Who are you?

[Son of Magni]

Well, I guess it's time for me to chime in here...

I'm Karl Thorkildsen. I started building basses a few years ago when after pricing out my dream Alembic I realized I could buy a lot of tools for the same cost, and being handy in general I figured I'd have a go at building my own bass.

Well, building one bass wasn't enough for me, and either was two. So five years later I'm still at it.

I'm a software engineer by profession, or at least that's what they call me. But after dark my evil bass building side comes out and you can hear me out in the shop cutting and sanding wood for whatever current projects I might have going.

I also play bass, most always fretless, and have been playing since about 1974 or so. Also play keys, sax, sitar, tabla, berimbau, cello, drums, and probably some others I can't think of right now.

Other interests include music (mostly jazz), playing hockey, shooting/reloading, coiling, astrophotography, x-country skiing, moutainbiking...

I'll see if I can find a pic to tack in here later.
- Karl

edit:

[Rocky McDougall]

Hi there, my name is Rocky and I live in San Antonio, Texas. I just turned 70 and have been playing bass for about 45 years. I am retired from automotive restoration (Porsche), therefore I have a lot of professional painting experience. I love working with wood and for many years, I restored gunstocks. After retiring, 20 years ago, I began repairing and restoring Fender Basses exclusivly. My first bass was a new 64 Fender Jazz which, sadly, I no longer have. I now buy, sell, repair and restore Fenders for some extra imcome. I have probaly owned over 100 Fenders but normally, I only have 5 - 10 on hand. I enjoy this Forum and look forward to reading your insights every day.
Rocky

[SDB Guitars]

Hi - I'm Shawn Ball. I'm 34 years old, I have a history of rough carpentry (framing... lol), electronics, and generally tearing things apart to try to figure them out.



I've played electric bass for 18 years, guitar for 16 years, and piano for 25 years, and Hammond organ for 10 years. Maybe someday I'll get better, but not likely... I spread myself too thin.

I started building guitars in 2001, when I wanted a "boutique" axe, but couldn't afford the price tag. I drove 350 miles to spend a day in the shop of Dave Bunker (of www.bunker-guitars.com - he's eccentric, but has been quite the innovator over the years), and my eyes were opened. We talked about construction techniques, including the much-debated CNC-vs-hand-made arguement, and when I left his shop, I had a rough body and neck in my possesion. It has been a slippery slope, since then.

A couple of years (and 9 electric guitars and one acoustic HD-28 clone) later, I built myself my own version of a Jazz bass, and I haven't stopped since.



I build mostly basses these days, though I'm considering dabbling in low watt tube amps, just for kicks. Have I mentioned that I love guitars (and I'm not ashamed of it!)?

[Gard]

Well, I don't have the woodworking cred that most of you guys do here, but I have hammered a nail or two in my time..





...my day gig is running a bass builder's shop, so I'm "management", but I am very aware of what is happening at all stages of production, and I get to be the guy that checks everything out before it ships, so I have some insight on how things all fit together. I guess I bring a different, and hopefully useful, perspective on the whole thing.

I am a pretty competent player, do my own setup work (and occasionally assist here in the shop with it), and I type fast - that's how I got the gig. Oh, I asked for the gig too, that may have something to do with it...

It's good to be in here rubbing elbows with you guys!

[Fasoldt Basses]

Hey! Karl Thompson, 22. - student.

I work in the glamorous food industry, waiting tables at Applebee's.

Drive a lovely old '89 Volvo 245, Inga -approaching 300k miles, and still running strong! The minnesota winters are taking their toll on her body, though.

Single. Not really in a big hury to change that, but maybe...

Christian, by the Grace of God and by no merit of my own.

Started playing guitar in middle school and switched (for the most part) over to bass shortly after. I'm playing with a band in the Twin Cities area, just playing 3-4 shows a month.

I'm a student of guitar building/repair in Red Wing, Mn - wrapping up this past year of study. I've built an acoustic guitar this year and am finishing up two more basses. All told, that will make 8 instruments for me. I've sure learned a lot this year!

Other hobbies - kayaking and camping, Reading (I was a nerdy homeschooler) and growing outdated facial-hair styles.

[joeyl]

Originally Posted by GregBreshears

Everyone who has known me since before I became a police officer all say I'm not "the police type". I am an extremely easy going guy, and really don't have the "cop body or attitude".

haha, give it some time one of my best friend is an NOPD officer, he went from long-haired hippie to "that cop guy" with the belly and the attitude it is a stressful job especially here in New Orleans, and he fights to stay "normal"

[hufschmid]

So I live in switzerland,

I been playing guitar for the past 20 years or so...

