Bass Design

[DerHoggz]

So I've been kinda wanting to make my own bass ever since i bought my 2nd bass, an Ibanez 406, very nice, because sometimes I just want a good ole 4 stringer to play. I love Claypools's main bass because of its small size and muscley look so i decided to CAD up something similar and this is the result.

It's designed to be 32" scale because i like the looseness of he strings on them. The bridge is based off dimensions of a Kahler 2410 trem and of course I'm not actually gonna have three pickups probably just one, maybe two.

One problem I have with it is the body still looks too big compared to Les's.

So what do you guys think. Any suggestions about body size?

 

[ninefingerbass]

I think you were add some more curvature in the top horn section under the scroll it would look better. Three pick ups though. Might sound pretty good. We'll see. I've used a Kahler bridge that is offset at a certain angle and is pretty interesting to say the least. Very difficult to intonate by the way.

 

[vbasscustom]

you might wanna thicken up that lower horn too, but yeah, if you make the scroll a little bigger on the neck side, it would look really awsome
but it looks really really cool now

 

[DerHoggz]

I'm just kinda afraid that the horn will be too thin. But you guys probably know better anyways.

Nothing can be done with it till Tuesday though because I have SketchUp Which really sucks and CAD is at my school.

 

[SirBass]

a headless....yummy!!

 

[DerHoggz]

Not a headless per se, but a possibility. Always liked Steinbergers. But right now it's based on a Kahler trem which are like $300 or something. Just didn't have time to draw up a headstock.

 

[bassteban]

I like it. I would say that if you want access to the highest notes you might try a mockup of the shape to see if it's functional. I have a Corvette FNA that has what looks like a decent cutaway but it's fairly useless for the last 3-4 frets.

 

[Rochey6957]

subscribed! i like the look of this bass and am looking forward to see where you go with it. i agree with bassteban about the cutaway. the bass im currently working on the cutaway on it i thought was fine the first time they cut it out of cardboard nd put a neck on it. i could barely get the last few frets. so im workin on getting it just right. definetly try a cardboard mock up though. check out the thread sometime http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=515822

 

[DerHoggz]

Well this is all up in the air right now. I'm buying an amp first, then I'll need a job to even consider this in the next year so...
Whatever...

 

[DerHoggz]

This is what I did in CAD today

Left one is original with a thinner top horn.
Right one is newer idea.

I want it to have a nice small body like this.

Any way of doing that.
(I know erikbojerik did one that was mighty nice. I pm'ed him on Friday and he hasn't responded. )

No use in subscribing, I still need a new amp and a job before this becomes a reality. This is just me getting input and gathering thoughts

 

[RLK]

This is what I did in CAD today

This is just me getting input and gathering thoughts

Starting to look alot like one of ScottyD's designs:

 

[DerHoggz]

Starting to look alot like one of ScottyD's designs:

Yea, I've seen those but was trying for more of the Claypool body without a reference pic. (no internet in the CAD lab FTW!?)

As of now it's too long but I don't know how to fix that.

 

[vbasscustom]

i say the second one, it looks really cool

 

[RLK]

Yea, I've seen those but was trying for more of the Claypool body without a reference pic. (no internet in the CAD lab FTW!?)

As of now it's too long but I don't know how to fix that.

FWIW,
I "shortened it", "morphed" your two versions, and did a little curve smoothing:

IMHO, a decent compromise that allows for both access to upper frets, and good (seated) balance.

 

[DerHoggz]

Alright this is the final one. I basically imported a pic of the bass into CAD and sketched it, then smoothed it out.

 

[pilotjones]

Not for nothing, but IMO your or Scotty's designs look about 1000000% nicer than CT's. RLK's compromise is particularly nice.

 

[DerHoggz]

It's really not about who made it or who owns it (even though hes one of my favorites) so much as about the shape. I like the nice small (lengthwise) shape.

 

[eleonn]

I like RLKs third one with the scrol of the first one. It would be a really nice bass.