Here’s a chance for all the guitar geeks to create their own bass guitar. This DIY bass guitar is courtesy of Instructables user JuxtaposedIToldYouSo. The guy was generous enough to provide readers with a step-by-step practice run first, so that the readers don’t mess up the final product or don’t leave it with an intrinsic flaw.
Inception: the Neck blank
There are two main parts that you have to make: the neck blank and the body blank. For the neck blank choose a hard wood that’s more on the softer side, like Padauk or maple, with the dimensions 3′ x 3″ x 3″. Since you will need to laminate the wood, three or four wood planks over each other, make sure that all the pieces have similar grain devoid of any knots. While laminating wood, glue the planks with the wood grain flowing upward toward the top of the neck. Clamp them with a hundred pounds of pressure for best results and leave for a couple of days.
The body blank:
The body will house the bridge, pickups and controls of the guitar. To build a body blank will require some red maple of dimensions about 4’x 10″and 2″ thick without any knots, again. Cut this wood piece in two halves, with respect to its grain. Laminate them with grain going in opposite directions. While clamping the two pieces together tightly, the middle portion will tend to rise up and break. Keep a heavy load over it to avoid any misalignment. Again, leave for a couple of days.
Final Tuning:
When both the neck and body blank are ready, use a chisel and a planer (or whatever you prefer) to give them the desired shape. Now incorporate the neck and the body with the essential parts of a bass guitar like strings, frets, bridge, pickups, tuning nuts, truss rod and controls. Join the neck and body using hex nuts. Now tune the guitar and you are ready to rock. For complete steps visit Instructables.
