Friday, June 25, 2010

Thumb Buddy

Back in the 50's and 60's, Fender basses had a whole slough of accoutrements that somehow fell by the wayside and do not appear on basses made in the last 20 years or so.  One of those things is a thumb rest. These days, most people just use the side of the pickup or don't use anything.  The problem with that is, if you want to hit the string in the sweet spot just below of the end of the neck, there's nothing there for your li'l thumb to perch on.  So today, I finally got around to making a little thumb perch for my admittedly not-super-old Jazz Bass.  I used a piece of Iroko left over from some bedstands (still need to post those) and some nice looking brass screws.  I'm not thoroughly educated on Iroko, but I do know that it is tropical, has nicely pronounced grain, and smells kind of like clove cigarettes when you cut it.