4 ms·

Building an Electric Bass

33 points by sizzle 13y ago

coldcode 13y ago
As a bass player I find it fascinating but beyond my ability. In any case my Peavy is so heavy I can use it as a bullet shield which he can't :-)
okonomiyaki3000 13y ago
I didn't read the article but I thought the electric bass was perfected years ago: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Mouth_Billy_Bass http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Mouth_Billy_Bass
robert_tweed 13y ago
Building a bolt-neck solid body electric guitar/bass isn't all that difficult unless you make the neck & fretboard, which is the most complicated bit (also assuming you're not crazy enough to want to wind your own pickups). Anyone interested in giving it a go would probably be best to start with something based on the classic Fender Strat/Tele, because compatible necks and other parts are available cheaply (search on eBay, esp. China). You can always upgrade it in the future too, if you decide you want a real US Fender birds-eye maple neck or something; start with something cheap in case it doesn't work out. You can of course, go wild with the body design, as that's the only part you really need to make yourself. This is a good book that covers all the basic techniques: http://www.melvynhiscock.com/MYOEG.html http://www.melvynhiscock.com/MYOEG.html It's also pretty good to read if you are just interested in knowing more about how a guitar works and how to set it up correctly. Just be aware that the main requirement other than patience is space, as you will get wood dust everywhere. You will also need somewhere dust-free to hang the guitar if you intend to paint/lacquer it. A shed would be ideal, although some people apparently just hang the guitar outside to paint - this won't work anywhere that it might rain, as it needs to hang for at least a couple of days per coat.
daeken 13y ago
For the last 6 months or so, my life has been dominated by musical instruments, both playing them and modifying them. Ended up building a workshop for guitars because of it. Lately, I've been doing research into CNCing all the wooden parts of a guitar -- doing the whole body, the top, the neck, and the fretboard. I'm hoping to do a trial run in the next few months, if all goes to plan. For those who aren't aware, renting time on a CNC is cheap. I found a nearby Shopbot that was being rented for about $30/hour. Estimating a total milling time of about 8 hours (to be very conservative), I'm looking at all of $240 to do the majority of the construction; pretty cheap, when you consider that a nice custom instrument can easily run $3k.
- badsock 13y ago
  Good plan! I made an electric tenor violin once (twice as big as a regular violin). The only difficult part of it was the fingerboard - very complex because it's curved in all three dimensions. It can take a luthier who knows what they're doing a couple of hours: certainly beyond my woodworking skills. Ended up writing a python script that figured out the geometry and dumped out STL, which I then sent to a small CNC shop. Turned out perfectly, and left me with the impression that electric instruments are especially strong candidates for this kind of manufacturing.
gooseyard 13y ago
here's an extremely engrossing thread on building a clone of the coveted Gibson '59 Les Paul (strangely enough, on a forum about Fender Telecasters). http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tele-home-depot/194271-1959-les-paul-build.html http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tele-home-depot/194271-1959-les-p... the mixture of meticulous attention to detail (he rolled his own bumblebee caps) and sometimes simple yet clever methods was a joy to read.
danbmil99 13y ago
My friend and I built a couple fretted basses and guitars many years ago. We built the necks ourselves. Fretting is not as hard as you might imagine. The basic math for the fret positions is straightforward: each semitone lower in pitch is 1.059463 2**(1.0/12) farther from the bridge than the last. The fret wire is readily available. The nut may need to be a bit closer to the first fret than the math dictates, to account for its being a bit higher than the frets. Building instruments by hand is very rewarding.

33 points by sizzle 13y ago

As a bass player I find it fascinating but beyond my ability. In any case my Peavy is so heavy I can use it as a bullet shield which he can't :-)

okonomiyaki3000 13y ago

I didn't read the article but I thought the electric bass was perfected years ago: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Mouth_Billy_Bass http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Mouth_Billy_Bass

robert_tweed 13y ago

Building a bolt-neck solid body electric guitar/bass isn't all that difficult unless you make the neck & fretboard, which is the most complicated bit (also assuming you're not crazy enough to want to wind your own pickups). Anyone interested in giving it a go would probably be best to start with something based on the classic Fender Strat/Tele, because compatible necks and other parts are available cheaply (search on eBay, esp. China). You can always upgrade it in the future too, if you decide you want a real US Fender birds-eye maple neck or something; start with something cheap in case it doesn't work out. You can of course, go wild with the body design, as that's the only part you really need to make yourself. This is a good book that covers all the basic techniques: http://www.melvynhiscock.com/MYOEG.html http://www.melvynhiscock.com/MYOEG.html It's also pretty good to read if you are just interested in knowing more about how a guitar works and how to set it up correctly. Just be aware that the main requirement other than patience is space, as you will get wood dust everywhere. You will also need somewhere dust-free to hang the guitar if you intend to paint/lacquer it. A shed would be ideal, although some people apparently just hang the guitar outside to paint - this won't work anywhere that it might rain, as it needs to hang for at least a couple of days per coat.

daeken 13y ago

For the last 6 months or so, my life has been dominated by musical instruments, both playing them and modifying them. Ended up building a workshop for guitars because of it. Lately, I've been doing research into CNCing all the wooden parts of a guitar -- doing the whole body, the top, the neck, and the fretboard. I'm hoping to do a trial run in the next few months, if all goes to plan. For those who aren't aware, renting time on a CNC is cheap. I found a nearby Shopbot that was being rented for about $30/hour. Estimating a total milling time of about 8 hours (to be very conservative), I'm looking at all of $240 to do the majority of the construction; pretty cheap, when you consider that a nice custom instrument can easily run $3k.

badsock 13y ago
Good plan! I made an electric tenor violin once (twice as big as a regular violin). The only difficult part of it was the fingerboard - very complex because it's curved in all three dimensions. It can take a luthier who knows what they're doing a couple of hours: certainly beyond my woodworking skills. Ended up writing a python script that figured out the geometry and dumped out STL, which I then sent to a small CNC shop. Turned out perfectly, and left me with the impression that electric instruments are especially strong candidates for this kind of manufacturing.

gooseyard 13y ago

here's an extremely engrossing thread on building a clone of the coveted Gibson '59 Les Paul (strangely enough, on a forum about Fender Telecasters). http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tele-home-depot/194271-1959-les-paul-build.html http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tele-home-depot/194271-1959-les-p... the mixture of meticulous attention to detail (he rolled his own bumblebee caps) and sometimes simple yet clever methods was a joy to read.

danbmil99 13y ago

My friend and I built a couple fretted basses and guitars many years ago. We built the necks ourselves. Fretting is not as hard as you might imagine. The basic math for the fret positions is straightforward: each semitone lower in pitch is 1.059463 2**(1.0/12) farther from the bridge than the last. The fret wire is readily available. The nut may need to be a bit closer to the first fret than the math dictates, to account for its being a bit higher than the frets. Building instruments by hand is very rewarding.