Recent content by Tavish Mac

This is the 'T Mac' P Special Precision. I ended up doing the painting and polishing and assembly myself. The observant may notice that the E string slot in the nut is too far to the left by a millimetre or so but my luthier friend is going to fit a zero fret to replace the cheap nut. I think...

There's a lot of anecdotal stuff spoken about these different woods. Many of my comments are based on these kinds of comments. I do know, however, from personal experience, on how the whole weight, hardness, density debate can seemingly confound itself. I've got three Yamahas and I've owned...

My estimate of the weight of the basses when finally built is probably high as far as the body hardware is concerned but should be less than the Sandberg Californian Superlight which is usually quoted at around 6 kilos. Weight saving is the prime objective which has been encouraged by my...

Yep. We reckon a fraction over 2lbs for neck including headstock plus lightweight tuners. Body with (probably) aluminium bridge plus remaining hardware fittings should be around 4.5 lbs. Total in the region of 6.5 lbs (3 kilos). Thanks for asking.

EXACTLY...and enjoy the personal neck relief at the same time! But most important to find the combination I like...and if somebody reckons it sounds like their $10,000 Fender then so much the better!!

You're right about the body/tone wood effect. There's a very good book on acoustic guitar construction which lists umpteen different elements in the manufacture which are more important than the guitar's body wood. What different types of wood used for a bass body can and do affect, however...

Thanks for this. A couple of years ago I gained an honours degree which was mainly based on music composition and all the different kinds of uses for music, of all genres. I'm interested in the sounds that instruments produce, either solo or along with others, without any enhancements other...

My luthier friend is building two new basses for me—one is a j style and the other a p style bass. In both cases the bodies are made from the very light weight pawlonia wood. Body weight approx 3.25 lbs (each neck is maple with maple fretboard and weighs approx 1.7lbs). I'm wondering what...