3rd build, but first bass.

mattharris75 · #1 11-13-2008, 10:11 AM

Greetings,

As the title indicates, this is my first bass build. I've built several guitars before this, but never a bass. In fact, I have never owned a bass, and have been wanting one for years. And, instead of just building one, I've decided to go ahead and build two simultaneously, of the same design.

The build that I will be tracking in this thread has a body composed of hard ash with a redwood burl top and a spalted maple back. The neck is padauk and mahogany with a bloodwood fretboard, and the headplate/backstrap/control cavity cover/neck heel are all macassar ebony. The second bass is a bit simpler, with a body of hard ash and a top of wenge. The neck is limba and mahogany with a macassar ebony fretboard and wenge accents.

I'm knee deep in these builds right now. The redwood burl bass is a bit farther ahead. I've been working on the arm and belly cuts and have recently gotten the fretboard glued on trimmed flush. The neck, BTW, has carbon reinforcement bars and is using a stew mac hot rod with a spoke wheel. Open headstock design as well.

Some other miscellaneous stuff; Hipshot ultralights, EMG P/J pickup set, yadda yadda

Now, on to the pictures!

pilotjones · #2 11-13-2008, 11:29 AM

Looks good.

Did you stain the front and back surfaces so that you had a reference for the roundovers, like using engineer's marking blue?

mattharris75 · #3 11-13-2008, 01:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pilotjones

Looks good.

Did you stain the front and back surfaces so that you had a reference for the roundovers, like using engineer's marking blue?

No, actually what I did was coat both the front and back plates with epoxy before I did any wood work to them. Both spalt and burl can be unpredictable to work with, so it was more of a precautionary measure to help stabilize them.

nutricous · #4 11-13-2008, 02:06 PM

I really like your headstock design and your logo, they go nicely together.

mattharris75 · #5 11-13-2008, 08:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nutricous

I really like your headstock design and your logo, they go nicely together.

Thanks. I did design the logo, but I can't take credit for the headstock. It is based on the 'higham open headstock' design that I found on MIMF, and I just flipped it around.

jordan_frerichs · #6 11-13-2008, 08:23 PM

i am doing a simalar headstock, yet know nothing about them (customer build) could you give me info on them/ making them?

ryan(MAIDEN) · #7 11-13-2008, 08:52 PM

holy tomatoes this looks super schweet

pilotjones · #8 11-13-2008, 10:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mattharris75

Thanks. I did design the logo, but I can't take credit for the headstock. It is based on the 'higham open headstock' design that I found on MIMF, and I just flipped it around.

It looks like the GR Basses headstock, too. One difference is that, in comparison to GR and I think to uprights, yours is missing a bevel back for a free string path from the nut to the tuners. Will you be adding that?

mattharris75 · #9 11-13-2008, 11:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pilotjones

It looks like the GR Basses headstock, too. One difference is that, in comparison to GR and I think to uprights, yours is missing a bevel back for a free string path from the nut to the tuners. Will you be adding that?

Yes, I will be adding that bevel. I still have to get the inside of the headstock to final shape. Got about half a mm around the edges to take down with the router table, and one of the corners still needs a bit more work than that, then I will add the headstock bevel.

Jordan, shoot me a PM with your email address and I will send you a detailed plan of the headstock design that is 1:1 scale with measurements.

jordan_frerichs · #10 11-14-2008, 01:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mattharris75

Yes, I will be adding that bevel. I still have to get the inside of the headstock to final shape. Got about half a mm around the edges to take down with the router table, and one of the corners still needs a bit more work than that, then I will add the headstock bevel.

Jordan, shoot me a PM with your email address and I will send you a detailed plan of the headstock design that is 1:1 scale with measurements.

will do. thanx.

p.s. What do you mean by beveling the headstock?

mattharris75 · #11 11-14-2008, 01:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jordan_frerichs

will do. thanx.

p.s. What do you mean by beveling the headstock?

If you look at that image you will see that behind the nut there is an angled or beveled area where the material is removed to allow for a straight string path to the tuners from the nut, since the headstock is designed so that the strings angle downward so it has enough string tension, like a regular angled headstock.

jordan_frerichs · #12 11-14-2008, 08:20 PM

yeah. i like that flat, angled hybrid effect. btw, is the blueprint u mailed me in mm, or what? what does the "R" in front of some of the numbers mean?

p.s. i think it would be sweet to angle the sides that the tuners go on. definately not doing it for my first attemp, though.

mattharris75 · #13 11-14-2008, 10:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jordan_frerichs

yeah. i like that flat, angled hybrid effect. btw, is the blueprint u mailed me in mm, or what? what does the "R" in front of some of the numbers mean?

p.s. i think it would be sweet to angle the sides that the tuners go on. definately not doing it for my first attemp, though.

