Building a guitar

What's the current progress so far?

That looks alright What program did you use for the mock-up?

Not really, I've ordered all the other parts I need but it's going to take a while for them to get here, I have decided however that with the right tools cutting the nut slot and positioning the bridge won't require me sending the parts off to a luthier/guitar tech as after reading books by Trademark and Melvyn Hiscock I feel I have enough experience and now knowledge to do the job myself.

Unfortunately now though a complete lack of spare cash for the next few weeks (waiting for my university bursary which is due to be paid this month) will mean that I can't buy the vertical drill mount I need to be able to drill the bridge mount holes properly until early April, however hopefully before then I can get the nut fitted and wire up the pickguard.

I'm also being hampered by the fact that my parents are insisting that everything bar the body be treated as a birthday present so I'm not actaully going to be allowed to touch the parts for 3 weeks or so.

Building a 6-string bass pretty much comes down to , as you mention, altering some dimensions to accomodate more strings.  The neck has to be wider.  Of course you would also need the appropriate pickups, bridge and other hardware but most of that stuff is pretty easy to find.

The main issue with a six string bass is string tension.  Six bass guitar strings pull a lot harder on the neck than four and keeping the neck relatively flat requires a stiffer neck.  Maple is the most common wood and it is very stiff, but not enough so for six string bass necks.   Most six string basses opt for one of two reinforcing pans in the neck.  Some use two truss rods placed about an inch apart rather than one run down the center of the neck.  This give you more control over the neck adjustment, but makes balancing the adjustment of each rod a bit trickier.

The other common way of dealing with the neck stress is to place a single truss rod in the center of the neck and add a couple of carbon fiber stiffening rods (one on each side of the neck about 1/2"-3/4" from the centerline).  These carbon fiber rods are usually about 1/4" x 1/2" and are pound for pound much stronger than steel rods.  Carbon fiber is extremely light weight and effective for this purpose.  The drawback to carbon fiber is that by stiffening the neck to this degree you make the truss rod work much harder to alter the curvature of the neck thus limiting the amount of change it can have. 

Sooooo,  the builders who use carbon fiber reinforcement usually try to build a few thousandths of an inch of back bow into the neck. This way when the string tension is placed on the neck it will not pull more relief (up bow) into the neck than can easily be adjusted with very small adjustments of the rod (or better yet no adjustment) if all works out according to plan.


Edited by Trademark - February 26 2008 at 08:29

Your one and Make Your Own Guitar by Melvyn Hiscock.

The book you wrote was the one that arrived today it's already been very useful, as it helped me figure out how to find where the nut slot should be cut.

Well I've got a small update,

I've figured out how where the nut will have to be installed and the fret sized slot simply marks where the edge of the nut should be. I don't know why the neck I've bought doesn't come with a precut nut slot but it's not a big problem.

The first of the 2 book I've ordered has arrived, hopefully the second will get here in the next couple of days as I intend to read both books from cover to cover before I even consider picking up any tools.

Thanks for the advice.

To clarify the nut slot issue, there is no nut slot on the neck what there is however is a slot the size of a fret slot where the nut slot should be.

EDIT: following your advice I've also ordered a couple of books to help me though everything.


Edited by N Ellingworth - February 23 2008 at 04:07

N Ellingworth wrote: I bought the neck complete (bar nut and tuners), there's no way I'm going to attempt to fret the neck myself as I know how difficult it can be. If this project goes well I think I'm definitely going to be building more guitars and I will be modifying all my current ones too as I've got a few things I want to change on all of them particularly my Steinberger which really should have active pickups in my opinion but is stuck with passive ones.

I wish I had your patience..I tried rebuilding a BC Rich Warlock I had lying around....I wound up smashing it against a wall  I can laugh now..but when it happened, It was not so easy

It's looking good Nick! Did you cut and fit your own frets or buy a pre-fitted fingerboard?  I found that the singular most difficult thing to do - basically you have 22 chances to get it wrong and ruin the whole thing.