grimreaper65 Posted March 6, 2005 Report Share Posted March 6, 2005 First off, hello, i've never been to these forums before and I have to say they're great, I learned quite a lot without even starting a new thread. I'm planning on building a bass for a school project, and I need some stuff explained... 1. 'scale length', what is it? It's the distance between the nut and the bridge right? 2. I was planning on building a bass that has a body like paul stanley's guitar, so how thick would you recommend the body to be? 3. Could you build a neck in only two peices, the actual neck and the fingerboard? cause I looked at the tutorial on the site and it four pieces, and i thought it would be easier with only two. 4. Do you have to buy a fingerboard or could you just buy some wood that's the right thickness and trim it? If you could make your own, how thick would the wood have to be? 5. How would you attach the neck to the body, with screws? Thanks in advance... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jnewman Posted March 6, 2005 Report Share Posted March 6, 2005 First off, hello, i've never been to these forums before and I have to say they're great, I learned quite a lot without even starting a new thread. I'm planning on building a bass for a school project, and I need some stuff explained... 1. 'scale length', what is it? It's the distance between the nut and the bridge right? You're close - but modern bridges have saddles that move forwards and backwards, so it's defined as twice the distance from the nut to the 12th fret. Your high E string is usually at about the scale length distance, with the lower strings progressively slightly longer. 2. I was planning on building a bass that has a body like paul stanley's guitar, so how thick would you recommend the body to be? You can do pretty much any thickness you want... an inch and a half to two and a half inches is a range from pretty thin to pretty thick. 3. Could you build a neck in only two peices, the actual neck and the fingerboard? cause I looked at the tutorial on the site and it four pieces, and i thought it would be easier with only two. Sure... Laminating a neck (gluing together several pieces to make the neck part) makes a little bit stronger neck, but it's mostly for show. 4. Do you have to buy a fingerboard or could you just buy some wood that's the right thickness and trim it? If you could make your own, how thick would the wood have to be? Sure you can... they're usually about 1/4" thick. Common woods are the different rosewoods (indian rosewood, cocobolo, pau ferro, etc. etc.), ebony, and maple. 5. How would you attach the neck to the body, with screws? You can do it with screws, a "bolt-on neck", or you can glue it (a proper wood glue bond between two pieces of wood is stronger than the wood itself) making a "set neck", or you can build it so the neck goes all the way through the body, and glue the oudside pieces (the "wings") to it, a "neck-through." I'd suggest buying Melvyn Hiscock's book on guitar building - it'll answer a lot of your questions, and a bass is built exactly the same way as a guitar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grimreaper65 Posted March 6, 2005 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2005 Wow man thanks a lot, I had another question too, but I forgot to add it... What's the difference between an AANJ neck pocket and a normal one and is there any way you could do either without a router? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mledbetter Posted March 6, 2005 Report Share Posted March 6, 2005 Wow man thanks a lot, I had another question too, but I forgot to add it... What's the difference between an AANJ neck pocket and a normal one and is there any way you could do either without a router? ← NJ is sculpted.. like the back of an ibnez.. Click on the "project guitar home page" link above nd look through tutorils. You'll see lots of ibanez based guitr tutorials. n AANJ heel fits in the palm of your hand. A regular heel is a rectngular block of wood and makes it difficult to reach the upper frets. Not sure what to recommend for a bass.. depends on how you play, but a lot of basses these days have a sculpted heel As far as the router goes.. you can't do much of any guitar building without buying a router. Check out the tutorials and you'll get a good feel of all that is involved. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grimreaper65 Posted March 6, 2005 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2005 Thanks man, oh and it's 'large talons' not sharp, isn't it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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