technology workshop craft home food play outside costumes Electric upright bass by petachock on January 2, 2016 Table of Contents Electric upright bass . 1 Intro: Electric upright bass . 2 File Downloads . 3 Step 1: Neck . 3 Step 2: Fingerboard . 6 Step 3: Finishing the neck and fingerboard . 17 Step 4: Body . 27 Step 5: Tailpiece No. 1 and No. 2 . 31 Step 6: Bridge and tail spike . 35 Step 7: Finished . 39 Related Instructables . 45 Advertisements . 45 Comments . 45 http://www.instructables.com/id/Electric-Upright-Bass/ Author:petachock I am a software engineer with a background in bridge engineering. After working in a design office and on site for 6 years I saw a job to develop software for structural engineers, it looked interesting so I applied and got the job. Around 3 years ago (2012) I bought myself a table saw and started to get in to woodworking which now takes up quite a bit of my spare time. I like to make boxes especially and love to find pieces of wood with unusual or interesting markings to use in my projects, After 3 years of making things I now have acquired a surplus of made objects so have recently started to add a few things in an Etsy shop. It only has a couple of things in at the moment but will probably add more when I get round to it https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/OnTheEdgeWoodwork Intro: Electric upright bass I used to have an electric upright bass many years ago but sold it as I only used it on and off. The amount it cost and the amount I played it didn't match....once sold i bought a synthesizer and a family holiday. Every now again I miss playing a double bass style instrument so decided to make one as this would keep the cost down quite a lot. In the end I think I spent around £120 mainly on strings, machine heads, pickups and timber for the body. It sounds fairly good and i am pleased with the result, especially considering that it is the first instrument I've made. I have added a CAD file to this instructable which has some rough dimensions on it and I used it to scale off anything I wanted at the time. It is far from a complete drawing but I've included it for reference as it may be useful to some one. Most of the dimensions I used were either off the internet or this drawing. Materials A selection of timber - I used beech and oak for the neck, beech for the fingerboard and bridge and lime for the body. All of the oak and beech I already had from previous projects and the lime cost me £60 off ebay (I only used half though) Strings - I bought some super cheap ones off amazon for £14 Double bass strings Machine heads - I got these off ebay for £16 Machine heads Pickups - I bought a second hand set from ebay for £23 (look like Fishman BP 100 but wasn't specified on listing) Machine screws and threaded insert nuts - I had some already M12 Threaded rod - £2.50 for 1m from Toolstation Silicon sealant and cornflour to make 'oogoo'- I had some part used already Plywood or MDF to make a fingerboard radiusing jig. Tools Table saw Router Drill press and bits Planes Chisels Sander and sandpaper I have entered this instructable in to the wood competition. If you have found it interesting or informative please vote!! http://www.instructables.com/id/Electric-Upright-Bass/ File Downloads bass.dwg (43 KB) [NOTE: When saving, if you see .tmp as the file ext, rename it to 'bass.dwg'] Step 1: Neck As the neck is fairly wide, to accommodate the fingerboard, I decided to make it from three planks of timber glued together. I used two bits of beech on the outside and a piece of oak in the middle which would give a nice look to the back of the neck when it is finished. I first cut the timber to a rough size and put them through my planner/thicknesser to get them flat and uniform. Once they were planned I cut them to to size making sure that I used the dimension of the bottom of the neck. I then drew the profile of the neck on to one of the beech parts and cut it with a combination of a table saw and jigsaw. I then finished the shaping with a bit of sanding with an oscillating bobbin sander and dremel for the curves and a belt sander. Once I was happy with the shape I roughly cut the others to the same size with a jigsaw and then used flush trim bit to make them all exactly the same, attaching the pieces together with double sided tape. I then glued