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Navy Aircraft Carrier Bass

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#21
lz4005 said:
That's what I was thinking. A Carvin 6 string fretless neck through is perfect for this.

Using a 4 string neck is completely the wrong proportion.
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Thanks, I'll check out the Carvins. I looked at Warmoth yesterday which we could use with a bolt on body blank if we wanted to go that route.

I know what you are saying about proportions, but cost is going to be an issue unless we do better on sponsorships than we have in the past. Five and six string adds cost for all the other components too - more tuners, bigger bridge and pickups, more strings, etc.

I'm not opposed to doing something new, but to-date we have not modified guitar shapes when we introduce the themes. At the other extreme, there is a guy who has made guitars that look like Star Wars ships. They are like models of the ships with necks. Those are very cool, but look like they are almost impossible to play comfortably.

Since we are not pro builders and are building for donation to charities we have to be careful about overspending and about biting off more than we can chew technically.

I really appreciate the input from everyone though. This design, like all of our past projects, will probably continue to evolve until its almost done.

A couple pics of our past projects and the NASA guitar which we will finish in a few weeks are pasted below.

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#24
Rip Topaz said:
If you got a neck through blank from Carvin, you could easily add "wings" to the headstock, and as long as you were careful not to induce neck dive, it could end up being a really cool piece.

I've been watching this one closely on Facebook, because as a child my parents took us kids to tour an aircraft carrier. I've always had a certain sense of wonder over big ships and planes. Watching this build has been really entertaining.
Click to expand...

Thanks again Rip. I looked up the Carvin necks today. Looks interesting. For wing stock would it make sense to just take a body blank and cut it in half?

I'd like to do a 5 instead of a 4 or 6 but the inlays would be a lot more complicated since one string would be in the middle.
 
#25
Too Cool!

I played on the Ships Band on the USS England (CG-22 '85-'86) and the USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63 '87-'88). At the time I had an unfinished Project Gibson RD Std that was given back to me in Gray Primer. I painted the Battle "E" on her, and played her in every port they would let us! It was my Navy Bass! Unfortunately I don't have a picture of her painted like that...This post made me remember those Wonderful Years!
 
#26
Doner Designs said:
Thanks again Rip. I looked up the Carvin necks today. Looks interesting. For wing stock would it make sense to just take a body blank and cut it in half?

I'd like to do a 5 instead of a 4 or 6 but the inlays would be a lot more complicated since one string would be in the middle.
Click to expand...

I bought a Carvin fretless 6-string neck through blank on eBay. I'd considered slicing up a prefabricated body, but you'd still be locked into the original pickup locations since they extend beyond the center of the body that you'd remove. If you're OK with having two of the three pickup locations chosen for you, then it should work.

If you're going the Carvin neck through blank route, please PM me and we can talk...
 
#27
I think it is great that the instruments go to non-profit but I do not think music instruments go well with war machines, and it especially disturbing to me to see war machines glorified in this way. I know it's part of our culture, Americana if you will, but I think it sends the wrong message about the reality of war.

I will put on my flame-suit and before you cast me into oblivion, know that my wife works at the VA hospital taking care of wounded, scarred and sometimes heart-broken veterans.
 
#28
Man that Air Force bass gets me everytime I see it, pure awesome.

Your NASA guitar needs some SSRMS detail. That's the robotic arm that every single astronaut uses on the space station, and there was a similar one on the shuttle. The control panel is pure retro goodness.

Z67.jpg

crew-command-panel-in-the-coupola.png
 
#29
bkbirge said:
Man that Air Force bass gets me everytime I see it, pure awesome.

Your NASA guitar needs some SSRMS detail. That's the robotic arm that every single astronaut uses on the space station, and there was a similar one on the shuttle. The control panel is pure retro goodness.

Z67.jpg

crew-command-panel-in-the-coupola.png
Click to expand...

Thanks, and that's a cool idea though I'm not sure how we would do it.
 
