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Who are you?
- Thread starter T2W
- Start date
My "real" name is Alex Higgins, I'm a architectural draftsman and Construction Manager for a small Architectural firm here on Cape Cod. Bit of a Pink Floyd fan, as the avatar might inply. I grew up here, moved away, moved back. I have 4 sons, ages 16-24, all great young men, and a wife I'm still stupid punch-drunk in love with after almost 40 years together. She was 17, I was 19, still going strong. I'll be 59 in July, how the eff did THAT happen?
Like a lot of middle-aged men, I was flat-out bored, and frustrated with the daily grind, needed some kind of creative outlet. It was furniture building for a while. I did that for fun until it got boring, then I turned this:
Into this:
Then I decided I wanted build a Rickenbacker clone. Sure! It'll be easy! Six years later:
Then I rehabbed a BTS P-Bass from this:
To this:
Next, I want to build one of these:
Completely addicted to building now, so I'm Fully Screwed.
Like a lot of middle-aged men, I was flat-out bored, and frustrated with the daily grind, needed some kind of creative outlet. It was furniture building for a while. I did that for fun until it got boring, then I turned this:
Into this:
Then I decided I wanted build a Rickenbacker clone. Sure! It'll be easy! Six years later:
Then I rehabbed a BTS P-Bass from this:
To this:
Next, I want to build one of these:
Completely addicted to building now, so I'm Fully Screwed.
Last edited:
Greetings Alex!
Welcome to our little corner of the world
Nice that you could join us
I hope you find this forum educational, inspirational, and fascinating all at the same time
There are a few characters you need to be careful of, like @Fat Freddy who will
all over everything.Welcome!
I’ve actually been posting on LC for a while, sometimes I wander out into the Wild West of the Basses Forum, which often does not go well. 
- Jun 30, 2010
- 44,638
- 194,352
- 11,987
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
Very familiar with you and your fine work Alex
- everyone will benefit from seeing/knowing more about your input here on the Luthiers Corner thread! 
@Gilmourisgod hey Alex, fan of your work here in the LC! There seems to be a few builders here who are (or were formerly, like myself) in the Architecture racket. Bunch of Engineers, too!
Someone should do a study...
Someone should do a study...
So, I'mma go ahead and give an introduction to me, even though I'm currently in the early stages of my very first build and the OP said "this is for you guys that have done more than 1 or 2 builds". But I lurk around these parts quite a bit and seem to have no fear of commenting on anything that interests me, or makes me laugh.
My real name is Tim (probably wasn't hard to figure out). I'm a Project Manager and BIM Coordinator at a Foodservice design firm in Tacoma, Washington. We do design and consulting for commercial foodservice operations, covering everything from drafting plans and specifying equipment to concept studies and programming, master planning, clear through to commissioning. So basically if you're designing a foodservice facility of any sort, we can help from start to finish. We do restaurants, bars, casinos, hotels, banquet halls, catering kitchens, corporate dining facilities, school cafeterias, laundry and waste management. If it feeds people, serves drinks or handles "hotel valet" we got you covered.
Too many hobbies to list, but the main ones are the Harley and that dang racecar. Oh, the "68" comes from my racecar number and the "Terrible" part started as a joke. My first race, the "tower card" had an entry that read "nickname" so my dad said "put something crazy like Terrible Tim" so I did, the announcer absolutely loved it and it has become a brand of sorts, so I use it.
I'm 47, I've got 4 kids (2 boys, 2 girls), the youngest is 24, the oldest is 30. My wife and I are a crazy story of two kids who had a kid together way too young, went our separate ways and ended up back together. We've been married for 23 years now (I think it's 23, could be 24, pretty sure it's 23, you know how that goes). I played bass in a local band back in my younger years, gave it up to get sober in the mid-90s and didn't touch my bass for probably 12 years. Picked it back up after my little brother passed away in 2008 (he was a much more successful bassist than I ever was).
As I said, I'm in the early stages of my very first build, and I'm already planning my second build. So yeah, I've got the sickness I think.
