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DIY bass


LordAvon
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All,

has anyone done any DIY bass building?
I've seena few places offering kits (I assume the £65 kit is going to be pretty naff), I was thinking about a bass from here - [url="http://www.wdmusic.com/guitar_builder.htm"]http://www.wdmusic.com/guitar_builder.htm[/url]

anyone got any experience with them?

Paul

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[quote name='LordAvon' post='36843' date='Jul 25 2007, 12:56 PM']All,

has anyone done any DIY bass building?
I've seena few places offering kits (I assume the £65 kit is going to be pretty naff), I was thinking about a bass from here - [url="http://www.wdmusic.com/guitar_builder.htm"]http://www.wdmusic.com/guitar_builder.htm[/url]

anyone got any experience with them?

Paul[/quote]

WD is OK, there are many companies offering parts. What you are proposing to do is assembly from parts as opposed to making from scratch.
For building from scratch, try locating Melvyn Hiscock's book, or better yet get one of the newer ones, ... saw one yesterday in a music shop, seriously loads of photos at every step...

[url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Build-Your-Own-Electric-Guitar/dp/1846091276/ref=sr_1_1/026-0005974-4847628?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1185366121&sr=1-1"]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Build-Your-Own-Ele...6121&sr=1-1[/url]

Thumbed through it and would have bought it if I was a newbie at building. Sort of had (to me) an unnecessary history of guitars at the front... but useful and IMHO surpasses the Hiscock book on sheer illustrative quality alone.

Edited by synaesthesia
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Yeah, I don't think I have the skills (or tools) to build my own from scratch, so I figured if I got something that was relativly simple to start with. Made some mods to it and got confident, then I could have a go at making a guitar from a block of wood.

There's a chap in scotland that runs 2 week courses in guitar/bass building, where you start with a lump of wood (you choose the wood) and you design what you want and then build it, but it costs £900 (plus accomodation).

Sadly I can find no-one in the UK that stocks bass bodies, I can find necks, pickups, bridges, nuts, etc, but no bodies!

ho Hum.

Paul

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[quote name='LordAvon' post='36909' date='Jul 25 2007, 03:48 PM']Yeah, I don't think I have the skills (or tools) to build my own from scratch, so I figured if I got something that was relativly simple to start with. Made some mods to it and got confident, then I could have a go at making a guitar from a block of wood.

There's a chap in scotland that runs 2 week courses in guitar/bass building, where you start with a lump of wood (you choose the wood) and you design what you want and then build it, but it costs £900 (plus accomodation).

Sadly I can find no-one in the UK that stocks bass bodies, I can find necks, pickups, bridges, nuts, etc, but no bodies!

ho Hum.

Paul[/quote]

Allparts

[url="http://www.allparts.uk.com/catalogue/index.php?cPath=91000_91023&ALLPAR=a405dcf1391ea96c78f7b2cf7c4460d0"]http://www.allparts.uk.com/catalogue/index...8f7b2cf7c4460d0[/url]

alternatively, put "bass body" into evilBay

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I had much fun and good results from [url="http://warmoth.com/"]Warmoth[/url] parts. I put together a 4-string about a year and a half ago. [url="http://hallgeir.no/bass/warmoth/"]Check it out[/url].



Very good quality stuff, fantastic looking woods.

The specs for mine are ash body with flame maple top, purpleheart neck with ziricote fingerboard and headstock cap. Gotoh hardware, EMG pickups.
I'm planning another Warmoth project these days, it'll be Bubinga neck and body, fretless 4-string.....

Edited by elros
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Guys, thanks for the input.
I looked at the warmouth site, but quickly racked up $1100 in parts :-)

I figured I'd go with a cheaper kit to start (the complete bass kit from WD is $500), around £250. Looking at all parts (thanks for the link, it's saved for future ref) their bodies are £155, add in the rest of it and it'd get quite pricey real quick.. but for my nexy project, assuming I do one, I'd certainly look at them.

Cheers
Paul

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All I would say is don't skimp on components. Buy the things you want, over time. It'll take months to complete if you're doing it in your spare time, so the cost will be spread. My first build cost me something in the region of £400, and that was a combination of sourcing bits from eBay, Thomann in Germany, basspartsresource in the USA, as well as some trips to my local B&Q.

If you buy one of these kits, which machine heads will they give you? Which pickup(s)? Which bridge? Choice of knobs? It's these things that you will have full control over if you source the parts yourself.

Let's not even talk about the fact that you'll get beefed for import duty and VAT when buying in that kit from the states, so it won't be just £250. $500 + $45 carriage = $545 = £265.78 + 3.4% import duty = £274.82 + 17.5% VAT = £322.91. Suddenly not quite as bargainalicious as you first thought?

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Neepheld,

Thanks for the advice, I plan to take my time and enjoy the process.
as for it not being cheaper from the US, well I did a comparison based on the 'allparts' website, even with vat mine should come to £330, I couldn't get a neck and a body for that here in the UK!

Anyway, I plan to build it as it comes, then modify/change bits. I have some wacky ideas for pickup arrangements I want to try, but I want something that's not too precious to hack about :-)

I'll post pics/images as time moves on.

Paul

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Remember that there are guys in the US taking apart Mex & Jap Fenders and putting them on Evilbay all the time so you can get the body and neck easily and add your choice of hardware.

I recently also bought a mighty mite licenced by Fender fretless neck for about £50 from the US

Edited by Delberthot
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  • 2 weeks later...

Ok, I finished it...



Comments about the kit.
No instructions, but it wasn't difficult to figure out with a bit of thinking and planning ahead.
They sent the wrong pickguard (I ordered black and got sent white), so there's no pickguard currently, which I actually kinda like.

Obviously I need to spend some time setting it up, but it's actually not too bad, the E and D are almost spot on, nice action, almost perfect intonation and no buzzing. The A and G intonation is way out and the action is way way too high.

Only annoying thing is that the pickups seem to be miles away from the strings, I'll try and raise them, though I'm not going to sweat it as I've got some seymour duncan STK-J2s on order.

On the plus side, it looks good and the neck has a nice feel to it.
Also it weighes *SO* much less than my Zoot, I hadn't appreciated just HOW heavy my zoot is until this.

I'll post some more comments tomorrow once the neck has settled and I've set it all up.

Paul

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Yep, I speant about 2 hours setting up/playing/adjusting the action. It plays great now. I need to 'round off' the edges of the fretts a little as they catch my fingers, but it plays su[prisingly well.

I've ordered a seymour duncan STK-J2 in the bridge position and an SPM-2 for the mid position, which means I'll need to route the mid pickup and build a custom scratchplate, no big problem.

I'm still thinking about putting a third pickup right below the neck, giving me a J-P-J pickup combination, I might give that a try once the Seymour Duncans arrive and before I make the custom scratch plate.

Then I want to replace the passive electronics with my own active, three volumes and three tones, which may require more body routing, unless I do it using Surface mount parts.

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Import duty was just over 43 quid, cost of the kit was 500 dollars (inc postage).
Well worth it for the kit.

So, that's about 300 quid, which ain't bad for a jazz bass copy, it plays well and sounds good too.

I'll be looking at getting some decent strings when I get back from holiday.

I just noticed that there's a wdmusic.co.uk, they sell bodies, necks and hardware kits, but it would cost a *LOT* more to buy it that way!

Paul

Edited by LordAvon
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