spacey

 
Hope this helps with the inspiration part.
 
Michael

Sure, the guitar is drool-worthy, but I'm impressed by how clean and organized the shop is!  Good job!  

 
That's a real beaut Mike 
 
And good luck on your build Dave!

spacey


 
Hope this helps with the inspiration part.
 
Michael

WOW Mike! Absolutely gorgeous product, and a great story to boot!
Definitely inspiration fuel. Makes me excited to get started!

Thanks James, John, Craig and Steve.
 
Dave I'm glad I added some inspiration and good luck with the build. 
 
 
 
 

Plans have changed a bit - I've decided I'm going to go for a sort of "electric fretless upright bass' instead... I think that'd be a much easier project than any sort of hollowbody.. and definitely one where I wouldn't be hurting too badly if I made a huge mistake in the process.
 
I've got my CAD stuff worked out, measurements are ready to go. My plan is to build it with a thru-body style string setup and some sort of arched bridge/saddle, then use nylon strings to make a semi-authentic upright bass-type sound. I'm looking into pickups but I'll probably start off just buying some cheap $12 Chinese ones on Ebay... it's only a first build!
 
Pics are coming soon. I'm going to pick up some wood today so I can get this thing underway in Christmas break :)

Using nylon strings means you will be into some form of piezo pickup system rather then electromagnetic. I recently had my real nice stick on piezo pickup device stolen unfortunately. I started the process of looking into a replacement. I bought some cheap Chinese piezo pickups and they were absolutely terrible so don't waste your time. The quality of the pickup will actually play a big part in the sound you finally get. The cheap ones had a seriously terrible sound. 
 
I ended with a nice Dean Markley pickup that sounds real nice and works well when attached to a variety of acoustic instruments. Spend some money here when the time comes. There are under bridge systems too. 
 
Piezo pickups sound good through preamps with very high impedance inputs too. You cannot just plug them into anything such as mixers or guitar/bass amps etc..

Jeff Evans
Using nylon strings means you will be into some form of piezo pickup system rather then electromagnetic. I recently had my real nice stick on piezo pickup device stolen unfortunately. I started the process of looking into a replacement. I bought some cheap Chinese piezo pickups and they were absolutely terrible so don't waste your time. The quality of the pickup will actually play a big part in the sound you finally get. The cheap ones had a seriously terrible sound. 
 
I ended with a nice Dean Markley pickup that sounds real nice and works well when attached to a variety of acoustic instruments. Spend some money here when the time comes. There are under bridge systems too. 
 
Piezo pickups sound good through preamps with very high impedance inputs too. You cannot just plug them into anything such as mixers or guitar/bass amps etc..

 
I thought about this after typing my response, Jeff... I'm actually flip-flopping between nylons with a nice piezo pickup of some sort, and flatwounds with probably an also pretty nice humbucker pickup or some type. It  slipped my mind, both that nylons wouldn't register on a standard el. pickup, and that the pickup makes a HUGE difference in the sound quality, haha! Not really an area one can afford to go cheap.
 
On another note, I've gotten starting marking my patterns on the wood and such. Managed to borrow some cool tools and stuff too from friends
 
Here's my concept rendering... you'll see how simple it is as far as "curvature" and things go, lots of straight edges and such - I wanted to leave a LOT of room for error because I'll definitely make mistakes during this build!
 

 
More updates coming tomorrow as I get the table saw I'll be need to square off the wood before I get into detail cutting and carving.

http://www.deanguitars.com/query?upc=819998005863
 

You might want to check out something like this:
 
https://www.ebay.ie/itm/FISHMAN-POWERBRIDGE-AND-POWERCHIP-PIEZO-PICKUP-BASS-SET-/142606520429
 
It is a bridge and pickup all in one.Not cheap but I bet sounds pretty decent though. 
 
 

batsbrew
http://www.deanguitars.com/query?upc=819998005863
 

essentially yes bats, that is where I'm drawing my design from :) that and those NS Design basses. Point for me being to have some fun doing the woodworking and possibly make something custom..
 
But seeing that I've got sort of used, uncalibrated tools and no workspace, literally no worktable and of course I'm outdoors, I'm really struggling to do anything good.
 
 
I've got some progress - the middle neck/body section has all the rough-cutting done but I've made some glaring errors in the cutting and I don't have anything that can do any detail beyond a jigsaw, but without a table or even some sawhorses the jigsaw becomes an even more difficult tool to use 
 
I decided today I'd start over with something a bit smaller scale and just use this video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zk8e8UoQ8fk
 - as well as a new design to attempt something smaller and hopefully lower-tension (in both way); a (again, fretless) ukelele bass. 
 
I've got a pretty well thought-out design but at the moment since I can't cut precise angles or even straight lines (using a table saw that doesn't have a fence or even a guard) I can't really do much.
 
 
 
 
 
 
*sigh*