My real name is Tim (probably wasn't hard to figure out). I'm a Project Manager and BIM Coordinator at a Foodservice design firm in Tacoma, Washington. We do design and consulting for commercial foodservice operations, covering everything from drafting plans and specifying equipment to concept studies and programming, master planning, clear through to commissioning. So basically if you're designing a foodservice facility of any sort, we can help from start to finish. We do restaurants, bars, casinos, hotels, banquet halls, catering kitchens, corporate dining facilities, school cafeterias, laundry and waste management. If it feeds people, serves drinks or handles "hotel valet" we got you covered.
Too many hobbies to list, but the main ones are the Harley and that dang racecar. Oh, the "68" comes from my racecar number and the "Terrible" part started as a joke. My first race, the "tower card" had an entry that read "nickname" so my dad said "put something crazy like Terrible Tim" so I did, the announcer absolutely loved it and it has become a brand of sorts, so I use it.
I'm 47, I've got 4 kids (2 boys, 2 girls), the youngest is 24, the oldest is 30. My wife and I are a crazy story of two kids who had a kid together way too young, went our separate ways and ended up back together. We've been married for 23 years now (I think it's 23, could be 24, pretty sure it's 23, you know how that goes). I played bass in a local band back in my younger years, gave it up to get sober in the mid-90s and didn't touch my bass for probably 12 years. Picked it back up after my little brother passed away in 2008 (he was a much more successful bassist than I ever was).
As I said, I'm in the early stages of my very first build, and I'm already planning my second build. So yeah, I've got the sickness I think.
My name is Morgan Kelsey, I'm 47, have 3 kids and am about to be remarried (slow learner). The bass I built for the current build off (build what you have), is my 2nd bass build, and 11th guitar-shaped object:
The other 9 are acoustic guitars of different types, mostly OM models.
I had a career in data and development but that came to an end about 18 months ago, and I've recently decided to focus on building instruments.
I grew up with woodworking as my father is a fine furniture maker and wood turner, and was the original editor for Fine Woodworking magazine. I didn't do a *ton* of woodworking as a kid, but dad taught us all the basics of sharpening tools and sawing straight lines.
I went to music school and got a BFA in Jazz Performance after high school, starting on guitar and finishing on piano as my main instrument.
The first acoustic bass I built was a high school graduation present for my son who plays bass:
You can see some of my other acoustic guitars on my website. I haven't built an electric anything yet, except for almost building a guitar with dad in high school - but I only lasted a couple of weeks. So, who knows, maybe I'll make an electric for the next build off.
The other 9 are acoustic guitars of different types, mostly OM models.
I had a career in data and development but that came to an end about 18 months ago, and I've recently decided to focus on building instruments.
I grew up with woodworking as my father is a fine furniture maker and wood turner, and was the original editor for Fine Woodworking magazine. I didn't do a *ton* of woodworking as a kid, but dad taught us all the basics of sharpening tools and sawing straight lines.
I went to music school and got a BFA in Jazz Performance after high school, starting on guitar and finishing on piano as my main instrument.
The first acoustic bass I built was a high school graduation present for my son who plays bass:
You can see some of my other acoustic guitars on my website. I haven't built an electric anything yet, except for almost building a guitar with dad in high school - but I only lasted a couple of weeks. So, who knows, maybe I'll make an electric for the next build off.
Last edited:
- Jun 30, 2010
- 44,638
- 194,352
- 11,987
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
So, I'mma go ahead and give an introduction to me, even though I'm currently in the early stages of my very first build and the OP said "this is for you guys that have done more than 1 or 2 builds". But I lurk around these parts quite a bit and seem to have no fear of commenting on anything that interests me, or makes me laugh.
My real name is Tim (probably wasn't hard to figure out). I'm a Project Manager and BIM Coordinator at a Foodservice design firm in Tacoma, Washington. We do design and consulting for commercial foodservice operations, covering everything from drafting plans and specifying equipment to concept studies and programming, master planning, clear through to commissioning. So basically if you're designing a foodservice facility of any sort, we can help from start to finish. We do restaurants, bars, casinos, hotels, banquet halls, catering kitchens, corporate dining facilities, school cafeterias, laundry and waste management. If it feeds people, serves drinks or handles "hotel valet" we got you covered.
Too many hobbies to list, but the main ones are the Harley and that dang racecar. Oh, the "68" comes from my racecar number and the "Terrible" part started as a joke. My first race, the "tower card" had an entry that read "nickname" so my dad said "put something crazy like Terrible Tim" so I did, the announcer absolutely loved it and it has become a brand of sorts, so I use it.
