6 string bass Page 1

How I got to Building my own instrument

Close up

Years of fiddling around and being curious about the touchstyle technique on the guitar and bass and not having the adequate instrument for the job.
Thinking of what I wanted and visualizing the final product.

Designing and measuring specs (truss rod, scale length, pickups, number of strings, woods selection and desired tone).

Cutting the wood strips for the body and neck. It's important to get these quartersawn for maximum strength.
Gluing everything together and start shaping after a few days of drying.
Cutting the scarf joint while everything is nice and square.
Cutting excess off from the back of the neck from 1,5 inches originally to 3/4" tapered to 5/8".
Trimming peghead to correct thickness.
Squaring off the ends of my fretboard for nice fretwork. Sides were already nice.
Fretting slots.
Cutting on the bandsaw and sanding the contour.
Flush cutting the neck to the fretboard (taper of the neck).
Laminating the rosewood to the quilted maple veneer for the peghead.
Correcting and gluing the scarf joint (neck and peghead assembly).
Routing the truss rod cavities.
Installing the trussrods.
Gluing the quilted maple and rosewood veneer to the peghead.
Gluing the fretboard.
Shaping the peghead and finishing up the bottom roundover.
Ordered my active 6 string Bartolini dual coil humbucking pickup and got it.
Shaping the neck.
Doing the fretboard inlay.
Routing the pickup and electronics cavity.
Soldering and installing the electronics.
Doing the fretwork.
Finishing up the body shaping.
Shaping Graphtech nut.
Doing the ED bass logo in inlay material...
Final sanding stages.
Multiple Tung oil treatments.
French polish finish to be waxed.
DONE!

Lots of time and lots of research...

I'm not a luthier nor a structural engineer and I'm certainly not a woodworking expert.
I'm a guy who loves a great challenge and this seems to top the list of undo-able things I chose to do. Countless hours are devoted to understanding how other companies build their basses. I ask myself how I can use all the best aspects for my bass while taking in account my desired style of playing. You gotta take some and leave some... You keep what you need and throw away the unobvious.

With this project I can mix my passion for music with my love for wood. And of course I'll be able to save some money building a touchstyle instrument myself and I'll gain excellent experience.

If you have ideas or advice, I'm all ears!

Big pieces of 2 X 8 inch planed hard maple.

It's always a nice surprise to see the grain hidden inside the big pieces.

I got the big pieces thinking I would build a bass out of a single piece of wood. Then I realized it was a lot smarter to go with quartersawn wood that can be laminated to create a bigger piece. Quartersawn wood is stronger and more stable (against tension and environmental stresses) compared to flatsawn wood. A good instrument is meant to be kept for a lifetime... ;)

Getting the job done

I hired a hand to help me with cutting my wood. First of all I don't have the room to work in my apartment. Second is I'm not sure I want to spend a few grand in machines to be able to build myself a bass.
So I took the plans I had drawn on the computer to a local custom milling shop and I got exactly what I asked for and more!

Laminating and sanding the wood strips

Test fitting the cut pieces

Note the white 1/16 maple strips are not in this pic. They were installed later on both sides of the center walnut piece.

Quartersawn pieces neatly jointed

Walnut and oak pieces were chosen from piles of wood 3/4" X 1,5" and 4 feet long. The maple was milled to same specs. Pieces are nice except for that chip in the bottom piece. Everything was cut clean off cause I had planned 2 inches on the top and the bottom for trimming.

Computer aided drawing is my best friend

I drew out plans and got them printed for 1,70$. Which is really awesome cause hiring someone to draw these out would of cost me a few hundred bucks for sure! It's also a lot of fun to design on the computer, less pencil sharpening and less dirty hands. :)

Plans help put things into perspective

If you're working without plans you can be really deceived when your measurements don't add up. It just makes sense to either buy one or make one yourself.

As of the 17th of October 2010 - Starting work at Christian's workshop - 2 hours

Doing scarf joint on head

I wanted to do the scarf joint while everything was still nice and square. We made a jig out of pine lumber for the 15 degree scarf joint. The contour and the thickness will be done later.

15 degrees is pretty standard

My piece was too wide for the table saw so we cut it on a huge industrial band saw with a 3/4 inch blade. The cut is real straight but does need a bit of 100 grit sanding to smoothen it out.

Neck taper was done on a huge jointer.

Not all the material was taken off the back of the neck but we did put shims under our piece at the tail end to achieve correct angle for the neck. Naturally everything we are doing with machines could be done manually. We know that machines when properly adjusted will have much better reproducibility (doing the same cut consistently). But I do have to admit I enjoy learning new machines and knowing how to operate and perform maintenance on them. Great xp... I'll be ready to level up soon... :)

As of Sunday October 24th 2010 - Christian's workshop - 2.5 hours

Taper and bulk material taken off the neck

Seeing that this bass is a neckthrough that means working on the neck while swinging a big slab of thick hardwood stuck to it. It can get tricky. We can clearly see the radius of the jointer blade and I may actually integrate this into the heel design. Slight taper in the neck is barely visible but it goes from 3/4 to 5/8 inch in thickness.

