Senior Project Help

[Journey55]

Hello,
So this current year I am a junior and at my school every senior has to do a senior project in which case they do just about anything of their choosing, so I was thinking about something bass-related.
At first I thought either an Acoustic Bass Guitar (either pure acoustic or with a pickup) or a cabinet (I was thinking like a 2x10 to go with my 1x15). However these projects are supposed to take a while (around 3-5 months) and I've heard that cabinets aren't too complicated....any advice on which to build (or another suggestion), because I have only defretted a bass (it's no masterpiece but it works) and like no other experience...thanks in advance!


P.S. Mods are free to move this to a more appropriate forum if need be

[dhsierra1]

A cabinet is definitely going to be easier to build than a bass

Check the stickies in the Amps forum section, there's a whole bunch of DIY projects I'd start looking at, plus you need to get acquainted with how speakers and amps work etc. For example it's best not to mix cabinets w/different sized speakers etc.

It's all in there, just have to start reading. And then post questions here and those w/more experience and knowledge can help.

Good luck and have fun

[funkingroovin]

How about building a cigar box guitar/bass? Plenty of videos on building those,supplies are pretty inexpensive..

[dhsierra1]

or a rubber-band bamboo bass?


Rubberband Bamboo Bass - YouTube

[Stumbo]

What's your budget?

I suggest you speak with your thesis adviser before choosing a project. Maybe take some ideas to him/her and discuss.

There are more complicated cabs to build, like fEARful by greenboy but the would cost some $$ for the parts. Check his website for details.

Do you have tools and wood working experience?

[smcfarland1337]

Hey man, I graduated in '10 and for my Senior Project I built a fretless out of a solid piece of cedar wood (but bought a neck unfortunately, ran out of time).
Albeit I had a trained luthier as my mentor that watched over the production and told me what to do, it was still an extremely remarkable experience.

My suggestion would be if you know what you're doing or have a good luthier on hand who is willing to help you out, go for it! You also want to make sure in advance to work out a schedule for when you're going to work on it and make sure you can devote yourself to building the bass before all those crappy deadlines. My main issue was my luthier is old and thus, could not manage to get together all the time and I did't devote myself fully at the beginning which caused me to turn in my product 3 days before school ended (obviously past the deadline as I'm sure you know)!

Of course, it is cheaper to build a cab I'm sure. But I can guarantee that building a bass guitar was one of the coolest things I've ever done.