I'm 47, I've got 4 kids (2 boys, 2 girls), the youngest is 24, the oldest is 30. My wife and I are a crazy story of two kids who had a kid together way too young, went our separate ways and ended up back together. We've been married for 23 years now (I think it's 23, could be 24, pretty sure it's 23, you know how that goes). I played bass in a local band back in my younger years, gave it up to get sober in the mid-90s and didn't touch my bass for probably 12 years. Picked it back up after my little brother passed away in 2008 (he was a much more successful bassist than I ever was).
As I said, I'm in the early stages of my very first build, and I'm already planning my second build. So yeah, I've got the sickness I think.
Of course I'm aware of you from the T-bird club but thank you so much for introducing yourself to the broader tb community! I love life-stories like yours! You can provide links to your build-projects here and we'll all look forward to following your developments!
- Jun 30, 2010
- 44,638
- 194,352
- 11,987
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
My name is Morgan Kelsey, I'm 47, have 3 kids and am about to be remarried (slow learner). The bass I built for the current build off (build what you have), is my 2nd bass build, and 11th guitar-shaped object:
View attachment 3886150
The other 9 are acoustic guitars of different types, mostly OM models.
I had a career as a programmer, and was eventually leading a big team of developers and data people for a large company. That came to an end about 18 months ago, and I've recently decided to focus on building instruments and have stopped job hunting.
I grew up with woodworking as my father is a fine furniture maker and wood turner, and was the original editor for Fine Woodworking magazine. I didn't do a *ton* of woodworking as a kid, but dad taught us all the basics of sharpening tools and sawing straight lines.
I went to music school and got a BFA in Jazz Performance after high school, starting on guitar and finishing on piano as my main instrument.
The first acoustic bass I built was a high school graduation present for my son who plays bass:View attachment 3886142
View attachment 3886144
You can see some of my other acoustic guitars on my website. I haven't built an electric anything yet, except for almost building a guitar with dad in high school - but I only lasted a couple of weeks. So, who knows, maybe I'll make an electric for the next build off.
Here's a pic of me sporting my new favorite attachment, given to me by a jeweler-friend:
View attachment 3886152
Pro tip: if you forget to take it off and go out in the sun you'll set your eyebrows on fire and burn a hole in your forehead.
Welcome Morgan! The acoustic is a beauty! Luthiers Corner has a very supportive crew who you can feel very comfortable with - we are all busy bees and generous with our collective experience!
Yeah Morgan, you build some great stuff! Was inspiring watching your build-off acoustic.
I've done some refinish projects (I enjoy doing swirl paintjobs, have done 5 to date), but this is a whole new world!
Here's my first build thread - First Build - "Lucifer"
Here is the second build thread - Second Build - TT68's Diva inspired Fretless
I've done some refinish projects (I enjoy doing swirl paintjobs, have done 5 to date), but this is a whole new world!
Here's my first build thread - First Build - "Lucifer"
Here is the second build thread - Second Build - TT68's Diva inspired Fretless
My real name is Jon Clegg, oddly enough. More oddly, my first name is pronounced 'Yon'. I'm 58. I graduated from Purdue University ummm a lot of years ago with a degree in Electrical Engineering and have worked as a software engineer. Monkeying around with guitars is what sent me in the direction of EE. Here's a family portrait of (most of) my builds in chronological order left to right:
Build threads:
1. THE BEAST -- so called because well it was my first body, before I knew of concepts like chambering, etc. She weighs in at around 12 lbs! Lots of ornamentation that are covers for my mistakes! Started in 2006 finished in 2013 due to a long hiatus.
2. The DanoBacker
3. The MagnetoSonic Walnut Wonder
4. The Victory 5D
6. The K-Space
7. The Fenderbird VI
5. FatFreddy's Special K
Build threads:
1. THE BEAST -- so called because well it was my first body, before I knew of concepts like chambering, etc. She weighs in at around 12 lbs! Lots of ornamentation that are covers for my mistakes! Started in 2006 finished in 2013 due to a long hiatus.
