You're welcome to check out my recent 4003SW if that'll help you out!

If you're lazy, there was company making a 4001/3/etc. copy bass kit, but I can't seem to find it, so maybe they got the ol' cease & desist from Ric. https://www.pitbullguitars.com/They do make an RD bass kit which I'm kind of eyeballing, because the cheap RD copy I ordered from Boult Guitars is never going to happen.

I hear good things about those pitbull kits. I know this project is gonna take me forever.

chris jury wrote:I hear good things about those pitbull kits. I know this project is gonna take me forever.Well, shit, I guess now I gotta make it happen.

Got a start on all 3 of the new projects over the weekend-4000 bass- got the body blank glued up, neck blank glued up, got good tracing and measurements.Mahogany Parlor- resawed all the wood for the body and braces. tried bending one of the sides, and it cracked. Need to cut a new side. Bentwood case- got the top half roughly bentI also got a very cracked and warped scrap of rosewood- I was able to rip it down to 3" wide, hand plane it relatively flat, and resawed into 2 fretboards, one for each instrument.

Had a few hours on friday and a few today, so made a bit more progress on the bass and acoustic.-used a tracing to make an MDF template for the body- still needs final shaping.-Rough cutout of the mahogany body blank, started at 5#14oz, When shaved to thickness 5#4oz, Now down to 3#12oz,-Made a 4 piece neck w/ scarf joint- got wings glued on to the headstock and the trussrod slot cut.-and am going to swap out the plastic SD pickup surround w/ aluminum.On the acoustic I made the scarf joint for the neck (1 piece). Spent all weekend breaking pieces of mahogany I was trying to bend- very frustrated. Need to figure something else out.

weekly update: sorry, fewer pics than I'd like. got lazy.4000- Finalized templateglued up a new neck blank using maple (as advised by Elisha)Scarf joint, headstock wings, trussrod slot cutBody is routed.Cut and polished the pickup surround.Cleaned up the fretboard blanks (for this and the acoustic)Headstock TemplateAcoustic- started glue up of top and backnew maple neck blank glued up, scarf joint gluedcut and planed to thickness one of my new walnut sidesTech Box: had to totally reengineer the opening mechanisms. got one door finished, prep work on the other 2 is complete. Case- Made no progress on building the case for the acoustic- have some ideas on how to proceed, but ran out of energy.And a new thing- Picked up this Fender duo sonic 22.5" scale neck- excited to make a music master/duo sonic sort of thing.

Had a rare snow day- so got to spend extra time in the shop. 4000- Routed the pickup cavity-grain filled the front of the body-made my neck template-slotted the fretboard blankAcoustic- Cut trussrod channelslotted fretboardfinished glue up of front and back!!! Successfully bent one side- walnut saves the day! !!!resawed slab for other sideCase- cut and started gluing in the kerfing

2nd snow day (go figure).4000- routed control cavity-Used a janky router setup to bring the center portion of the neck down to the appropriate 3/4"*. Acoustic- -top and back are glued up- have them being kept flat under my new oscilloscope**-Same router thing-glued up some of the wood for the heel block * my big plan for the neck is to essentially take the ric shape, but make it work in the real world- so the headstock is getting a proper 10 degree angle (rics went from 0 to 4.5 to 7). I am using the fender measurements for the heel geometry-but adding a 5" tongue for glue up.** got a giant busted old scope from the mid 50's, but had 18 original Dakaware chicago knobs- 6 chicken head, 6 small round pointer (as later used by Klon) and 6 larger cupcake- also a bunch of old 6cb6a tubes.

Spent a few minutes today after work- got both headstocks looking respectable, surface wise, test fit my templates to both necks and rough sawed them. Next step will be router to final outline...then comes the carving.