2 string fretless cigar box bass guitar

Its been a while since I posted anything (as usual) Mostly the summer holidays and getting a few commissions which has made me very busy.
The latest creation is this 2 string upright bass commissioned by Gavin Lloyd Wilson of Guitars Blog the second after the Double neck I built earlier this year.

SO here it is a 2 string fretless bass
Made with a vintage cigar box, reclaimed  maple neck with a lovely character grain Ovankol fingerboard.
Split pbass pickups and jazz bass wiring. He also wanted to be able to play it in an upright position which makes sense as it will be so neck heavy. So I used a snooker cue. I removed the ferrule from the unused half which I them embedded into the bottom of the body the thin end then can be screwed in easily or removed for portability. It was an idea suggested by some kind folks on the cigar box guitar builders group on facebook.

Cigar box Ukulele and a 3 string cigar box guitar. oh and a warwick refinish.

This month has been fairly quiet. The post Christmas duldrum and being off work for a few days after my finger met the bandsaw (I'm very lucky to report was not too serious) Also a nice bout of Flu this last week has made it a reasonably unproductive month. I had two commissions one for a cigar box guitar and another for a 3 string cigar box ukulele to complete which I managed.
I actually had both of these commissions before Christmas unfortunately I didn't really have any cigar boxes suitable so I had to go on a major hunt to find suitable ones. Since I have started it seems cigar boxes have become a bit scarce on EBAY uk and the ones that are there are becoming fairly pricey. where I used to be able to pickup a nice vintage box for 3 or 4 pounds they are now going more to the 8 to 10 pound and even more. plus the postage. In the end I won a joblot of 25 boxes from the USA of which 10 are really good for instrument making. Even with the postage and import duty it was still cheaper than buying 10 separate boxes from the UK.
The box for the Ukulele I found On Ebay USA too.
The 3 string is for a customer in Austria. he saw the last one I had made on facebook. a nice simple plain wooden box with a nice flat neck which can be played with a slide or like a fretless instrument and wanted one similar.
It's only a small box but amazingly loud acoustically. and when it's plugged in Wow!
I soaked of the label from the inside lid to put on the headstock as it was such an attractive one. It also has position markers on the fret board which show on the front as well as the edge.

 

 

 

The Cigar box ukulele is for a customer a bit closer to home In Wiltshire.  She wanted a nice box with attractive labels on.  I found this one on EBAY USA and knew it was perfect for the Uke.

It's actually a new box but has that vintage look to it with the embossed labels and Victorian style artwork.  This one is without a doubt the best cigar box ukulele I have made. It really is not far off a standard Uke in terms of tone and volume and I will be keeping my beady eye out for more of these boxes.  I tried out a different sound hole design with an X brace on the top which may have helped with the sound quality. 

 

I Also managed a refin of a local chaps Warwick Bass which came to me in a plain finish which was looking a little tired. So it was given a transluscent  red brown brown (Looks very red in the picture) coat. The plan was to finish it with a matt clear coat but as it looked pretty awesome with a bit of gloss decided to leave it like that.

 

 





 

 

 

 

Buzz's Suitcase Bass

Last year I bumped into a friend I hadn't seen for several years and we got chatting. turns out he has been making guitars out of scrap and cigar boxes etc he was equally surprised when I told him I do it for a living.
He popped around the other day with his latest creation.  a suitcase bass. and pretty cool it is too.

 

ShonKy OddBass. Tonika Like shortscale bass.

The Oddbass is a recent commission I have completed.
Andrew contacted me wanting a bass made from the neck and keyboard of his Ibanez Gax. He had seen my previous shortscale Bass.  but wanted something with a longer top horn for balance. He 0wanted 0the pick up to be more biased towards the neck for more bass. and he is left handed too. I sent him a few sketches of similar ideas and a few way out wacky ones and he went for the wackiest. Although not intentional it bears a fairly strong resemblance to the Russian Tonika Bass. But I like to think a bit more graceful.
The design is way out 0there  but fairly practical. the top horn is a useful handle. recessed strap buttons keep the design tidy, comfortable leg cutaways and the "feet" enable it to be rested against a chair or amp without toppling sideways. It actually does stand up on it's own but I wouldn't recommend leaving it like that.
This0 was my first left hander and it was incredibly strange making it. I kept thinking I had made a terrible mistake. then realising It was a lefty then thinking I had got it wrong because it was left handed and I had missed something. I almost painted my logo on upside down too. a very strange but ultimately satisfying building experience.

Sorry about the rubbish quality of the pics. My beloved Olympus Pen broke and is currently in for repair so had to use our point and shoot casio.
 

Rumbler Bass Guitar. OSB chip board top

A friend commissioned a bass guitar for there partner to learn on. the only trouble is I've had a week to build something. Luckily I have a few Bass spares in so didn't have any trouble there well all apart from a body so I made one from Ash with a OSB top. The OSB came from  neighbors shed and is about 20 years old so needed a bit of stabilising and filling. I have some modern OSB and it looks to be much more solid.
To make it a bit quirky I used some gold glitter paint which is clear varnish with gold glitter in it ANd was quite surprised at the effect. From an angle where the light reflects of the glitter it looks like a piece of beaten up gold and when you look at it straight on it looks like plain old chipboard.
The neck is an old Encore that I Stripped and Danish oiled. A bit of glitter paint on the Headstock too.
The hardwear and pickups are generic far east jobs.
Sounds pretty good I don.t think the OSB has much if any affect as the majority of the body is ash. Probably slightly mutes the ash if anything.