dfndoe

I have MANY clamps. I'm not sure how I ended up with this many clamps actually since I don't use them very often. I appreciate that advice, but really I don't want to spend the time and effort and end up with something of really mediocre quality. The way I figure it I'm gonna keep reading and practicing techniques on scrap wood and take my time with the actual build. The difference between difficulty in fitting cheap hardware vs. more expensive hardware doesn't really seem to be a matter of skill (AFAICT) looks like making routes and bolting things together is one of the parts that is going to be basically the same (procedurally, not dimensionally) regardless of which parts I use. At any rate I'm just doing it one step at a time. I'd really like some help with figuring out what neck angle to use for a given bridge height. That info would definatly help me in the planning stages, but I can't seem to find any "rules of thumb" or antyhig to get me started.

Looks good to me

Howdy all! So I stumbled in here from google while trying to nail down information to get a project going. To give you a little background about myself; I took woodshop for a semester in highschool about 10 years ago and had a good time, but wasn't in any sort of position to continue on with a woodworking hobby as I lived in an apartment without a garage or any other place to keep my project mess and tools. In the years since I've become very handy with doing custom automotive work and even have some experience with metalwork fabrication and machining. I've never learned to play an instrument, and honestly don't think I have the desire to learn; however I do have several friends who are musicians and I have a deep desire to create something which they could appreciate and likewise they could use to create music which others can enjoy. So, I bought myself a copy of the Hiscock book and a bunch of tools. So far I have the following: A large workshop A 10" drill press A 2HP router with plunge and fixed bases A Stanley block plane A set of spoke shaves (curved and flat) A small jigsaw a 2 piece mahogany blank from lmii instrument glue wood epoxy So, for my first project I'd like to build a through body lefty 5 stringed bass. I don't know exactly what size or what material to use for a neck, although I expect it'd need to be somewhere between 46 and 48 inches long to accommodate the scale length appropriate for a 5 string bass (34 or 35 inch). Am I barking up the wrong tree with this project? Most of the tutorials I've seen seem to be for bolt on or fixed neck instruments and none of them really seem to have any information (caveats etc) with regards to building a bass guitar. I'm thinking I should probably go with a maple neck and a double truss rod to account for the strain of a long instrument strung with heavy gauge strings. Is that a good way to go? I have also been considering laminating a top sheet on the body, but I am unsure as to how that will affect the sound characteristics of the finished product. As for hardware, I'm sort of a gearhead and I really like the look of bits like Floyd Rose Tremolos, locking nuts, headless instruments, and things of that nature; I have zero clue how to pick hardware that is all going to work together and also I don't really understand how to determine a good neck angle to compliment a given bridge/trem setup. I really like the look of some customs I've seen which used Steinberger gearless tuners mounted on the body and then used through ferrules at the headstock. Any input would be greatly appreciated. And anybody with a line on a good lengthy neck blank would be doubley appreaciated Thanks in Advance -Dave