Dread Bass

Back to the yew bass. I built this one to prototype a few ideas. One of which is making a set neck. This is the current state of play. Pickup routs are done, as is the control cavity. I’ve got the tummy and forearm carves done. Neck is getting there too. Neck is a 3 piece London plane and sycamore. as you can see body is attached to neck and I’ve started the heel but a way to go there yet.

Probably time for a very overdue update. both the guitar and one of the basses have left to go to their new homes. yew bass is starting to come together. I will do another post about that in this thread.

Thanks White Cloud. I am really digging the yew and would like to use more I think. some progress today as got the headstock glued up. It’s clamped at the minute. Hit a snag with the sycamore for one of the necks. I got it planed to thickness and there is some colour change. The board was very dry but there was some rot in one corner which is where I think this came from. As this build is for someone else I have decided not to use it. I think I will cut it up and see if I can get a couple of fingerboards out of it. Any thoughts?

Sorry I missed your reply. I haven’t had any issues with routing or cutting. It’s a pain to plane but I put that down to being pippy. Obviously you have to be careful with the dust so that’s a factor. One thing I did notice is that it twisted quite quickly when I removed a section for the headstock cap. I left it too long though so lesson learned really. getting back to it after Xmas. Got the chamfer done on the yew bass. I took a bit extra off with the router around the forearm cut. I couldn’t resist spraying th bodies with some white spirit and the yew looks great. As does the ash. Also got the scarf joint cut on one neck and the headstock thicknessed but not squared quite yet. Thinking of making a sanding jig. Hi I got the black veneer ordered for the buckeye build so that’s going to start rolling soon.

Thanks for that. I’m happy with how they are going. It’s a bit single cut heavy so not for everyone 😂

Not much progress this week and discovered a problem. Got the chamfer on the guitar and got the top on the yew top sanded a bit. I had not finished routing the chamfer on the bottom horn in the picture. That’s now sorted. I’ve miscalculated the thickness of the yew bass body and it’s too thick so I’m going to have to use a router sled to cut it down a bit. Easy enough recovery but a just shows you how easy it is to make a mistake.

This is where we are up to so far. All three bodies are jointed and glued as are the two tops. I’ve got the body cut out and routed for the yew bass and the ash guitar. Tidied up a couple of issues with my spindle sander. Bit of a hold up on the buckeye build as I am struggling to find black veneer for between the body and the top. Can anyone point me on the right direction?

I’ve started my next round of builds with two matching five string basses and my first guitar build. I wanted to build two basses to test out different things on one build before doing it on the second as that’s my first instrument for someone else. For those of you who follow me on Instagram I have been posting about it for a while so sorry for duplication. I’ve sorted the woods and basic spec. I have tried to use plenty of domestic woods: build 1 - test bass pippy yew top sycamore body sycamore neck english maple f/board 34” 5 string Taran Singlecut 5 shape hardware tbc build 2 - Dans bass buckeye Burl top black limba body maple and Wenge neck bog oak fingerboard 34” 5 string Taran Singlecut 5 shape jazz bass pickups rest of hardware tbc bonus round - 7 string guitar ash body name of shape to be decided london plane neck rosewood board humbuckers

Well I got the build finished with 30 minutes to spare. I will film the next video this week with a summary but here are a few pictures. Still needs a bit of a set up but getting there. in this build I used blue fret lines which I’m hoping you can see in my bad photos. I’m sure other people have used coloured fretlines but I can’t find any examples. Can anyone point me to some?

Made some progress last night on the kit build. Got to finish it tonight. Just got the wiring left I think. Submission date for Great Guitar build off is today so we are up to the wire!

This is excellent! I want to experiment with a shorter scale at some point. doing the LEDs is a fiddle but yours have come out cracking.

Ive just released Vlog number 4 if anyone is up for giving it a watch. Ive added LEDs to the neck which i am pretty happy with. you can check it out on my Facebook or instagram or on youtube here

Yours came out cracking. I love a natural Ash body and i was tempted to go a similar route but i am really enjoying using natural paints at the minute. Thanks Acebassmusic glad you enjoyed it. Kits are great as you can go as simple or complex as you like. That said i much prefer building everything from scratch.

