Alembic Guitars Club

Connecting => Miscellaneous => Topic started by: blazer on October 25, 2013, 12:02:18 PM

Title: I built my dad a Bass for his 70'th birthday
Post by: blazer on October 25, 2013, 12:02:18 PM
Well so my dad's 70'th birthday is nearing and I decided to make a bass in his honor, a bass which he unknowingly designed.
 
See back when I was a boy he once made me toy guitar by sawing out what is roughly the shape of an electric guitar on a piece of plywood with a piece of construction lumber as a neck.
 
The neck has long since gone but the body was always kept, the paintjob I did back then has since flaked and faded.
 
But I kept looking at that old body and going How cool would it be to turn this old thing into a real playing instrument for dad's birthday?
 
So I took it to the workshop, traced it onto a new piece of plywood, cleaned up a lot of the wonky lines and made it into a template for a four string bass.
 
Initially my idea was to honor the original toy by using scrap material so I routed out a body from pine, to be finished in black with a Fender style pickguard (you can make out the place where I drew the pickguard on the original toy) but when orders came in for basses made from very pretty pieces of maple I decided to make it into deluxe bass.
 
It has a Hippie Sandwich body of striped maple, Cedrella (Spanish ceder) and tiger maple. The pickups are custom wound Harry Hauessel units and the Bridge is a Leo Quann badass II.
 
Go here to see the whole process.
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f57/well-my-dad-will-70-year-so-im-going-make-commemorative-bass-1016389/ (http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f57/well-my-dad-will-70-year-so-im-going-make-commemorative-bass-1016389/)
 
I hope you guys dig my handywork here, it certainly was a labor of love.
Title: I built my dad a Bass for his 70'th birthday
Post by: tbrannon on October 25, 2013, 12:40:24 PM
Awesome story behind the build.  Have you presented it to your father yet?
Title: I built my dad a Bass for his 70'th birthday
Post by: adriaan on October 25, 2013, 01:12:29 PM
Lovely tribute!
Title: I built my dad a Bass for his 70'th birthday
Post by: growlypants on October 25, 2013, 02:48:00 PM
Wow.  I'm certain your dad will be deeply touched.  Congrats on the build, the idea, and ofcourse, the occasion!!
Title: I built my dad a Bass for his 70'th birthday
Post by: jzstephan on October 25, 2013, 04:01:15 PM
Respect!
Title: I built my dad a Bass for his 70'th birthday
Post by: cozmik_cowboy on October 25, 2013, 09:42:28 PM
Way too cool!  My son gave me a guitar, but building one??  Tell your dad I'll trade him kids.......
 
Peter
Title: I built my dad a Bass for his 70'th birthday
Post by: pauldo on October 26, 2013, 08:44:08 AM
Coolest bass EVER!
Nothing like love being put into an instrument.  :-D
Title: I built my dad a Bass for his 70'th birthday
Post by: David Houck on October 26, 2013, 02:25:47 PM
Nice work!