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Hank Walczak
08-24-2004, 11:21 PM
I’ve finished my first prototype bass guitar (5 string) and will be making more. All of them will be made to order with custom bodies, pick-ups, bridges, tuners, etc. Anyone familiar with guitar engineering/design criteria? My prototype just used dimensions from an existing guitar.

Tyler Howell
08-25-2004, 12:42 AM
Welcome Hank ,

Judging by your content and the date of entry your new and don't fully understand all the rules. You start talking hand crafted bass guitar you better be ready to back it up with pix :mad: . I'm one of the nice ones and will let you off easy but there are some Picture Nazis that are real mean in this group so quick before anyone sees this get some pix posted:rolleyes: :p .

All Band Saw (BS) aside it's a good bunch and there are some talented music and instument makers in the Creek. Great place to hang out on a hot summer day.;)

Gary Whitt
08-25-2004, 8:36 AM
I helped build my last 5 string of curly maple.
I'm starting on a walnut 5 string now.

It is a fun and rewarding hobby.

Hank Walczak
08-25-2004, 5:06 PM
Gary - I see a banjo in your pic. Did you build a guitar or banjo? If a bass guitar, what engineering guidelines did you use?

Chris Padilla
08-25-2004, 5:20 PM
Hey Hank,

Welcome to the creek...feel free to wade in anytime and don't worry about that Tyler fellow...he hasn't taken his pink pills for a week now... ;)

We are big on posting pictures here so we'd love to see your work!

Hank Walczak
08-25-2004, 7:50 PM
The pic of the prototype - construction/design process was the primary consideration:

Chris Padilla
08-25-2004, 8:18 PM
Ooohhh...looks like a nice cutting board of maple and walnut??? :) Very nice.

David Klug
08-25-2004, 8:59 PM
Chris....... Boy do you know how to win friends and influence people. lol

DK

Gary Whitt
08-26-2004, 8:46 AM
Have you tried either of these?

Stewart-McDonald
http://www.stewmac.com/


First Quality Musical Supplies
http://www.fqms.com/


Stewart-McDonald has more on the lines of electric instruments.

Tom LaRussa
08-27-2004, 9:43 AM
Anyone familiar with guitar engineering/design criteria?
I'm not, but the folks over at the Musical Instrument Makers' Forum are:

http://www.mimf.com/cgi-bin/WebX

HTH,

Tom

:)

Tyler Howell
08-27-2004, 9:53 AM
Smokin Hank!

How does she play and sound??;)

Hank Walczak
08-27-2004, 12:42 PM
Tom - Thanks for the info. Great site. It will definitely be useful.

Hank Walczak
08-27-2004, 12:46 PM
Tyler - My son's the player... He's in a rock band in Detroit. I'm just a contractor for him:D! What does he play? - 5 string bass of course.

Jim Fancher
10-08-2004, 4:26 PM
Nice! I'd love to see more pics if you have them.

Hank Walczak
10-08-2004, 8:08 PM
Jim - The one pictured was shipped. Current project is only in the blank glue-up process. I'll be using more exotic woods in the next one. You build?

Jim Fancher
10-26-2004, 2:57 PM
I haven't tried my hand at it yet. I've ordered a couple of catalogs and have been doing a good bit of daydreaming on the subject. :)

Jamey Amrine
10-26-2004, 3:13 PM
I have built two banjos, and have an electric guitar started, but not by much. In the future I am planning a couple of more banjos, two flattop acoustic guitars, an archtop acoustic guitar, and maybe a fiddle. Lately, that all has taken a back seat to getting the shop done for winter. Here is the latest banjo (a fretless):

Hank Walczak
10-26-2004, 8:40 PM
Jamie - Nice work. Did you do your own bending or was the body a factory item? Had some thoughts about trying an acoustic guitar but thought it would be too difficult to assemble all the equipment to accomplish the bending/forming and assembly. Am I wrong? I'll be trying to build a neck from scratch instead of using a "store bought" one for the next one I do. It may be more difficult than I think but the cost savings would be pretty large.

Jamey Amrine
10-27-2004, 10:02 AM
Hank, the rim is actually a comercial rim made for snare drums. Most of the comercially available banjo rims are around 3/4" thick, but a thinner rim gives a deeper tone, which is what I was going for on this banjo, so I tracked down the drum rim on ebay. Steam bending for the rims is supposed to be easy, but it takes some time and setup and can lead to some failed attempts, so rather than throw away wood, I would rather purchase the rim.

I would go for it on the side bending. Bending around a hot pipe is supposed to be much easier than you would think, and actually one of the more pleasant parts of building, according to some luthiers I have talked to. You can also build a pretty simple bending machine. Check out www.mimf.com (http://www.mimf.com) for some good info. Also, look up the guitarmaking book by Cumpiano. It is not exhaustive, but does have a lot of good info.

Oh, and making the neck was my favorite part from this banjo. It is so satisfying. Buy a two-handled microplane, and use that to shape the neck after you have the side profile cut out. A good reference for building necks for electric instruments is the electric guitar book by Melvin Hiscock.

-Jamey