2. The DanoBacker
3. The MagnetoSonic Walnut Wonder
4. The Victory 5D
6. The K-Space
7. The Fenderbird VI
5. FatFreddy's Special K
My name is Robin Baker. My first foray into building was around 1974. My first workable bass (no pictures but it was made using parts from a cheap Vibra bass) I built for my brother as he wanted to learn how to play. He didn't but I did. I worked on several iterations and came up with my first "quality" design in 1981.
It was sonically great but suffered a little from neck dive (large Fender tuners) and in my mind the design became dated too quick. Worked on a new design with emphasis on ergonomics and in 1985 created this for myself.
This design seems to have held up and solved my issues with the previous attempt. Well then career got in the way and I spent a lot of years in electronic controls design, service and manufacturing. I still dabbled and in 2013 I built this five string for myself and a fretted four. Both were completed for a local custom guitar show held local that year.
Currently I have been completing some old sidelined projects and eventually will complete a new six string for myself.
It was sonically great but suffered a little from neck dive (large Fender tuners) and in my mind the design became dated too quick. Worked on a new design with emphasis on ergonomics and in 1985 created this for myself.
This design seems to have held up and solved my issues with the previous attempt. Well then career got in the way and I spent a lot of years in electronic controls design, service and manufacturing. I still dabbled and in 2013 I built this five string for myself and a fretted four. Both were completed for a local custom guitar show held local that year.
Currently I have been completing some old sidelined projects and eventually will complete a new six string for myself.
Last edited:
Sweet family pic there. Looks like some nice work.
You and I have a bit in common. My EE is from Purdue by way of IUPUI.
However, my luthier creds don’t match up to yours. My children are fewer and more varied:
A Strat, Les P, my own crazed version of a P Style bass, and a Rick monster. That’s my nephew with the Rick. I built it as a present for him.
Welcome to the group!
Attachments
Hey There,
I debated about posting here to introduce myself, then read through all the posts, then I was intimidated, but finally just decided to let it rip.
Since I agree with Mario about using your real name, my user name is my name. I do this for a couple of reasons, one nicknames are not for me and second it's pretty easy to get my name as a user name on most forums. I am a member of quite a few forums, but mostly post on the Home Depot section of TDPRI.
I'm 62 years old, married for 22 years and have a lovely 16 year old daughter (yes I got a late start! )
Currently working in the IT department of a Regional Food Distributor, I've had many jobs over the years. Worked in an Auto body shop, Worked for an Electrical component distributor, as a parts guy in a Motorcycle dealer, as a camera repair technician, as a Carpentry framer and as an Operations Manager for a high end Camera distributor, there are many jobs in between but some lost to a faulty memory others because, ewwww what was I thinking!
Always have been a builder at heart, starting with taking apart my little red wagon as a 5 year old and putting it back together. Built forts, fixed up a motorcycle that was in a fire that was purchased from a junkyard, modified bicycles, restored a vintage motocross bike and then in 2013 I began building guitars.
The funny thing is I started out as a bass player at 12 or so. I played in bands and a Youth Group who opened for Jose Feliciano when I was a teenager (playing the bass) Unfortunately I didn't stick with bass playing my entire life, I was super interested in motocross and raced for many years, so I went back and forth between playing music and riding/racing motocross. One of the times I went back to music it seemed like a good idea to pursue guitar instead of bass. Since so many songs require different tuning and setups, it seemed like a good idea to build guitars so they could be set up for the songs I wanted to learn.
I feel in love with building guitars, because of that being a builder thing and lost interest in playing. Invested quite a bit in tools to do just that.
So far I've built 16 complete guitars and 5 bodies. I still have 8 of the guitars, but some were given as gifts, some sold locally and a few sold on Reverb. Only using the money to buy more materials and parts to build more.
Besides making some spoons out of scraps from guitar builds for Christmas gifts a few years ago I do not really do any other woodworking.
Unfortunately for the last year or so I had not interest in building. Ended up sleeping most weekends and just feeling lethargic. I started feeling some pain early in the year, but it was at the time when hospitals and doctors seemed to be overwhelmed, I put off going for a couple of months. When I did go it turned out that my body had developed Stage 4 Prostate cancer. So for the past 5 or 6 months I've been going through Chemo.
