Well it's that time of the year when the weather is (slightly) warmer in the Uk and thoughts turn to guitar building. Thoroughly enjoyed my last year's one and it's the one I've been gigging with pretty regularly since then.
Decided I'd like a fairly simple P style (ish) bass so I set about drawing one.
Wood however is a little more problematic. It's really costly in the UK, and a decent slab of something is £60 or so, with a further £20 for the neck and then more for the fretboard. So I thought I'd try and continue the theme of using recycled wood (my first one was made from an old mantlepiece), though this does mean a little more work.
I was slightly fortunate that might wife decided to get rid of an old drop leaf table, made of mahogany, shown in the pic. I also had some bits of iroko left from the last build though these aren't as nice as the last bits and there are some nail holes. I've got some wood flooring (oak) and some other light coloured wood used in an old bit of furniture - no idea what. Ash possibly? Anyway it was all I had so it would have to be some sort of laminate, both for the neck and the body. At least it would give me a chance to play with my new Christmas present - a No. 7 Jointer plane!!
I don't have a table saw (yet!) so using the bandsaw I cut up some strips for the neck and after some planing, I played around to see what they looked like.
Not quite wide enough, so I cut up some more and after glueing them, cleaning them up, and planing them flat, I ended up with this.
.......