the three bits together and clamped with as many clamps as I had. http://www.instructables.com/id/Electric-Upright-Bass/ Image Notes 1. oak 2. beech 3. beech http://www.instructables.com/id/Electric-Upright-Bass/ http://www.instructables.com/id/Electric-Upright-Bass/ Image Notes 1. double sided tape Step 2: Fingerboard For the fingerboard I used beech as I had quite a bit of beech knocking around. I'm sure there are better woods to make fingerboards out of but for this project any hardwood would have been acceptable. There are a couple ways that a fingerboard can be shaped, by hand or with a router and a jig. I went for the lazy route so chose the latter. First I put the timber through the planer thicknesser to get everything to the correct size. Next I needed to cut the plank of wood at an angle which can be tricky with a table saw. To cut the angle I fixed some pieces of old laminate floor along the edge of the timber at the angle I required. I could then use the laminate floor as a reference up against the fence and cut the angle safely. To radius the top of the fingerboard I made a jig which would pivot the fingerboard while a router was moved along the top, with a straight cut router bit, to cut a curve on the top of the board. I have added a lot of photos here as it is quite difficult to explain. I used nut inserts to make the pivot points and a drill bit to use as a lever to move the jig. After I had finished the full length of the fingerboard I realised that I needed to raise one end of the fingerboard to get the vertical edges of the fingerboard the same height all the way down due to the board being tapered. I raised the narrow end of the board with some washers and re-cut the board. One I was happy I cut the board to http://www.instructables.com/id/Electric-Upright-Bass/ length and hand sanded it to a fine finish. I went up to 400 grit. Image Notes 1. fingerboard http://www.instructables.com/id/Electric-Upright-Bass/ Image Notes 1. straight edge http://www.instructables.com/id/Electric-Upright-Bass/ http://www.instructables.com/id/Electric-Upright-Bass/ Image Notes 1. biscuit jointer and pu glue http://www.instructables.com/id/Electric-Upright-Bass/ Image Notes 1. to create a pivot Image Notes 1. pivot 2. drill bit http://www.instructables.com/id/Electric-Upright-Bass/ http://www.instructables.com/id/Electric-Upright-Bass/ http://www.instructables.com/id/Electric-Upright-Bass/ Image Notes 1. deeper at this end due to taper http://www.instructables.com/id/Electric-Upright-Bass/ Image Notes 1. Hand sand to 400 grit http://www.instructables.com/id/Electric-Upright-Bass/ http://www.instructables.com/id/Electric-Upright-Bass/ Step 3: Finishing the neck and fingerboard As the fingerboard has now been cut the neck needs to be cut to the same taper. I started by drawing the outline of the board on the neck and nail gunned some laminate floor offcuts along the edges and cut with a flush trim router bit. As the bit didn't cut the full depth of the neck I had to finish some of the neck off with a hand plane. Next I created a cavity in the top of the neck for the machine heads. I determined the size hole I needed and cut three holes with a pillar drill and fostner bits. I then finished the holes with a chisel and sanded the inside with a bobbin sander. I then shaped the rest of the head with a combination of chiseling and sanding. I then made a nut for the end of the fingerboard and made some slots for the strings with a small round file. I then oiled the neck and fingerboard. I used a coloured oil for the fingerboard as I wanted it to be a slightly different colour to the rest of the neck. Once everything was dry I glued and clamped the fingerboard to the neck protecting the fingerboard from the clamps with anything I could find! Mainly MDF and socks. http://www.instructables.com/id/Electric-Upright-Bass/ Image Notes 1. fingerboard drawn on to neck http://www.instructables.com/id/Electric-Upright-Bass/ Image Notes 1. round over bit http://www.instructables.com/id/Electric-Upright-Bass/ http://www.instructables.com/id/Electric-Upright-Bass/ http://www.instructables.com/id/Electric-Upright-Bass/ http://www.instructables.com/id/Electric-Upright-Bass/ http://www.instructables.com/id/Electric-Upright-Bass/ http://www.instructables.com/id/Electric-Upright-Bass/ Image Notes Image Notes 1.