Doing Things Wrong

Laboratory

Come up to the lab,
and see what's on the slab.
I see you shiver with antici ...

image

... pation !

I like to build oddball short-scale basses. You can't buy them. You can't even buy parts for them. If you want one, you're going to have to start with lumber and work your way up. That can involve some fairly precision work, the kind that requires specialized tooling. I thought I'd post some of the creations from my garage workshop for others to see and perhaps copy or improve on.

Almost everything here can be made from parts and materials from your local hardware store, with a few exceptions noted. There are many good sources for luthiery and general tools and supplies in the Laboratory page.

And all you high school kids - take wood shop. You can make all of this stuff easily there. Man do I envy you for that. I wish I'd taken wood shop instead of French. Would have been a lot more useful.


The glue is all dry, time to flatten out the blank. I clamped a piece of scrap wood at the edge of the bench for a stop, and laid the blank up to it on some padding. This will stop it from shooting off when the belt sander hits it. I sorted through all the vacuum cleaner parts I have collected over the years, and finally made an adapter to hook the sander to the little shopvac under the bench. Then I put on a new 80-grit belt, and went at it.

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