3 New Watson Basses - watch their construction

I am ready to start a new batch three new bass guitars, one 6 string and two five strings. One will be headless, one fretless and one will be a top-of-the line deluxe version with the best woods available to me. I am planning to document their build histories here on TalkBass and if there's enough interest from TalkBass members I will detail the progress of each over the coming 3-4 months in this thread.

Let me know what you think. Alex

 

OK - I'll get things started on these in the next couple of days so keep an eye on this thread!

 

Hi all - I was in the shop today selecting woods for these projects. On the left I have a single cut 5 string bass using Black & White Ebony on the top, Spalted maple on the back, and a neck-through of Maple and Ebony stringers and a Birdseye Maple fingerboard. The center bass is also a single-cut 5-string, short-scale, curly Koa top, Mahogany back and Iroko (maybe)/Maple neck-thru. I had the Koa top from another older project. The one on the right will be a 5-string double cut headless bass with a curly myrtle top and a really nice cedar back. Other details still to be decided... we're still in the formative stage here.

 

OK here's today's progress. I spend a good amount of time this afternoon sawing up a large block of Black & White Ebony (from Laos - very rare) into plates that will become the top and back of one of the basses. Nice wood, very dramatic stuff - should look awesome on the finished instrument.

 

I also spent additional time on the bandsaw sawing up Iroko wood for the center core section of the short scale 5-string single-cut with the Koa top.