Pieces aligned at the peghead

The peghead was trimmed with the band saw a little thicker than a half an inch. The bulk of the neck material is taken off the back of the neck right beside the line. I still need to take the material off to the line and make sure my scarf joint is right, glued correctly and that it will hold the string tension. The contour needs to be done before the gluing of the scarf joint. The reason for this is that the angle in the peghead will be in the way when shaping the body. I'll be doing the fretboard at home (sanding, inlay and fretwork).

Cocobolo rosewood fretboard 1/4 inch thick

I made sure my end piece that goes on the top against the nut was perfectly squared off. This face becomes my reference for measuring the fretwork and for installing the nut.

End piece of fretboard

Sorry for the pic... I just wanted to show the importance of having this piece square on all sides. I can't wait to start the fretboard. Maple test pieces will be used to practice my inlaying skills (this is a first for me). But I may just use a forsner bit for the pearl dots and see later on for the inlay work.

As of Monday October 25th 2010 - At home 1 hour

Marking out the fretboard for the cuts

My scale length is 34 inches. The 12th fret is exactly half way at 17 inches from my fretnut plus the distance to the nut equals 18. You see, I have an extra fret that acts like the basic nut you would have on a normal setup. That's why I called it a fretnut cause it's both at the same time. It enables me to play this bass touchstyle or not. I simply put a capo on the first fret and it's becomes an open string fretnut for normal bassplay. Otherwise you take the capo off and use the damper for the muted touchstyle playing and you simply have to press in the fretnut if you want that deep B note on the big string.

Doing it the hard way

Digital calipers help but not as much as a specialized miter box that controls depth of cut and perfect positioning with a very precise aluminum template. Get ready to sit back and measure and measure and measure, then draw the line....

As of Monday November 1st 2010 - At home - 3 hours cause I really took my time doing this.

Looking good up to date

I was shaking like a leaf when I first started sawing the frets but when everything is nice and tight the saw doesn't move at all and you get excellent results.

Getting close to the end

Having the right tools are essential for doing a decent job. I'd like to send a big thanks to Stephan for lending me his super special miter box!

Woohoo macro photography!

We are looking at a macro picture I took of a fret slot. Believe it or not this slot is only 0.023 inches wide but it looks huge in this picture. I am really impressed with the clean cuts performed by this Japanese fretting saw.

Oh and I made sure to keep a good portion of the dust to mix in with the epoxy for when I'll inlay my quarter inch pearl dots.

As of Saturday November 20th 2010 - Christian's workshop - 3 hours

Forsener bits rock

This 1/4 inch forsener bit did a perfect job. The inlay I have peaks out about 10 or 20 thousands of an inch, just enough for gluing and flush sanding at the end. These will be installed after the neck is glued in place because some of those holes are actually screw holes for proper gluing of the fretboard later on.

Contour coming to life

It's looks more like an instrument now. The contour was cut close to the line with the bandsaw. Then it was sanded to the line with a three inch drum sander on the drill press.

Top side with plans glued on

I can't wait to play this thing!

As of Sunday November 21st 2010 - Christian's workshop - 2 hours

Neck needs rounding on the backside

The neck was flush cut with the router using the fretboard as a reference. So now it needs a radius which will be done using rasps, files and a spokeshave.

I threw in this rounded-top fretboard design and I love how it looks with the rest.

Flushcut

Little signs of heat but that can be easily sanded away.

Back of headstock

This area needed a bit of sanding to get a nice flat gluing surface for the scarf joint. I kept plenty of wood on the sides for the final head shape.

Heel

Lots of work here. I'm not sure at all what this is gonna look like at the end. I guess I'll have to improvise and design on the fly!:) You can see the router burn marks where I stopped flush cutting.

As of Sunday November 28th 2010 - Christian's workshop - 2 hours

Nice shavings!

I realized that hand planing really required talent. So I really took my time and checking constantly with a straight edge for a nice gluing surface. Having nice shavings tells you that you have a nice cut and a smooth finish.

Scarf joint dry fit

Looks good to me. That's about ready to be glued together. Now that I look at it.... It's a ugly joint and I glued sli

As of Tuesday December 28th 2010 - Christian's workshop - 3 hours

First of two trussrod slots.

These slots are one quarter inch wide and 3/8th deep with a slight widening at the nut part.

I also felt it was a good time to dig in the wood at the nut end for the peghead cap.

Here's the setup...