#30
BillyB_from_LZ said:
I bought a Carvin fretless 6-string neck through blank on eBay. I'd considered slicing up a prefabricated body, but you'd still be locked into the original pickup locations since they extend beyond the center of the body that you'd remove. If you're OK with having two of the three pickup locations chosen for you, then it should work.

If you're going the Carvin neck through blank route, please PM me and we can talk...
Click to expand...

Thanks for the offer! I was referring to taking an unrouted blank just to get a nice hunk of wood that is the right size and has a good edge on it.

I think the path we take will depend a lot on how we do on cash fundraising and on which vendors will donate or work with us on parts pricing. We can't afford to bankroll the whole thing, especially if its a 6-er.
 
#31
joeyl said:
I think it is great that the instruments go to non-profit but I do not think music instruments go well with war machines, and it especially disturbing to me to see war machines glorified in this way. I know it's part of our culture, Americana if you will, but I think it sends the wrong message about the reality of war.

I will put on my flame-suit and before you cast me into oblivion, know that my wife works at the VA hospital taking care of wounded, scarred and sometimes heart-broken veterans.
Click to expand...

At the risk of getting flamed myself, I will tell you that I have some of those same feelings and that my attitude during high school, about the prospect of being drafted, was not very patriotic.

Using military themes was not our idea. If you take a look at the "about us" section of our website or the news coverage page you will see that the inspiration for our work came from a young cancer patient who found inspiration to fight her disease in military themes. The American Cancer Society uses the line "Fight Back" as well.

I have my doubts as to whether I could muster the energy/desire to fight either on a battlefield or in a hospital room, but I have no problem trying to encourage others to do so if it helps them.

So I thought you might like to know we are not trying to glorify war at all. We are trying to encourage kids to fight the good fight when they feel like giving up. That's one of several reasons why our favorite charity is the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
 
#32
Doner Designs said:
Thanks again Rip. I looked up the Carvin necks today. Looks interesting. For wing stock would it make sense to just take a body blank and cut it in half?

I'd like to do a 5 instead of a 4 or 6 but the inlays would be a lot more complicated since one string would be in the middle.
Click to expand...

That's one way to do it, though it would be a LOT cheaper to just go to the lumberyard and pick a nice slab for the body wings.
 
#33
MaddAnthony_59 said:
Too Cool!

I played on the Ships Band on the USS England (CG-22 '85-'86) and the USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63 '87-'88). At the time I had an unfinished Project Gibson RD Std that was given back to me in Gray Primer. I painted the Battle "E" on her, and played her in every port they would let us! It was my Navy Bass! Unfortunately I don't have a picture of her painted like that...This post made me remember those Wonderful Years!
Click to expand...

Cool! I was never in the military so had to look up what the E actually is. Maybe we will use that somewhere on the ship. Thanks.
 
#35
dje31 said:
Personally, I'd start with a cheap Steinberger clone, like a Hohner or Cort, preferably fretless, and go from there...
Click to expand...

Good thought but the body is too small to do runway and graphics assuming you are talking about a paddle bass. Anything headless would help with the proportions though.

We might go with a paddle headstock and do something a little like Michael Anthony's Jack Daniels bass. Wings could probably come further forward though.
 
#36
Doner Designs said:
So I thought you might like to know we are not trying to glorify war at all. We are trying to encourage kids to fight the good fight when they feel like giving up. That's one of several reasons why our favorite charity is the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Click to expand...

Thank you for your explanation, it makes sense to me now, you did not have to explain yourself, but I appreciate that you did!
:)
 
#38
Caca de Kick said:
If it's not even gonna be played, then why not use something very inexpensive like a Galveston or something like it from ebay. Probably be in it $150-200 bucks
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We hope that it will be played and this is one reason we normally try to stick with classic comfortable shapes. Its being donated to JDRF but they will auction it to raise funds.

Its possible the buyer will display it as art, but we are including a complete set of accessories on the assumption it will be played - amp, cables, Hal Leonard book, etc.

Either way, philosophically (in our mind) it has to be a good instrument first. The theme is very important but secondary.
 
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