Strangely, After beginning treatment I felt better than I had at the beginning of the year, so while waiting to hear what my outlook is, and figuring I had too many projects that were unfinished. Some time was spent in the shop and finishing the unfinished seemed the best use of my "spare" time.
Of course since much of my time is spent doing a whole bunch of nothing, Youtube has become my rabbit hole of choice. And lots of bass videos, especially from some of my favorite players of all time got me back to my "roots".
Leland Sklar, Tony Levin, Guy Pratt, James Jamerson, Paul McCartney and many, many more have influenced me over the years.
With all the information the doctors shared, there was a very likely chance that things like building or playing would no longer be possible. But I'm a pretty positive person and decided that one of the basses I loved years ago should be in my "collection". Unfortunately, the cost of a USA Spector NS2 is a bit out of my price range, so with the encouragement of one of my friends, I started planning a build. I gathered up many of the parts, that would be similar if not better than what comes on the USA models.
Just the planning alone has been super helpful for my state of mind. The fun part is that this will be the very first neck through build and the very first with a body radius on both the face and the back. It will be interesting to figure out the dimensions and techniques needed to complete this build. So its a real challenge for me!
Here are some photos of significant stuff in my life.
Of course this is my workshop, an older photo but has most of the equipment I currently own.
This Laguna bandsaw is the center piece of my workshop and was worth every penny I paid. It is solid and accurate and can resaw boards almost 14 inches wide! All with very little drift and using a 3/4 inch wide blade.
A photo of me in the workshop with lots of man glitter. Was running boards through my home made thickness sander.
A pile of projects from a year or two ago.. Yes, there is an Explorer style guitar in that pile of bodies, with a neck blank with a 25.5 scale. That one I'm not sure will ever get finished.
When finishing guitars I hang them in a tree in the front yard. Some folks say they want a tree that grows guitars. Personally its interesting that none have gone missing when doing this, it's less than 10 feet from the road!
Here are a few of the guitars I built over the years. The very first build all the way to the right and the second one is its twin on it's left. Can you guess who's guitar I was attempting to "copy"?
I love the idea of modifying existing designs, using alternative materials and just building something way out there. This is my own design which is called the Neo. It is a super light guitar, has no neck dive and uses a Richlite fingerboard. It's currently hanging in a music store, supposedly on consignment! LOL
A photo from 1978 racing my Honda CR250R
Christmas 2020 at the Nicholas house. My beautiful wife and wonderful daughter. These two women are my world. And of course our pint sized dog Chloe.
I debated about posting here to introduce myself, then read through all the posts, then I was intimidated, but finally just decided to let it rip.
Since I agree with Mario about using your real name, my user name is my name. I do this for a couple of reasons, one nicknames are not for me and second it's pretty easy to get my name as a user name on most forums. I am a member of quite a few forums, but mostly post on the Home Depot section of TDPRI.
I'm 62 years old, married for 22 years and have a lovely 16 year old daughter (yes I got a late start!
)Currently working in the IT department of a Regional Food Distributor, I've had many jobs over the years. Worked in an Auto body shop, Worked for an Electrical component distributor, as a parts guy in a Motorcycle dealer, as a camera repair technician, as a Carpentry framer and as an Operations Manager for a high end Camera distributor, there are many jobs in between but some lost to a faulty memory others because, ewwww what was I thinking!
Always have been a builder at heart, starting with taking apart my little red wagon as a 5 year old and putting it back together. Built forts, fixed up a motorcycle that was in a fire that was purchased from a junkyard, modified bicycles, restored a vintage motocross bike and then in 2013 I began building guitars.
The funny thing is I started out as a bass player at 12 or so. I played in bands and a Youth Group who opened for Jose Feliciano when I was a teenager (playing the bass) Unfortunately I didn't stick with bass playing my entire life, I was super interested in motocross and raced for many years, so I went back and forth between playing music and riding/racing motocross. One of the times I went back to music it seemed like a good idea to pursue guitar instead of bass. Since so many songs require different tuning and setups, it seemed like a good idea to build guitars so they could be set up for the songs I wanted to learn.
I feel in love with building guitars, because of that being a builder thing and lost interest in playing. Invested quite a bit in tools to do just that.
So far I've built 16 complete guitars and 5 bodies. I still have 8 of the guitars, but some were given as gifts, some sold locally and a few sold on Reverb. Only using the money to buy more materials and parts to build more.
