Angel

Holes drilled for J-retro And routing done. I had to make two templates for this, one for the cavity and one for the cover. The wood is pretty thin to allow the micro switches to pass through. Not ideal!

Neck pocket template sorted ... and routed. It will probably end up deeper but I don't want to remove too much wood before the neck is sorted.

here I am reducing the wood depth with a Forstner bit. The body is too thick for my dad's bandsaw, and it doesn't have the best blade, so I have to help it a bit Then I flattened both sides and got to the desired depth. Body shape sorted with template. Half done here.

Incidentally, I'm not working at breakneck speed, I'm just getting up to speed with where I am at. I started designing around Xmas I guess, working out and researching everything, drawing plans etc. When lockdown started I got around to sourcing the various bits and pieces, and it has been ongoing since then. I have been working still the whole time, so just odd evenings etc. I made an alu template for the tuner holes. This is the only way to go as far as I am concerned. I used to drill without a template and the result is never good enough, then it's a major faff to fix. It's a 5 string but I only need the 4 holes aligning. I just drilled the other hole in the right place without a template. Worked fine. Reducing headstock depth with the router

Sure. PM me an email address at some point and I'll bung it over.

rough cut neck, template and fretboard. Some weird foreshortening going on here, they are all wider at the dusty end! Sorting neck outline with the router/template Glueing body blanks together.

I couldn't find inlays that I wanted online, so I am making my own.

Reducing fretboard depth Routing trussrod hole Note the astounding quality of the work space!

Thanks for the confidence people, but I am just a rank amateur, I don't consider my instruments to be sellable things. Someone once said that building guitars is the art of recovering from your mistakes. I can fully get behind that thought.

Absolutely not I'm afraid. The paint job will not appeal to the metal fraternity in the least.

That was just an early days drawing that I used for the outline. The diagonal controls is the correct version.

I'm lucky to have access to a big plotter at work - well, I was lucky, the b****y thing has died! Still it was working long enough to print my plans at full size. Needless to say, it is a very accurate plotter. First job was to make body and neck templates out of MDF I should add at this stage that I am not one of these people with an amazing workspace and fancy tools. These pictures show one of my two work areas, this is a small corner of table in our tiny utility room, and perched on here is where I do most things that aren't messy. I do the messy stuff either in the garage (horrible place with a leaky roof), or out in the back yard if it is dry/light. My only other work bench is a rickety thing with uneven legs.

As mentioned in another thread of mine, I'm attempting to get back into bass after years in the doldrums. Back in the day I rose up from nothing to being the best bass player in my bedroom. Sadly after year of decline I now see myself as the worst bass player in my bedroom. Basically I went from 5 string to 4 string and somewhere down the line I drifted away, basically playing various other instruments but not really bass. I have been galvanised this year by the fact that oldest son and oldest daughter play bass occasionally and I have 'seen the light' a bit again. So yeah, the plan is to make my own bass for the fun of it, and go back to 5 strings, where I was definitely more comfortable. Shape. Well I was going to be boring and go for a jazz bass shape as I rather like them, but then I was rather taken by the shape of Hadrien Feraud's signature Mayones bass, so I have based it upon that. Being a graphic designer I tend to draw up my own precise and detailed plans. So here's the bass plan: er .... the precision pickup will be the right way up! Ebony fretboard, Plastic MoP type block inlays, J-retro 01 (cos I have one spare) and ...... it's gonna have a pretty weird hand painted finish that probably no one will like but me! Anyway, it has been underway in serious since the lockdown thing started. Not that I've had any more time as I'm a key worker. I should add that although this is my first attempt at making a bass, I have previously made 5 electric guitars all of which I am very pleased with. I have already discovered that it is quite a bit different making a bass, and certainly more expensive! That is all for now.

I've been off of bass playing for many years now. I was only a 'bedroom' player, but I kind of drifted away some years ago after I went from 5 strings to 4. I play various other instruments and the bass just kind of faded away. Anyway, this year I felt like galvanising interest again and going back to 5 strings. Not only that, I also decided to build my own bass to really get my interest going. The build is going fine so far (although I'm not sure that many will like the finish that I am going for!). Anyway, back on topic - I have always been a lazy bassist, and basically have never learned bass lines, my preference was always to just 'play along' to stuff based around the chords (hey, I'm in the bedroom, I can do what I want!). Just recently I saw a video of Nathan East playing Stevie Wonder's Sir Duke, and it was such a fabulous bass line I thought I should try and learn that! So, leading on from there, I was wondering what other bass lines bass players enjoy playing? I'm looking for a learning list to get out of my lazy playing!

to the OP ........ YOU ARE MAD!!!! MAD I SAY!!!! TOTALLY MAD!!!! I'd have to keep pretty much all of those 100% for sure.

Personally I think they look pretty unattractive. Not a fan.

Generally I'm drawn to busy players. In the old days when I used to go to (modern) Churches a lot, the bands would vary from terrible to very good. The bands on the highest rung of my appreciation always had an amazing bass player doing a lot with the songs, and it was that which lifted the music to the top level. Also, my fave players are the likes of Geddy Lee, Billy Sheehan, Chris Squire, not known for hiding in the background!

I love these things, I find them fascinating and somewhat hypnotic. There are loads of different ones. It makes me feel like some kind of god watching the rise and fall of empires.

Meh. London's been pretty dead for instrument buying for well over a decade. I used to take a day off to go and browse all the music shops 20 years ago. It was like having a day pass to Aladdin's cave. Those days are long gone. Same with record shops - the happy days of three mega-stores - Virgin, HMV and Tower records. I'd spend an entire afternoon browsing those three.

I like a 5 string for the fact that you can play certain things in different positions. 6 strings is too confusing and 4 strings sometimes feels like not enough strings.

Really liked that!

Get rid. I've got rid of some amazing guitars and basses. I've never regretted moving any on so far, although I do look back on some fondly, and wouldn't mind getting to play them again.

Are you ready on the first GFR live album is a ripping track! I love it when the guitar solo comes in. If I was going to play a GFR track live I'd love it to be Black Licorice, the live version of that is an amazing song!

Wow, I've never seen anyone mention Grand Funk/Mel Schacher ever before! I'm actually a massive GFR fan, I bought all their albums on vinyl back in the 80s. I think that Mel is a real kick-donkey bassist, my fave moment of his being the extended bass solo on I come Tumblin which was probably quite a rare/innovative thing for a rock album back in '71. Glad to see that someone else here appreciates the man!