Primal

Go for the back. I did my first bass with rear routed electronics (check out my post on this forum to see pics). I wouldn't be too worried about the wire channel. Just make sure you are careful and your drilling angles are correct. I would highly suggest buying a template router bit and all the neccessary templates from stewmac. If you use those the routes for the trem should be no problem at all. Go for it man. Just take your time with it and be careful. Chris

Haha, thanks for the kind words. I'm sure you will be able to build one every bit a good as this one. I recommend not trying a neck thru for a first instrument though. Especially if you don't have a planer like me. Getting the neck thickness to match the body thickness was a real bear.

I'm not quite sure if I understand the question but I'll give it a shot. By centerpiece I assume you mean the part of the neck that the body wings attach to. For the neck to body curve (you mean the heel?) I used only rasps and sandpaper. I am not sure what you mean by what kind of cuts I used. I would just like to say that if anyone has not tried 3M Sandblaster sandpaper that they go out and get some right now. It is the most amazing sandpaper I have ever used. Never gets clogged up!

Hehe, could you restate your question? It's late and I am having trouble thinking. What do you mean by the profile?

Sorry, I couldn't resist!

I believe he had a white one though.

I know you have probably been asked this before but WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR WONDERFUL WOOD!? That flammed neck is awesome!

Thanks for the kind words wes. Although I think it is pretty nice for a first build, in no way am I more talented than you. Pictures cannot tell you how a bass plays. I still have some major tweaking to do -- electronics and otherwise. I will be taking it to my local guitar shop to have the frets leveled next week. Hopefully that will increase it's playability. I know that I will never have a nitro finish on any of my guitars -- (1) I don't want to buy the required equipment and (2) I much prefer the look and feel of an oil finish. hyunsu: I really REALLY liked working with this walnut. Machines easy and is very strong. Also very beautiful. Check out the back of the upper body wing. Absolutely gorgeous grain! Unplugged the bass is much more resonant than my other basses. I can get harmonics that I never knew existed on this thing (never knew about the 4th/9th fret harmonics until I built this bass!). As I said above, I still have to do some tweaking with the electronics.

Hope you all like it.

Seems perfectly doable. Goodluck and keep us informed! One thing that I am not sure if a violin maker would have is a router. Does he have one?

I don't think he was looking for the "proper" length of a solid body guitar (because such a figure does not exist) as much as he was wanting to know if the guitar he was looking at was basically the same size as a Fender Strat. In reality though, the "proper" length of a guitar should be 40.25". How do I come up with this figure? Divide the length I just gave by the scale length. 40.25 / 25 = 1.618. Does anyone know what that number is? That is the Divine Proportion. http://evolutionoftruth.com/goldensection/nature.htm So from now on, I will only build guitars that comply with the Divine Proportion when their length is divided by their scale length. j/k, but the Divine Proportion is an intriguing figure.

Sorry, but I don't see how it is all that irrelevant.

Perhaps he meant full size as in the proportions of the body. I think thats what he meant. As for an answer, if it is a strat that most likely it is the same size as a real strat. Since the distance from the bridge to nut is 25", that gives you 14" to make up for the distance from the bridge to the end of the body and from the nut to the end of the headstock.

I don't know how to anchor it myself. Like I said, I am a double-expanding truss rod guy. I know that the truss rods that LMI sells use a flat bottomed channel, but I can't speak for all the different double-expanding truss rods out there. With double-expanding truss rods you don't have to anchor anything. As longs as the truss rods fits in snugly you won't have any trouble. The reason I don't like single action truss rods is because you have to route an arched channel and then cut and shape a piece of wood to go in on top of the truss rod. I don't have the proper equipment or know-how so I opted for an easier solution.

You've got it. You have to anchor both ends so that when you tighten the nut, it has something to push against, therefore applying force to bow the neck. I haven't worked with vintage truss rods because arched truss rod channels scare me. Double expanding all the way IMO.

I would hook you up if you didn't live on another continent.

The only reason it doesnt jump out and say "I am the letter G" is because of the angle. If you had angled it the other way, I think it would have worked out. Great inlay and neck. I am too chicken and impatient to do inlays. My fretboards will forever be dotless.

Apparently Gibson used balsa in some of their LPs. I can't remember what they used it for or when. There was a big discussion about it on MIMF.

Wow, great playing. Only complaint is that the rhythm guitar in just a bit too loud.

Time for my opinion on this guy. First off, his abilities are amazing. I don't deny it -- I evny him. BUT, there are somethings I don't like about his playing. Not necessarily his playing, but the style. Now, I am a bass player and I love playing funk. However, I do not like those 32nd note triplets or whatever the hell they are. I don't think it sounds in time; it doesn't sound like it belongs. To be fair, I don't like it when Victor Wooten plays stuff like that, either. In fact, the only bass player that I have found I like to play that way is Les Claypool (see bass interlude thingy in Tommy the Cat). Another opinion of mine is that guitarist should stay out of bass players fields of expertise. You don't see bass players trying to play guitar solos or anything. Come on, leave the slappin' to bassists! Anyway, I think this guy should definately take up bass guitar. With skills like that, woowee!

You should be able to order tuners individualy so you would just order 5 bass side and 1 treble side tuner.

Yes, I know. Trust me, everyone who has looked at that picture has mentioned that to me. Next time I'll take some pictures just of her and post them before I post the pics of the guitar.

You could always stain the walnut, but the color of the walnut on my bass is just so beautiful that I would NEVER put any stain on it.

Man, VERY nice orbs in that one picture. It's gonna be one supernatural guitar! Looks great!

I agree with wes. I prefer an inlayless fretboard. When I built my bass, I didn't even consider fret markers other than side markers. LGM is right in mentioning that classical have neither fretboard nor side markers on them. Much respect to my classical guitar playing friend!