My First Bass!

[bassmandan]

Hey Folks,

despite my best intentions I didn't take nearly enough pictures of the process to make a proper build thread. But nevertheless, here's a selection of fairly poor quality pics of various stages of the process:

I started off with a nice single block of Swamp Ash from David Dyke, stuck on an MDF template I'd made from a drawing of a popular shape of Bass somebody had given me (any guesses?!) trimmed it with a bandsaw and then used a follower router cutter on the edge, then radiused and did the arm and belly carves with an angle grinder (sanding attachment)







I'd also made templates for the pickups and control cavity and plunge-routed those.

I had somebody mentoring me through this by the way! A friend who's been making guitars for over thirty years was on hand to explain all the processes and advise when the numerous botch-ups occurred! and usefully, loan me the the space and tools to do all this, although I've since set up my own workshop for future projects.

He was pretty insistent I made pretty much everything from scratch (with the exception of most hardware and electrics etc.) so next up was manufacturing some dual action truss rods (I was undertaking to make three Basses at this stage!) using mild steel rods and bars, a blowtorch, tap&die, a file, hacksaw and some electrical tape if I recall correctly..... this was about three years ago now though!



....then, again using Dyke as my supplier I sandwiched the rod between some tasty lumps of Maple, quarter sawn flamed neck and curly flamed f-board



I made a solid Maple neck and profiled it by hand just the way I wanted it, which was a pretty heartbreaking process cos I knew it was just a template and I was kinda falling in love with it (and hating it at the same time obviously!) it was a pretty laborious affair. But it all paid off when I was able to whizz all three necks off in about 20 minutes using this nifty "spit-type" device that Tony (my mentor had made many decades ago). You just clamp the template to the top spit and the neck to the bottom. A rounded pin follows the template and a router works on the neck. Both spits rotate together and you just do a dozen or so passes with the router and hey presto; quickly profiled necks!

pearl blocks from ebay and binding next...... It gives me a headache just remembering the various trigonometric calculations that were going on at this stage! I made a perspex template for the blocks and used a Dremel and chisel to cut the reliefs for them, just shaped the blocks on a sanding disc...... smelly!











tbc....

[bassmandan]

frets:





then followed many months of grain-filling, sanding, grain-filling, sanding, grain-filling, sanding, lacquering, sanding etc. during which time I cut through the lacquer one too many times before thinking "sod it! this bad boy's gonna have an oil finish!" (which I now much prefer anyway )











then I bolted it together:





bridge and machineheads were from ebay, chguitars I think. A friend of mine designed the decal logo that's also in my profile pic and some company (can't remember which one) printed it!

tbc.....

[bassmandan]

Barts:





East:



wired it up and it worked first time!



I've been using it for nearly a year now and I love it. I plugged it straight into my EBS rig on that first day and it immediately screamed Marcus (albeit a particularly hamfisted version of). A problem that I've never got around to addressing is the MASSIVE and clippy signal that you get get from the Bart/East combo if it's wound up fully, all that needs to be done is some form of internal attenuation (I'd always assumed the East would have that built in)..... and it's DAMN HEAVY!


.... but other than that it's pretty much perfect, it's become my first Bass and it's not as though the others are particularly shabby (unless you're a Warwick hater) which says a lot I guess.

I intend to try and do a decent recording of it at some point soon so watch this space

thanks for reading - Dan

[Mog]

a fine bass lad. really like the maple and block inlays

[bassmandan]

Cheers Mog! have a look at [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=113510"]number two[/url] when you've got a mo - Dan

[daz]

A fine bass sir, and a great job in building it. Certainly wish i had someone mentoring me to do the same. Can you explain a bit more about thje "spit-type" routing method. I cant really understand how you mean. Have you got any pics of it being done?.

[Mog]

[quote name='bassmandan' post='1045873' date='Dec 3 2010, 12:59 AM']Cheers Mog! have a look at [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=113510"]number two[/url] when you've got a mo - Dan[/quote]
Just did, and i really shouldnt have
Love amberburst on maple.

Edited December 3, 2010 by Mog

[gary mac]

Impressive job that really looks splendid.

Nice work.

[Metalmoore]

That is amazing looking, makes me wish i had a bit more time and money to go to the effort that you clearly have with this build

[Chris2202]

Loving those block inlays and Oil finish- Superb!

[lemmywinks]

Excellent work, that looks stunning!

[EdwardHimself]

Beats my first bass by a good 1.609km or so...

[TomKent]

How's it sound dude? Looks awesome!