new luthier

[Brado]

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Hello all. I wanted to introduce myself (Brady Muckelroy). In the past 10 years, I've been trying to make some sort of a name for myself as a player. That's going pretty well. BUT, there has been an "addition" to my direction. Through the course of playing the various basses I've played/ taking an inventory of what worked/ what failed/ and everything in between, I've been led to building my own basses. I've been learning a ton from many of you. I'm honored to post here.
Here are the humble beginnings of my first official build...."Muckelroy Bass Works #1." Nothing huge yet, but it's a solid start.

[Brado]

Body design & headstock design....basically a malting pot of all of my favorites....

[Brado]

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The first cuts of maple for my neck (neck through). I'm going with a taper core center.

[Brado]

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[Brado]

[Brado]

Here, I've begun the plans for the electronics cavity. For this first bass, I'll do a passive setup...volume, volume, tone. It's a large enough cavity to house an active pre if needed. First, the shape of the electronics cavity plate/ then, the inside cavity outline......traced onto some MDF/ cut out on the bandsaw/ claned up on the disc sander/belt sander.....

[Brado]

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Once the cookies are cut out & cleaned up, I trace the shapes onto some stout plywood. From there, I cut it out using the drill press & a forstner bit. Then, I took the pattern to the spindle sander to clean it up.

[Brado]

Once the pattern is mostly cleaned up, I detailed the not-so-smooth spots by hand with a file. I also transfered the body shape to some MDF. I'll locate where the neck/ body wing joints are & make patterns from that too. Next, locate the fingerboard/ headstock/ cut out body wings....more to come.

[Rickett Customs]

Brado,
Go to the main page in the luthier's corner and post on the "Who are you" thread, that's where we all introduce ourselves

[K-Frog]

Welcome Brady! I've got one of your YouTube videos "favorited". love it.

I hear ya on designing your own. my personal preferences (neck and string spacing) in a 6 string have me now laying out a design for my own.

Good luck to you.

[BassCycle]

Subbed!

[Brado]

I never described the build; Here's a run-down. In a nutshell.......SIMPLE. 3 piece maple neck (neck through). Solid walnut body wings. Rosewood fingerboard. This first one will be a fretted 5 string. 34" scale. Hipshot ultralight tuners & A style bridge (black). The tuner configuration (on the headstock) will be 4 on top & one on bottom. I'm still tossing a few pickup options around. I really like what the Delano JSBC's did in my last bass. They're a strong go-to if nothing else presents itself. I had a facebook friend recommend Reed James pickups. Never heard/ heard of them. They sure look nice. Anyone tried these?

[Skabasskid]

Subbed!

[tubby.twins]

Looks nice so far!

If you want a real treat, you should go with the JSBCs but move the neck pickup closer to the sweet spot. This will give you a nice "Thumb" sounding configuration. I finally tested out my pair of JSBC pickups this way, and they sound superb.

[Brado]

Here is the rosewood fingerboard after some passes over the jointer & planner. And, the walnut for the body wings. Lots of great potential in this piece...except for that knot. ha.

[Brado]

Here is the pattern for the headstock.

[Brado]

After much sighting & moving things around, I decided on where to cut the body wings. This will have a dark streak running down both the upper & lower wing/ almost as if this piece was bookmatched. I can't wait to see this cut out & in place.