Build #3

[ElysianGuitars]

I just checked out their website and I have to say that I was a bit shocked at their prices though. $17,500 for the 24 week class In their defence, that does include a free room for the duration of the class plus material for four instruments (including an archtop!)

What did R-V charge for their 5 month class?

i'm in debt about 15k, because of all the money i spent doing all the extra non-graded work i did. thats not counting my room and board, that was all out of pocket(thank god for the GI Bill)

Edited September 17, 2008 by ElysianGuitars

[Jon]

Phil - Atlanta Guitar Works

I've been doing a lot of research. There are a lot of schools to consider, but in the end we'll see. I may have several more basses built that period next year, I already have all the wood purchased for my next 4 builds and a couple others that I have been planning for 2 years. So time will tell. Regardless, I will be working, saving, and building instruments.

[Jon]

After inspecting ChoatH's 9-string bass in March, I was inspired to try some new stuff on the headstock for this build. His bass has a zero-nut without any guidance nut. The headstock is scarf-jointed (10-15 degree angle) and the fingerboard goes further back towards the headstock, so the strings rest on a slotted fingerboard. This made playing the instrument feel much more natural in the first hand position. Obviously I screwed that up on my build by trying the zero angle drop down headstock this time around and not having enough fingerboard for the strings to rest on. If you look at the close-up body picture in my first post, you see the true string spacing without any string retainers. I figured I would solve this issue with the Hipshot retainers, but due to drilling the tuner's too close to the zero-nut this has only introduced more break angle issues. I'm thinking I will pull out the zero-fret and install a nut and cover up the headstock with Padauk veneer. On the positive side, I learned a great deal more about what not to do on the headstock and will be doing a zero-nut w/ guidance nut in the future.

The next issue is the action. I routed down the Padauk bridge as thin as I could without getting too thin or worrying that the entire bridge may explode if I route any more wood off. Sadly, the action ended up being 3mm at the 12th fret with the lowest bridge saddle position, that'll do for the B string, but the other 5 I would like to have lower. So I have a few choices in order to fix this. Sand a little bit of angle into the neck, make my own saddles that are shorter than the stock metal bridges, or add additional thickness to the neck with veneers. Any suggestions from the guitar builders?

Also, I wired up the bass. Sounds a lot like an upright bass, definitely sweet sounding!