I think these have been sold under various names. I didn’t get mine from Pitbull but it is clearly the same kit. I got it here: https://kitbuiltguitars.co.uk/guitar-kits/diy-5-string-bass-left-hand-sr-style-build-your-own-bass-guitar-kit/ Either way it’s pretty good overall. I’ve never done a kit before so I’ve enjoyed the challenge :). Have you built your kit?

Thanks wwcringe I am enjoying it and I think it’s worthwhile doing. I’m interested in any feedback anyone has to the short update videos I am doing opposed to longer how to style. My logic is there is already a lot of that online and these are bite sized pieces. I am also still learning so I don’t want to show people how to do things wrong as there is a lot of that as well. I am very fortunate that my friend is a videographer who has been helping me hence the quality of the camera. closing date for the competition is 17th October so lots to do!

Sorry for the lack of updates. Been doing the work and life juggling we are all struggling with. Got two major three major updates. I entered the great guitar build off. I’m building a bass kit based on an Ibanez. I’m having lots of fun with that. secondly I’ve started work on my next bass. This one is going to be my original shape and it’s a prototype. My other builds have been fender derivatives this is more modern. Wood wise I’m going with Utile mahogany body, wenge and maple neck and a bubinga fingerboard. Rest of the specs will develop as we go. finally I’ve started a Vlog. I’ve never done anything like this before and it’s very exposing but I think I’m getting better at it. If anyone is interested it’s here: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCT30Cg51-2R2XtdS5phW4UQ/featured

I forgot to mention the left handed thing. I am building a right handed one soon. That’s going to hurt my head!

Over the last year or so I have been learning how to build basses and guitars. I am three builds in and I am having a blast but I still a lot to learn. I have always liked messing with basses and when I was younger I did get about halfway through building a crude Ritter copy before I lost the place I was working and lost interest. Last year I decided I wanted to give building bases another go so started by doing a week corse with Jon Shuker which was definitely a step learning curve. It was almost as if whenever Jon said "be careful not to do X" I would immediately do X. That said I did manage to walk away with a completed bass at the end of the week. I also walked away with confirmation that I love building and I was more determined than ever. Prior to Covid I joined a community workshop and When Covid hit the workshop closed and I have been working in my utility room. I have been grabbing any opportunity I can to work on some builds and I recently finished builds 2 and 3, a P bass and a J bass. The aim going into the builds was to produce something that was at least playable. I am pleased to say I have exceeded my own expectations and both basses came out really well. Each build has errors and mistakes but I am very proud of them. I remember reading an interview with Alan from ACG and someone asked how he got into building and he said that he built a guitar then when he was finished he felt he could do better so made another one. I find myself in the same place. Ive been looking for a way to chronicle my journey, I have started a Facebook page and was considering starting a blog then I thought about Basschat. I've not posted for a while but I have been around since the Bassworld days. My favourite part of the site has always been the Build diaries section (outside the for sale section :D). I love to watch the progress people make and felt it was a good way to go. So without further ado here is some pictures of my builds so far. First is the natural ash J bass which I built with Jon. It has Seymour Duncan pickups Gotoh and Schaller hardware . Then we have a Salmon pink P bass. The inspiration for this was the Pino signature but also the whole story and mythology of salmon pink. The interesting thing about it is that I used natural paints and oils to make the finish. Its a textured finish and I think it came to great, looking at eco friendly ways of working is important to me. The hardware and pickup on this came from a Westfield P bass, this bass was supposed to be a place to practice techniques before doing them on the J bill but it took on life of its own. Finally we have a blue j bass: Seymour duncan pickups, badass bridge and i did a fade on the neck with stain. I call the finish broken blue biro as it reminded me of the many times i ended covered in ink during my school years. Going forward I have designed my own shape and spec and I am working on getting a prototype together and there will be more on that soon. Thanks for reading.

I’m off to band practice but looking forward to going through each of your replies! Cheers for the help guys

Sounds like sound advice Jaywalker. I think you are spot on with the conceptual understanding and will be sure to push that thanks.