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Jared McMahon
07-26-2011, 4:53 PM
I've started my first instrument build. It's going to be an electric bass, neck-through design with hard maple and padauk laminations between khaya wings. The shape is going to be vaguely Rickenbacker-like. The work is blended, with rough stock prep on a bandsaw and the cavities and truss rod slot likely cut using a router, and the fine smoothing, shaping and other operations done using hand tools.

My initial impression of luthiery is that each individual operation is straightforward but having all the components come together accurately is going to be the real trick. Either way, it should be a fun exercise.

Below is a pic of the neck laminations roughly sized. I spent some time over the weekend planing them with my #4-1/2 and #7 to remove the saw marks. I also spent a fair bit of time tuning my bandsaw and realizing most of those saw marks never needed to happen. :O

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Jared McMahon
06-24-2013, 3:37 PM
Good lord, has it really been two years?

Well, through three job changes, several health scares, and numerous other life events, my friend and I have been working on this bass and we finally finished it last week. Someone who doesn't know much about stringed instruments would think it's gorgeous. Anyone who plays guitar would think parts of it are gorgeous and the rest is just messed up or baffling. We didn't make full sized plans, we weren't really copying a tried and true design, and we only did mock ups for a couple facets of the contstruction, and yet it still ended up not only usable but sounding like we hoped it would (as more of a funk/soul oriented bass).

We learned a ton of lessons the hard way, but it was extremely educational. And the next guitar (there will be multiple more, I think I really have the bug now) will be strides ahead of this one in accuracy, fit and finish. Gonna stick with solid body instruments for now, but my to-do list definitely includes an archtop as well as a flamenco guitar for my in-laws.

Also, please ignore the scruffy hobo in the photo. It's my evil twin. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Ken Fitzgerald
06-24-2013, 4:41 PM
Does that neck-through have some "down-low bottom end"? Nice looking bass.