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from 1982, my first attempt at building


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so- just got back from vacation the other day- and long story short- something from my past re-appeared in my life. Thought I would share. 

I was 14 and it was 1981 winter when I started this- finished (rather stopped) just after my 15th birthday. This puppy disappeared until recently showing up. .At the time I started this- my mom and dad had been divorced for a number of years- l lived with my mom- so- I did this pretty much solo- and we didnt have a lot of tools in our house- we had a small red old fashioned wooden tool box- and  in it contained a hammer, a couple of screw drivers, a very dull chisel, a couple of hand saws that were used on everything (like tree branches, etc) a couple different rusty old files, a rasp of some sort, and a hand drill. (the hand cranked kind).We had an old plane that was too big to fit in the box.  maybe a box cutter or some other stuff but that was pretty much it.

specs (ha)

inspired by Alembic and maybe fender?

fretless (big surprise)

pine 2x4 body lumber from hechingers (I had to look that up to spell it- I see they went out of biz in 1999)

maple neck from off cuts from cabinets my mom had put in our kitchen-fretboard the same

Osage Orange peghead overlay- the same wood I am using as fret lines on my Ken lawrence- which means this wood is way older than I originally thought. 

Elmers wood glue (I dont think I even knew about titebond back then)

The control cavity was started with help from my best friend who's dad had a drill press and forstner bits. looks like we didnt get too far. 

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On 7/10/2017 at 10:16 PM, mattharris75 said:

Wow!

Seriously though, it's still in one piece, and not a bad effort for a pre-internet era 14 year old! I don't think most of my projects from that age made it that far...

this has been in a plastic bag in a  large trunk for over 3 decades. only reason it made it I think. It also did some funky things to that pine on one side. the color is off. i read every book on woodworking I could get my hands on and there were no books on guitar building- but I did find reference to a scarf joint for the head stock somewhere- maybe guitar world or guitar player magazine- and that eventually lead me to boat books (sides of mahogany boats- you make long planks using scarf joints. It probably took me (duh) 2 months to figure out you had to flip it over to make a headstock. 

On 7/11/2017 at 0:41 AM, curtisa said:

Looks like it has a bit of Warwick in it too with that bulbous upper cutaway.

 I see that now that you say that Curtisa- but I am not sure I was even aware of Warwick till maybe the early nineties(?) Either the bass player from Jamiroquai  or maybe (dont laugh) limp biscuit or one of those era groups were the first time I remember seeing Warwicks

 

Too all of you that have said I should finish it- thanks- but- not happening. Besides the fact that this is seriously a piece of junk and has more issues that I care to list here- it holds some serious memories for me- and the build Gods have told me to leave it alone.  Besides the kick I got out of seeing it all these years later- I thought it would be fun to share with any newbies - especially any younger kids- that the first attempt is not always successful. I learned alot though going thru the process of getting it as far as it got. 

9 hours ago, Norris said:

Could you find your original tools (or equivalent) and finish it with those? :D

I still have that chisel- and the hammer. my mother gifted me those and some new tools when i moved out on my own. actually I think I gave the hammer to my daughter when she moved out. 

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4 hours ago, Mr Natural said:

To all of you that have said I should finish it- thanks- but- not happening. [...] it holds some serious memories for me

I feel you and I think I would do the same in this situation, but at the same time there is some parts of me that wants to finish it. 

What about building the same bass with the same materials (maple & pine) but with current tools and experience? That way you still have the old one as a memento but you also have the satisfaction of a 'completed' build after all those years. Then you could display them side by side :).

Anyway, I must say this is a very impressive build for your age and tools you had. 

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This weekend, I finally rebuilt my #1 after about 25-30 years. Built around the same time as yours, I had completed it and actually was playing it in my band. But it had many things going against it, so it was dismantled and mothballed. But recently, i decided to put it back together and give it the love it deserved, It's a 6-string V, and went from 25.5" scale to 24.75, a new pup, new finish (bad though), and I'm SO glad I did it. I left all the warts and seams, didn't try to improve anything besides the scale length, just made it what it should have been.  It's weird because I didn't have an insane level of nostalgia for it before, but it certainly holds a place now.

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