Ramonas Build Update #1

Hey everyone!

So it begins! If you're not sure what this is about or who The Ramonas are please check this post and all shall be revealed! Remember you can click on all the pics here to see fullscreen versions!

Here is our 3 piece block of Alder we are using to make Victoria's Fender® P-Bass replica. Nice and durable but very light and easy to machine and shape.

For Zoë's Mosrite® replica we are using a 2 piece block of Poplar. Interesting grain pattern here, almost a shame it's going to be painted over!

Poplar is slightly heavier than Alder but still a great hardwood and is easy to work with.






With the wood glued we can now draw out the plans for each build.


With the plans laid and measured out we can start routing the various cavities. It's a good idea to do this before cutting the body shapes out and you have more wood present to provide a stable platform for the router.

We weren't able to get hold of any proper plans for the Mosrite® replica so most of what came out of this was done just using pictures and reference material. The only solid thing we had was an imported tortoiseshell scratchplate.

This was handy as we later have to make a white scratchplate for this and having the imported one as a template was a big help!

We had no reference for the routing however and just went with our intuition!

The Fender® P-Bass replica on the other hand was much easier to source templates and such for, so no worries there!

We don't use templates on our own builds usually but seeing as we were creating replicas this time around we wanted to get as close as possible.

With the Routing all done it was time to cut the bodies out on the bandsaw!


All in all not too shabby! They will both need shaping and smoothing but the Fender® P-Bass replica a little more so as it had body contours, unlike the Mosrite® replica which is just a big ole' slab.

Front contours done.....

....And the back ones.

Here's the Mosrite® replica after some smoothing round the edges. You can see our (fairly hideous) template scratchplate here used as a guide.

Unlike the genuine Mosrite®, Zoë wanted a side mounted output jack.

Here is the back of the Mosrite® replica after some smoothing and shaping. We wont be using a neck plate on this build so we can afford to contour and shape the neck joint a bit more than normal.

So now what's left on the bodies (construction wise) is to drill all the mounting points for the bridges and the channels for the bridge earth wires the run. We'll be doing this a bit later once the necks are done and we have a concrete idea of where scale lengths are going to sit.

That'll do it for this update but they'll be more very soon! Please leave and comments or questions here or drop us an email. Alternatively you can check us out on Facebook for all the latest news!

Best regards
Mike & Martin

swguitars@hotmail.co.uk