The Idea

Ever since I was a little boy I dreamed of building a Web site about making a bass... Oh wait, no. Ever since I was a little boy I dreamed of making my own bass. The Web site came later. Anyway, something about hand-crafting my own bass has always appealed to me. But I was always terrified of trying. I told myself I'll do it when I retire. Then I met this guy, we'll call him 'Dave'. We'll call him Dave because honestly, I don't remember his name.

Dave played in a band that was opening up for my band (Neon Kings). Honesty Dave's band was better than us, but that's beside the point. The point is... Wait what's the point? Oh yeah, the point is Dave had this bass. It was simultaneously the most god awfully ugly thing I'd ever seen and the finest piece of self expression I'd ever laid eyes on.

Turns out Dave was a cabinet maker. His bass had a bridge made out of a combination of a hand carved wooden tail piece and a door handle. Yes a door handle. And the neck of this bass was a huge piece of hand planed maple. See, Dave made the neck too, but didn't know how to put in a truss rod so he just made the neck really really thick. It looked impossible to play, but when I picked it up the neck was shaped perfectly for my hand. And oh, yeah it sounded great too.

So I decided if Dave could do it, there was no reason why I couldn't at least try to make my life long dream come true. Only thing is, like I said, Dave was a cabinet maker. He knew wood. I on the other hand, had never done anything like this before in my life. I'm well acquainted with power tools, but I typically use them to cut 2x4's and frame up walls, not to make a work of art. And I'd never used a router. Although thanks to my wife's Grandfather I do have one.

My first bass (I named it Lola) turned out quite well. It was an adventure and a real learning experience. I'm quite happy with how it turned out. I did learn a thing or two and for my next project I'll be doing a few things differently.

So that's why I started making my own basses. Why did I decide to build a Web site about it? Well, partly because that's just what I do. Partly because eight hours a day in front of a computer at work just isn't enough. But mostly because when I tried to find information online about how to build a bass, I couldn't find anything. So here it is, for each project you will see my triumphs and my pitfalls. I have no idea how any of these projects is going to turn out, but if we're lucky along the way we both might learn something.