My engineering class Bass guitar

[gman5552]

Hey guys, I have been lurking on TalkBass for a few months now but this is my first post. Please tell me if im not in the correct forum. Heres a few pictures of a bass I made in my highschool class. Its an ash body with an Ibenez neck. A weird neck for a fender style body but its what I could get my hands on for cheap. I was able to retain scale length and the intonation is ok. Pickups are robed from the same bass as the neck, Alpha pots courtesy of my neighbor. Any questions please ask as im looking for feed back on my first bass.

The pick guard is acrylic, a normal pickguard wouldn't work because I milled the pocket wrong so I laser engraved a custom one to fit.

 

[Mustang Surly]

Welcome.

Great HS project. We built table lamps and magazine racks in my day.

Yeah, I know: "what's a magazine?"

One thing that hasn't changed much (that I see in your first PIC): Delta 14" band saw. A true classic design upon which many import models have been based.

If it was my bass, I'd adjust the pickguard outline a bit to trim it away from the body edges a little, but that's pretty minor. Nice effort, over-all!

Update us when you get some finish on her.

 

[Jeff Scott]

You have a very nice woodshop in school, nothing like what I had back in the late '60s/early '70s.

But, why did you not come up with your own body design. There's already 300 billion (at least) P style basses polluting the universe.

 

[Ross W. Lovell]

I like it!!!

Maybe, I'd bevel the edges on the pickguard, but works for me.

 

[gman5552]

You have a very nice woodshop in school, nothing like what I had back in the late '60s/early '70s.

But, why did you not come up with your own body design. There's already 300 billion (at least) P style basses polluting the universe.

Thank you for the feed back, I wanted to create a custom body style but this being my first large scale project I wanted something a little easer to build, The next one for sure will be something new

 

[el jeffe bass]

Rock that bass with extreme pride and NEVER be tempted to part with it.

 

[Funkinthetrunk]

That's awesome. I made a key holder in shop that was so awful, it became a paper weight. A big, ugly paper weight.

 

[ardgedee]

The pickups are not aligned properly under the strings, so you might want to fix that.

That's the only genuine problem I see. Your next step is to strip the "Ibanez" from the headstock and put your own name up there!

 

[gman5552]

The pickups are not aligned properly under the strings, so you might want to fix that.

That's the only genuine problem I see. Your next step is to strip the "Ibanez" from the headstock and put your own name up there!

Ya I noticed that when I strung it up, will that help the sound quality if I correctly that? It plays well I But Im thinking about cuting a new one out when I get back in school to fix that.

 

[Cutter8]

First try? Well, you did a damn good job and should be proud of the results!

 

[Frampton]

That's really nice work. Congratulations!

 

[Mustang Surly]

"The pickups are not aligned properly under the strings, so you might want to fix that."

"...will that help the sound quality if I correct that?"

Yes. Try to center each string between 2 pole pieces. This should make it easier to get more even, string-to-string response.

 

[edencab]

I like the open clear PG to see the wiring, pots, very cool ....I agree with comments above to nudge those pickups a bit left

 

[Savagehenry]

Really cool project. I love the part where you seemed worried about the result of your pickplate, "...I sorta' screwed it up, so I just made it more awesome looking..."

 

[pacojas]

gee,.. very nice! i made a paper towel holder in high school. i got a D because it was too short

 

[popcat]

Engineering class? Looks more like woodshop to me. You're not a real engineer until you're missing a finger, the tip of your nose, or what little hair you have left is standing straight up on end.

Look like you have some room to move those pickups to the left a bit.

 

[Jeff Scott]

I didn't take any shop classes in high school, only in junior high. I recall making a craftsman style wall lamp, and an aluminum model of the Star Trek TOS shuttle.

 

[gman5552]

Engineering class? Looks more like woodshop to me. You're not a real engineer until you're missing a finger, the tip of your nose, or what little hair you have left is standing straight up on end.

Look like you have some room to move those pickups to the left a bit.

The class is not really ment for wood shop, I was just lucky with my teacher being really into wood working.

 

[popcat]

I made a wooden bowl and a skateboard, then I discovered electricity. Keep on plugging away.

 

[Doctor Intrepid]

I tried to make a bass in HS. It was in no way as good as your's! Good job!