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Good Kit Bass

G

GreenApollo

Nov 21, 2010
35
0
Central Florida
#1
Hi all,
I am wanting to get into building Basses from scratch but for starters I think a Bass Kit would be a good stepping stone. If anyone has had good experiences with a kit please let me know.

FYI: I have access to a friends garage with excellent tools including a functional CNC machine for machining 3d computer models. Not sure if that helps.

Thanks in advance!
 
#6
You might end up with a better end product (or at least closer to what you are looking for in a bass) if you go the Warmoth/USACG/AllParts route for the bodies and necks and a parts resource like WD Music or GuitarPartsResource to assemble a parts bass. AS far as I have heard, the Saga kits are not very high quality. I have no experience with the Carvin kits, but they have a great reputation as a company.
 
#8
bal704 said:
Warmoth makes great parts. But the Carvin is an actual kit, with absolutely everything you need to the last screw.
Click to expand...
:bassist:

+ 1 :cool:

Carvin kit basses are awesome. My first bass and the one I am playing right now as I check out talkbass is a carvin kit with alder body and rosewood fretboard. This is also the same bass used by the dude in Sublime so that gives you an idea of what a fast playing, punchy and toneful instrument this is.

That last screw in the kit is just the first one for a bassist rocking a carvin! giggity giggity. The next one will be from the cute girl with all the badass tattoos who wants to screw you because your bass sounds and looks SIIIIICK! That's what happened to me, I highly recommend it.
 
#11
I read some questionable experiences with the GF kits on another forum. However, all of the issues all pertained to the set neck joint and binding on the LPs. And I`ve read the gamut on the Saga kits. Please post if you buy something.
 
#12
bal704 said:
Carvin makes great kits. I've built a few, and they are very easy to put together.
Click to expand...

+1 I built this B5 fretless. It currently has a fretted neck on it that I bought from Carvin later on.

carvin01.png
 
#16
I currently own a saga strat kit - to be blunt I've heard they can be a bit of a gamble, my experience with them has been little other than good. It has required minimal fretwork, and setup, and the only bad part was the switch, though I've heard that the pots also had a tendency to crap out, the tuners are also subject to variable quality - though mine were good. if you wanted to go cheap, I'd recommend a GF one, and get some upgrade parts while you're at it - pickups, tuners, bridge, pots. If you wanted something really nice and have money to spare I'd have to recommend Warmoth, WD, or Carvin - they all supply parts with excellent quality, but at a much different pricepoint.
 
#18
I'm extremely new here, and I would like to know something.

If I buy an electric guitar kit, can I convert it to bass?
I want to buy the Saga Flying V kit, but they don't have it for bass.
Will I be able to convert it by just switching necks?
 
#19
EpiV1988 said:
I'm extremely new here, and I would like to know something.

If I buy an electric guitar kit, can I convert it to bass?
I want to buy the Saga Flying V kit, but they don't have it for bass.
Will I be able to convert it by just switching necks?
Click to expand...

No, it would be way more work than it's worth,and more than likely a small guitar body with a fullsize bass neck would have some bad neck dive.
 
#20
So, it wouldn't work? That puts quite a damper on my summer.
I was going to make the neck and assemble the body with him.
So, if i had the dimensions of it, could I work from there?
Or would they need to be enlarged?
 

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