Building a Fretless Bass from Scratch

Or how I have been teaching myself a complex skill & refining it over time

I have a 13 year old son who not only has social difficulties and is likely on the spectrum, but also has very poor self esteem. His mom and I continually provide positive reinforcement, as well he does receive support and encouragement from teachers and guidance counsellors at school - but even though he's brilliant (scored well above 135 on aptitude testing and IQ back in kindergarden) he will get very depressed and shut down when he encounters something that he doesn't just intuitively understand very quickly. Worse yet when he fails to get the right answer...

We work with him to not just learn the skills he'll need to succeed in high school and in college, but we also want him to discover how he is really more than capable of overcoming what he sees as his failings. We see his potential to be more than great, he could accomplish more than either his mom or I ever could, but he needs to discover and adapt himself and build the confidence to do that. This is a story of how people do exactly this.

Right now, I see a lot of people posting here on LinkedIn wondering when their particular skill set will come back into vogue. I've posted multiple times suggesting to dive deep into learning and practicing new skills - whether its advanced classes in AI/ML, or simply take stock of your strengths and weaknesses and adapt by taking a role in some area that you aren't an expert in but have the skills they need.

You see professional athletes do this over the course of their careers - its necessary to extend their productive time. Early in their career, the athlete will excel simply by virtue of their speed and raw talent - doing things that would be impossible for the rest of us mere mortals. As their career progresses, they gain knowledge and experience that allows them to really refine the talent and become a star. But through time, and often injuries, the speed and agility diminishes and the raw talent wanes, but they have the knowledge and experience to adapt and refine further - becoming situational role players and using intelligence to contribute in the best way they can.

Most of us have a talent and knowledge that when younger was our primary asset. Whether a tenacious coder, driven sales and marketing person, profoundly skilled tradesman, inventive and imaginative engineer... we were given grace to make mistakes because we showed value in potential.

As we developed and matured, we gained experience and knowledge through that experience that allowed us to thrash less and produce more. We knew the boundaries of imagination and when a "shiny ball" would succeed or fail just by intuition.

Later in our careers, either through necessity or simple demands on time, we spent less time imagineering and more time mentoring, teaching, managing, engaging. The skills that were our primary asset in our youth have lost their edge because of a need to diversify and spend time on the other things that made us valuable.

Its those other things that still make us valuable - you just need to realize that.

I'm going to post pictures and single line descriptions of one of the other skills I have been developing this past almost 5 years. Guitar building.

Above is what I think of as the real start of my project - a fretless bass guitar. I confess it's not the absolute start - I had already done work on the neck about a year ago, probably the most complex and difficult part of the project and then set it aside as other things came up. But I got tired of moving it from table to table in my garage so I set about building the body for it. This is the raw piece of Black Limba that would constitute the middle layer of the instrument but at this point I wasn't sure if I would use two slabs of 1" thick limba or just one with something else. This next picture below answers that question...

I chose to go with a contrasting color and a dense hardwood - brazilian cherry with the black walnut strip as an accent. Over the years I learned that less dense woods tended to favor lower frequencies while the more dense the wood is, the higher frequencies were favored. Limba is fairly open grain, less dense like mahogany, and great for low midrange. This will accentuate the upper mids and high tones, filling in the gaps in the frequency range.

Because black limba is open grain, it's less hard and will dent more easily. That lent it to be the middle layer of my bass sandwich. This is the middle layer with the space cut out where the neck will be laid in. You can see how I left some material just outside of the pencil marks for the outline of the body. I also decided to make it a little more radical a shape, reminding of a classic American bass guitar that Paul McCartney, Chris Squire (Yes) and Geddy Lee (Rush) played throughout their careers - a Rickenbacker 4001.

This will be the template for how the cherry/walnut back will be cut and fixed to the limba.

This part is messy. There needs to be some excess glue used so that you get "squeeze out" when the pieces are clamped together. Experience taught me that you dont want there to be any air pockets in the finished product as it compromises the strength and the tone of the instrument. So you can see some of the squeeze out in the neck pocket, and there is a ton of glue squeezing out onto my benchtop and the floor even though you cant see it here.

Again, you dont want any gaps between layers of laminated wood. Fitting the neck into the pocket is a true example of needing there to be tight joint to ensure the strength and integrity is there for both resilience and playing tone. This picture is the first real time you get an idea of how this will look with respect to ergonomics and overall shape. Up to this point, really the vision is in your head but now its getting closer to being actualized.

This was one of those "scope creep" requirements - I came up with a brilliant idea of layering a dark veneer between the black limba and the undecided top which could have been a light colored wood. Its a nice accent that will appear as a "pinstripe" on the side of the body going all the way around. I ended up choosing a roasted maple top, but there is enough contrast between the dark roasted maple and the walnut that it will still have the effect I'm looking for. I also laid in the walnut veneer into the neck pocket between the mahogany neck and the cherry.

I really want this instrument to be more of a "looker" than just a plain old singular shade of whatever. So I took some of the cutaway/waste pieces from the top of another instrument I built and some zebrawood that I will use for binding on other instruments and turned them into a virtual extension of the neck line through the end of the body. There is a gap between what is the natural edge of the flame maple (the outside edge of the tree minus the bark) and the zebrawood that will allow me to do some interesting contrasting epoxy that will make it all really pop. The hole for the bridge side pickup has been routed into the body at this point.

