Bass Guitar repair and installation topics.
This is a continuation from part 5. Below: Although the neck and the body look flush to each other, they are not (the body is sitting slightly proud of the neck). Shaping will be required to make sure these two pieces are flush to each other. Below: Masking tape is applied to the neck as … Read more
This is a continuation from part 4. Below: Body has been clamped into upright position. Below: The tool we’ll be using here is a handheld pneumatic drum sander (otherwise known as bladder sander) with 2.5-inch cylinder, connected to a cordless drill. Below: Using the handheld pneumatic drum sander. The advantage of using this tool is … Read more
This is a continuation from part 3. Below: The body is clamped to table to show current state of the build before work continues. Below: View of the upper horn. A flat spot still exists on the side that needs to be taken care of and blended into the curve. Below: The rasp file is … Read more
This is a continuation from part 2. Below: A look at the contour cut before cutting begins. Note the pronounced edges; these will be rounded off. Below: Filing is about to begin. Below: The cut after filing (approximately under a minute of filing was required to get this shape). Below: View of upper horn. Note … Read more
In a few articles from our how to build a bass guitar series, you’ve seen this thing in use. This is called a rasp. Generally speaking, there are two versions of this available, coarse and fine. Which should you get? Preferably both. What makes a rasp so useful? There are three main reasons why this … Read more
This build step is a continuation from part 1 where more finalizing of the body shape is done. Below: The body is clamped to table using scrap blocks Below: A look at how sharp this corner is presently. We will be blending this so that everything appears round(er) when finished. Below: The rasp is used … Read more
In this first part of this build step, we shape some more using a combination of both hand and power sanding with the goal of finalizing the overall shape. (Note: Since this step is split into parts, the tools shown will be shown over a series of articles.) Below: The body with rasp sitting on … Read more
What you see above is a photo of Tom Ambrose, owner of what looks like an ordinary Jazz Bass from a quick glance. But it’s anything but ordinary. Now before we get into the instrument you see above, there are a lot of Jazz Bass owners who love the idea of stuffing a preamp into … Read more
You may have noticed in our bass build series of articles that when drawing is required, a mechanical pencil is used. But why? Why bother spending extra money on mechanical pencils when regular wood pencils are cheap and readily available? There are actually a few good reasons why the mechanical pencil is a requirement. 1. … Read more
For this step, there are basically two ways of getting it done. The first way is by hand, and the second way is using what’s known as a roundover bit. What will be shown here is how it’s done using the latter. Below: This is where we left off last time. All the body edges … Read more
