/diy/ - Do It Yourself

[Anonymous No.51855]

I finished my bass guitar today.
Feeling pretty fucking good right now

What projects have you guys completed recently? Any other luthiers out there?

>by the way I made the neck, bridge, saddle, nut, body/all wooden parts myself, I didn't just assemble bits together

>I know it's less skillful than an acoustic but this is my first ground up bass build

[Anonymous No.51863]

Looks sweet dude
I'm interested in doing this myself, were you following a guide?

[OP No.51871]

>>51863
thanks man.
I didn't really, but I did talk to an instrument builder, who had a lot of advice, and I followed some Internet tutorials for parts i was unsure on, and had a bit of help from a friend of my father who is a woodworker, but that was just general woodwork advice

In hindsight buying a guide would have been easier, it's recommended, but not crucial

[Anonymous No.51890]

Bassump

[Anonymous No.51918]

What did you use to seal the wood on the body?

[The Master !Lp11vkLcD. No.51920]

My uncle's a luthier, and he makes some pretty good lap-steels. He also does repairs and builds custom guitars and stuff. I might post a link to his site, if I feel like it.

[Anonymous No.52378]

is that birdseye maple?

I'm working on stripping and refinishing a Schecter XXX as one final project before I do a ground-up next summer.
Its a solid mahogany body and neck with a flamed maple veneer. I'm gonna stain it transparent purple with a black grain filler on the soundboard.

[OP No.52514]

>>51918
The body had already been oiled or varnish rubbed I think (it was from an old table my great grandfather made) so I haven't put my final finish on it just yet. I was thinking of rubbing varnish but I've heard pros and cons from it, do any of you guys have an opinion about it?
>>51920
I've always wanted to experiment with making a lap steel, that link would be cool man. Is it a full time business for him?
>>52378
I've been told by my grandmother who gave me the wood that it's burr/burl walnut, but the grain pattern looks more like Birdseye and the wood looks a bit light for walnut so I'm not sure. It's a very tightgrain wood with a bright clean sound, a bit of growl/mwah and excellent sustain
That sounds sweet man, can you upload any pictures?
I'm keen to start another ground up or possibly a restore when summers over and I've done all the varnishing and final adjustments for playability on my bass (NZ Fag here)

[Anonymous No.52525]

Currently working on a bass too. Made a few mistakes during planing and early build phase so it's not going to be a great instrument.(Let's face it. It will be the worst instrument on continent.) But for first build i think it will be alright.

[OP No.52536]

>>52525
Hahaha same with me, I did get lucky though, the only things wrong with my bass are string height (I'll just need to recut my saddle) and the neck's too thick, but I'll thin it down later

[Anonymous No.52595]

OP if ever in australia, come see me.

[Anonymous No.52645]

I made an acoustic guitar, but I went to school to do it...

Before going to school though I made two electrics using the same method as you though (woodworking experience, general knowledge, internet, talking to others etc.) and I modified an electric for a local radio station.

[Anonymous No.52649]

>>52645
this is the one I did for the radio station

[OP No.52688]

>>52595
Sure thing mate
>>52649
>>52645
Man those look fantastic, really nice binding on the acoustic too, how did you finish it? Like with lacquer or varnish or what? And where did you study? I'm thinking of going to a luthiery school in either Aussie, Germany or the states

[Anonymous No.52761]

>>52688
finished with laquer.

i went to summit school of guitar building and repair. check them out, they're on vancouver island in british columbia, canada. they are fantastic over there, best month of my life. they do courses from one month up to a year. the tuition is one of the cheapest and it includes housing and a lot of the materials. dude, fuck yeah.

[Anonymous No.52826]

>>52761
I had a look, they look great. That one year course looks amazing, but that will take a helluva lot of saving. But the one month course is well priced. I might well look into the. Sadly theres nothing like that in New Zealand so I have to go abroad. I'll look into training after I finish jazz school and try score an apprenticeship somewhere

That lacquer looks awesome. Did you use any special techniques or anything when using it? (I haven't used lacquer before, only ever varnish so I'll have to learn it)

[Anonymous No.52944]

>>52514
>>52514
I started it about 2 weeks ago. I'm about 3 hours into it right now. When I got it it was solid high-gloss black.

Here's the flamed maple top. I can't believe they coated this with black paint.

[A&Pdude No.52945]

Here's the mahogany back. There's still some paint to remove from inside the horns.

I wiped the guitar down with a damp rag to show the wood grain better.

[A&Pdude No.52950]

Here's the neck and back of the headstock, once again wiped with a damp rag.

