The feature bass this week is a fretless with a nice selection of woods and an upscale appearance. Owner Ashley Gray writes: Custom made in 1998 to my own specifications by the late Rod Button, luthier of Weston-super-Mare. The body of this superb six-string fretless bass is Walnut, faced with burr Elm and bound with … Read more
Why do we do this? To smooth the transition from the peghead face to the edge of the fingerboard. Do all headstocks require scalloping? No. Fender style headstocks require scalloping due to the curve of the peghead face. Pitched bevel headstocks do not require scalloping due to the fact the face is flat. What is … Read more
See the business listing for this bass builder here This week’s feature bass has a generous amount of buckeye burl to it. Builder Stephen from Ziegenfuss Guitars at www.ziegenfussguitars.com writes: This bass was a fun commission for a new customer. I have never had the pleasure of building with buckeye burl, and frankly avoided the … Read more
Inlay material An inlay material can be almost anything as long as it can be installed in a fingerboard. Examples of inlay materials are plastic, abalone, mother-of-pearl, stone, shell, acrylic and so on. Some examples of inlay materials (there are many): However, the easy route is to use premade inlay set of discs for standard … Read more
See the business listing for this bass builder here A pleasant gold top makes an appearance for this week’s feature bass. Builder Keith Montgomery from www.montgomery-guitars.com writes: I have always loved the look of a gold top Les Paul, so this is my single cut gold top bass. Body is Honduran mahogany, carved maple cap … Read more
Radiusing a neck can be done in a number ways. But generally speaking, there are two major methods. The expensive way and the cheap way. Expensive way – Use a machine to radius the neck The above is the Grizzly G0574 Guitar Fretboard Radiusing Sander. Not cheap, but very nice to have. It’s a good … Read more
What is a Fender Greasebucket circuit and what does it do? The Fender Greasebucket Tone Circuit was introduced in 2005. It’s called Greasebucket because it is based on the shape of the oil-filled capacitor. Where Fender bass guitars are concerned, this tone circuit appears specifically in American Special Fender bass models which, according to Fender, … Read more
See the business listing for this bass builder here This week’s feature bass is a fretless with a Lebanese Cedar body. Cool! Builder Josiah Goldsmith writes: I was inspired to build this bass for a number of reasons: 1) I’m about to start my second year of A-levels, so I needed a project to make. … Read more
Note up front: Technically, the model name of this bass is just “BAS”, but for most it’s commonly known as a Kavkaz. From the bowels of the 1970’s comes the Kavkaz, made in the USSR. It might be ugly to some, but it does have one thing going for it. Surprisingly, it has a bit … Read more
In a previous step, the neck blank was cut with a band saw, leaving a rough cut. At this point, we now smooth the neck. The goal is to have the edges of the neck long and straight, and in addition make a good line to the headstock. There is no one go-to tool that … Read more
