Thread: My basses

Phil,

Nice looking basses (and that's coming from an old guitarist).

I don't know if you've spent much time at MIMF forums but your fretless reminds me of an 8 string bass I saw there probably 3 years ago, it was "neck-through" but the guy had made the neck from alternating sections of Purpleheart and (I think) Maple and each section was tapered to correspond with the increasing width of the neck. He also made the bridge out of brass......an awesome bit of gear.

Swwwwwweeeet!

Claypool would be pleased...

Originally Posted by HiString

Phil,

Nice looking basses (and that's coming from an old guitarist).

I don't know if you've spent much time at MIMF forums but your fretless reminds me of an 8 string bass I saw there probably 3 years ago, it was "neck-through" but the guy had made the neck from alternating sections of Purpleheart and (I think) Maple and each section was tapered to correspond with the increasing width of the neck. He also made the bridge out of brass......an awesome bit of gear.

I do spend some time on the MIMF but not as much time as I spend on projectguitar and talkbass. I remember that one particular bass, it was a pretty impressive piece of woodwork and to top it off it was this guy's first instrument :eek: I've been wanting to build my own bridge since then. I even bought end mill bits for my drill press and some brass stock. Whenever I get the time i'll start playing around with this.

Harry, I love Les!!! I build the fretless one just to play Tommy The Cat (which I can't play anyway)

Very nice work Phil. I'd like to see WIP postings of your latest build.
Some questions:
1) What are the timbers on the 6 string
2) What pickups are you using?

Cheers

I'll post some pics of the ongoing one when I get a little bit further along with it.

For the fretless you'e got rock maple and purpleheart for the neck. Figured maple, purpleheart and wenge for the fretboard. for the body wings: mahogany core, olive top and back and wenge veneer accent lines. For the body center laminates: ash, wenge veneer and purpleheart.

I handbuild my own pickups, it's easy and cheap. There's no voodoo in there like pickup manufacturers will lead you to believe.

You can see the complete build of my two first from A to Z on my website in my signature.

With over four decades of playing guitar behind me I don't have the urge to build a guitar, however, I am involved with making round cylindrical things with psuedo animal hide stretched over the ends so you can belt the crap out of them with bits of wood . I figure I can't do any better guitar wise than what we already have.............although this is my son's and my collection as it was a couple of years ago. Most of the back row have been sold as well as the PRS and one or two more added and the old "hacks" didn't make it into this pic.

Somebody really likes Les Pauls over there huh?
So you're a woodworker, you build drums and you never wanted to build a guitar???!!
You're going to have to get to it now that we've got a forum

Originally Posted by HiString

With over four decades of playing guitar behind me I don't have the urge to build a guitar, however, I am involved with making round cylindrical things with psuedo animal hide stretched over the ends so you can belt the crap out of them with bits of wood . I figure I can't do any better guitar wise than what we already have.............although this is my son's and my collection as it was a couple of years ago. Most of the back row have been sold as well as the PRS and one or two more added and the old "hacks" didn't make it into this pic.

Build a banjo and you got both.

Phil,

I just (accidently) stumbled across a pic of that 8 string bass, I knew I had a copy of it somewhere, anyways, I figured I stick it here......

Dont know about those stripes on the back of the instrument....I can imagine some drugged out rocker picking up the bass and playing it back to front thinking the stripes were the strings

Originally Posted by HiString

Phil,

I just (accidently) stumbled across a pic of that 8 string bass, I knew I had a copy of it somewhere, anyways, I figured I stick it here......

Amazing bass. That thing has got to be soooo heavy with all that purpleheart.