alittlebitrobot

oh wow! Thanks for the tip-off @Daz39. @Andyjr1515 & @TheGreek - that looks gorgeous. It's so difficult to make something that looks so simple. I'm digging through the forum to find a build thread for this 😄 Thanks Andy!

😧

Yeah, I really like the minimalism of the Ritter concepts, the Rob Allen mouse, Stradi, etc I'm looking forward to figuring out a way to hide the tuners around the back, as well as having no visible pickups.

Thanks! By no means the first person to do it, but it took so much figuring-out that it really *felt* like uncharted territory 😄

Aaaand skip to the end. I'm very much a wood guy. I love woodwork and things made out of wood, so I don't really go for solid paint finishes. But this time, considering the grotesque Frankenstein-nature of the instrument at this point, and just to learn one more process, I decided to go for a spray finish. So, lots of sanding and priming (I'm never doing a paint job ever again) and then a couple of coats of Raspberry pink. Installed the electronics (the original P pickup and a second-hand J pickup I got for a tenner), slapped some strings on it, tuned it up and ....I said tuned it up...... ok... You may have seen these "overlord of music" bridges on ebay and aliexpress and whatnot for suspiciously low prices. Well now I know why. It's horrendous. It just about works, but by time I got up to around D on the supposed-E string, it became too hard for the coarse screw thread to overcome the tension. So I decided to tune the whole thing two steps down. In the end, I am SO glad I decided to try these ideas out here before trying it on a scratch build with nice wood. I learned a lot. The design I have is for a piezo bridge so there won't be any visible pickups, a bit like a Rob Allen mouse for example. I am also completely shocked that it sounds (imo) as good as it does. It really has a tone that I love AND the drop-tuning on a 30" scale bass is so much fun that I think I'll do the same with my scratch build project (also 30 scale) There are many things here that could be improved but the biggest negative that I didn't see coming - the headstock is so light, and the bridge so heavy that, sitting on my lap, if I'm not careful, the whole bass wants to swing up and crack me on the head. Something to think about there for future reference.

Now, to the cavity. This took A LOT of sketching but it worked out eventually. The existing cavity wasn't useful so I decided to fill it, BUT, I couldn't be bothered trying to cut a block of wood of that size into exactly that shape.... so I decided to cut off the existing outer wall of the cavity. and fill it with a bunch of small bits. This is just silly. With the wall removed, I had more suitable pieces but at this point I found it funny that this body was more glue than wood, so I just went for it. Now I'm sorry I don't have more instructive photos here, but it's not so complicated. The new cavity (and cavity cover) is made in the typical way except that there is an additional partial cavity on the side. This provides a recess for pots to leave the cavity through the side but without the control knobs disrupting the silhouette of the bass when seen from the front. So this goes Volume - Tone - 3 way switch and then the jack in at the bottom. Incidentally, I went back and forth on this and now, after playing this for a few months, I've decided I'm not putting a volume knob on any more instruments I make. I just never touch them.

Now let's fast forward to some point last year (...I think. Time has lost all meaning lately) and I got thinking about a scratch build, but I decided to do a little practice run on some ideas I'd had and where better to practice these ideas than on my ludicrous little ship of Theseus bass. The general concept is one of visual minimalism: I don't like the silhouette of tuning keys on a headstock, but I also don't like the look of a headless bass. I also want to hide the tone controls. And all of this on a budget of loose change found behind the sofa. So, after some sketching and pondering, I got to work. I wish I'd taken more photos along the way but I think I've got all the salient points, and you'll be glad of a shorter slideshow. First, pickups removed and cavities filled with some random blocks of wood (more on this in a bit) Step 2; the headstock. I went through so many possibilities for how to clamp the string ends. Wondering if I would somehow use the little string clamp that came with the headless bridge I'd bought... In the end, I settled on drilling some tunnels through the headstock so the clamps would be on the back and then inserting the brass pins from electrical plugs. This gave me a ready-made, freely available solution to a complicated problem. A brass block with a hole for the string to pass through and a grub screw to lock it in place. Perfect. 👌 In case you're wondering, I finished this project about 9 months ago and the strings have kept their tuning perfectly. The plug grips haven't let the strings budge one tiny bit. I don't have an additional photo from this stage but I later added a sort of frame around the plug ends so they wouldn't snag or scrape anything accidentally (you'll see it on the finished bass)

Hello Basschat, it's been a while. I used to hang around here a lot, but I've been missing it lately, so I started looking through my favourite section; the Build Diaries. This is on a much more amateur level than most of the projects here, but it has a certain novelty factor that might make it a bit interesting. Pics 1 and 2: About a hundred years ago, I bought a no-particular-brand short scale bass that had a nice neck. I binned the rest. You can see how wonky the pickup covers were It's not that I didn't notice at the time, it's just that had no illusions of perfection. I was completely new to this thing, even woodwork in general was a new hobby to me at the time, so my tools and general knowledge were poor. Pic 3: Fast forward a bit and I decided to replace the top wood (with some cheap plywood) and the pickup covers and knobs but, more importantly, the fretboard. Which meant doing a fret job from scratch. Also a homemade brass nut.

