Official Luthiers Forum!

I've built electrics with great success, and am now attempting my first bass guitar. PLease let me know about anything i should know. Aside from obvious differences (scale length,#of strings, etc.) are there subtle differences in design between bass and guitar that i should be aware of? Particularly relating to intonation, string action, tuning. Thanks

Hmmm...hard one to answer but I bet if you have a more specific question there will plenty that will give you some thoughts.

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Brad
Avon, OH

Fender P bass is a good place to start from.
I like the Fender jazz bass pick up at the bridge, and the P bass at dat fretboard.
Have fun.
Or, you could do an original shape, but similar to the fender.
That's what I did once.......
I like 4 strings.
Probably because I'm old.
I do like hearing that low string on a 5 string though.
Sky is da limit!!!!!!!!

If you are building a 5 string and want the middle string to run down the center of the fretboard right over the dots, and want the outer string edges to be equidistant from the edge of the fretboard (IE both outer strings outer side are 1/8th inches from the fretboard edge) you have to make your bridge slightly off center to accomodate the thicker B string.
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set= ... 6f308dc472
Check out the string alignment on this finished bass I made, then in this photo album is a picture of the unfinished bass on the bench without hardware, you can see how the bridge holes are drilled slightly off center to the purpleheart center stripe.
The pickups are routed dead center, and the fretboard is also aligned dead center, only the bridge is offset.

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Old growth, shmold growth!

Good tips, Git-wisp.
I never would have thought about that.
Nice bass on Face B!

Thanx Alan!
I don't know how to upload pictures to this forum directly, or at least resize them so that they'll fit.

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Old growth, shmold growth!