Inisheer

Air brush work would be ok for the headstock, but it depends on the kind of paint you use. I don't know much about model car paint, but if it is enamel, that is generally not used for guitars. Try to find some kind of lacquer....some brands have a matte spray can you could use to make it all white, then you could airbrush your design on.

I'm dropping the raised edges in favour of a more streamlined look which I think will suit the flamed maple so much more. The horns are being carved down almost to the pinstripe to reduce their thickness and apparent bulk.

Cool! I've always loved the Vampyre shape (I think I've said that before ) but I didn't really think the raised edges really worked too well. If I could change the warwick version to make it perfect, it would look like yours. Keep up the good work.

Patience. People would be able to help you a little more if you gave us some more info like what kind of paint are you using, etc. If you are just spraying it all white then it should be pretty simple. You'll need to do a few white base coats then add several clear coats.

And there is plenty on this forum that should help you, along with that reranch link, so you might need to do some searching if we aren't able to help you.

I liked that Mike Rayburn video. He was good at playing guitar, he was good at being a comedian, and he was able to be funny without having to hide his talent under layers of profanity. Sorry, but that Tenacious D clip was a little too obscene for me.

Just my opinion though.

It may be on the heavy end, but remember one thing. You're going to have a hard time gluing that wood on after you cut it off. Make it big and slim it down accordingly to get proper balance.

Thanks for the tip. I was planning on cutting the body out like this, and then later deciding if I want to trim it down some. And I prefer a 1 3/4" thickness too, but this is my first build and I didn't take that into consideration until now that I have everything glued together. Hindsight is 20/20.

Sorry, I didn't mean anything derogatory in my last post. That sounds like a neat little contraption, and would solve the problem of sitting with the V. Cool. Sounds like you are ready to start building.

Looks a tad too fat from here (might get heavy in the end).

I say slim the waist and reduce the length from the bottom. The horns look nice though.

Keep up the spirit!

Thanks for the input Jester. I think it seems kinda beefy too, but I kind of like the design. I know it will probably be heavy, especially since it is 2" thick..........do you think that is too big? Maybe I should make it slightly skinnier.... And here is a better picture of my design that is a little easier to see.

It really is up to you.......make whatever you want to. But if you can't decide then here is my advice. Since you already have the Carvin guitar, you might not want an exact replica of it (unless you really like it). Instead you could make a shape you don't already have. I think the RRV is cool, but if you play sitting down most of the time then it wouldn't work so well, like you mentioned. And I LOVE explorers, they are comfy to play sitting down and they are one of the coolest designs IMO. There are pros and cons of each shape, so you have to decide. Hope that helps......even though all I did was basically repeat everything you said.

I've been planning on copying a different design for the body shape but decided to draw my own instead. It isn't anything too creative, but I didn't have a template so I just drew a basic shape. Sorry this picture isn't that great and it's kinda hard to see the shape. Hopefully soon I can start cutting it out. Any comments/complaints?

Looks pretty nice. I think the pickguard (koa?) adds a nice touch and gives it a more custom look. How is the neck?

It messed up my computer.....whenever I would go on this site, my computer would freeze and messages saying I had a virus would pop up. I panicked and had to restart my computer like three times and was worried something was seriously wrong. I even did a system restore in case anything bad got on my computer. But everything seems fine now, yay.

Everything is glued up now, the next step is to cut out the basic body shape. Here is a picture of the neck I'll be using. It's probably not the best, but for $20 it doesn't seem too bad.

would redo it.

If you end up sanding too much from the top, eventually, the gap on the back will start to show through as you get coser to the back.

It will be a learning experience for you to repair it.

Do it now while it is not attacjed to anything.

Thanks for the concern, but it is a little too late. I decided to listen to Drak and went ahead with gluing it to the rest of the body already. I know it would have been a good learning experience and if I ever have this problem during future projects I will try to fix it then. Thanks for the advice though, even doing it this way is a learning experience for me.

Nice pieces of woods, but I was wondering why only 20 frets?

Actually, I checked again and it is actually 21 frets. This is my first build and I didn't want to mess up the neck so I decided to get one off of ebay. The cheapest one I could find happened to have 21 frets. I would have prefered 24 frets, but this neck should do fine since it will be my first bass and I'll be learning on it. I'll try to get pictures of the neck tomorrow.

