Building a guitar

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

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.

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

What's the current progress so far?

What fretwire are you going to be using?

Ahh. So I imagine if it's based off a newer strat, it would have the medium jumbo frets.

The Wilkinson Trem looks really cool. Are you planning to upgrade the bridge saddles to Graphtech's?

Edited by HughesJB4 - March 24 2008 at 14:48

Do you go on the seymourduncan.com/forum?

Edited by HughesJB4 - March 24 2008 at 14:49

N Ellingworth wrote: I might do it depends on how it performs initially, if the tuning is stable and the intonation is good I personally don't see the point particularly since I could put the money spent on those saddles towards a new set of pickups for my other guitars which could really do with an upgrade. Particularly my Steinberger which was fitted with EMG Selects at the factory, I'd like to get some Seymour Duncans or similar brand pickups to replace the rubbish Selects, although if I could afford to I would be putting some proper EMGs in it.

Oh bugger!

I've managed to cut the nut slot correctly but sods law has ensured that the nut the neck was supplied with is a piece of rubbish and promptly snapped as soon as I tried to install it. I'm taking no chances with the replacement nut, I've gone for an official fender brass one as used on the Yngwie Malmsteen signature model, I doubt I'll be able to break that.