hushnel

I gave them 7 numbers or so, I'm not sure if these are other auctions or not. I will have to check it out tomorrow and email them again. Graham Drout of a local band know as Iko Iko is having his first ever art show tonight and some friends and I are blasting up to the gallery on the bikes in about half an hour, so it will have to wait.

I just recieved an email from ebay saying that the auctions I indicated as having my stolen images have been removed.

Bellsouth.net is an ISP covering the South Eastern USA

A friend from another forum just informed me with the following statment;

"Actually it is illegal (a tort, not a crime) because your webpages are copyrighted by the act of you publishing them, and he's using them without your permission. But it's a civil matter, you would have to take legal action against him in federal court."

Still, not much of an option, by the time a few of the guys posting above get to him he won't have much left :o)

Yeah, Mike is a member of this forum, I’m he. I just got an email about this. I emailed the clown but I’ve come to this thread to see what my options are. It seems that I may have no real legal protection for my images but it just irks my butt that this guy is implying that my bass was made using his bogus instruction.

I will follow all the correct channels and options available to me before I jump on my hog and blast up to Georgia. I believe they use Lester Maddox’s signature axe handles to deal with this kind of problem up there, that’s showing my age not my acceptance of bigotry.

Mike

I used a hand held belt grinder. It was pretty fast but I didn't time it. I drew lines that I didn't want to cut and had at it.

Acoustics should be included. I think it may be a part of the natural instrument building progression. I have a strong desire to build an acoustic in the future. Culminating in archtops if I can hack it.

Some fancy pre-cuts

I found this link the other day. Look around the site they have some good stuff.

I've read his book, he has a great sense of perspective and light.

Thanks Brian for bringing my web site to a few more builders. As I mentioned in my “Project Page” building an instrument has been one of the most rewarding efforts of my life. I know that there exists a balance between skill and luck but I have no clue in which proportions can be attributed to the creation of the “Cuban Project”.

I have been fore warned in another forum to not bite off more than I can chew in the next few projects and that is great advice. It seems a natural course to push the bounds of your skill and luck and in many ways I am guilty of this in my next “Ash Project” bass that is on the table now.

Since the first bass I’ve contracted a few jobs with a local music shop and taken the inlay class at MIMF.com (Musical Instrument Makers Forum), a great site that I highly recommend, maybe a little too formal but a great site never the less. This has emboldened me to attempt more in my next project.

My bass building progress will go something like this, if I can stick to my plan.

1. First Bass, carved, routed and finished the body, install neck, all hardware and set up.

2. Second Bass, carve and rout semi hollow body with a carved curly maple top and finish (cherry burst), make and shape neck, make bridge installed with DYI under saddle transducer and make pre-amp/buffer. I want the clean lines of a post traditional type bass with out the distraction of surface mounted pickups. I hope to have designed a logo for this bass and utilize the MOP inlay techniques I learned from the MIMF.

3. Third Bass, much like the one above but incorporating bent sides, center block from neck to tail with carved top and back, a true semi-acoustic.

4. Fourth, I will divert from my path a wee bit here and build a Martin scale flat top acoustic guitar incorporating techniques that I haven’t yet developed in the above projects and working with mahogany sides and back.

By this time I hope to have acquired the skill, tools and technique necessary to start the project that I am aiming for and that is to build archtop bass guitars. I have been disappointed in all the offerings of acoustic basses from major manufactures with the exception of the older Guild ABGs and have come to the understanding that the acoustical properties of the moving top and back of an archtop are superior to the mundane volumes and frequencies of the jumbo or dreadnought style acoustic guitar body used for bass by so many of the modern manufactures.

Anyhow that is the plan.

I know that your site is geared to the building of guitars not bass guitars and I want to thank you for encouraging me to become involved. Both instruments incorporate many if not all of the same skills, tools and techniques and while there are many more guitar players than bass players the low end is here to stay.

The inlay class

It seems like most of my spare time is used up in developing the skills I need to make the basses I’ve been working on but I have a few online sources that are helpful in the extreme.

I have been using and fooling around with Fender basses for a while and have done a few projects for one of the local music stores. I think that it’s a good idea to approach a subject from many different angles, not all solutions will work for all builders. If I can be of any assistance I would love to help out.

Mike

David Nicholes (# and address above) has all the bits and blades you will ever need for inlay and tons of personal information to boot. Call him the guy is easy to talk to.

Gabe, is that one of those oscillating carvers? One of the things I really, really learned is you want to sand and polish the shell down to the level of the fingerboard, not so critical in a board being made from the ground up but one that is finished or even fretted it becomes important. I say this to emphasize that the level/depth of the rout needs to be exact. You can see what I’m using at the above web page. Just a dremel with a 1/32” router bit and it works fine.

Thanks Brian and thanks for the heads up in the email. Which I have answered by the way.

A friend called me last January and said, hey Mike I got a chunk of wood for you, stop by on the way home. Maury played guitar in a blues band I was in and by day is a cabinet maker. He showed me this beautiful piece of Cuban Mahogany left over from some doors he was making for this rich dude in NYC. He told me to make a bass out of it. I did and it has become #1. Any how I’m here to share and gain knowledge building instruments is like finding home after being lost at sea, it’s a gas.

Mike

My humble web page.

My first try at inlay

I just took an inlay class on line at the MIMF.com it was a good start. The link will show you what I have achieved in a short period of time. One of the best thing of this class was the list of sources. Contact

David Nichols

Custom Pearl Inlay

RT1 Box 240 Malone New York 12953

1 518-483-7685

He used to do inlay for Martin and instructed Amy, who is teaching me. I got pearl and abalone for $15.00 per once from him.