I have been building guitars and basses since 1996, this was the year when I went abroad and started to learn how to build guitars in the USA at the red wing technical college in minesota...

I'm a full time guitar maker, I build about 10 - 12 instruments every year. I have built over 200 instruments (this includes the guitars, basses, some acoustics which I have built)

http://www.hufschmidguitars.com

I mainly build extended range guitars, I am known for my 7 and 8 string guitars.

I love building 4 string basses (up comming 5 string)

I have designed my very own pickups which are totally handmade by my friend Kent Armstrong.

Here is a picture of me and some of my recent work....











i'm also wroking on a very original inlay at the moment on this mahogany guitar...

[SGD Lutherie]

Hey, this is a cool thread. We get to see the faces behind the names, and the names behind the screen names! I had been on TalkBass for quite a while under the handle DavidRavenMoon.

OK, my name is David, I'm 51, and I live in Montclair, NJ, which is also the home of Stephen Colbert and Buzz Aldrin, though I have never run into either one of them around town (note to self: get out more). I've been married for the past 6 years, and have a 17 year old son and a 4 year old daughter. My son is a very good artist.

Here's the wife and kids:



I have been playing music since I was a child. I knew what I wanted to do ever since seeing the Beatles on Ed Sullivan when I was 6. I started on drums, because my brother played drums, and then moved on to guitar at about 10, and then on to bass a year or two later. I also play keyboards, and along the line was a classically trained tubist, and played baritone sax. I haven't touched either one of those in many years. These days I play bass and guitar regularly, but don't get to gig too much anymore. Though I'm looking for a good progressive band to play with.

I've always taken things apart, and like making things, so when I broke the wiring in an old 60's violin bass I had, I accidentally rewired the pickups out of phase. I thought that was kind of cool, so I put a phase switch in my Sekova Les Paul Custom copy, and started putting phase switches in friend's guitars. I was hooked! I started doing a lot of other mods and things, and started a side business called "Marz Guitars" in the late 70's. My day job at the time was in defense communications.

I was also playing in bands... in the 70's was the prog rock band Dethslaker, which became the band Dreamer, which is still playing around the NJ shore scene.

Me in 1977 with the band Dethslaker:



Then I formed a new wave band called The Jetsonz, which eventually morphed into a more goth/electronic band called Expresso Tango.

Here's the Jetsonz in 1980, and me with my 8-string bass, which was made from a '74 P bass!



The Jetsonz got to open for a lot of 80's acts like Billy Idol, Violent Fems, Wall of Voodoo, etc.

Around that time I left the electronics field and started working in graphic arts, as a lithographer. I come from an artistic/musical family... my mom was a jazz singer in the big band era, and played guitar. My dad played a little mandolin and sang Irish songs, and my older brother was a drummer and then a photographer, and is now an assistant professor of photography at Brooklyn Collage in NYC.

Sometime in the mid 80's, my girlfriend at the time was a hairdresser, and worked with a girl who's brother-in-law had a guitar company called American Showster Custom Guitars, in Maplewood NJ. They had just come out with a guitar that looked like the tailfin on a 1957 Chevy Belair. So I got a job there and left the printing industry. While at Showster I made a lot of changes to how the tailfins were made, and added things like rear adjusting pickups, since on the original you could not adjust pickup height!

I made guitars for players like Billy Gibbons, and Robbin Crosby.

Here's Robbin's guitar, and a body on my workbench.




At Showster I met John Gagliano, and we became best friends. The guy that ran Showster was a real shyster, and stopped paying us, claiming money problems (while he bought a vintage T-Bird and a new house) so first John quit and then I followed. This was right before the deal with Kramer. Right before I left I designed the Stealth series of guitars that Kramer made for Showster. I never got any credit, or even compensation for those guitars, and he patented my ideas (which he said he didn't like at the time).

John and I started our own business, SGD Lutherie, in about 1992, and we had a workshop in Hoboken NJ, in the same building that once housed Guild Guitars. John was just finishing up grad school as an industrial designer, and worked with Ned Steinberger making the first three or so NS Double basses, including Tony Levin's original bass.

