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Projects

This was a very strange 2 weeks. I met Aron Bach and Alex Lauer by some weird chance at a local woodworking store in Rancho Cordova. I was ordering a jointer and they we're buying tools for Aron's dad's workshop. I happen to be wearing my Spector jacket and they asked me if I was a bass player, because they we're both bass players, and they we're going to be building Alex an electric upright bass while they were home (Aron's home, Alex is from Germany) during Aron's break from school in Germany. They invited me over to the shop to see how it was all done. This was an opportunity I couldn't pass up because I have been wanting to try my hand at building a bass and I was going to be able to see how it's done first hand. Working on the electric upright was fun and Aron finished it so fast we decided to try to do a regular electric bass as well. The pictures below are over a 5 day time span.

Aron did most of the work while I was at work during the day. Here's the body ready to go onto the shaper. Aron already had the template from previous projects.

Here's the body after being shaped and using a round-over bit.

After using a forstner bit to remove most of the material from the control cavity he cleaned it up with a chisel. The wood, Lacewood, is a very hard wood that splinters easily. This was obviously difficult to complete cleanly.

Here's the neck already mostly done, the matching headstock laminate is drying.

Here's the neck fretted and the headstock shaped.

The body ready to attach the neck. It's hard to see that there's actually a control cavity but the cover is made of the same wood as the body and the grain is matched fairly closely. It's a VERY tight fit.

The body and neck attached.

The finished headstock.

The finished body.

Aron holding my bass and Alex holding his finished bass. It should be noted that this is the #1 electric upright bass by Aron.