WBO 2022 - Luna's Last Opus

[SpaceJockey]

After years of lurking here in the luthier's corner, I'm finally ready to start my own build thread!

This bass will be built as a tribute to my dog Luna. She loved music, often howling along when my band got together for practice at my place.

Planning to do a singlecut five string, semi hollow. All the wood is gathered.

Here are some specs:
5 string
34-36" multi-scale
Body: Purpleheart
Top: Claro Walnut
Neck: TBD
Fretboard: Pale Moon Ebony
Tuners/Bridge: Nova Guitar Parts headless system
Pickups: custom split coil set from Brough Guitar Engineering
Controls: Passive, 2 VOL 1 TONE

Here is the most current design:

And the wood/pile of parts:

 

[Matt Liebenau]

That walnut looks great. For whatever my opinion is worth, I think it should be left as is or a minimal tint.

 

[SpaceJockey]

That walnut looks great. For whatever my opinion is worth, I think it should be left as is or a minimal tint.

Thanks, I picked it up at from a place called Woods of the West.
I am thinking exactly that, doing something that will let the wood grain come through still. I watched this video on YouTube for some inspiration:


Admittedly, I'm a long ways away from needing to think about what color I'll make it right now

 

[turindev]

First of all - Heck yeah! You won't regret it. Its not easy by any means, but its soooo worth it.
Second of all - really nice work you have already put into it. If you put that much time and attention to detail in the rest of the process, you will like the results. I really cant wait to see how it ends, thanks for sharing your journey with us!

Edit: Also I really dig that body design & headstock!

 

[SpaceJockey]

First of all - Heck yeah! You won't regret it. Its not easy by any means, but its soooo worth it.
Second of all - really nice work you have already put into it. If you put that much time and attention to detail in the rest of the process, you will like the results. I really cant wait to see how it ends, thanks for sharing your journey with us!

Edit: Also I really dig that body design & headstock!

I appreciate the encouragement!
Full disclosure, I have a friend who happens to be a luthier. Initially the plan was to have him build it but instead I will work under his guidance using his tools. So I've got a pretty big advantage there.

 

[SpaceJockey]

Due to some cash flow interruptions I had to put this build on hold. Things are finally looking up again so I splurged on a chunk of Pale Moon Ebony for the fingerboard:

This piece is just wide enough for my specs. It may end up bound in ebony if we can't make it work. And I'll have plenty left over for future projects.

 

[SpaceJockey]

Small update:
Sliced up that chunk of Pale Moon Ebony

This board wasn't cheap so I'm happy to report I managed to get 4 fingerboards out of it.

Also, after a lot of thinking I've decided to go multi-scale with this build. I'm still torn on what scale lengths to select though.

 

[Flamingo21]

That'll be one great looking fingerboard!

And I like your body design. The f-hole has an ominous look about it.

 

[SpaceJockey]

That'll be one great looking fingerboard!

And I like your body design. The f-hole has an ominous look about it.

Thanks! The f-hole was probably the part I struggled with most, aside from the headstock. I'm still not happy with this one, mostly because it came out too much like Fodera's headstock

 

[RichterScale]

I've come to the conclusion that no matter how you design a headstock, it will end up resembling something.
The only way to come up with something completely original is to go totally wild and outside all the boxes. That doesn't always work out aesthetically.

 

[Flamingo21]

@RichterScale Then I'm curious to learn what you'll think of my headstock, once I get around to that.

 

[RichterScale]

At the end of the day, as long as it has a good personality...

 

[Beej]

Attractive headstocks are easy. Just ask Gibson.

 

[Flamingo21]

??? What instrument is that?

 

[Beej]

It appears to be some sort of hybrid acoustic guitar/bass thingy.

I bet they were like "we can't pervert the classic Gibson open book headstock shape with 7 strings! What should we do? I know, we'll make it so far away from our usual that no one will notice anything weird about it".

 

[RichterScale]

um,....that's real?

 

[SpaceJockey]

Attractive headstocks are easy. Just ask Gibson.
View attachment 4446932

View attachment 4446933

Wow...that may be the ugliest headstock I've ever seen

 

[SpaceJockey]

After many weeks (months, actually) of deliberation, I've decided to forgo a headstock entirely. This will be a headless bass.

The deciding factor was finally discovering a reasonably priced headless bridge set. After seeing a few users here post about the quality, I decided to order a set from Nova Guitar Part, which is run buy Andre Passini. He is a forum member here, as it turns out. @Passini

They won't be in my hands for a few weeks, as I requested a custom color.. But I am anxiously awaiting their arrival.

I've also decided to enter this build in the Winter build off.

With that in mind, some design changes are in order. The body shape has been refined, I wanted to keep a similar silhouette but spice it up a bit. I also changed the f-hole shape to something more modern.
I'll have pics to post later today.

 

[SpaceJockey]

Pictured here is the Nova headless bridge and individual string anchors for the headpiece.




I requested gold

Since the theme for the build-off is Renewal/Rebirth, I want to incorporate something to memorialize my dog who passed back in July.

Her name was Luna and she was a German Shepherd-Akita hybrid.

Currently, the plan is to create some sort of metal cover for the headstock end of the neck. And I will engrave it. I'm not to sure what that engraving eill look like just yet but I want to be ornate.

 

[Beej]

Oh yeah.... I totally forgot that Christian Von Koenigsegg was Gold Dust.