My first bass build at American School of Lutherie

Charles Fox is the instructor, and Paul "Pablo" Bristow is also there in class to assist.

The bass is going to be pretty simple... mahogany body, maple neck, ebony fingerboard. 4 string, with my own handwound sidewinders, wired up to 2 volumes and one tone.

Neck will have the standard Fender Jazz Bass neck dimensions, for the most part, but I'll likely give it the Geddy Lee bass treatment when it comes to thickness.

DAY 1:

Sketching out the body...

 

DAY 2:

Body's all figured out and rough cut.

Then some initial shaping being done, and cavities routed and shielded.

 

DAY 3:

Neck day!

 

DAY 4:

Neck day part 2

Today we cut out the headstock, started shaping the transition from neck to headstock, and also routed the neck pocket.

 

It sure makes for less work! Gives you a great starting point for a D or C shape.

 

That initial shape was done with a 3/4" radius router bit on a table router.

 

Charles is the jig master!

He's got SO many jigs. Probably has a jig to make his coffee in the morning.

 

Thanks!

The neck pocket will be trimmed down soon... it was left long like that so that a registration pin could be inserted at the end for use in the neck pocket jig.

 

DAY 5:

Installing the frets and joining neck to body...

 

DAY 6

Hardware day... and nut installation day.


Didn't get much in the way of pictures today, as I was really busy dealing with some issues. The fretboard lifted up in a small spot, so I had to address that. The nut slot wasn't flat. Had a couple frets that needed to be ripped out and new ones reinstalled, leveled, dressed, and polished.

Anyways, got the strings put on and the nut almost fully done. Will be installing the electronics tomorrow, and wrapping everything up.