I set out to take all the things I had gleaned over the years about what worked and didn't work in the various basses I was playing, and designed the perfect bass for me, the SGD Scorpio.

The SGD table at the 1995 ASIA Symposium. Here you can see a lucite longhorn, some Scorpio basses, and an Alchemist guitar. Far right is the old 8-string (Mantaray) with a new hand made neck and paint job.


SGD went on hiatus for a period of time, and I started it back up about 5 years ago. Currently my focus is on hand made bass pickups, since I didn't have a full time workshop to use, but John and I have set up a nice shop in his garage, so I'm starting to build some more basses.

I was dissatisfied with the pickups I had in my bass, and set on a quest to get the tone I hear when I play the bass unplugged out of the pickups, plus with the type of electric bass tones I hear in my head. So just as I started building because I couldn't find a bass I wanted, I started making pickups. In the end a lot of time and money is invested, but I do it because I'm a player, and I'm fussy.

I currently do the pickups and repairs and setups full time, since getting laid off from a graphics job 2 years ago. On the side I do web and graphic design. I do all the pickup winding at home, in a small corner workspace.

[ray@serenghetti]

Greetings everyone!
I have really enjoyed reading everyones posts and decided i had to become a member!
Now a little about myself,...I'm owner of Serenghetti Guitars/Basses, married, 2 kids,no pets, live on the beach(fla) and build hand carved guitars and basses full time
Looking forward to hearing from you guys/gals out there!

God Bless!
Ray

[Dennis Peacock]

Great thread here.!!! Sorry I can't tell you about me because I don't meet the qualifications of posting about me in this thread since I haven't built a single bass yet.

I can say that I'm so GLAD that I found this place and that everyone here appears to be very knowledgeable and helpful.

Here's to a steep learning curve!!!

Oh...I have been playing bass for 36 years.

[Mikey R]

Ive just finished my second bass so I can finally qualify

Im Mikey Royce, currently living is North Yorkshire in the UK - a brillant part of the world. Ive been playing bass for the past 16 years or so, and recently started building them too.

Heres me modelling #001 in the yard where it was built over a 12 month period:



And heres #002, built on the Shuker course this summer in seven days:



Looking forward to building many more in the next few years!

[YMB]

Hi Guys.......I'm Yuri Machado de Barros......39......from São Paulo Brazil........

I just started to play Bass.....I used to play Drumms since my 12.........then I stopped.....and start to study Biology.......for many years I travelled arround South America and Caribe studing Psittascine Birds (Macaws and small Parrots)......as well as Vegetation........

After that I Studied Marine Biology........specially Anemonefishes and Coral Reefs............

I know some book references about Brazilian Native Trees.....that could help Luthiers......specially about wood density............one of the most important thing about wood selection to built intruments

Now I left this things and start to study Bass full time.......both to paly the Blues that I love and to built new Basses............that's why I'm here in this Forum.......

I spected that you forgive me about my English.......that is very bad............

So, when your read some of my posts ......keep in mind that I'm a beginner in the Bass World..........

[jworrellbass]

Hi,
I'm John Worrell and I've been around T.B. since may and I've finally decided to put up my info.
I'm 45, been married 13 years, a carpenter for 25 yrs. Framing, trim and now custom decks. I used play bass in high school and though my 30's. I got rid of all my basses and Chapman Stick about 7 years ago. BIG MISTAKE.
About 4 years ago I started yearning to play again. After looking at buying a used Stick and realising it would cost over $1500 to buy one I decided to build one. So I started collecting wood working tools. I already have a boat load of tools, but I wanted more, bandsaw, jointer, planer ect..
I've build 6 instruments 2 tappers and 4 basses, I got the bug right off the bat. I sold my second instrument on ebay back in May a 12 string tapper. This is something I want to do for a living and I know it's gonna take some time. I really enjoy all of you guys, I love the Luthiers Corner.

[Ziegenfuss]

Hey,

My name is Stephen Ziegenfuss. I am new to this forum, but have read various bits of help from you guys over the past 2 years. I live in southern Michigan, and am a 25 year old mechanical engineer for a small innovative technologies defense contractor that works primarily for DARPA and several branches of the Navy. I am planning on heading back to school to further advance my education in naval engineering.

I just had my first daughter and have been married for 3 years.

Roger Sadowsky has probably been one of the greatest influences on my building - very traditional, and I got into building because I could not afford one of his basses - and Will Lee played bass for a local jazz musician who I spent whose family I spent much time with, so that helped land an impression... More recently, Carey Nordstrand has been a standout to me, and I just love his work.

