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!
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... ;)
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!
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
As of the 17th of October 2010 - Starting work at Christian's workshop - 2 hours
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
As of Monday October 25th 2010 - At home 1 hour
As of Monday November 1st 2010 - At home - 3 hours cause I really took my time doing this.
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.
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
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
As of Sunday November 28th 2010 - Christian's workshop - 2 hours
As of Tuesday December 28th 2010 - Christian's workshop - 3 hours
As of Wednesday December 29th 2010 - Christian's workshop - 2 hours
As of Thursday December 30th 2010 - Christian's workshop - 2 hours
As of Tuesday January 4th 2010 - Christian's workshop - 3 hours
As of Wednesday January 5th 2010 - Christian's workshop - 2 hours
As of Sunday January 16th 2011 - Christian's workshop - 2 hours
As of Sunday January 30th 2011 - Christian's workshop - 3 hours
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.