Wademeister

DOH! I guess I could still Ebay the 4 string bass and buy some Bartolini stuff with the proceeds. I doubt I'd get over $300 for it though (they go between $250 and $300 mostly from what I've seen) and that will leave me a good bit short for a two pickup system with preamp I believe. Got any suggestions for nice versatile and quiet pickup systems for under $300? Looking at the line drawing and my wood photo some more, I'm getting the feeling that a regular trans green to black burst will work well on this animal without getting overly elaborate. Anyone care to toss out a simple photoshop rendition for me? Or a link maybe where I can get a free proggie to play with that stuff? Of course then I gotta learn to use said software, ho hum... Either way, I'd be very grateful. I'll have a couple more pics and questions in a bit. I'm still up at work and the camera is at home. Naturally =P

Well certainly it would take more finger strength to tune the bass. How hard it would be depends on tuner ratio I suppose. Structurally I can't imagine there would be a problem, but you're right about the raw material under the chrome. Then again if the tuner is down in a hole was it? It would only really need to be smooth wouldn't it? Not the ideal situation, but something to think about might be a key like this one? Not very elegant solution but it would certainly cut down on your required space. As for making your own custom knobs, that's gonna be tough unless you have quite a lot of equipment or endless skill and patience with a Dremel. I would say making them from any kind of metal would be pretty much inpractical. You might be able to work it out though with some plastic. You would be able to drill a round hole in that and chase the corners square with a 1/8" chisel if you're careful, then file and sand the outside of the knob as needed. Would still be a pain in the rear but you would be able to try out your idea at least.

Made a bit of progress! I have the neck laminations made up and have begun gluing them together. One pair at a time! Ugh...well the "special joint" is pretty complicated and the best way I could figure short of drilling holes in everything for alignment pins was to glue them up in pairs so I could see and adjust each intersection as I progress. It's going to take me a couple days to get the neck all glued up. The laminations are pretty thin and wobbly so I clamped them to a very straight piece of brass barstock for glueing. The lams... You can see that I have scarf and lap joints working together, pretty much making the maple grain go around the corner. I'm not sure it's going to look as interesting as I had imagined, but it should certainly be strong. Here is the first pair clamped up and next pair ready to go. 7 layers so I guess I'm in for 6 rounds of neck glueing! Yeah it's messy for sure and the pieces aren't lined up well at the body end, but there is a lot of extra to be cut off. Part of my lamination goal was to let the wood bow as it liked put it together in its relaxed state. So far so good.

Looks great Jehle! Can't wait to see her with the finish on. No doubt you're just a bit excited to see it too, haha.

I run a machine shop that used to be part of an aircraft cabinet shop. We're still connected with those guys, but their part of the buisness has a different ownership now. I use the router mostly for cutting parts from sheetmetal, like this one... And we do some engraving and actually do still make some stuff from wood. The router has been very useful to me though, and has allowed me to handle some jobs that others had to turn down. Nice to be versatile! I'm surprised you thought the basses were neck heavy MGK. I wouldn't say mine are. In fact, I would say the the plastic bodies are pretty heavy. I was surprised at how heavy the 5 string was with no neck attached. Maybe after I finish up the freakfish I'll make a nice fretted home for the 5 string components I have which are also currently residing in plastic. The only thing I really don't like about the Ergodyne basses is that smell. It's not all that strong, but every once in a while I catch a whiff of it and...EWWW. It's just not right for a guitar ya know?

Tell me more... I'm new to playing bass, but I like my plastic Ibanezes pretty well. I actually bought that one because of all the harmony central reviews on it. I don't think I've seen better feedback on anything even remotely in the pricerange. There is a gasoline smell to it though and a bit of a dead spot in the neck, probably because the neck is so rediculously thin. After some looking around for pickups and electronics and all I figured that stuff was going to run me around $300 for what I wanted. I ran into an EDB605 (5 string version of the same bass) in pieces for $120.00 and bought that for parts. Turned out to only need some adjustment and reassembly which I did, so I now have a fine 5 string that I like better than the 4... SOooooo.... In your opinion, do the electronics suck on these things? I thought they sounded pretty good, but I admit I haven't listened to very many. So far I'm happy with the sounds I can get out of them and thought those elecronics would be a fine and economical transplant for the project. We got the router from MultiCam of course! haha... you can get one for about 60K. Sounds like a lot maybe but it's made that money back many times over. Drak! I ALMOST mentioned that auction before it was over but was paranoid about tipping anyone off, lol. Thanks for not grabbing my planks! So let's see what ya got!

