luck!

[@HypnoticHorizons]

THANK YOU, nobody shows how to route the control cavities and how to route the wires thank you so much

[@playalongtabs]

Happy to help! And feel free to ask any questions!

[@echoes675]

Bass looks great! well done (and am sure I heard a bit of Pink Floyd Animals in the background ~8min 15 mark)

[@playalongtabs]

Thanks! And you know it 😂 I think I listened to the album start to finish a handful of times while I was working in the garage

[@JesseClaus]

I have this constant one-upmanship battle with my imaginary friend. I build a kit bass, and he says, did you cut it from a slab? So the next build is from a slab. And then he says, did you cut down a tree to get the wood? so the next instrument is from a tree that I cut down. And he asks, did you plant the tree? Of course not. So the next instrument is from a tree that I planted. And then he says, but did you use hand tools so the next instrument is built just using hand tools. And then my internal friend says, but did you make the tools? The point is, you did a great job!😅

[@playalongtabs]

Weird, I think I have the same friend 😂 Thanks Jesse!

[@idonaor1018]

This is amazing! Can you tell me what is this little Delta bandsaw you used for the template? What's the model? And wasn't it strong enough to cut the body itself?

[@playalongtabs]

Off the top of my head it's a Delta 40-570 scroll saw so it unfortunately doesn't have as much power as a bandsaw. I haven't really pushed it to it's limit though so I'm now curious how thick of a piece of wood I could use it on! Thanks for watching

[@stephenkeelinjr6252]

Id really like to tey 1 of these but the pick guards ruin the look for me. Can anyone explain how the plastic takes paint ? A way to eliminate a pickguard from this style ? How can you express your colors with a piecse of plastic blocking 80% of the look

[@playalongtabs]

Totally possible to not use a pickguard! Check out the Jaco Pastorius bass.I know that for some guitar/bass models the pickguard covers the wiring underneath but most people that use pickguards like the looks of them and enjoy customizing them to different colours

[@00c754]

bro thats was awesome , do u have the template?

[@playalongtabs]

I never bought a template actually! Just traced it out on that board

[@JaxonHabbaSmith]

Hey Jonathan would you build me a costume 5 string jazz bass that would be super cool

[@playalongtabs]

I'll get right on it 😂

[@Kay-br7by]

Where can I get a bass guitar template for diy projects

[@playalongtabs]

I know that StewMac has some good ones, Solo Music is also great. I went for the budget option of just tracing another bass to make my own!

[@Kay-br7by]

@@playalongtabs Oh okay thank you. I actually visited their site today call it a sheer coincidence lol

[@nick2128]

1st was Red Hot Chili Peppers , forgot the name of the song however.

[@ClumsyFlounder]

Bro those routing templates were silly.... if you're not gonna make your template precise, you might as well just freehand it... then you'd at least have an excuse for not getting the pickups lined up with the strings

[@playalongtabs]

Fair enough! Learnings for next time 🙌

[@candrabalimirage]

Like #84th and Subscribed. Thanks 4 Ur Video

[@playalongtabs]

Thanks for the sub! Glad I can help :)