I remember when I first started playing, I had this absolute piece of bass. I'm not being picky, it was genuinely awful. Unplayably high action, dud pickups etc and it used to drive me insane seeing clips of people smashing guitars or using them as wall decorations. (That's not pointed at you, obviously, because you do play it). Now, whenever this topic pops up, I get a flashback, gut feeling of sadness about something so well-made not getting to do what it was made to do. Logically, I would say just bite the bullet and sell it. You probably won't miss it much, you can put the money from the sale towards something you like much more and the Ibby gets to live somewhere it'll be played every day. However, I know that is SO much easier said than done. This past year or so, I've been making a conscious effort to rid myself of unnecessary possessions and it takes a lot of energy to commit to the sale and then the inevitable sellers remorse afterwards But, for what it's worth, I can say that feeling passes very quickly. The things we miss the most are the things that were habitual. If this thing isn't a part of your daily life, I don't think you'd miss it.

This is definitely less work than my suggestion but I'm curious.. do you think with the zero fret being the same height as the bottom of each groove in the nut, that the nut would need to be sanded down a hair? Or maybe that there should be some kind of string tree to keep downward pressure?

I'm into it. I'm really envious of Davie504's min acoustic http://www.anuenue-uke.com/en/products/one/93/251 and I'm thinking of buying a cheap acoustic guitar and turning it into a bass. The thing I don't understand about this Ibanez is the lack of cutaway. Or at least, why bother adding frets past the thirteenth? Anyway, they did a nice job recording and EQing it

Nice. Often been tempted by their fretless acoustics. What are your plans for this? (secret?)

Assuming the fret positions work all the way up the neck, it's really a matter of making a new nut that maintains the string spacing at the existing first fret. Here's a video of Matt Estlea at this point in his bass build series

Hello. I haven't been on BC in about a year, I think, so I stuck my nose into the BCC thread to see what's happening. I love a bit of Miró so I thought I'd give it a swing. I like his automatism so I started by drawing a melody in Ableton before I'd assigned anything audible to it, then went from there. To keep the childish mood that came out of it, I recorded some little toy guitar/ukulele thing that won't play in tune .......so this may test your patience

This is fantastic. I have a bunch of zenith photos in my reference folder for guitar designs. It's such a beautiful design and I'm dying of jealousy that you got the body for so little Great work.

[quote name='umcoo' timestamp='1507650521' post='3386996'] Thanks all. Alittlebitrobot - haha. That first picture isn't really representative at all of the colour. I'm glad you liked it in the end though![/quote] This is one of the things I love about this forum. I know what I love in instrument design but seeing things I thought I didn't like, and finding them convincing, changes my view on things. Change is good

Now there's a surprise! When I saw the first photo of the pink, I was (to be honest) repulsed but it turned out great! Very nice.

[quote name='chrismuzz' timestamp='1507117784' post='3383405'] I'm really struggling to work out what's going on with that bridge [/quote] yeah, what's the story? What's that vertical bit between the A and D strings?

Ahh, this is lovely. Really amazing-looking. As you say, it's an idea that's been done before with varying degrees of success, but I think this might be the best one I've seen. The little bit of relief in the text is great. I've thought about it, and I'd like to try it, but I'm convinced I'd mess it up in the end, probably by sanding away the character of the piece of wood. You've kept all the charm of the wine crate. Great stuff.

[quote][color=#000000]Actual photos and details to follow[/color][/quote] ....or you could've just added them when you made the listing for a 1300 pound guitar with no name. Or am I crazy?

The break looks clean enough to be glued and clamped, but I'd probably just re-make that part. Still tempted..

http://www.ebay.ie/itm/3-4-Size-Electric-Double-Bass-Vintage-Burst-DAMAGED-RRP-449-99/272851919401?hash=item3f873de229%3Ag%3A8i8AAOSw2rFZbelT 11 hours left on this. The bridge actually looks like a quite an easy repair if you've some knowledge of woodism. My offer of £190 was rejected

I played a 5 string in Wunjos a few years ago, and my main bass at the time was a Peavey Grind 6. Basically a budget, passive Cirrus. Probably because my first bass was a Peavey Dynabass, Peavey necks are the most comfortable necks I've ever played. The Cirrus felt great in the hands and the tone was lovely. I'd describe it as "warmer" than a lot of actives I've played but we make fools of ourselves when we attempt to describe tones through text. There's a guy on Youtube that does bass lessons, called Josh Fossgreen and he as a Cirrus. His videos are well recorded, so you'd get a decent taste of the tone from them, I think. I would've saved up and bought a Cirrus by now except that I ultimately had to admit, as much as I love the tone, I just can't get on with the scale length.

I've voted but hadn't commented. There was two I really liked and a couple of others jostling for third. I have no doubt that there's at least three worth voting for. I'm really impressed at the standard of entry month after month, considering the brief. And it shows me that there is something muscular about composition. It's not just lightning-struck inspiration, but something you can improve at by doing it repeatedly. ...or, at least, I hope one can improve..