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Building a Double-neck Bass

Count Bassie

Count Bassie

Supporting Member
Jun 10, 2006
16,784
64,486
Smithfield, RI
#1
I'm no Luthier or guitar tech, but I do carpentry, and I play bass. I've also gotten into fretless and want to incorporate it into my actual musical life, so I've decided to build a fretless bass.
I'm looking to make it super light, use 2+2 headstocks, compact but still have a cool look to it- after all, if you're going to play rock n roll, there are rules for maintaining a level of shallowness... 🙂
So I'm just throwing this here, I'm only just getting a concept together. I've got some wood, and I'll be shopping for a better and fretless neck, preferably matching looks-wise.
My favorite ergos are along the lines of Thunderbirds and some of the more symmetrical shapes you see in Alembics and some of the 80s era Japanese models...
It's going to be a pretty simple instrument, not all about active electronics and switching schemes. Probably Ebony or similar for the fretless 'board. The same, or a similar color at least, for the fretted.
The fretted neck might even be a 32" scale, the fretless a 34" scale. Guys start working on drawings, and finding necks.
Anyway yeah, just leaving this for picking at, dismissal, advice... leads on where to find stuff would be checked out and much appreciated.
Thanks for reading!
 
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#3
Dirk Diggler said:
The biggest issue I've found with double necks is the weight and neck dive.

Pretty adventurous for a first build, but why not.
A combo of fretted and fretless makes great sense.

I used to laugh about the Spinal Tap movie where he uses a BC Rich double neck with both 4 string fretted necks. LOL
Click to expand...
I haven't watched it in a couple of years, but I'm pretty sure that double neck "Bitch" is 8 string top 4 string bottom... at least that's what most of the originals were.

Please correct me if I'm wrong...


galwq9g3peto0roeglrv.jpg

(Not the one from the movie)
 
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#4
Super light, ebony board and the Thunderbird shape are a recipe for neck dive. Pick two.
Actually it may be possible with spruce and carbon fiber necks, but that's not a first bass project.
 
#5
tubedude said:
Super light, ebony board and the Thunderbird shape are a recipe for neck dive. Pick two.
Actually it may be possible with spruce and carbon fiber necks, but that's not a first bass project.
Click to expand...
The Thunderbird is more reference than actual shape, but I like the absence of the upper horn.
On my Thunderbird the top strap button is behind the neck heel, and the lower strap button is at the back of the body inside the "belly curve", about parallel with the sweet spot p'up. This balances the bass, nixes neck dive, and pulls the bass' headstock a little closer to my center. Ergo stuff that suits me.
I'm not much of a traditionalist so there are considerations I'm willing to both dismiss/have a run at.
 
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#8
^^^^^^ What he said! Headless could eliminate most of the inherent balance problems at a stroke. If this is your first bass build, I salute your ambition, but would strongly suggest buying a couple pre-made bolt-on necks, either headless, or well suited to have the headstocks cut off. The body alone will be plenty challenging, and a good tool workout and exercise in making templates, fine router work, etc. If you've done some complex carpentry or furniture building, and experience working to .002" or so tolerances, by all means have at it. Of course, I'm a bit of a hypocrite, as I just dove-in to my first build, a neck-through Ric clone, with only a few furniture projects under my belt. Came out great, but it took me FOUR YEARS of occasional weekend and vacation time work, including lots of screw-ups and time consuming recovery, etc. I also spent months researching and then drawing EVERYTHING in Autocad before I ever touched a piece of wood. Some people can "wing-it" and come out Aces, but I'm not one of those people. If I can't visualize every stage of the build, it's probably not happening. Good luck! Curious to see what you come up with, fretted/fretless actually makes sense for a doubleneck.
 
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#9
You can save some work by buying two basses that you like, and then splicing their bodies together. Literally. Saw the lower wing off of one and the upper wing off of the other, and join them together, with some creative blending. Many people have built doublenecks like that.

And don't leave off the upper horn. That would be a big mistake. The forward strap button needs to be located about even with the 12th fret.
 
