my first bass build

curbowkid · #1 11-07-2011, 06:00 PM

so 6 days ago today i decided impulsively (as i usually do) to take the swan dive into bass building, and im loving every second of it. although the math involved can be a little nuts at times, im still enjoying it. as of this point, i have only spent a WHOPPING TOTAL of 40 bucks to build this beast. all thanks to my awesome wood shop teacher Gene DuFault who gave me a big ol' slab of mahogany and several strips of purple heart. so now i cut the ******** and talk some bass!

specs
-4 string fretless
-34 inch scale
-maple neck through with two purple heart stripes
-mahogany body
-single cut body style
-arched body
-conklin style headstock with slightly more exaggerated curves

future mods
-MEC electronics
-bartolini j pickups
-gotoh tuners
-standard brass bridge (im working with an older ibanez gio bridge atm

)

and now for a brief peak into this beast!

dlenaghan · #2 11-07-2011, 07:02 PM

I would love to see this but the pics don't appear to be working.. in Chrome here.

curbowkid · #3 11-07-2011, 07:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dlenaghan

I would love to see this but the pics don't appear to be working.. in Chrome here.

thats strange o.o the preview showed it working. DANG. well the pic quality was horrible anyways.

**MrArose13** · #4 11-07-2011, 08:16 PM

can't help with the pics, I'm still fighting that battle too.
how did your numbers turn out?

curbowkid · #5 11-07-2011, 08:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrArose13

can't help with the pics, I'm still fighting that battle too.
how did your numbers turn out?

pretty good thanks

im gonna wait till i have the neck fully glued together before i lay out any more. but it is coming out beautifully. i actually have the same preference as you, thin neck, wide spacing

curbowkid · #6 11-08-2011, 05:01 PM

So I just finished the final lay out of this thing. And it's coming out so good I can't even think. I'm over taken with accomplishment over this project. I never thought it would be this nice, this beautiful. I know people say the first build is usually a mess. This isn't. I have a feeling this is going to be a special one. Now that I'm finished blabbing my soap opera story of love for wood (haha) I shall give you an update!

Today I was in school drawing and I decided to try out body designs because I didn't really have a set style yet. And the first drawing was a winner. I will upload a pic as soon as I figure out how to make it work right.

curbowkid · #7 11-11-2011, 09:06 AM

Today i finished the hardest part of the build yet. The neck. And it's still not done. I finished hand plaining the fretboard surface and cleaning up all the bandsaw cuts. It's coming together nicely for not having all the desired tools needed for the job, like a large belt sander. I will try to post pics again, here we go!

Stealth · #8 11-11-2011, 12:50 PM

Wow. That's a pretty awesome body shape.

**MrArose13** · #9 11-11-2011, 06:35 PM

I tried to PM you back but the program wouldn't let me.(a new thing to figuar out

) Thanks for the heads up any way.

The bass looks good keep it up

curbowkid · #10 11-11-2011, 08:24 PM

Thanks. I'm shocked at how well it's coming out for my first build, I know the first is usually a mess. All I need is to figure out how to route a perfectly straight line for the truss rod and how to cut down the excess on the neck over the body. But il figure it out

SaintMez · #11 11-11-2011, 09:26 PM

Looks good! How wide is the neck, fingerboard, string spacing?

curbowkid · #12 11-12-2011, 08:39 AM

The neck is 2 1/4 at the end and 1 5/8 at the nut, I chose to roll with 1 cm spacing at the nut because I like a wider neck (I play a 5 string all the time) and I'm at .750 at the bridge. Ive already put the wings on the body and it feels sooooooooo nice to hold. It fits perfectly to your body

curbowkid · #13 11-18-2011, 02:32 PM

Hey guys, it's been a while, I've had alot going on. But new pics up tonight!

curbowkid · #14 11-19-2011, 03:32 PM

so ive gotten a little bit done this week. i also decided to roll with a piezo bridge instead of pickups. hope you enjoy the new pics. i also decided to do something different, most neck through guitars and basses have the extra neck material around the base of the neck routed off. i decided to keep it and make it work. i like the result

curbowkid · #15 11-25-2011, 04:51 PM

**MrArose13** · #16 12-14-2011, 09:59 AM

How's your build going?

curbowkid · #17 01-03-2012, 09:03 AM

At the moment it's at a stand still due to my teacher in my school not having the right drill bit for the tuners x.x but it's going well. I haven't been able to work on it much lately but all I really have left is drilling holes for tuners, pots and input jack, glue the nut, instal the tuners, install the piezo bridge (when I can afford it), glue the body wings and sand them, alot, and then all that's left is stringing it up. I'm really anxious to finish

Stringwalker · #18 01-03-2012, 07:29 PM

That looks awesome!!!! How thick is the body? What is the raise from the body to the neck pre fingerboard? I can't wait to see more of this. Nice work.

curbowkid · #19 01-03-2012, 10:17 PM

The body is rather thin. I basicly worked with what I had because I didn't have the money or the means to find the perfect lumber for this. The rise is 8 mm and the body thickness is 1 1/4''. All of the wood was given to me by my wood shop teacher

jnotes · #20 01-12-2012, 09:12 AM

Looks great! Have you (or anyone else) found information on best nut materials and nut groove height specs for fretless?

I modified a 1969 P-Bass to be fretless (among other things) but left the original nut in place...just filed the notches a bit lower. I've seen posts regarding "zero nut" clearance which make sense to get fretless sound from open strings, but want to get experienced opinions from others first.

I saw graphite nuts for P-Bass at All Parts website. Any ideas or opinions on graphite vs. ebony vs. bone would be helpful.

This may be helpful to your new build as well. Looking forward to see how it comes out.