The other day I tried to glue the top to the body, but then noticed I didn't have enough glue. So I had to wait until I could get some more. Here it is being glued together. Hopefully 6 c clamps and 8 spring clamps should be enough to get a good join.

I love snow! ......despite the fact that I hate the cold. My family just decorated our house for Christmas today, but it was so hot here we had to turn on the air conditioner....not really wintery weather. Oh well, maybe we'll have some snow this year. Sorry to hear you don't like all the snow though.

Hello everybody. After lurking here for half a year I am finally starting my first real project. I don't have a bass yet, so I figured I could try making my own. I'm a little nervous, but hopefully it should turn out to be semi-decent. Don't expect this to be a professional level instrument, I will be trying to make my first build for as cheap as possible. And this will probably take me a long time to finish, but time is a good thing right? Anyway, here are the specs I want:

-Bolt-on neck (a cheap one from ebay)

-Alder body (thanks to mammothguitars for all the help)

-1/4" Flamed maple top (and a big thanks to Fryovanni)

-4 strings

-34" scale, 21 frets

-PJ bass style pickups (EMG select?)

-Gold hardware

-Finish: stained red, possibly with a black burst around the edges

I haven't done too much yet, but here is the alder I will be using. And here is a picture of the maple top I'll be using:

PS. I resized the picture so it is 640x480 on photobucket, but it still keeps coming up here 800x600. Anybody know how to fix this? I don't want to break the rules....

The glueline on the back looks like a horrible gap the whole length. I would saw it back to 2 pieces, plane and square the sides perfectly and try glueing again.

Actually when I got it, it was planed and even......I don't know what I did to make it look that bad.

I see the line you mean at the bottom, but really, that gap isn't worth the trouble of chasing after and regluing, I'd just proceed straight forward with it and have fun.

Thanks, I think that's what I'll do. This is my first build, so it is a learning process, and I just wanted to make sure it would work. I'll just avoid the bottom part of the front where the line is. Thanks everybody.

Hello everybody. I finally started my project (I'll start a progress thread soon) and just glued my maple top together. It is 1/4" thick, and I used the method from Hiscock's book. But when I glued it up, it was slightly crooked and I wanted it to be lined up perfectly. So I quickly took it apart and stuck it back together. That only took about 5 seconds, but some glue seeped out and there wasn't as much the second time I stuck the sides together. Now there the line down the middle is very visible. Does this look bad to you guys? Would it still work and be strong enough, or am I just being paranoid?

Here is a picture that shows the line at the bottom of the front. And here are more pictures of the back and front.

Does this look good enough to use for my first build? Any comments would be appreciated.

Wow! You've been a member for almost two years before your first post! Your projects look nice so far, hopefully they will all turn out as good as you hope. I'm not a big fan of the guillotine shape, but I do give you credit for originality. Keep us up to date with your progress.

That's what I thought. So it would be better to use c-clamps for gluing a top onto a body? Spring clamps would only hold it in place, but not do much to help with the join?

Just a quick question....I've searched for info about different types of clamps, but couldn't find what I was looking for. Are c-clamps like this stronger than spring clamps like this? I think the c-clamps would make a tighter joint since you can adjust the pressure, but I'm not an expert. Any thoughts?

Do you have Hiscox's book on guitar making? He includes a nice little method to glue together maple tops using a flat workbench and some nails. It needs a diagram to explain, hopefully one of the community may have a link to one. I've used the method twice now and it works pretty well if your edges are prepared properly.

Yes, I actually do have the book. I saw the brief little explanation on how he says to do it, but I have trouble understanding what he means.... what is a "batten"? I read it, but I'm still confused and the diagram doesn't help me much either. I don't suppose you could tell me how you did it in simpler words?

Thanks Primal. It seemed to me like that is what most people on this site do. Just one more question (for now )....how exactly do I glue the top together? It is too thin to clamp across it, I don't want to break it. What would be the easiest way to do it?

And sorry again for all the questions....but I like to know how to do something before I start buying parts.

Thanks desopolis. So I should glue it all together before cutting out the body. Do I glue the top together before gluing that to the rest of the body? Or glue it on top as two separate pieces?