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#10
Bruce Johnson said:
And don't leave off the upper horn. That would be a big mistake. The forward strap button needs to be located about even with the 12th fret.
Click to expand...
Interesting about joining two basses.

The lack of an upper horn is not so meaningful if you move the lower strap button up to the back of the body, lateral to the sweet spot pickup. That actually works really well- for me anyway.
 
#11
Count Bassie said:
I'm no Luthier or guitar tech, but I do carpentry, and I play bass. I've also gotten into fretless and want to incorporate it into my actual musical life, so I've decided to build a fretless bass.
I'm looking to make it super light, use 2+2 headstocks, compact but still have a cool look to it- after all, if you're going to play rock n roll, there are rules for maintaining a level of shallowness... 🙂
So I'm just throwing this here, I'm only just getting a concept together. I've got some wood, and I'll be shopping for a better and fretless neck, preferably matching looks-wise.
My favorite ergos are along the lines of Thunderbirds and some of the more symmetrical shapes you see in Alembics and some of the 80s era Japanese models...
It's going to be a pretty simple instrument, not all about active electronics and switching schemes. Probably Ebony or similar for the fretless 'board. The same, or a similar color at least, for the fretted.
The fretted neck might even be a 32" scale, the fretless a 34" scale. Guys start working on drawings, and finding necks.
Anyway yeah, just leaving this for picking at, dismissal, advice... leads on where to find stuff would be checked out and much appreciated.
Thanks for reading!
Click to expand...
Good luck with all this. Post some pictures of how the build goes.
 
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#13
Mickey666 said:
I haven't watched it in a couple of years, but I'm pretty sure that double neck "Bitch" is 8 string top 4 string bottom... at least that's what most of the originals were.

Please correct me if I'm wrong...


View attachment 7291274
(Not the one from the movie)
Click to expand...
Man, I would LOVE one of those. Not really got any use for it, but I'd sure as hell find one! :drool:
 
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#17
Dirk Diggler said:
It's been a long time since I saw Tap.
@Mickey666 ah I never thought about tuners on the other end, I remembered seeing 4 tuners on each bass neck and thought it was part of the joke! Actually and 8 and 4 makes good sense too.
Click to expand...
They did the same thing with the 12/6 string... the guy from Zebra use to play one... always thought it seemed more logical than making the headstock twice as long, like everyone else.
 
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#18
Mickey666 said:
They did the same thing with the 12/6 string... the guy from Zebra use to play one... always thought it seemed more logical than making the headstock twice as long, like everyone else.
Click to expand...


Wow, Zebra. Haven’t thought about them for a while. Really liked those guys “in the day.”

I was going to mention that a lot of the guitar versions were 10 string but after a quick googling most of the double necks seem to have 6 body mounted tuners. I guess the 10 string option was more common on mono-necked instruments.
 
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#19
Count Bassie said:
I'm no Luthier or guitar tech, but I do carpentry, and I play bass. I've also gotten into fretless and want to incorporate it into my actual musical life, so I've decided to build a fretless bass.
I'm looking to make it super light, use 2+2 headstocks, compact but still have a cool look to it- after all, if you're going to play rock n roll, there are rules for maintaining a level of shallowness... 🙂
So I'm just throwing this here, I'm only just getting a concept together. I've got some wood, and I'll be shopping for a better and fretless neck, preferably matching looks-wise.
My favorite ergos are along the lines of Thunderbirds and some of the more symmetrical shapes you see in Alembics and some of the 80s era Japanese models...
It's going to be a pretty simple instrument, not all about active electronics and switching schemes. Probably Ebony or similar for the fretless 'board. The same, or a similar color at least, for the fretted.
The fretted neck might even be a 32" scale, the fretless a 34" scale. Guys start working on drawings, and finding necks.
Anyway yeah, just leaving this for picking at, dismissal, advice... leads on where to find stuff would be checked out and much appreciated.
Thanks for reading!
Click to expand...
Hey, I am also a bass-playing carpenter (turning teacher) currently on my first build! I'll be excited to see what you come up with! I am making a 35" 6 string out of tigerwood. Good luck!
 

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