[The Master !Lp11vkLcD. No.52958]

>>52514
Yeah, he does it for his job. He's in Tennessee though.

http://www.pytelmusicalinstruments.com/

I guess you have to contact him about pricing and stuff. Just don't spam him or anything

[A&Pdude No.52974]

Here's the whole thing. As I said before, right now I'm set on staining it a dark transparent purple with black grain filler to make the wood still "pop" after it's stained. If I go with the purple, I'm going to paint the headstock and pickups/hardware a bone/ivory color.
Option B is to just stain the whole guitar in a dark cherry(like you normally would with mahogany) and then mill rosewood tuner keys, knobs, truss rod cover and cover plate.

Right now I've got locking grovers, and a set of Blackouts to throw in it, and I'm planning on keeping it tuned to C standard/drop Bb since I can't justify buying a 7 string because I'm saving up for an 8 string, and the lowest I'm comfortable tuning a guitar permanently is drop C.

[A&Pdude No.52993]

The ground up build I wanna do this upcoming summer would be either a baritone 6 string or a 7 string, with a mahogany neck-thru with swamp ash "wings" around it for the body. I plan on doing a string-through with Cepheus passives because I love their warmth, and a Piezo.

I was in a band that played Kid Liberty/Four Year Strong style "man pop" but our vocalist quit when we got offered a signing contract, so we disbanded. Now my other guitarist from that band, and the drummer from a jazz band I was in a few years ago want to start up a groove-jazz-pop group. Like a mixture of Javier Reyes' youtube stuff
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qqv1WqRpqtI&feature=related
and The Philadelphia Experiment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMPqQLJZ_vo

So if you guys have any ideas about body materials, pickups, or the like, let me know please! I want warmth with the ability to bite. Basically just massive tonal versatility.

[OP No.53007]

>>52944
>>52945
>>52950
>>52974
wow, that's coming along really nicely man. I'm glad you can see that wood underneath it now, it's a shame to cover it with paint. The black grain against the purple would look fantastic i reckon. Along with the hardware being bone colour will you put in a bone nut? It would look nice with rosewood or ebony tuning pegs. Is it passive or active? (I haven't>>52958
heard of blackouts before) I dropped an EMG passive in, I love the tone from it. Are you rewiring it yourself then too?
>>52958
cheers man

[A&Pdude No.53027]

>>53007

Duncan Blackouts are Active. I've already got all the electronics soldered up, I just have to wait to install them.

The first ever project guitar I did was a $60 ebay special, and it sounded like hell, so I rewired the whole thing and hand-wound new pickups using the old magnets. Ended up sinking about 90 bucks into it total(purchase price included) and pawned it for 120 bucks. The guy didn't want to give me more than 80 until he plugged it in and heard it. It was mean as hell at high gain. I'm just glad he didn't hear the clean channel lol. It was muddy.

[OP No.53029]

>>52993
Good plan mate. I would LOVE to do a neck through project, and make a 3/5 piece neck myself. I love the sustain I got in my bass from the strings going through the body, and the bridge built into the body (I milled a pocket and put a bridge in from the body offcuts)

I love the tone I get from my bass, It's real clean and defined coz of the hard wood, but its got a bit of punch and growl too, and I am never going to go back to a rosewood fretless after playing on ebony.
I'm digging the Philadelphia experiment. I'm in a heavy rock band which I play bass in, and then a jazz group and also a reggae group playing sax. I'm getting more into jazz bass now too though.
I'm not sure what wood would be best fro you, but personally I love tight grained hardwood tones

[OP No.53039]

>>53027
Oh sweet, how did you wind the pickups? My neighbour is a guitar amplifier maker and he helped out with the wiring in my bass (though it was very simple) and him and I might convert an old vacuum tube radio that I have into a practice bass amp

hahaha oh nice, I might do that, make a bit of cash. I think I spend $500NZD on this bass project, but I feel it's worth it. I'm keen to do a restoration project too

[A&Pdude No.53070]

>>53029
>>53039
I use a noise gate and compressor in my rig to cut out the sounds from string squeels but it cuts off my sustain so I want a string through to help carry the sustain. My 2 main guitars are a Schecter C1-EA semi hollow(on the right) with duncan passives and a piezo, and being semi hollow, I can get the sustain to carry on for days. The other is a hand-built Westone from the late 80s. It has hands down the widest tonal range in my guitarsenal, but between the passives and the trem my noise gate cuts out the sustain long before the signal dies.

When I wound it, I did the entire thing by hand. I didn't have a motor to turn the coil or anything, and I made the bobbin out of a piece of acrylic I had. When I do it again, i want to try my hand at a humbucker with wooden bobbins.

[A&Pdude No.53074]

and before you ask, the red tape on the C1EA cover surface-mount buttons wired to amber LED flashers inside the F-holes(you can see some of the wires in the "top" (left) F-hole. I had to put tape over them to smooth them over after I ripped the first 2 off with my wrist during a gig.