Yeah, it is metric, and the R stands for radius. For the most part I wouldn't worry about the radius's too much, the blueprint is a good starting point to place everything so that you have a good break angle and string clearance, tuner placement, etc.

Fetusyolk · #14 11-14-2008, 10:22 PM

This is really looking beautiful, and i hope you excuse my criticism, or rather, questions as to some of your reasoning behind some of the features.

The body and neck seem perculiarly thick , especially for a 4 string. This may yield an awesome tone, but is this as the end result will be?

either way, truly nice piece so far.

mattharris75 · #15 11-14-2008, 11:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fetusyolk

This is really looking beautiful, and i hope you excuse my criticism, or rather, questions as to some of your reasoning behind some of the features.

The body and neck seem perculiarly thick , especially for a 4 string. This may yield an awesome tone, but is this as the end result will be?

either way, truly nice piece so far.

Those are reasonable questions. The neck actually isn't unusually thick, it's just not carved yet. The headstock has to be quite thick to account for the tuners mounted on the sides, which makes it all seem thicker. The heel is fairly typical in thickness for a set neck, I believe.

As for the body, it is a full 2 inches thick. I was attempting to make the body shape quite lean in appearance from the front, It's only about 11 1/2" wide. So, in order to prevent neck dive, I made the body about 1/4" thicker than average. And because it is so narrow it probably seems a bit thicker than that visually when seen from an angle or the side. But, I think it will look really good once it's finished. I'm quite happy with it so far, I think it will look very modern and interesting while managing to move away from some of the more 'currently in style' aspects of boutique bass design.

Thanks for the comments.

chatham · #16 11-15-2008, 01:11 AM

Wowsville! ! ! What a groovey ax ! I've been building guitars for about 35 years, and I am about to try to build a bass. I've built ouds, a wood topped banjo, three/fourths of a clavichord, flamenco guitars, classical guitars, electric guitars, etc...But I have always been fascinated with the bass note....one of my earlier problems has, I believe, led me to the project of the bass: even on expensive classical and flamenco guitars in the $10,000 to $20,000 range, the fifth string has more "authority" than the sixth (or lowest) string. My last flamenco was the most powerful in the sixth string. Something I have not noticed before. It has to do with very accurate gluing (with instant hide glue) and having a flexable top. (strong AND flexable is quite a conundrum, I promise, and it is one of my trade secrets.) The entire top, back and sides are redwood...(which I DO NOT recommend) back and sides should be of stronger stuff, like maple or mohogany) My next flamenco will be of western red cedar, top, back and sides....for it is almost as resonant as redwood, but it is hardier, My first bass, will be all western red cedar. Where do you buy those tuners? They certainly look first class..

mattharris75 · #17 11-19-2008, 09:56 PM

The tuners are hipshots. I don't recall where I purchased them, but they are widely available.

So, I've got a question for all you bass building guru's. While I am familiar with building guitars, this being my first bass, I am looking for recommendations on fret wire. Not really being a bass player, I don't know what I like with regards to height/width/crown shape. What are some standard specs you guys would tend to prefer?

jordan_frerichs · #18 11-19-2008, 10:57 PM

go to guitar center, play a fender, and a music man. if you like the feel of the fender get the wide/highest fretwire from stewmac, if you prefer the musi man wire, get the wide/pyramid fret wire from stewmac.

mattharris75 · #19 12-21-2008, 01:16 PM

Gotten the neck pocket cut on this bass, and the ebony binding on the fingerboard. Hoping to get most of the rough woodwork done over the Christmas break if I don't get caught up too much in family stuff.

mattharris75 · #20 01-15-2009, 04:49 PM

Gotten some work done on this one. As you can see in the picture, the fretboard has been sanded flush with the binding and radius'd. A lot of the detail work on the headstock has been done or started. Carved out the area where the strings will break over the headstock. Drilled the tuner holes. Inlayed the bloodwood logo disk and filled it with black epoxy, and have started rounding over and smoothing everything out. This style of headstock has been significantly more work than I anticipated, and I'm not sure I'll do it again once these two builds are done, but it will be really cool once it's finished.