See the business listing for this bass builder here The feature bass for this week happened from a desire to “test” fanned frets. Cristian Huidobro owns this instrument, and it was built by Alfonso Iturra. Cristian writes: Some years ago, I was entertaining the notion of testing fanned frets. I saw some really great another-famed-fanned-frets-brad … Read more
The song Ramble On is well known to any John Paul Jones (bassist for Led Zeppelin) fan. What isn’t well known however is the vibrato John put into his playing for this particular song. While true you can clearly hear good bass tone in the original studio recording of Ramble On, some of what John … Read more
In this build step, the treble side rib is cut. A mistake was made where the cut wasn’t exactly flush so a chisel (not seen in the first photo below but seen later on) had to be used. Where wood is concerned, sometimes (or rather oftentimes) things don’t always go according to plan, so you … Read more
See the business listing for this bass builder here The original idea for this bass was to build a 9 or 10-string, but ended up with 7 instead. Builder Thomas Juehne writes: You featured the bass I built for my son in a Best Bass Gear email “How a father made his son a dream … Read more
This is a continuation of part 1. The remainder of the body is being cut out. Below: Continuing to cut around the lower horn. Below: Beginning to cut the neck area. The cut distance from the pencil line has been purposely increased from a 1/16″ distance to 1/8″; this keeps the standing rib from breaking … Read more
The feature bass player for this week is Don Lauder from San Diego, California! Don is a metal bass player that captures great tones (heard in the video below). We interviewed Don and this is what he had to say. Is the Spector bass seen in your video stock, or has it been modified? (If … Read more
See the business listing for this bass builder here Maurice’s basses have graced our pages before and does so again with this gorgeous 5-string fretless. Maurice writes: This is a bass that was commissioned by Sandeep Rassaily from Nepal. He is a well known bassist who plays in local bands in Pokhara and Kathmandu. Sandeep … Read more
In this build step, the band saw is put to use to cut more wood excess away from the body to get it closer to its finalized shape. Below: Showing the body before cutting starts. The larger wood excess has been cut away previously, and in this step we’re slimming it down even further. No … Read more
The feature bass this week is a unique standup cutaway. Here is the story of the build: This is an old plywood top bass that was restored by Scotty Jackson of Scotty Jackson Violins in Gainesville, FL. He called me one day and said that he had something he’d never seen in all his 35 … Read more
You would be surprised at how many bassists – even for ones that build basses – don’t always install strings correctly. It is common that many new bass players aren’t aware that on a slotted tuner (which accounts for most bass tuners,) you’re supposed to insert string straight down the center hole for use as … Read more
