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A friend gave me the makings of a bass yesterday, the body and neck were laid up by her son several years ago and, sadly, he's recently suffered permanent brain damage and will never be able to finish it. My plan is to finish it, sell it and give the proceeds minus my costs back to her to help in his care.

It's definitely in the 'art bass' category, walnut with a flamed maple top and a lammed maple/walnut neck. The neck and body are in pretty oversized shape so I have options on what to do with it. My thinking is that 5-strings would probably be my best bet so I'd appreciate thoughts on that as well as fretless or fretted. Also what are some average nut widths on 5 string basses? The bridges I've looked at all seem to be right around 3".

Thanks.

PIX!

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Info!
Not much to look at right now. I've been doing some re-shaping but can't finish that up until I have some solid specs on the neck dimensions. I've done some Googling but there seems to be lot of variation and not being a bass player I'm hesitant to just decide something without some edumacated input.

Hey Mike,

As a bass builder and player, I would definately go fretted, as it will open up more of an audience to you than fretless. I have never had anyone order a fretless in almost 30 guitars.

Most often, 5 strings these days are in the neighborhood of 1.625 nut width, with a host of bridge spacings in the neighborhood of 19mm (0.74" to 0.75").

I hope this helps.

Stephen

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www.ziegenfussguitars.com

Thanks Stephen, that's very helpful.

+1 on what Stephen said.

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David Morris