beatle Bass plans, anyone

[mindwave]

Ive been thinkinh about a copy of a hofner beatle bass, you know which ones I' m talking bout, AKA violin bass?

looking for some plans , or if someone has actually built one yet

always wanted a bass, and though tfender basses are much simpler, I think I neeed a little 'extra'

[bcarter_1]

My son has one, is a cheap version... has hofner on headstock, but I can take measurements or pics as needed.

[glen smith]

How about this?

[jpbturbo]

Originally Posted by mindwave

Ive been thinkinh about a copy of a hofner beatle bass, you know which ones I' m talking bout, AKA violin bass?

looking for some plans , or if someone has actually built one yet

always wanted a bass, and though tfender basses are much simpler, I think I neeed a little 'extra'

It's really more of a Viola bass.

[Scatter Lee]

[Barncaster]

Thanks Scatter,

That just made my morning. :-)

Rob

[fluid69]

Originally Posted by Scatter Lee

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCOycca1ezo">YouTube Link</a>

Such a cool vid scatter! Ive never seen so many special presses before. And what about that glue/roller box? I could see that being pretty handy. I think the thing that amazed me the most was the huge pattern bit they were using on the headstocks. I was waiting for a piece of the headstock to go flying across the room!

"If you want rules, read the IRS tax code. If you want to build guitars, make some sawdust." -Colt W. Knight

[tdoty]

Did that dude freehand the fret slots?????? I have to use a miter box for slotting, a square at the least!

Great video. Thanks for posting that, Scatter!

[Scatter Lee]

Originally Posted by fluid69

Such a cool vid scatter! Ive never seen so many special presses before. And what about that glue/roller box? I could see that being pretty handy. I think the thing that amazed me the most was the huge pattern bit they were using on the headstocks. I was waiting for a piece of the headstock to go flying across the room!

"If you want rules, read the IRS tax code. If you want to build guitars, make some sawdust." -Colt W. Knight

all kinds of cool tricks in that vid, one of these days i might try to make a scattervarius hollowbody like that

[acalan]

Thanks,great video

[Cat MacKinnon]

wow, that video was awesome! but yikes, those spindle moulders scare the crap out of me! i'd probably lose half my fingers my first day on the job!

it's pretty cool to see how efficient the factory can be without any CNC...then again, i guess the Germans have never been inefficient! also: that's probably the cleanest guitar factory ever. i was surprised to see how much work they did after the bass was finished. i also was totally unaware that those pickups weren't routed into the body at all.

that's got to be one of the coolest guitar factory videos i've ever seen (minus the slightly tacky Beatles cover tunes ;)

[fluid69]

Originally Posted by Scatter Lee

all kinds of cool tricks in that vid, one of these days i might try to make a scattervarius hollowbody like that

There really was some cool tricks in that vid.

Tdoty, i think that board he was pushing down on the fretboard right before he was sawing the frets, marked the fretboard for the fret slots and the marker dots.

"If you want rules, read the IRS tax code. If you want to build guitars, make some sawdust." -Colt W. Knight

[tdoty]

I saw where the board he pushed down on the fretboard left imprints for the fret lines and marker dots.....but he did the cuts without a guide and drilled for the dots with a cordless drill!

On my first neck, I used a drill press and still managed to get one tuner hole just a tad out of line. I made several practice fretboards before getting down to the real thing, and several of them got junked by mistakes using the miter box.

Scary, you wanna talk scary? The big saw thing used for cutting the sides to size! You can get a good view at around 1:42.

Lots of inspiration in that video, though.

[crazydave911]

Originally Posted by tdoty

.....but he did the cuts without a guide and drilled for the dots with a cordless drill!

On my first neck, I used a drill press and still managed to get one tuner hole just a tad out of line. I made several practice fretboards before getting down to the real thing, and several of them got junked by mistakes using the miter box.

That crew (for lack of a better term) has been together as I understand it for a long time. They are one of the few still doing things that way and it's reflected in the price of the real thing. These and the cheap copies look very similar but play and sound completely different. What I've been dying for (for years) is one of their long out of production guitars


Sorry for the small pic







The Kent brand once had a whole line..................bass.................guitar and mandolin.................Ahhh those were the days

[fluid69]

Dang dave, i dont think ive ever seen that guitar before. Too cool. Maybe we should commission scatter to build us a pair. LOL.

"If you want rules, read the IRS tax code. If you want to build guitars, make some sawdust." -Colt W. Knight

[crazydave911]

Originally Posted by fluid69

Dang dave, i dont think ive ever seen that guitar before

Yeh, and it doesn't have that stupid rectangular control plate either .

Too cool. Maybe we should commission scatter to build us a pair. LOL.

Oh, and whatever you do, don't click this LINK