[OP No.53108]

>>53070
wow those look nice man. I love semi hollow, I've played only one semi hollow bass before but I thought it was great.
the string through is very noticeable on my bass I made compared to my other 2 with standard bridges, even though it's fretless it can still sustain very respectably.
I cut my own micarta nut and saddle which give a clean tone too imo.

What wood is the westone made out of? I'm constantly looking around for bargain wood for my next project, I'm thinking of using some NZ native stuff, maybe swamp kauri if I can find any.

God that must've taken forever to wind. I've seen a guy who winds them on a lathe, he made a jig for doing it.

>>53074
shit, did it completely rip out the wires?

[A&Pdude No.53125]

>>53108
>>53108
lol no it just pulled the wires out of the holes i drilled.

I have no idea about the Westone. They're hard to find information on. They're a japanese company that made guitars from 1987-1992 or so. The only things I've been able to find out about it are that everything is hand-built. The coils are all wound in-shop, the trem, tuners, and grommets were all machined in-shop. I have been able to find out tho that new, it was transparent black with white binding, and has long since faded to a deep transparent purple with pearl-colored binding. I love the guitar. i love the feel, the sound, the look... That's why I want to do my ground-up in the same color scheme(not to mention my favorite color is purple).

[A&Pdude No.53136]

Also, I think I'd like to try cocobolo for the fretboard in my ground-up.

[OP No.53154]

>>53125
lol thats not too bad then.
wow thats impressive, how did you manage to find that? I love the clean look of it, especially with the binding.
>>53136
What's that like to play on? I think (unless I build a fretted bass) I'm always going to use ebony for the finger board, I'm always hesitant at making a fretted, because of dat intonation issue

[TehLuthier No.53162]

Good job, you'se guys. Love seeing others work.

Schecter, among many other companies cover up beautiful pieces of wood with their bullshit polyester finishes. I begged a dude who had a beat to shit USA Mockingbird, 87ish to let me strip it from black. All mahogany. Deep grained, and hella beautiful. Stripped it all off, sanded smooth, put down black/dark brown oil, then hand scraped the entire thing with a 1/2 inch chisel... then waxed. such a beauty.. Should have taken pictures.

[Anonymous No.53235]

>>53154
>>53154
A buddy gave it to me. The way he told it, his cousin was in the Air Force and brought it home new(It was something like $750 USD in Japan in 1986), let it sit in his closet for 2 decades, and sold it to him for $50 bucks. He hated the fact that it had a trem and let me have it after a bit of bugging him. It's the only Floyd style trem i've ever played that stays in tune. It's got a locking nut and fine tuners on the trem. I can't tell you how in love with it I am. After 20+ years of collecting dust, the neck was still straight, and it didn't even need a set up or new springs. I just replaced the strings and plugged it in, and blew my mind. Each pickup has its own individual selector, with a DPDT switch on the humbucker for coil tapping.
>>53162
>>53162
I think I just got a boner from feeling like I bonded with someone on the internet.

[Anonymous No.53249]

Just saw the second part. Cocobolo is not quite as dense as ebony, but it has a slightly mellower tone and more resonance I think. I want to use Cocobolo to balance the brighter tones from the swamp ash body.

[A&Pguy No.53250]

>>53235
>>53249
sorry, forgot to put my name back in those posts.

[A&Pdude No.53257]

>>53235
>>53249
sorry, forgot to put my name back in those posts.

[Anonymous No.53313]

>>51855
Well damn, here I was feeling good about my wonky-necked cbg...

[OP No.53317]

>>53162
same here, I love that all he luthiers I've spoken to have been so friendly and willing to help
>>53235
lol same here. Man that's a lucky find. I've always wanted a trem bridge on a bass (like Les Claypool) but I've heard they're fucking unreliable.
>>53249
Ohh right, I really want to find out more about wood resonance/tone values

[OP No.53329]

>>53313
lol naw man, I dig the cigar box gats, and that looks far better than the bent neck bass banjo I put together..

[Anonymous No.53369]

luthierfag here, I've done a few full on electric guitar/bass builds but most of my instruments are quirky things like diddley bows, zithers, or dulcimers.

[OP No.53379]

>>53369
Ever made a whamola? I would absolutely love to build one

[Anonymous No.53384]

>>53313
I suddenly want to make a cigar box bass. It will be awesome and badass.

[Anonymous No.53386]

>>53313
I suddenly really want to make a cigar box bass. It will be really neat and much cheaper than a real guitar.

[Anonymous No.53466]

>>53379
Yes, I have, but I haven't played the thing in about two years

[Anonymous No.53609]

>>53466
oh awesome. Was it hard? Did you have any plans?

[OP No.53610]

>>53466
forgot name

[Anonymous No.53650]

strings look pretty rusty/dirty, other than awesome job!

[OP No.55144]

>>53650
Lol I bought them the day I took the picture though