Rate my design

[RRuud]

Okay, I have completely redone my design and I think I'm almost there... So I was hoping you could help me find some things I mave have overlooked... I'm still trying to decide wich kinds of woods to use and wich electronics.. So with no further delay's, here is my design..

[Greg Johnsen]

it needs...something. To me, this design is just so plain and it needs some sort of kick to it to make it stand out. Something you might want to do, is make the curves to the upper and lower horns deeper, because this would add more shape to the body.

As for wood and pickups (and preamps if you're going active) I would suggest a mahogany body (a little heavy, but very punchy and warm), and you may want to do a top and back to also add some more flavor to this bass. I like alot of burls, but walnut also looks nice to me. However, if you want something simpler, you could do flame or quilt maple with a darker accent layer underneath.

For electronics...I like nordstrand pickups, but they're a little pricey (especially for 6 strings) so you may want to look at benavente pickups (I think it's 200 for a set). If these don't appeal to you, just look around at different luthier's sites, and different part supply sites and see if you can find anything. If you want an active bass, I suggest either the Aguilar OBP series (the OBP-3 will give you the most versatility) or a demeter preamp.

Good luck, should be a good bass.

Greg

[Drake Kennedy]

I agree with Greg on this one, the curves need to be deeper. You could even keep the outline the same and add some deeper contours. Other than that I really like the design. Looks comfortable and well balanced.

Mahogany is also my favorite body wood, but if you want something else, you could try ash, alder, or walnut. All have great and distinctly different tones. For the neck, I would go with maple and/or wenge.

For electronics, I'm using Benavente pickups and preamp, but there are too many options to list. If you have the cash, Nordstrand is about the best you can buy, or so I'm told. I love the tone on my Bartolini setup, and I've never heard anything bad about Aguilar preamps either. Do what sounds good to you.

Peace,
Drake


Edit: To RRuud, do you mind if I use your neck template? It's better for me than the makeshift one I'm using now. Thanks!

[PaleMelanesian]

fretfind will give you nice templates.

-About the design, it might look good with a hook or something on the body, like a LeCompte maybe.
-The upper horn looks almost too long to me. The inner curve between the horns lools a little unnatural. If you pulled the upper horn back a fret or so, and smoothed out the curve...
-To make the curves deeper, I'd say you should make the horns and the back end larger, while leaving the waist as it is. It's a small body as it is right now.

Edit: this third one is what i'm talking about.
I shortened the upper horn, made it a little beefier, and reworked the curve between it and the lower horn. I enlarged the whole back end, upper and lower sides, and I added a cutout at the back end.

[THIRSTYGUMS]

I like it, i think you should fatten out the bottom, a little more pear shaped if you know what i mean. But i love simplicity, less is more!
If you build this with some nice woods your on to a winner

[RRuud]

Thank you all VERY much for the help. The advice on woods and electronics are very much appreciated. And the help with the design is also very useful, I can now see that the top horn is to long. As for the cut near the bridge, I was planning on doing that in an earlier stage but forgot to take it to this design, so I probably will use the cut as PaleMelanesian drew .

As this build is closing, and it being my first, I'm begining to doubt I have the skills for this.. The body is not wat is bodering(i've made a guitarbody before) me but I have never build a neck. And I'm very conserned that I might forget something wich will reduce all the work up till that point to firewood ...

Questions:
- Is building a neck(neckthrough) difficult? I have
done some research but I feel like I'm underestimating the
difficulty
- is adding a thin decorative layer into the body very
difficult?

[Greg Johnsen]

well, I have no experience in neck building either, but I've done my homework on it, and it actually doesn't seem to be too difficult. Just think of the neck as the body, because they both get glued and clamped, so that's no different. Also, both the neck and body have to get shaped, and you said you've made a body before, so you have some experience in this. The routing is similar to the body, but it's just 3 long routes instead of 3 (or 4) smaller ones. Fretting seems a little difficult to me, but what's the fun of doing something if it isn't a challenege? Just do some more research, and look at the pictorials available in the corner.

As for the body layer, why would this be hard? All you're doing is just clamping and gluing another layer of wood on there, I see no problem with that.

Good luck

Greg

[pilotjones]

I'd make it curvier- but not by cutting the concave curves in closer to the strings. I'd leave that area alone, and add more body width on both sides, down by the bridge. Your current design looks to me to be too narrow, especially for the length.

If you'd like to see another bass with a long-narrow design with similar proprtions to yours, you might be able to google up a pic of a Dean Razor NT.

As was pointed out, the upper horn is too long for a conventional hanging position, but it would be good though if you like the bass to hang more vertically.

[mahrous]

for neck making. i dont necessarily suggest neck thru as a first build.

if its not what you like, then you cant replace it.

[RRuud]

Originally Posted by mahrous

for neck making. i dont necessarily suggest neck thru as a first build.

if its not what you like, then you cant replace it.

The problem is that making a bolt on neck seems more difficult to me... It seems harder to get the neckpocket to fit correctly, the body that i made had a bolt on neck wich was ripped from another guitar but it didn't fit great..

[Vorago]

Die derde is wel lekker, maar mist nog wat body vind ik, ze zien er alledrie wat "uitgerokken" uit, vind ik.

[Greg Johnsen]

Originally Posted by mahrous

for neck making. i dont necessarily suggest neck thru as a first build.

if its not what you like, then you cant replace it.

Actually, you can. All you have to do is saw off the neck, route a neck pocket, and then make a new neck, or re use the first one.

Greg

[RRuud]

Originally Posted by Vorago

Die derde is wel lekker, maar mist nog wat body vind ik, ze zien er alledrie wat "uitgerokken" uit, vind ik.

Die 3de is al wat aangepast, maar niet door mij.. Ik vind het ontwerp zoals die 3de het mooist misschien dat ik als ik een voorbeeld ga maken nog de maten aanpas, gebeurd bijna zeker....

[Phil Mastro]

Originally Posted by THIRSTYGUMS

I like it, i think you should fatten out the bottom, a little more pear shaped if you know what i mean. But i love simplicity, less is more!
If you build this with some nice woods your on to a winner

+1

[mahrous]

Originally Posted by Teh Fleaz0rz

Actually, you can. All you have to do is saw off the neck, route a neck pocket, and then make a new neck, or re use the first one.

Greg

if he is capable of doing these operations successfully, he can certainly do a neck hehe.

[TreeChild]

looks slick man.