Besides making some spoons out of scraps from guitar builds for Christmas gifts a few years ago I do not really do any other woodworking.
Unfortunately for the last year or so I had not interest in building. Ended up sleeping most weekends and just feeling lethargic. I started feeling some pain early in the year, but it was at the time when hospitals and doctors seemed to be overwhelmed, I put off going for a couple of months. When I did go it turned out that my body had developed Stage 4 Prostate cancer. So for the past 5 or 6 months I've been going through Chemo.
Strangely, After beginning treatment I felt better than I had at the beginning of the year, so while waiting to hear what my outlook is, and figuring I had too many projects that were unfinished. Some time was spent in the shop and finishing the unfinished seemed the best use of my "spare" time.
Of course since much of my time is spent doing a whole bunch of nothing, Youtube has become my rabbit hole of choice. And lots of bass videos, especially from some of my favorite players of all time got me back to my "roots".
Leland Sklar, Tony Levin, Guy Pratt, James Jamerson, Paul McCartney and many, many more have influenced me over the years.
With all the information the doctors shared, there was a very likely chance that things like building or playing would no longer be possible. But I'm a pretty positive person and decided that one of the basses I loved years ago should be in my "collection". Unfortunately, the cost of a USA Spector NS2 is a bit out of my price range, so with the encouragement of one of my friends, I started planning a build. I gathered up many of the parts, that would be similar if not better than what comes on the USA models.
Just the planning alone has been super helpful for my state of mind. The fun part is that this will be the very first neck through build and the very first with a body radius on both the face and the back. It will be interesting to figure out the dimensions and techniques needed to complete this build. So its a real challenge for me!
Here are some photos of significant stuff in my life.
Of course this is my workshop, an older photo but has most of the equipment I currently own.
This Laguna bandsaw is the center piece of my workshop and was worth every penny I paid. It is solid and accurate and can resaw boards almost 14 inches wide! All with very little drift and using a 3/4 inch wide blade.
A photo of me in the workshop with lots of man glitter. Was running boards through my home made thickness sander.
A pile of projects from a year or two ago.. Yes, there is an Explorer style guitar in that pile of bodies, with a neck blank with a 25.5 scale. That one I'm not sure will ever get finished.
When finishing guitars I hang them in a tree in the front yard. Some folks say they want a tree that grows guitars. Personally its interesting that none have gone missing when doing this, it's less than 10 feet from the road!
Here are a few of the guitars I built over the years. The very first build all the way to the right and the second one is its twin on it's left. Can you guess who's guitar I was attempting to "copy"?
I love the idea of modifying existing designs, using alternative materials and just building something way out there. This is my own design which is called the Neo. It is a super light guitar, has no neck dive and uses a Richlite fingerboard. It's currently hanging in a music store, supposedly on consignment! LOL
A photo from 1978 racing my Honda CR250R
Christmas 2020 at the Nicholas house. My beautiful wife and wonderful daughter. These two women are my world. And of course our pint sized dog Chloe.
- Jun 30, 2010
- 44,638
- 194,352
- 11,987
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
Hey There,
I debated about posting here to introduce myself, then read through all the posts, then I was intimidated, but finally just decided to let it rip.
Since I agree with Mario about using your real name, my user name is my name. I do this for a couple of reasons, one nicknames are not for me and second it's pretty easy to get my name as a user name on most forums. I am a member of quite a few forums, but mostly post on the Home Depot section of TDPRI.
I'm 62 years old, married for 22 years and have a lovely 16 year old daughter (yes I got a late start!
Currently working in the IT department of a Regional Food Distributor, I've had many jobs over the years. Worked in an Auto body shop, Worked for an Electrical component distributor, as a parts guy in a Motorcycle dealer, as a camera repair technician, as a Carpentry framer and as an Operations Manager for a high end Camera distributor, there are many jobs in between but some lost to a faulty memory others because, ewwww what was I thinking!
Always have been a builder at heart, starting with taking apart my little red wagon as a 5 year old and putting it back together. Built forts, fixed up a motorcycle that was in a fire that was purchased from a junkyard, modified bicycles, restored a vintage motocross bike and then in 2013 I began building guitars.
