I wanted to use A-frame bracing design with asymmetric soundhole, and carefully analysed the shape of four such instruments:
- Tacoma Thunderchief CB10 - regarded as one of the best production acoustic basses, sadly no longer being made
- Furch B61-CM - a very attractive design. This is a Czech brand, sold in America as Stonebridge, in Germany as Standford
- Boulder Creek acoustic bass range.
- Warwick Rockbass Alien.
I also came up with a wave motif that I wanted to use for the headstock, bridge and fingerboard end.
For a number of years I built jigs, molds, woodworking equiment, and practiced the craft with less demanding projects. At the beginning of 2020 I decided it was time to jump in.
I chose to make a fretless as my first build for a number of reasons:
- Less precision regarding intonation
- Less precision regarding fretboard straightness / action / relief
- I wanted a fretless.
My preparation was to watch a series of DVDs on guitar building, plus a few YouTube videos and various forum posts.
I had no mentor during the build, and managed to make just about every mistake it is possible to make, plus a few that you might think aren't possible.
Each of these has been meticulously written down, and I believe that if I press on and build another, it'll be a much smoother ride.
Cutting the neck scarf joint with a jig on my (self-adapted) table saw Neck pieces glued up Cutting the truss rod slot in the neck using another jig Cradle to hold the fingerboard blank for cutting bevels Cutting bevels in the fingerboard prior to sanding in the radius Neck and fingerboard components Neck after initial shaping Pantograph jig for Dremel, reduces the template by one third, for headstock inlay channel Headstock inlay Sides milled Bending the sides in a Fox bender Bending the cutaway curve Sides bent, ready to be laminated Laminating the sides In the mold Gluing tail block Gluing neck block Neck with headstock veneer Jig for making kerfed linings. This is hazardous! Think I need a bandsaw! Kerfed linings Gluing in the kerfed linings Kerfed linings done Butt-joining the book-matched pieces of the soundboard Soundboard and back after butt-goining Glueing the bracing to the soundboard and back Soundboard and back with bracing Attaching the back Side braces