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building your own bass


youngie
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alright, am new on here. im a new player, and fancied building a bass of my own. Have many of you done it before?

not too bothered regarding tools as im in the building trade, so may end up getting a mate to do the woodwork etc.

is it worth the hassle, and what is a good budget to have etc.

ta very much

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firstly welcome to basschat

it is a lot of work for what you get.
.
I tried this i spent over £200 getting all the tools and stuff and had an absolute blast doing it. but the bottom line is i could have got a good bass for that money.

So if you are doing it simply for plesure then go for it but if you are trying to save money i wouldnt recommend it.

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[quote name='youngie' post='110936' date='Dec 30 2007, 01:35 PM']alright, am new on here. im a new player, and fancied building a bass of my own. Have many of you done it before?[/quote]
I've assembled one, but not done anything more ambitious than that yet - next project is the next stage, I've got a couple of Warwick 5-string necks which will be going onto a body which I'll be making myself.

Are you talking about a complete build from well-nigh raw materials, or using some pre-built parts like the neck, or a pre-cut fretboard?

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I've been working my way up to it for the last coupla years, from buying a cheapy and switching everything out to figure how stuff affects to the sound, defretting and refretting, and most recently, I got a outline blank body and used the neck off my first electric to make a new guitar:


Problem is my huge accumulation of spare parts and butchered intruments.

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I've been thinking about buying parts off of ebay such as a body/neck/pickups/hardware and assembling a fender type bass. Are there any problems associated with this? I've been told that the neck and body might not join up properly and throw off the intonation and alignment, is that true?

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[quote name='jono b' post='111143' date='Dec 30 2007, 08:55 PM']I've been thinking about buying parts off of ebay such as a body/neck/pickups/hardware and assembling a fender type bass. Are there any problems associated with this? I've been told that the neck and body might not join up properly and throw off the intonation and alignment, is that true?[/quote]
You could buy a kit, eg. [url="http://www.themusicking.co.uk/build-your-own-electric-guitar-kit-p-bass-style"]this P-bass kit[/url] (which has got the wrong description on it). Though bits and pieces [i]should[/i] fit together OK, as they should be made to identical standards.

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Also, buying bits off Ebay isn't necessarily the cheapest way. Often a body will sell for around the same price as a whole bass. Might be best off scoping a cheap Squire, SX or other solid wood reasonable rep cheapy and resculpting it for your needs. If you want the personal touch, without the finding the bits don't fit, get a kit, hit up ebay for some random upgrade parts as they come cheap, pass the drying and sanding time that way. There are plenty of bridges for not much on ebay and my experience of them has been good, I like the coutour ones, as long as the is enough grub screws, it should all lock together and you can adjust the action and intonation to suit. If you are local to Bristol, I'll gladly give a hand or pointer.

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[quote name='finnbass' post='111206' date='Dec 30 2007, 10:34 PM']If you have no previous experience, you might want to consider starting off with a kit like this:



For £70, you can't go too far wrong.

[url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/layla_bassguitar_kit_pstyle.htm"]http://www.thomann.de/gb/layla_bassguitar_kit_pstyle.htm[/url][/quote]

I did that and made 'Mavis Cudicini', my surprisingly playable backup bass. Well worth the effort and a valuable learning exercise.

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[quote name='BeLow' post='111205' date='Dec 30 2007, 10:29 PM']I would advise buying a book - i used this one to more or less build from scratch - you don't have to follow exactly but it helps explain things - others have different books they have used - but this worked for me

[url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Make-Your-Own-Electric-Guitar/dp/0953104907/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1199053445&sr=8-1"]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Make-Your-Own-Elec...3445&sr=8-1[/url][/quote]
Copy of [url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Building-Electric-Guitars-Hollow-body-Semi-acoustic/dp/3901314075/ref=pd_sim_b?ie=UTF8&qid=1199053445&sr=8-1"]Building electric guitars by Martin Koch[/url] - £12 or so

Girlfriend's face after seeing the book - priceless

:)

Edited by tauzero
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