Or will I butcher it? Stay tuned.
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Will this project cut it?
- Thread starter Markshan
- Start date
Butcher block Bass. It’s been done before. I’d suggest running dowels through all the laminations before glue up to keep them all registered. Maybe alternate the grain each lamination to keep it more stable, like plywood.
I wasn't planning on looking for a new project yet but this one kind of found me. It started with getting an email from Eden. That neck that is usually $90 was on clearance for 50. It's unusual to see 32-in scale necks at all, never mind so inexpensive. So I bought it thinking that at some point a use for it would come up.
Couple of days later I got a Black Friday email from Amazon and one of the products they had chosen for me was this "cutting board kit" five pieces each of maple, cherry, and Walnut. Supposedly all surfaced and ready to go. The product had almost universal good reviews and it was on sale for $40.
I hadn't thought about this kind of build but as a kid my family and I would always go to the arts festivals at Penn State. My dad like to work at leather and would look at all of that stuff but I was always fascinated by The woodworking. Especially the people who worked in different color boards. I remember having little wooden toy cars where the body was two or three different types of wood laminated together and the wheels were another wood. I always loved the look. I have no idea how this will function acoustically, but it's an inexpensive experiment and if it's truly terrible I can still use the neck on a different body. Should be fun.
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I truly don’t think the body material makes any audible difference on an electric bass unless it’s a hollow body. Fender sometimes made painted bodies out of up to 5 pieces of wood, including lots of the high dollar “vintage” models people pay insane prices for. Until I see a convincing true blind test to demonstrate otherwise, I ‘ll keep making bodies based on weight, rigidity, and aesthetics. It will sound fine, largely depending on pickups, strings, and electronics. Can’t say about the weight though, might be body heavy depending on the shape, but that’s always better than neck heavy.
I’ve made bodies out of multiple pieces of the same wood and different woods. They all sound good. Don’t sweat it.
My current favorite bass is a butcher block bass. Eight pieces of walnut. For some reason it sounds so good!
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- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,620
- 222,155
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
My guitarist friend made a butcher-block (from an actual butcher block!) maple body/lined fretless that I helped with and did the "creature of the black lagoon" finish. Parts from a G&L Tribute L2000. Sounded great, but weighed over 13lbs. It hurt your leg playing seated.
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Are you going to put a tinted finish on it, or just cleave it natural?
- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,620
- 222,155
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
Natural or close to it. I was thinking I might try Tru Oil on this one. No stain. I've heard a lot of good things about the product and think these particular woods may benefit from the bit of amber I understand it leaves. But I'm open to other suggestions.
That's good. You won't have to go chopping for a tint you like.
I love the pickup placement on that. I'm planning similar though probably not quite as extreme on this. I also really dig the no knobs. I'm thinking along those lines as well. I got a great deal on a pair of (looking at the picture anyway, they haven't arrived yet) really clean Seymour Duncan four wire soapbar humbuckers. I was contemplating perhaps a switch for single coil/humbucker on each and a LP style selector switch or maybe even just two switches with off/single/dual for each pickup.
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Plus the color variety is built in. Did you see the body on my Tele build? That one has lots of different tones going on.
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