Hey AJ, how's it going? Been trying to get on G.com but they seem to be down. Have you got a link for their new forums? I can't seem to find the darn thing!!! Looks like I'm going with the myrtlewood on this one. Thank you Ebay! I liked that grain a lot and the color is just about perfect in my opinion. I looked at a lot of quilted maple on ebay and elsewhere but found none that I liked and could afford at the same time. I probably spent too much on what I got but it hit me as being just right. There is also some real nice sycamore out there but I couldn't find any specific pieces. If I run into any of that before I get too far, I may put my myrtlewood on the shelf. Another nice possibility would have been lacewood or leopardwood, but I'm concerned about filling the grain on that stuff. It's from the oak family so I wouldn't be surprised if you could blow bubbles through that too. nice lacewood pic.

Looks great Alexander! I especially like the headstock logo. Did you paint that on or make a decal? Looks very factory prefect!

I'm having a hard time visuallizing what you're after, but from what I get, it seems like you just need to cut the existing knobs smaller. Would that work for you?

I'll do 'er up! Got this pork roast in the oven that is just KILLING ME! After dinner I'm heading up to the shop to start in on the neck. I think I'll order up that wood I posted too. Does $40.00 sound like a good deal for a top like that?

Whattaya think of this one? Maybe a little expensive but I really like the color. I don't want my fish going red on me, and the grey part will cut out for the fingerboard... The neck will be natural finish to show the stripes and my "special" neck/head joint. Don't ask!! I'm not going to explain it, but it will be obvious from the next set of pics. I won't be going for a full realistic finish with this. I will work with stain and colored trans finish to make the fish skin feel, Check out ritter basses, I love their look!) and the head and fin areas will be painted a metallic color to match the stained body the best I can before doing to trans finish over it all. I decided that I want it to look like a real nice guitar more than like something I rescued from a taxidermist's trashcan

It may be a little early to start this thread but I don't want to miss anything along the way. I still need to get some wood for the body and the top, but otherwise I'm ready to begin cutting. It will be a fretless five string bass. Or bass. The bass bass. The fretless five-stringed funky fish if you like. Here is the final drawing nailing down the concept and making sure everything will fit. Here is where the design work happened for the most part. I did do some pencil sketches but I didn't spend much time on that. Here is the CNC router where I will be doing some of the cutting. I'll cut out the body, neck and head outline, the pickup holes and drill the holes where the bridge will mount and that's about it. I'll also use the router to make a template for drilling the peghead. Shown on the router table is the donor bass that has the pickups and preamp along with 5 new Hipshot Ultralight chrome "Y" tuners, truss rod and the wood that I have so far. The fingerboard is lignum vitae and the neck wood is hard maple and black mesquite that will be laminated together for a 7 layer striped neck. I have access to a bunch of mahogany that I plan on using for the body, but the hunt is on for the cap wood. I've been looking at quilted maple, lacewood, and sycamore as possibilities hoping that a translucent finish and some careful staining will give a bit of a scaly feel to the finished instrument.

I don't quite understand what you mean american_jesus, but I'd like to see it. Would it be possible for you to sketch something onto the pic? What I had in mind with the knobs as they are is like a stream of bubbles. The knobs would be chrome with domed tops.