The funny thing is I started out as a bass player at 12 or so. I played in bands and a Youth Group who opened for Jose Feliciano when I was a teenager (playing the bass) Unfortunately I didn't stick with bass playing my entire life, I was super interested in motocross and raced for many years, so I went back and forth between playing music and riding/racing motocross. One of the times I went back to music it seemed like a good idea to pursue guitar instead of bass. Since so many songs require different tuning and setups, it seemed like a good idea to build guitars so they could be set up for the songs I wanted to learn.
I feel in love with building guitars, because of that being a builder thing and lost interest in playing. Invested quite a bit in tools to do just that.
So far I've built 16 complete guitars and 5 bodies. I still have 8 of the guitars, but some were given as gifts, some sold locally and a few sold on Reverb. Only using the money to buy more materials and parts to build more.
Besides making some spoons out of scraps from guitar builds for Christmas gifts a few years ago I do not really do any other woodworking.
Unfortunately for the last year or so I had not interest in building. Ended up sleeping most weekends and just feeling lethargic. I started feeling some pain early in the year, but it was at the time when hospitals and doctors seemed to be overwhelmed, I put off going for a couple of months. When I did go it turned out that my body had developed Stage 4 Prostate cancer. So for the past 5 or 6 months I've been going through Chemo.
Strangely, After beginning treatment I felt better than I had at the beginning of the year, so while waiting to hear what my outlook is, and figuring I had too many projects that were unfinished. Some time was spent in the shop and finishing the unfinished seemed the best use of my "spare" time.
Of course since much of my time is spent doing a whole bunch of nothing, Youtube has become my rabbit hole of choice. And lots of bass videos, especially from some of my favorite players of all time got me back to my "roots".
Leland Sklar, Tony Levin, Guy Pratt, James Jamerson, Paul McCartney and many, many more have influenced me over the years.
With all the information the doctors shared, there was a very likely chance that things like building or playing would no longer be possible. But I'm a pretty positive person and decided that one of the basses I loved years ago should be in my "collection". Unfortunately, the cost of a USA Spector NS2 is a bit out of my price range, so with the encouragement of one of my friends, I started planning a build. I gathered up many of the parts, that would be similar if not better than what comes on the USA models.
Just the planning alone has been super helpful for my state of mind. The fun part is that this will be the very first neck through build and the very first with a body radius on both the face and the back. It will be interesting to figure out the dimensions and techniques needed to complete this build. So its a real challenge for me!
Here are some photos of significant stuff in my life.
View attachment 4105919
Of course this is my workshop, an older photo but has most of the equipment I currently own.
View attachment 4105920
This Laguna bandsaw is the center piece of my workshop and was worth every penny I paid. It is solid and accurate and can resaw boards almost 14 inches wide! All with very little drift and using a 3/4 inch wide blade.
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A photo of me in the workshop with lots of man glitter. Was running boards through my home made thickness sander.
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A pile of projects from a year or two ago.. Yes, there is an Explorer style guitar in that pile of bodies, with a neck blank with a 25.5 scale. That one I'm not sure will ever get finished.
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When finishing guitars I hang them in a tree in the front yard. Some folks say they want a tree that grows guitars. Personally its interesting that none have gone missing when doing this, it's less than 10 feet from the road!
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Here are a few of the guitars I built over the years. The very first build all the way to the right and the second one is its twin on it's left. Can you guess who's guitar I was attempting to "copy"?
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I love the idea of modifying existing designs, using alternative materials and just building something way out there. This is my own design which is called the Neo. It is a super light guitar, has no neck dive and uses a Richlite fingerboard. It's currently hanging in a music store, supposedly on consignment! LOL
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A photo from 1978 racing my Honda CR250R
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Christmas 2020 at the Nicholas house. My beautiful wife and wonderful daughter. These two women are my world. And of course our pint sized dog Chloe.
Welcome John!
Thanks for your introduction! Life has many twists and turns and it's how one navigates it that defines ones character. Glad to hear you are bucking cancer - what a year right? Let's all hope 2021 will be brighter in many ways! (including playing live music again!)
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Welcome John!
Thank you for the warm welcome.
Yes, hopefully 2021 will be an improvement over this crazy year!!