Finding the right positions for the pickups makes a lot of difference in the tone. Too close to the bridge and the tone is thin and trebly. Too close to the neck and it's really thick and fuzzy low. I settled on just a little to the left in the end with these, but it gives an idea of how luthiers choose to lay out components.

Lining up the bookmatched top and marking the cuts is among the more delicate of tasks. You want the flame to be mirrored on each side, but its less crucial than if they were going to share a seam down the middle. This is also the first time I was thinking of installing a walnut binding on the neck - in the end I decided that it might be a bit overkill given all the extra work I've been putting into the bass and it could end up spoiling the look.

Up to this point I was very focused on the body, and the headstock needed to be sized, cut and shaped to accomodate 4 tuning machines. Here's the faceplate - it adds strength to the headstock to account for string tension pulling and stressing the mahogany.

Another instance where experience provides insight into how to do something better.

Prior to gluing the top to the body, I pencil out the outline on each piece and then cut the perimeter. Also before gluing, I use a Forstner bit to auger out holes in the body for pickup cavities, control cavity and rout a channel for the wires from the pickups to go through.

In this picture, this is after the above are done, the roasted maple is glued on, the outer edges of the top are trimmed to the edge of the body and then the sides sanded to the final shape. An auto body grinder with a sanding wheel is used to contour the neck joint and the rib contour on the right hand side of the picture. This makes it not jab a sharp edge into your ribs when playing.

This was after the body grinder was used on the top. I put a very minor arch on the top to make it more comfortable to play, and it was influenced by another classic bass, the Spector, which was a bass I once owned and found to be very comfortable in all positions.

There is a shallow rout where the bridge will go. Inlaying the bridge was something I've done on other instruments and I really like the feel of it.

On every instrument, I try to stretch out and incorporate something I haven't done in previous builds. At this point I've built almost 60 instruments in the last 5 years, some have been inspired ideas that dont have a customer in mind (some of those have sold to people who found these pictures on my Facebook page), others have been commissioned - a few that are copies of commercially available instruments, but an equal proportion which have been my own design.

When I decided to do the maple/zebrawood center piece, the natural edge put the epoxy idea in my head. I've done some epoxy inlays before but those have been smaller or more contained. This is almost like a river table - and as such I decided on the blue to really set off the light / dark contrasts. Here it is with the epoxy poured in, the blocks to control any seeping and filling the pickup cavities. Once the epoxy cures, I will check if it's above or below the level of the top.

If it's below, I'll mix more epoxy and top up to have a slight concave above the top. I can then sand the epoxy back just like wood, polish and apply my clear lacquer finish to the entire guitar.

What's left after this?

Another new thing I'm going to do will be to add a couple layers of carbon fiber cloth to the back of the neck. I really want the neck to be strong and rigid to account for the bass string tension when playing, and putting on the carbon fiber with epoxy will do this. It will also have a very slick fast playing feel to it - and look pretty awesome as well. That will really assure that this bass will last a long long time for the adoptive owner.

How does this apply and matter to those who are reading this?

Well, when I started this sideline, the last time I did any fine woodworking was back in high school - many many moons ago. I started with buying parts online and then assembling them, using my 40 years of guitar playing experience both as an amateur and professional as guidance defining what a good/great instrument should be. COVID was in full force at this point, and lockdown meant there wasn't much you could do outside of eat, sleep, work, dream - I could focus on this and grow.

Each time I started a new build, I set the bar higher by an achievable amount.

Buying parts turned into buying seasoned wood and crafting my own necks and bodies.

Soon I started wondering if I could do more elaborate constructions - like neck through body constructions. I set that as the next target, and have built 18 instruments now like this.

Then, since my general philosophy was more like Eddie Van Halen and build these things as utilitarian instruments and be less concerned about appearance - I set the bar to be "how do I make these look beautiful?"

Some instruments played extremely well but looked like ass.

Others looked beautiful but played like ass.

The last dozen instruments have looked and played great. This bass is the next stage of evolution for me - establish a successful process of construction, be disciplined and not rush to production, focus on detail and precision.

These are all extremely key qualities of a Technical Program Manager - methodical, imaginative, attention to detail, establish a maintainable cadence.

Because it was a hobby, early in my efforts I didn't use it as a global learning opportunity. Now I see it as an important evolution in my character and vocation. I also have experienced how people have purchased my work directly from me, and the reward of a job well done from feedback I've received.

I've received commendations from my supervisors and colleagues before, but I really do perceive the value of those recognitions now that I have become a craftsman.

I know that I'm capable of learning new skills just like I was when I was a young man. I know that my fluid intelligence is still there, and it only reinforces the concrete intelligence of learned experience.

And I'm not special. I'm not unique.

If I can do this - you can too. At whatever age you are.

And if I can do it, then I am a highly valuable individual that any employer should be desperate to hire and have me contribute to their efforts.

Or maybe I dont need to be an employee - maybe I can apply this inventive and innovative personality with my fluid and concrete intelligence into some direction where I can change the world in stunning and valuable ways.

Its time for you to look in the mirror and come to this same realization. That you are valuable, that you can learn new skills, that you have a ton of other marketable skills that are your superpower.

You can turn everything around if you only see yourself for the superhero you are.

I'm a career coach and mentor, I also help people fully prepare for those crucial job interviews through story building and confidence building. Reach out to me if you were inspired to discover the superhero you really are - https://calendly.com/prodigycc