Lutherie

Just something I've gotten into recently.

I'm making a telebass (not from scratch - not that good yet)


Before the sanding



After the sanding






Still got a bit more shaping to do, but it's almost done.

After that, I'm gonna finishing sanding down the rest of the body (I have most of it sanded down already).

Skoldy Woldy,
Welcome home scooter! That bass looks nice. how much of it is you and how much store bought?
Phip

A Tele-bass? Sounds pretty cool. I've always hated the Telecaster shape, but on a bass it should look pretty sweet.

sweet. sounds fun!

really hate the shape of the tele but you got a pic of slash and a LP for your profile.....you know the tele and the les paur and the same basic shape.

Hey TheAmericanBrit

is that from a kit?

To me Les Pauls and Teles are completely different guitars. sound and looks. Teles look really boring to me. Les Paul the opposite. Just a matter of opinion.

It's just my old Squier.

Kit?

the basic body shape they are the same. but you should spend some quality time with a tele, and you'll walk away with a different attitude.

I just don't like them. I highly doubht I will too, when I already have a Fender Strat.

This older guy a friend and I helped out with playing at some public event deals bought a Telecaster. I think he got it for around $500 at this sale in a nearby music store. It sounds freakin' amazing. I wasn't predisposed to liking or disliking Teles when he got it, and after hearing and playing that, I love them. Granted, mostly for the sound, but still.

right Tele's do sound amazing but they don't have the "cool" factor like a lot of LP's and starts. But i think anyone who borrows one and spends a week playing it will love them.

I absolutely love G&L Tele's.

Tele's are more about the sound than the look.

teles look really classy, which is something i am very not

That's like saying you're not gonna like the Chocolate Ice Cream because you already have the Vanilla Ice Cream.

Strats and Tele's are definitely different.

What is up with all these people making Tele-basses? I have a friend studying to be a luthier in Minnesota who's making one as well.

did you turn a regular guitar into a bass?

I looked at becoming a guitar builder and almost did it but when it came to it i was afraid i would not be able to make a living doing it. There is this school in pheonix I was looking at going to.

foogered

Tele basses are making a come back like disco, bellbottoms, and sweatbands.

not disco!

That sounds like fun, I'd love to create and play an instrument. And It'd make sure I keep at it as I wouldn't want to waste all that work too! Even if it would've been made by myself just a little, I just hate the waste!

Make sure to send pictures when your bass is finished, I'm curious.

Yeah, it would be great fun, but it doesn't exactly offer a stable income. The luthier at one of the local music stores in my hometown is a great guy, and an even greater technician, and he gets pretty much all of the business in town.

The neck after a nice few coats of Polycrylic (me like shiny!)




The more tele-like headstock




The back of the body completely sanded down and with a coat of Polycrylic







The pics don't quite do the body justice.

The front of the body completely sanded down (with a coat of Poly).







The parts of the body that look kinda bad are covered by the pickguard, so no worries.

I've done about 2 coats of poly on the front, so everything should be done by morning.

Good work actually. It's always fun building your instrument. How do you feel about it so far?

looks more like a strat than a tele

I'm not gonna make everything like a tele. Plus, I don't have a scroll saw, so I don't really have a choice.

How do I feel about it? Feel pretty good. I could've just bought one, but I think it becomes personal when you do it yourself.

Yeah I agree, I plan on building one sometime soon. I think it's more fun too. You also know exactly how you want it to be.

Are you going to paint over it, or leave it "natural"? (I'm assuming natural, since the poly)

I think natural with a black pickguard would look awesome! This is a really good job.

I'm thinking about making a wooden pickguard out of cocobolo.

Oh, that would be even better. I would have a look at bloodwood as well, since it also has a nice deep reddish color like cocobolo. I think cocobolo has a better look overall though, since bloodwood is kinda plain.

Bass w/ bloodwood top:

Nice work!, darn I Admire who have skill for that. What is more cool than unique guitar with pro pickups and stuff. I fancy trying someday too when I got spare money...

I did something like this with and old washburn bass i had several years ago. in fact i never finished it. The bass had lost some wood where the input jack was and there was a paint crack in the body. Also there was some problems with a few of the frets.

So i striped the pain and refinished it. I also yanked the freats out and replaced the slots with wood and it became a fretless bass. (fretless insterments are kinda a *** to play) It's all done except the electronics but i never got around to it. Maybe I should revisit it....I'll dig it out and post some pictures.

Here are some pics of my little bass project several years ago.

Could've used a different choice of wood to fill in the gaps, but it's cool. I would carve out a new headstock, though.

does it work well, ive heard freless guitars re hard to play, whyd you tak the pickups out?

It's not finished, EMB. You take everything out when working on instruments, lol.

Fretless aren't hard to play. But, as a beginner, you'll probably need to watch what you;re doing seeing as you can't just feel your way around the frets.

I filled in the gap's with the same tpye of wood but the way the break was it was tough to do. I considered painting it a solod color but i like staied wood.

I moved the input jack from the front of the guitar to the end more like a les paul to prevent this type of wood splinter again.

For the fret slots I used a soft redish wood I cant remember what the type was but i cut a bunch of this strips and wedged it in and then sanded a way the excess. when the frts came out they splinted some of the fretboard.

This was my first bass guitar i bought in the 90's sometime (Nirvana was still alive and kicking)

The bass is tough to play because the action is a bit high on the upper frets. I had the electornics put in but not fastended down and when you turn the bass up it sounds like a stand up bass. I'm concerned that since there are not frets that if you play it alot that the fretboard would get torn up.

It has tounge oil finish on it for a satin type finish. Basically i just licked it until it was smooth.

I've also got a gibson SG in the garage that is all funked up i've been wanting to work on but not sure how to go about it. I got it at a pawn show for $60 or so and it was painted had laytex house. They also cut all kinds of holes in it. That my be my summer project, well see.

the action is should be fixable by ether adjusting the saddles and/or the truss rod. that and you might need to fix the nut because it was sized for frets. and if you worried about the strings taring up the fret broad you can get flatwound strings and if i remember correctly there might be some short of wax you can rub on but that could be my imagination messing with me and confusing it with something else.

also, through it really doesn't matter what i think about it, but i like the color of the natural wood i won't paint it

hey skold...what kind of tools do u use for shaping the bass and how much does it cost to u including the electronic componets???...im wishing to create one for me...but i dont really know anything about carving and those things...

Looks great Skold. I also like Telecraters, they really do look just like the ones in the shop windows. If I attempted to build up my own I'd probebly ruin it somehow, like I always do.