I'll keep looking at it for a while. I have no deadline, so there's no point in rushing anything. At this point I like the new headstock design better and intend to use that. Funny how I seem unable to get away from established headstock feel. Sort of went from Ibanez to Warwick feeling to my eye. At least this one works well concerning the balance of contours between the mouth and tail. Maybe rotating the tuners around will help things along. For the finish, it will be painted up to look like a real bass(fish), but I won't be carving any scales. I want the surface to be smooth with a satin finish. I have full time pro artist who is going to make it look just right. I may have to visit a taxidermist if this guy says he has to charge me though, because I sure can't afford him! I was only talking about the eyeball when I said I was going to carve it and paint it black

Couple more hours into the project, still all in the CAD stage. I think I'm just about there, nothing really glares at me as being a problem now other than the fact that I went for the painfully obvious tailfin for the headstock. What can I say, it just works. I can blow any of it up for detail if there any concerns or construction pointers. I think I still need to work on the neck/head transition and the nut area but I'll study those closer on the other basses tomorrow. I'd really like to get some feedback at this point because I'm about ready to start cutting. See anything wrong with the design? Any suggestions at all?

hey SG WyldeCHild, I looks to me that you're thinking of starting out the way I did. I wanted a killer axe and just plain didn't have the dough to go and buy it. So I decided to make my own! By the time I finished up I did certainly have a guitar that was worth more <to me> than anything I could afford at the time. I also realized that I could have bought quite a decent guitar for a good bit less than I had spent on my project. If you are just wanting to save money, then building your own probably is not going to be right for you. If you have other reasons, such as wanting something unique (see my bass idea thread, haha) or because you want to have the experience of doing it yourself, then that's great! I'm finding this forum to be very helpful and supportive of my current project, and I would look forward to seeing what you have going on as much as anyone. Lots of good folks here to help you along.

Oooh, I think I like that idea. I was planning on of carving it and painting it black, but that sounds pretty good. Anyone have experience with inlay on guitar bodies? I'm concerned that a clear coat covering everything might crack at the inlay. Maybe I'll need to cut the socket, paint including clear and buff, then insert the polished abalone eye. That could work, and I could give it some nice contour at the same time. What's the taxidermist do on their fish trophies? Maybe I just need to buy a fisheye! After everything is together on the new bass I'll talk to you about the woodgrained body if you're interested Doc. It's an Ibanez EDB 690 which means it's made of a material they call Luthite. I call it plastic.

Whew! Ok there went about 3 hours playing with this on the CAD system. So when I start cutting I can do any or all of the shaping on the CNC machine, as well as locate holes, control cavities, or whatever is inconvenient to do by hand. Or I may just let the machine cut it to save time. I only moved the body about a quarter inch and the pickups are drawn to correct size and in the exact location as they are on the existing brown bass. I think the knobs will look good if I can find some nice round dome chrome ones so they look like bubbles. I thought about putting the controls in the mouth, but I think having everything within easy reach will be worth having them show. They should look pretty good to me anyway. At this point I'm planning on putting the output jack on the back side of the body and installing a big brass hook in the mouth for the strap attachment. I'll redraw that peghead a few more times before I cut anything too. Maybe I'll put all 5 tuners on one side and try to make it look like a fin as was suggested. I didn't want to do that really, but so far everything I've tried seems to look like an Ibanez to me and I'd rather not. Maybe a 4+1 on a fin setup...I'll work on it more tomorrow It's getting there!

Haha, I always like those Bo Diddley geets. I gotta say not much ambition from some guys. I'll admit I was pretty stubborn about things, but I took a two inch ad from a magazine, drew little squares on it with a ruler, big squares on a piece of paper, and followed the pattern of "where does the outline cross the squares in the pic" to draw the thing full size. Gllues the paper down to my piece of wood and attacked the thing with a jigsaw. Not to be nasty to you, but really guys. If coming up with the template is give you any trouble at all then you should consider buying a Warmoth or cheaper brand of ready made body.