I have not gotten to build much lately, but this is the latest bass that I finished up a couple of months ago.

Thanks,
Stephen

[IMG]1.bp.blogspot.com/_65R3073m1J4/SkIU8CWYzpI/AAAAAAAAAIQ/V3CQNjIbfTo/s1600-h/IMG_0872.JPG[/IMG]

[Lonnybass]

Greetings fellow builders-

Been a longtime TBer but just now saw this thread and thought I'd introduce myself...I'm Lonny White, 31 and have been a bass player since I was about 9 years old. I have always been into working with my hands (Legos, anyone?) and decided a few years back to start creating my own instruments - largely with the goal of improving upon certain ergonomic and balance issues I found in many store instruments.

By day I work in corporate crisis and issues management consulting at a firm in downtown Minneapolis, and live with my wife and our infant son in the west suburbs.

During the past year since we moved into our house I have created the ultimate workshop retreat/mancave where I can go for an hour or so, put on some oldies, and make sawdust out of the various woods of the world. Occasionally, a nice looking instrument will emerge too.

Here I am!





And some of my recent and upcoming creations:

[T40less]

I've retired, and been with a couple of companies who build guitars and basses; am 70 and couldn't get on-board, so re-registered. I hope to contribute some whenever appropriate.
T60less

[RED5]

Paul here, 58years down, more to go. Built my first in 79 and my last in 2006 When I realized that I was spending more time building than playing. That and the Pickups and hardware on my red 5 string cost more than the Jazz bass I bought that year. I have pics all around Talkbass Search for "Red Basses", I have a color pattern. oh yeah what do i d? Laid off from the auto biz in March, have been pursuing a full time life in music,it was an obvious choice after all.

[Mick D.]

My name is Mick (duh)
I've been a builder for 29 years.
I apprenticed with two master builders, opened my own shop and, after a few years of starving, joined the Music Products Industry in 1986.
At Washburn I had a hand in the Stephens Extended Cutaway project and designed the AB-40 and AB20 basses.
While at the Gibson Accessories division, I learned about making strings and helped to start the restring clinic program.
While at Peavey I was the design engineer for several artist-oriented projects, the Midibase, the Cyberbass, the Axcelerator series of basses and the Cirrus and later, as the product manager for the Guitar Division, I was responsible for the release of the Wolfgang.
I was the production manager at Parker for 6 years previous to the Washburn buyout. During that time Ken was kind enough to let me assist in the design and development of the Parker Fly Bass.
I moved on to Dean guitars handling all design work for the import lines from 2002 to 2006.
In 2006 I became an independent consultant to the Music Products Industry specializing in Asian sourcing.
When I'm not in China, Korea, Japan or Indonesia, I play gigs with anyone with enough bread to get me out of the house on a weekend and teach at The Players School of Music.

[__HM__]

Name's David.
17 years of age. (TOP THAT.)
Built 2 basses, swapped out most of the parts on my other basses/guitars.
I do do some wood working, my dads a contract painter and carpenter, I help him out now and then.
No job, I'd like to change that, but I doubt that'll happen anytime soon, considering my age.
I'm saving up to pay my way through driver's ed.
I'm a Junior in high school, and I make more mediocre grades than you could ever dream to.
I hope to get my Bachelor's in computer technology, then take some time off after that to go a bit more in depth with my lutharie, and perhaps make a side-career out of it.
I'm happily single (by choice. )
Livin' it up in southern Ohio, I plan to move to downtown Cincy when I can. (GO BENGALS! )
God bless!

[bruce bennett]

Howdy I'm.. well it's right there in the corner, and if you don't know who I am, then thats a good thing.

I've been lurking around here for years, watching and stealing all your best bass building tricks. and then rushing them into production as fast as possible.

So ya'll just keep crank'in 'em out.


















I hope ya'll know I'm just kidding.

I do lurk about a bit. but only because I really don't have much to say about basses anymore,
I'm busy building guitars and i get a bass order every now and again.. but honestly, I'm kinda outta the loop on bass these days. I just like to see whats new every now and again..

and for those that don't know me.. I've been building since 1979, Worked for the Steinburger/Tobias Division of Gibson Guitars, Designed the Warrior Instruments line... before J.D. had anything to do with it. and Now I build J.Backlund Designs.
which you can see at www.jbacklund.com