Jump to content
Hamer Fan Club Message Center

5 String Bass Build


Recommended Posts

3 hours ago, Steve Haynie said:

The price of those Alembics and Foderas, like Shishkov guitars, have price tags that reflects the expenses the builder runs into in order to make such high quality.  Warwick makes wonderful basses in a wide price range, but the really nice ones are priced out of the range of most people. 

It would be nice to get something like those instruments.  It would be nice to by a Ford F-650 for the price of a Ranger, too. 

I don't disagree regarding the attention to detail and price, especially with bespoke custom made instruments. However the standard stock non-custom Fodera prices do not make sense when compared across the product line, especially considering the extra time for things like laminated necks, bodies, etc. A Metallic finished "plain" alder body guitar should not cost only $200 less than one with a laminated body and multi-piece top with custom fretboard inlays.  The amount of labor involved is simply on a different scale.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Top-Notch work!! Love the blood wood choice for accent wood, extremely clean transition along body edge... fabulous!! 35 scale is perfect... well done!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 12/14/2019 at 1:18 PM, geobluto said:

Top-Notch work!! Love the blood wood choice for accent wood, extremely clean transition along body edge... fabulous!! 35 scale is perfect... well done!

Hey, thanks, I appreciate it. Those bevels and transitions were some of the most fun aspects of the build process. I had drawn the overall shape so that the contours that I had in my mind would form complementary shapes within the overall outline. (well, at least in my mind, anyway) But It was still just a lot of free form carving with rasps. 

Here is a shot just after the top was glued on followed by nearly complete carve pictures.

wZJ2NPi.jpg
Xh75CfE.jpg
1IesMKR.jpg
0bWOu4R.jpg
fnWGiH4.jpg
aiLNvz5.jpg

I forgot to mention that during this process, I developed a fairly severe sensitivity to the ziricote dust. I had been wearing a half mask respirator, but any dust left on my skin just wiped me out. All of the skin on my forehead and eyelids peeled off and I had giant bags under my eyes. LOL It was miserable. 

So, I ponied up for a full face powered respirator. I also wore a lab coat and gloves from then on whenever there was ziricote dust involved. This picture totally makes me look cross eyed, which I am not, but it is pretty hilarious.
DihpBSR.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sir, you have built an amazing piece of art there, your eye for wood is impeccable. And that is a huge key in making instruments that sound as good as they look. I seriously believe that if you were to choose to, you could pursue this full time. Screw corporate IT, I was a CIO, I know what the reward is for doing amazing work and I can tell with absolute certainty that you will garner ten thousand times the reward with every earth shattering instrument you produce, I might be a little conservative on that estimate...i can play a bass better than most, but I could never make one, I am in awe of this work. If I had to make any suggestion for you as you tweak and move forward it would be about the batteries.  Hamer did something that was very smart on mine, also an 18 volt design. They made a separate cutout for the batteries that was accessible without a screw driver, and if those die when you are about to play it is a godsend. If you want pictures I can send them. Seriously though, that is critique, not being critical, you have made something so gorgeous, I seriously can't wait for what yo do next. I may be waiting in the queue when you decide to market the next Blader..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 hours ago, Russell Beard said:

Sir, you have built an amazing piece of art there, your eye for wood is impeccable. And that is a huge key in making instruments that sound as good as they look. I seriously believe that if you were to choose to, you could pursue this full time. Screw corporate IT, I was a CIO, I know what the reward is for doing amazing work and I can tell with absolute certainty that you will garner ten thousand times the reward with every earth shattering instrument you produce, I might be a little conservative on that estimate...i can play a bass better than most, but I could never make one, I am in awe of this work. If I had to make any suggestion for you as you tweak and move forward it would be about the batteries.  Hamer did something that was very smart on mine, also an 18 volt design. They made a separate cutout for the batteries that was accessible without a screw driver, and if those die when you are about to play it is a godsend. If you want pictures I can send them. Seriously though, that is critique, not being critical, you have made something so gorgeous, I seriously can't wait for what yo do next. I may be waiting in the queue when you decide to market the next Blader..

Wow, thank you very much for the kind words, I'm blushing. I'd like to sell some of my work at some point in the future, but I really need to continue to hone my skills and improve my quality before I do. I do agree that it would be a lot more rewarding to build for a living, but at the same time, I've got killer insurance and a 401k with a really good company match. :lol:

Having said that, I really appreciate the encouragement. :)

That's good feedback on the battery compartment. I do agree that a separate compartment with tool-less access would be the way to go, and I really considered it.  I even considered a variation on the MTD battery compartment. The problem that I ran into is that the treble side wing is so small that I hated to rout additional space for a battery compartment. It's difficult to get a feel for the size of that wing with no reference, but it is pretty small. I'll try to take some pictures this weekend with this bass next to a Jazz or Precision bass for comparison. This is one of the things that I'm hoping to tweak on this design. The body outline is close to what I had in my head, but it's still not quite there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...