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Building a bass

B

bagboy16

Jan 14, 2009
13
0
Omaha, Nebraska
#1
My friends and I are in highschool and we are planning on building a bass for me and a guitar.
I need to know what the best wood would be the best for a percision bass.
I know it wont be an easy test.
But my teachers have assigned me all the tools in making it.

Would also be helpful if you could give me insight in which pick ups to buy.

Are D'addario good bass strings. What guage strings are the best for percision? Or what are good strings for playing Punk.

Umm I need tuners oppinions? Brindge and what wood to use for the fret bored.

Thank you for all your oppinions.
Price is not an issue for wood or fret bored wood.
Bridge, tuners, and pickups each maxium of like idk $120.
 
#2
Well, that was a bit scattered. :eyebrow:

Anyhow, You may want to do a practice piece out of...say, Pine.
If and when you can get the feel of what you want, then you could try some real stuff.

Bridge, tuners and pickups for 120? There will be a slim chance of that, but I think it's been done through CL and ebay.
Don't expect the best results from that though. As far as the strings go, you're quite a ways from contemplating that, if you're planning on building.

Hardware and electronics (None of this is including shipping):

Mighty Mite "p" pickups (mighty mite)= $19.95 (not including pots, wiring, shielding, knobs..etc..... may= about an additional $20)

Gotoh economy tuners (guitar nucleus)= $8.95 ea (x4?) How about string trees? ($5)

Generic P bridge (allparts)- $20

Total (just in the cost without shipping)=$ 100.75

Once shipping is added to all that, I'm sure you're over $120, but miracles can happen, just don't expect to be knocked over from the results.

Good luck. If you want a bass before your ability with wood catches up, try an SX, most likely what you would pay for the hardware, you could have a bass, then take your time and do it right with building one.


As always, I could be wrong.
 
#4
Sounds to me like you may need to do a little more research.

There is no such thing as the "best" wood. It is very subjective, not to mention different woods would be more or less appropriate in different circumstances.

Some options:

neck:
maple
ash
mahogany
walnut
wenge


body:
ash
alder
basswood
walnut
mahogany

fingerboard:
rosewood
ebony
maple

For (new) parts have a look on:
http://www.stewmac.com/
http://www.lmii.com/
Invalid Link Removed

Otherwise try ebay/craig's list for second hand
 
#5
bagboy16 said:
I was just saying that the most I would pay is $120.
And we have already practiced we have a bunch of designs but we don't know what wood to use?
Or what the others stuff I need.
Click to expand...

Designing is fine, but have you attempted to at least make a model of what you want? All i'm saying is, don't get too far ahead of yourself here. Have you made a body template of the design you're going with? If you at least start with cheaper wood, that you can get a home depot or lowes (if you're in the US, that is)
you may have some mistakes to learn from before spending better money on better wood, it just sounds like you need to get your feet wet first, no?
 
#6
You don't give any indication as to your experience with woodworking and instrument assembly or repair. Given your age it cannot be very deep. That's cool. Everybody starts from somewhere and fifteen is a great age to get started.

This sounds like a perfect situation for purchasing a DIY kit. You can find a kit on eBay for sixty to a hundred fifty dollars that contains a body, neck, all the hardware and electronics to build the instrument. The only thing you'll have to buy are the finish materials. The experience you will gain in design, assembly, and finish will make it much easier to build one from scratch. You will also come to understand the kind of tolerances necessary for the neck pocket, tuner holes and pickup routs.

You can always sell the finished product and start a new one from scratch.
 
#7
My experience?
I have been working with wood an metal since about 7th Grade.
And I didn't start with wiring and other mechanical stuff.
Lol.
Lost my train of thought.
But I have some expirence with this kind of stuff.
I just need to know what to get to make a decent guitar.
The maxium ammount of total money i can spend is like probably up to...
$500-700
But I wasn't thinking that I would need to spend that much to make a bass guitar from scratch.
I also have my CAD teacher who also teaches the inventions class he knows alot and he is going to help me.
 
#8
bagboy16 said:
My experience?
I have been working with wood an metal since about 7th Grade.
And I didn't start with wiring and other mechanical stuff.
Lol.
Lost my train of thought.
But I have some expirence with this kind of stuff.
I just need to know what to get to make a decent guitar.
The maxium ammount of total money i can spend is like probably up to...
$500-700
But I wasn't thinking that I would need to spend that much to make a bass guitar from scratch.
I also have my CAD teacher who also teaches the inventions class he knows alot and he is going to help me.
Click to expand...

Ok,
Sounds like you've got it covered then.
In a nutshell (Not to be mistaken as *all* the wood you can use) :

Body
__________________
Alder
Ash
Maple
Mahogany
Walnut
Basswood



Fretboard
_______________________________
Rosewood (some species are no longer harvested)
Maple
Pau ferro (Has characteristics of rosewood)
Ebony
 
#9
Probably the most easiest woods to use would be Alder for the body and Maple for the neck. Warmoth sells bass body blanks...

My advice is if you're going to go through the trouble of building a bass, make it a good one. Don't skimp on anything. Get decent hardware and pickups.

Warmoth carries Gotoh GB7 Tuners for about $42 a set, and a Gotoh 401 bridge for $30. EMG pickups, which I'm assuming you'll go for since you're into *cough* punk rock are fairly cheap as quality pickups go. Warmoth also sells pickguard blanks, which I'm assuming you'll need. They also have all the screws, knobs, and shielding and stuff cheaper than everywhere else I've seen.

No I don't work for Warmoth.
 
#11
I would recommend it. I'm not saying you should or shouldn't do anything. It's your bass and eventually it'll come down to what you want.

Sounds like you need to do a little more research. Figure out what kind of sound you want and what kind of wood/pickups will help you achieve that sound.
 
#12
No I have done some research.
And me and my fellow band mates like the sound of the Seymore duncans.
So I may buy those.
And thanks for all the ideas on woods, tuners and other stuff.
I will put pictures of the finished guitar when its done.
In the next few months.


One more question.
I'm not saying its a good idea bucause its not.
But do you think it would be possilbe to put one seymore duncan in and then a emg. And install like a switch like off a guitar.
It probably is a horrible idea but i am just wondering if that would work.
 
#13
bagboy16 said:
I'm not saying its a good idea bucause its not.
But do you think it would be possilbe to put one seymore duncan in and then a emg. And install like a switch like off a guitar.
It probably is a horrible idea but i am just wondering if that would work.
Click to expand...

Actually it is a good idea. People who build basses do this all the time. You can use a switch, or you can just use two volume controls - one for each pickup - so you can adjust how much of each one you hear. You can also use a balance control - just like on a stereo - to adjust how much of each one you hear. The Seymour Duncan web site has wiring diagrams that show how to wire up each of these configurations.
 
#15
if you want decent parts for a relatively low cost you might try finding a bass that sounds good at a pawn shop, buy it, and canabalize it for parts. with this plan you have tuners, bridge, pick ups, wires, knobs, and you could prolly even get the nut and truss rod if you destroy the neck or save yourself the trouble and just use the neck for your project.
 

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