Hi all

I built a PBG kit last year - a P Bass kit, and did a build diary and enjoyed it so much that I decided to do some more. However the one I wanted was out of stock and with one thing and another winter came, when it's too cold in my unheated workshop, so I left it. I've now decided to have a bash at building a bass from scratch. I have a reasonable selection of tools, but not a huge amount of knowledge so I wanted the first one to be an experiment/learning process.

Hope no-one minds a non PBG build, There are others on here and a lot of knowledge so hopefully people can point me in the right direction if (when!) I mess up!

I should add that I didn't decide to record the progress until after I'd started so some pics are not available.

The first thing was to come up with a design. I've always liked the Musicman Axis Sport Guitar, but never seen a bass version. There is probably a good reason - neck dive I imagine - but with a body of the right weight it should be ok? Guess I'll find out!

Anyway, after a bit of drawing on some old lining paper, I came up with this.



Took a while to get the shaping right and after about three days I changed the headstock and made the body slightly wider. This is the finished version, you can see all the rubbings out! Eventually I was happy with the design and copied it onto some tracing paper. I don't actually have any tracing paper and it's all A4 which isn't wide enough, however kitchen greaseproof paper seems to work as well and is wider. I stuck it on an old piece of plywood and cut out a template, sanded the edges and transferred the centreline.



Seems to be ok so far, so it's on to the actual body....