Hi all from Yokohama, Japan! I play (bad) bass for my church band, and enjoy my MusicMan Stingray a lot. It's got the piezo pickup, and can make a nice blend, but ... it's heavy! At just a tad over 11 pounds, my aged back has been asking for a bit of relief, so decided to try my hand a building a bass ... or two.
A while back, I found this slab of wood on Yahoo!Auction, our equivalent of eBay. It was supposed to be a table top, but warped a bit, and the big knot in the center was not terribly attractive ... I was the only bid at about $30 including shipping. I had no idea what to do with it. Btw, it's called Chinaberry, or "sendan" in Japan, Melia azedarach, and the berries are mildly poisonous ... and gets birds high as a kite.
And I had a Hohner B2B (Steinberger licensed headless "broomstick" bass) that is light, but the strap button location and full scale = neck dive galore.
I also have a 5-string Steinberger Spirit bass with a horned body that is great, but never use the low B, so took some design cues from that and thought to re-purpose the Hohner neck and bridge ... and found that I could have TWO bodies from that slab ... why not?
I am working on the headless one now, and will post some pics of my progress. The second one will be a short scale (30") with a Japanese Mountain Cherry neck ... still kind of in the planning stage
Warning! I am a carpenter, not a luthier, or even a luthier wannabe. My idea of tools is a hammer with a pounding end and a "fixing" end, a circular saw, and a chalkline. I love working with wood, and this is a new challenge for me, but really not out to make drop-dead gorgeous instruments so much as solid-but-interesting players. If it happens that they are attractive as well ... Yay!
Cheers, all! cj