Hi Everybody,
My name is Chris Bakken. I'm currently living in southern California, working for Carey Nordstrand at Nordstrand Guitars. I've been a bass player since July of 1996, playing both upright and bass guitar. I've played in many different bands and orchestras, but mostly just for fun.
I started building basses back in 2004 when I enrolled in the Musical String Instrument Repair- Guitar program at Southeast Technical College in Red Wing, MN. In that program I learned to repair, set up, and build guitars and bass guitars. I graduated the 9 month program in the spring of 2005.
The next year I went to school at Dakota County Technical College in Rosemount, MN and got a diploma in Wood Finishing Technologies. Red Wing gave me a decent foundation on how to build an instrument, but I wanted to learn more about how to really make my basses look their best, so I decided to go to DCTC. While at school there, I learned to apply, repair, restore, and remove many different types of finishes.
As far as my work experience with guitar repair and building, I started off at a small music store maintaining rental instruments during the summer, then moved on to doing repairs and setups on new and vintage guitars/bass at Brown's Guitar Factory in Inver Grove Heights, MN. While at Brown's, I also did some bass guitar building, but never completed an instrument there.
Now I'm working for Carey Nordstrand, doing a fair amount of the woodworking for both the custom bass line and the Nordy line.
If anybody has questions about bass building or wood finishing, don't hesitate to contact me.
Thanks for reading! See you in the forums.
Chris
