Military Bass

[KisekaeVIM]

I've been working on this guitar and it's almost complete.

I still have some leftover hardwood and plywood so I'll make a bass next that will look like a gun or some kind of military thing.

The body will consist of many small parts. I've already made some.

Katsumi

 

[KisekaeVIM]

Always too busy with other things but I think most of the body parts are ready now.
I'll use plywood for most of the parts so that I don't have to worry about wood movement.
Also I'll use a lot of screws, minimum use of glue, to assemble the body.

And finally, I got this single most important part!

 

[KisekaeVIM]

This will be the leg rest. I was googling AR15's stock images.

 

[KisekaeVIM]

After some trial and error, I figured out how to assemble these parts into a solid piece. 40+ screws(!) will be involved and some screws must be tighten in a specific sequence. I need to write it down otherwise I can't remember.

 

[KisekaeVIM]

For the decals, I'll use my old ALPS printer that can print white color.
The printer's image quality is not the best but it works for this prototype guitar.
This Windows98 laptop is the only computer I have which has a parallel port.

 

[bobdabilder]

Are you going to glue up the body or just screw it together?

 

[charlie monroe]

This is really outside the box. Can't wait to see what that pile of cutoffs becomes.

 

[wraub]

While I can't yet say I love the design, the execution is fascinating...

 

[Five String]

I'm in

 

[Drifter8230]

It's nice and everything, but where do you put the bayonet??

J/K that is super cool and unique, great work!!

 

[KisekaeVIM]

>Are you going to glue up the body or just screw it together?

My 'current' plan is to use just screws. When I test assembled, the body seemed to be very solid but I can't tell for sure until everything is setup. If I see any weak parts, I may have to use the titebond.

>where do you put the bayonet??

Haha. Cool idea but you may kill the vocalist by accident.

I forgot to shoot fixative spray to the printed water slide decal.
As the result, the decal was too thin and it broke in the water dish.
Oh no, I had to apply each of the broken pieces separately...

Here was the original image file;

but here is the result. Of course the texts are not straight.

Ahhhh... okay.. this is.. this is just a prototype... yes..i'm okay..

BTW, if I want to call it a military bass, should I use M16 rather than AR15 in the decal text ??

 

[charlie monroe]

Believe it or not, I think fewer people would be triggered by M16 than AR15

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Haha. Cool idea but you may kill the vocalist by “accident.”

Fixed that for you.

 

[KisekaeVIM]

I made two pickup covers.

It's easy to slightly change the neck PU location by flipping the cover since the pu cavity space is big. ( of course the direct mount pu must be moved to the new location) Actually, a player can try different kind of pickups (p-bass, musicman, etc) without big modification to the body.

I was checking gun websites. I didn't know about the UID tags but they look cool so maybe I'll put a fake one on the leg rest mount base like this.

 

[KisekaeVIM]

Without the pickups, bridge and electronics, the assembled body is very light (it was almost same as my lightweight swampash Jazzbass body) and now I worry about the neck dive since there is no 'horn' in this body.

The pu cavity is too deep for the jazzbass pickup direct mount so I need to raise the floor.

For now I use MDF to gain some weight and Baltic Birch for secure screw tightening.
What else is heavier than MDF??

I painted the floor in red hoping the color will be visible around the pickups.

 

[KisekaeVIM]

Finally assembled all parts into an object that can be called as a bass.

Don't care the details for this prototype so I just used hardware found in my drawers.
(for example, the tuners supposed to be black and neck mount screws should be the same color, etc, etc.)

I think the neck dive is not terrible, should be manageable.
The screws-only-no-gule construction seems strong enough but I need to play more to confirm.
Since the nitro lacquer is very thin and there are many sharp edges in the body, this one "relic" too fast but I think that's a nice 'feature' as it makes the bass look cooler.

The leg rest and forearm wing's edges were too sharp so it's not comfortable to hold. I need to put more rounded radius to those edges.

Original plan was to use the Hipshot Kickass bridge but, my bad, by mistake I cut the body too short so I had to find a smaller bridge. (another stupid mistake was, i made the neck pu cavity smaller than the bridge pu cavity) The red side walls are just for cosmetic purpose, nothing functional.

I put a standard 34" neck for now but since I play classical music on bass, I will replace it with a short scale 24 fret neck.

A player can try different end part by simply paint it or print out and attach the paper image.

This bass is definitely for a player with Chuni Syndrome.

"Chuni Syndrome" Definition :
Doing something stupid like middle school boys do is called Chuni(8th grade) Syndrome in Japan.
(Also, in a good way, a person who still have the heart of a schoolboy.)

After this prototype, I now have some idea to improve the construction. I will make a guitar version next and implement the updates.

 

[Rôckhewer]

This is totally awesome.
I really like the subtle design elements inspired by weaponry... rather than a blatant "gun shaped bass"
Can't wait to see further iterations (if this is just a prototype). I dig it.
...
If it were me, I'd be tempted to do something silly like put an ammo magazine somewhere...... make different"clips" that were actually outboard effects units... or... interchangeable pickups/electronics
...but maybe that also fits this definition

"Chuni Syndrome" Definition :
Doing something stupid like middle school boys

 

[Matt Liebenau]

I wasn’t too sure at first but this is pretty unique and I like it. Well done, especially for a prototype. Like Rockhewer said, it’s not “Hey! This is a rifle shaped bass!!!” Its more subtle or inferred. Keep us posted on further work.

 

[abarson]

Believe it or not, I think fewer people would be triggered by M16 than AR15

I see what you did there...

 

[KisekaeVIM]

Let me upload few more pics before disassembling the proto to try some experimental idea.
(BTW, I love this D extension neck!)

Besides messing the first prototype, I am making a new bass and a guitar at the same time. The main goal this time is to define the production specs and streamline the building steps. Making this guitar is 20 times harder than making a telecaster so I need to find how to simplify the process. Also, I want to confirm I can save time if I make two or more guitars at the same time.

I'll use an alder wood for the center core.

To save time, I used dado blade to "cut" the pickup cavity. The cavity floor is not clean but I don't care as it won't be visible. I know if I spend 10 more minutes, I can make this part flat but I refuse to do it. Making even the invisible parts nice and clean may be the good old Japanese way, but it's not the 'military design' way. It's the philosophy of this project.