● Bass Design

So for my first bass I've chosen to go 4 string fretless to accommodate a Precision bass neck which I previously mentioned. The reason for this is that these necks are readily available (for me anyway) from places like McDonald Stewart or Warmouth to name a few. I simply allowed the size of the heel of the neck to dictate the opening and shape where it joins to the body.

As I am a true gluten for punishment I will be making several bass bodies of ash, walnut and mahogany with slight pickup and electronic variations while keeping the bas shape in mind.
I will begin by creating patterns for templates which I will construct from MDF, then I will assemble these templates together with temporary fasteners which will allow me to test the mixture of pickups. Yes, I know this wont create an exceptional sound, certainly not what I would like to hear in the final products but this will offer some insight to the acoustic/electronic issues and how I might deal with them.

Chambering the body will prove interesting as well. From what I've seen of other bass and guitar manufacturers there is great care in where chambering is utilized in the areas along the neck line down to the bridge. There will be substantial tension on the body from the string torsion and I sure as hell don't want to prang this bass and enjoy watching it fold up due to an oversight like string tension. Most of the design work I do utilizes 3D modeling software which gives reports on product stability while under stress employing fluid dynamics into the mix. This is where programs like SolidWorks and Rhinoceros come in handy and take out most of the guesswork.

My design time is currently 3.5 hours