so i am working in my wood shop class, where i only get to do bits and pieces at a time, and think to myself that if i could get the whole room to work in for as long as i wanted, i could get a great deal of it done in a week or less. so how long does it take you luthiers to get your projects done? please include tools at your disposal, because some just have hand tools, and some has a whole work shop to have fun with

Work smart. Do all the planning at home so that when you get to the shop you can do the right part of your project. How long does it take to cut a piece of wood? Not very long. I have spent many hours measuring and checking and rechecking my design. When I go to the shop (my uncles house) it doe not take me very long to do what I need to for that step in the process.

My current build is really the first one that I've really kept an accurate track of hours. It's a bolt-on 3-piece neck with front/back headstock lams going on a 5-piece body with stringers (no top/back caps). I've got 3 routers (including one on a router table), power jointer, drill press, thickness sander, small-edge/spindle sander, thickness planer, 2 bandsaws, radial arm saw, table saw and random-orbital sander at my disposal...lots of power tools.

So far I've got 24 hours into just the woodworking so far, includes milling the wood before glue-up, truing everything, radiusing the fretboard & cutting the slots, making templates, etc etc. The only woodworking I have left yet are to make the pickup routing template, rout the pickup & control cavities, and do some body carving....probably another 5 hours (most of it in the body carving & finish sanding). So that would be 29 hours total.

That does not include finishing....oil finishes tend to be pretty quick, but lacquer or poly will take much longer levelling-shooting-buffing. Also does not include fretting the neck, fret levelling/dresssing, installing the hardware, and total setup (most time of which is spent making the nut).

So...are you saying that my bass will be done in a little over 5 hours from now????? :hyper::hyper:

Just kidding.

My current build is really the first one that I've really kept an accurate track of hours. It's a bolt-on 3-piece neck with front/back headstock lams going on a 5-piece body with stringers (no top/back caps). I've got 3 routers (including one on a router table), power jointer, drill press, thickness sander, small-edge/spindle sander, thickness planer, 2 bandsaws, radial arm saw, table saw and random-orbital sander at my disposal...lots of power tools.

So far I've got 24 hours into just the woodworking so far, includes milling the wood before glue-up, truing everything, radiusing the fretboard & cutting the slots, making templates, etc etc. The only woodworking I have left yet are to make the pickup routing template, rout the pickup & control cavities, and do some body carving....probably another 5 hours (most of it in the body carving & finish sanding). So that would be 29 hours total.

That does not include finishing....oil finishes tend to be pretty quick, but lacquer or poly will take much longer levelling-shooting-buffing. Also does not include fretting the neck, fret levelling/dresssing, installing the hardware, and total setup (most time of which is spent making the nut).

So...are you saying that my bass will be done in a little over 5 hours from now????? :hyper::hyper:

Just kidding.

Yep....if I get those tuners in the next 5 hours!!!

<jk> :D

Painting a bass can take a lot longer- due to weather & humidity