1/4 inch HSS router bit in a laminate trimmer guided by 1/4 inch MDF cut straight on the tablesaw. Holes were cut at the beginning of the rout with a slightly bigger diameter for easier routing. 1/8th deep passes to the 3/8th mark.

Where the body and neck meet...

This was quite tricky since I didn't want to gouge into the corners with the chisels and nor did I want to sand too much in those corners either. Once again taking your time pays off in this scenario. This is ready for neck shaping now.

Scarf joint glued in place.

This joint has a tendency to slip if you don't watch it carefully. You can see that my lines don't align because the joint slips naturally, but I'll be able to correct that surface with a hand plane. That will be ready for contour shaping tomorrow! Woohoo!

As of Wednesday December 29th 2010 - Christian's workshop - 2 hours

Peghead is coming alive and rough contour done

Gluing is complete but kinda crooked. It's off by about 1/16th of an inch and that will only show on the back side. The front side will have a rosewood and quilted maple veneer over it. This peghead surface still needs to be hand planed completely flat for proper gluing of the final layer of veneer. The hole to receive the allen key in the trussrods is kinda ugly but I improvised and it will only be visible when opening the truss rod cover. I may just hand sand that to smooth everything and make everything nice and neat.

Near flat

That surface is just about ready for gluing. Final passes all over to get those bandsaw marks away. A mini-block of wood with sanding paper will be used to sand and clean up those corners towards the neck.
Final contour shaping on the peghead is important since I will be flush routing the top veneers by using that surface as reference.

As of Thursday December 30th 2010 - Christian's workshop - 2 hours

Unglued full neck and peghead layout

A fair amount of hours yet until it is finished but it's coming along nicely. I think it's time for me to get those Bartolini pickups because it will soon be time to start routing the pickup cavity and the rear access cavity.

Another quick shot...

The bridge, the pickup, the nut and the tuners are black. The body looks real pale under fluorescent lighting or maybe it's my camera, but it looks a lot better in real life, and will look even better once it has a few coats of clear.

As of Tuesday January 4th 2010 - Christian's workshop - 3 hours

Fretboard in place

Fresh out of the clamps after 24 hours of drying. This is ready to inlay and do the fretwork.

Peghead veneer not trimmed

Oh yes, you saw right. That's a small screw right there. Sitting a little low so that the clamping beam is flush with the fretboard and not on the screw. These screws worked perfectly for aligning and correct placement when gluing the fretboard in place.

As of Wednesday January 5th 2010 - Christian's workshop - 2 hours

Fretboard end needs sanding

The tape came off with much patience. Now this end needs some finishing sanding for it to get a nice shine.

Peghead almost finished

You can see the two trussrods just sitting under the nut slot. That veneer will need to be cut in so we can ajust the trussrods. A small triangle of pickguard material will be used for the trussrod cap or I may use some more quilted maple? ;)

Looking good...

This rounded peghead part still needs some work close to the nut. In my opinion, oak end grain is interesting but not very appealing. The peghead now needs to be rounded over with the router. Small roundover on the top (smaller than 1/4 inch) and a bigger 1/4 inch on the bottom.

Sand and sand and sand

Quilted maple looks nice in the light.

Can't wait to continue!

As of Sunday January 16th 2011 - Christian's workshop - 2 hours

Top of peghead

The roundover was routed and sanded. More sanding is needed to make everything come together.

1/4 inch roundover on back of peghead

A fair part of the back of the peghead has to be done by hand but most of is machined to save time.

E.D. logo

I printed my logo and placed it quickly so I could decide what size was right. The logo will be made out of inlaid wood. The back of the peghead will be roundedover as well.

A little shaping right here

The peghead has to meet with the curved neck so that will be done with rasps and small curved files.

As of Sunday January 30th 2011 - Christian's workshop - 3 hours

The back of the body

Roundover was done with a 3/8th bit. This will need a light sanding for a consistent look and feel. Later on some shapes will be cut the back to make the instrument more comfortable.

I did my homework!

I folded a piece of card and cut from the middle to the top. That way both sides are identical. Each template fits either the top or the bottom of the neck. I'll see how the neck feels after we have a first shaping.

Here are the steps...

Step 1 is to bring the corner of the neck flat to join the two lines. Step 2 involves rounding over the remaining corners to fit in the template.

Lines to guide the initial shaping

I start at either end and create the correct radius. Then I use a spokeshave to round everything over from one end to the other in one continuous stroke.

Rough neck shaping

I'll need to rehone by bevel on the spokeshave blade before I do the final passes.

Getting pretty close now...

These templates are cheap, fast to make and essential if you wanna see how your progress is coming along.

Rough shiny neck

The spokeshave was honed with 2000 grit for a nice cut. It will be resharpened to do the final finishing passes. Woohoo manual work! I got my workout today and I won't need to go to the gym. :P

Last updated on Sunday May 28th 2017.