Just Joined...

[Dean Reeves]

Just wanted to say hello to all on the forum. I am a former guitarist of fifteen years. I am planning on building my first bass and found this forum during my educational searches.

If anyone was to point me in the direction of the best place to find good/cheap wood online I would be very grateful.

I first designed the body shape of the bass I am working on about 10 years ago. I've always been an artist, so when I was active in the music community it was natural for me to extend my artistic talent in that direction. As it stands I never really thought that I would ever build it. I have recently picked my guitars back up (thanks in large part to Guitar Hero lol, I know...) and realized that more than guitar, I really missed playing bass.

Looking online for decently priced basses left me fairly irritated. I was fairly shocked to find that fretless basses (which require a bit LESS work than their fretted counterparts) were always more expensive. Add to that a through-neck design and the cheapest bass I could find was at least $2000.

I have some experience working with wood (my father has done one form of woodworking or another my entire life), a degree in graphic design, and a love of music. It just made sense all of the sudden to try my hand a building instruments.

So far the only thing I am apprehensive about is the neck construction. All of the resources I've read have been fairly vague about how they actually worked, and the installation instructions are always focused on guitars.

Anyway, that's all I can think to tell. (And I really would love input on online wood dealers... right now I'm looking at www.rockler.com, but they are pretty limited in the sizes that you can buy.)

Thanks for what seems to be my new favorite forum!!!

-Dean Reeves

[Rick500]

I get quite a few pieces from eBay.

Check gilmerwood.com as well. I'm sure some others will chime in here too.

And welcome!

[Dean Reeves]

Thanks for the reply. I will have to check that link out! I would have NEVER thought of looking for wood on Ebay. I found the exoticwoods.com link on the mainpage, and it has some great prices, though they really seem geared for bolt on neck enthusiasts. Anyhow, thanks for the tip!

[dpm99]

Welcome Dean! If you're in this to save money, many here will attest to what a money pit building is. It's fun though. You cheapest solution will probably be to buy a fretted bass and modify it. We can help with that. However....

If you want to do the illogical thing and try to build a stringed instrument where there are plenty are excellent ones already on the market that don't have splinters, you're in the right place! Check out this place too. They have some crazy figured tops!

http://oregonwildwood.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=SFNT

Also, especially if you're in a populated area, consider a local hardwood store. That tends to be a lot cheaper than buying online.

-Dave

[Rick500]

Not to discourage you in any way from building your own (it's a lot of fun), but if you're still looking at pre-built basses, check here. No charge for fretless on any model they sell, and mostly way under $2000. I can personally vouch for their quality; I have more than a dozen of their instruments and have played them for 15 years.

[WezV]

also, its worth noting that your learning curve to get the fretless you want may make that $2000 seem really cheap.

but still.... go ahead - its loads of fun at times and incredibly frustrating at others.

modding a cheaper bass may be a fun way to learn... or go half and half and buy a carvin fretless neck through blank to build your design around

https://www.carvinguitars.com/products/sing...php?product=NT4

i am sure they will do you one of those without frets or without the headstock cut to shape

[Rick500]

Yeah, you can get any option on a neck bought by itself that you can on a neck on a factory-built guitar.

[guitar_player]

There's a lot of tutorials to building necks there is nothing different about building a bass neck than a guitar neck besides the size. Also by wanting a fretless you saved yourself a lot of work on one of the harder parts. Good luck, I think neck throughs are the easiest type to build (and my favorite to own too) so that may help you. Check out ebay for wood but buying local is the cheapest and look through some of the build threads for neck through basses or guitars.

[WezV]

personally i find setting up a fretless bass (correctly) a lot more difficult than doing fret work - but then i am a picky bar-steward and fretless mwah is hard to get spot on

making it, obviously, is no harder

[Dean Reeves]

Thanks for all of the great replies and tips. I know it can be a money trap, but I have access to most all of the tools I would need, have built a guitar with my dad before (though it's pretty well shot now), and modded my first bass when I was about 18. Maple necked bass, yanked frets, and inlaid walnut to make it fretless.

I really think that for what I want this is the best rout, although I am DEFINATLY gonna check into the Carvin pre-made blank, that sounds awesome.

Anyhow, thanks! Everyone has been incredibly helpful, and I can tell this is the site that I really needed to get going on this. Can't wait to post my first pics!!

-Dean

[jaycee]

Another source for wood is your local joiners shop. They generally have lots of stuff that gets put on the shelf.