It's a fish! It's a guitar! No, it's both at once! haha. So ok I'll play bass. Say it either way, it's still right. I thought about mixing it up too. A fin here, mouth there, tail curved in a semicircle like it's jumping out of the water, face on like you're looking down the fish's throat...Just turns out that bass'(fish) nearly anatomically correct fin size and placement work out nicely so that it should be comfortable to play sitting or standing. Movin the bridge farther back will only improve balance on the strap, and I don't plan on playing above the 12th fret position too much so if the body starts to taper in at that point it should be fine anyway. OOH! I found a better pic, the one I wish I had in the fiirst place... I don't know about the pickups. That looks good but I have a whole bass that begs to be recreated and it happens to have those long soapbars. So I get to choose...spend more money and just add a bass, or adapt the parts I have and change it around? I also don't know enough about the sound that I want to have later to be sure a single P-pickup is going to suit me. I'm still pretty much a beginning player. Here's my donor guitar. Skibum, will I be limiting my tone much by using the setup you drew for me? Would that be a good combo for a fretless five string with flatwounds? ( say THAT 5 times fast!) Edit-Doug's stuff is very cool! I love the way he transforms stock bodies into high art. I especially like what he did with those SG's. Thanks for the link. Basswood....is it possible to carry a joke too far? hmmm

I'll shrink the pic and repost it after a change or two. Looks like my neck pickup will be uncomfortably close to the outline of the body, so I'll move the bridge back toward the mouth a little. I really should have put the pickups on before sketching the body though. DOH!! I'll carve the body contours same as a real largemouth but flattened out a bit. The fins will be thick at the bases and taper as they get away from the body. Not too thin, but enough to prevent a flat cutout look to the outline. And since the bridge will be back near the mouth, I'll give it the right shape for a gill cover. I'll put the output jack inside the mouth so the cord will be like a fishing line, lol! I have a nice piece of lignum vitae for the fingerboard (fretless), which is a yellowish greenish color. Should look perfect on a yellow/green fish. The back of the neck will probably be black, but I may go natural wood. I'll have to think about that some more. The headstock right now is sort of a PRS that has less curve to it. It works pretty well and I may try to make that end look like a guitar and not part of the fish. I may change that all around too after I draw some tuners on it. Hmmm, just thought about control knobs. That could be a challenge. Sliders up on to of the dorsal fin maybe? Maybe just some miniature low profile knobs in the normaml location for convenience? Any suggestions on that? Funny thing is I don't draw well. First I took the neck dimensions and drew them out on AutoCad along with the strings and bridge so I could design around the mechanical part, then I looked around for bass pictures on the internet so I could see where to put the fins. Didn't find a whole lot, but I had some idea of what I needed anyway. Then I took out my pencil and the thing just said DRAW ME! Took about a minute and there it was. I'd like to see that Jackson, I looked around for fish guitars annd didn't find a single one even though I know I saw a shark guitar once somewhere.

Anyone seen one anything like this? I did some searching and couldn't find anything on the net. I know a guy who is a pro at faux finish (big $$$ aircraft guy) who will make it look very real too. Silly as it is, I think I'm really going to build this one!! Opinions?

Wow! When I first saw what you were doing I thought it was a bad idea. Then I saw some of the colors and the stipes and was certain. Now with it all buffed out though, it looks seriously nice. Good job on that thing Maiden, now put the hardware back on her and let's jam!

No, I don't think that would be such a good plan Doc. Not there there would be a GOOD place to have a hole through your neck, but that sounds like a real bad location for a patch IMHO. Also wood filler has practically no structural strength and would not make a nice patch. I would consider slicing that neck down the center wide enough to remove the damage, and laminating a new piece of wood in to bring the width back out to what you need. Even if you do patch the neck and finish up the guitar, you're likely to have trouble later from that weak spot.

Thanks Brian, I got that plate along with the neck,tuners, pickups, pots, knobs and output jack all in one order from Carvin. In 1984, so I don't know if you could get the same now or not. Funny thing about that guitar is that I drew the body from about a two inch long pic in a magazine ad and had never seen a "real live" mockingbird. When I did see and play one a few years later it was sort of a letdown Of course not everyone wants a guitar that weighs more than a Les Paul!