Dean Reeves

Thanks for the tip, I will definatly take it under advisement. It's just that while carbon fiber supports are relatively cheap, an extra $40 in my pocket seems pretty great. Arkansas (where I live) just added new taxes to cigs to compund the fedral tax, and a carton is between $60 and $70 dollars now. The rub is it's gonna cost me over $200 to TRY Chantix Anyway, the cheaper I can build the better. Now I just need to figure out how to do the truss rod and I'll be golden :o)

I hope this is the right place to pst this, don't want to step on any toes... I am planning my "dream bass" (mind you it's really the "budget version of my dream bass" lol) and I've been learning about truss rods. I know I don't know much, and this is probably a misconception, but shouldn't the truss rod run the entire length of the neck? My design has a 27 or so inch neck (36" scale) and the longest truss rod that I've seen is 24". Is that long enough? Also, while I know it's not a requirement would any of you suggest using carbon fiber neck rods? The neck will be laminated maple>walnut<maple (1 1/2" > 1/2" < 1 1/2"). Also a Cocobolo fingerboard. Do you all think that this setup would be strong enough to handle 5 strings without the carbon fiber supports? Thanks in advance for the input! -Dean

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

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!

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