Just saw this welcome section,
Really enjoy seeing the level of craftsmanship and creative juice on these pages. My name is Mike and I have a long history of tinkering as a musician, hobbyist, and to various degrees professionally in the trades. Guitar work has consisted of parts-casters and a couple of Franken axes. This bass I still use, a nice light 70's Yamaha body, the neck was a $30 SS special off the Rondo site, GFS PU's. Plays great, the HB PU has a coil split.
This is my 77' Strat refit and a Tele project, I bought this Strat in 78' and it's been a workhorse 2 re-frets, the first one by John Carruthers shop. The Tele has sweet Warmoth neck that I screwed up finishing, used water based poly trying to be environmental. I tried to fix it twice and it still gets sticky. This is the Strat after the last refret, she only comes out on occasion any more.
A possible summer project will be to design a body and combine the Franken-bass and the Tele into a double neck. I have a nice piece of 6 1/4 mahogany from a transom I did on a wooden sailboat. It's not big enough but it's most of a body and I figure I can laminate the rest.
Really enjoy seeing the level of craftsmanship and creative juice on these pages. My name is Mike and I have a long history of tinkering as a musician, hobbyist, and to various degrees professionally in the trades. Guitar work has consisted of parts-casters and a couple of Franken axes. This bass I still use, a nice light 70's Yamaha body, the neck was a $30 SS special off the Rondo site, GFS PU's. Plays great, the HB PU has a coil split.
This is my 77' Strat refit and a Tele project, I bought this Strat in 78' and it's been a workhorse 2 re-frets, the first one by John Carruthers shop. The Tele has sweet Warmoth neck that I screwed up finishing, used water based poly trying to be environmental. I tried to fix it twice and it still gets sticky. This is the Strat after the last refret, she only comes out on occasion any more.
A possible summer project will be to design a body and combine the Franken-bass and the Tele into a double neck. I have a nice piece of 6 1/4 mahogany from a transom I did on a wooden sailboat. It's not big enough but it's most of a body and I figure I can laminate the rest.
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Well, I've joined the forum recently, and I'll pretty much just be hanging out here, so I figured I should introduce myself
I'm based in Tasmania, Australia, where my wife and I run a successful wedding photography/videography business. Because only brave people get married in the colder months here, I have a solid block of the year where I need to keep myself occupied!
The next part needs full disclosure - up until a few months ago, I've been building guitars on a commission basis, selling all over the world under the brand J.Parsons Guitars. Recently though I made the decision to close the books and take a break from the world of commercial guitar building. I've still got things to figure out before I can feel comfortable keeping up with the pace of that world. Covid has made getting parts and supplies a lot more challenging, and the growth of our photography business requires more of my attention than I am able to give.
Regardless I'm here to build for my own leisure now, and because bass is my instrument I figured it was time to do some actual exploring of what I can pull off!
Here's a few basses I've built over the years... First up, my personal bass - 33" 5er made with a Poplar body.
This one is Alder and Tasmanian Oak - 30" scale, loaded with a custom McNelly split coil.
This 30" Bass VI is a wild one - Tasmanian Blackwood body, and a Lace Bass Bar - a great sounding pickup!
An early single cut - 30", Solid Blackwood body and some McNelly Goldfoils.
Blackwood body and neck, 32" scale and some Duncan Soapbars.
30" Scale, Blackwood body, McNelly Soapbars.
I'm based in Tasmania, Australia, where my wife and I run a successful wedding photography/videography business. Because only brave people get married in the colder months here, I have a solid block of the year where I need to keep myself occupied!
The next part needs full disclosure - up until a few months ago, I've been building guitars on a commission basis, selling all over the world under the brand J.Parsons Guitars. Recently though I made the decision to close the books and take a break from the world of commercial guitar building. I've still got things to figure out before I can feel comfortable keeping up with the pace of that world. Covid has made getting parts and supplies a lot more challenging, and the growth of our photography business requires more of my attention than I am able to give.
Regardless I'm here to build for my own leisure now, and because bass is my instrument I figured it was time to do some actual exploring of what I can pull off!
Here's a few basses I've built over the years... First up, my personal bass - 33" 5er made with a Poplar body.
This one is Alder and Tasmanian Oak - 30" scale, loaded with a custom McNelly split coil.
This 30" Bass VI is a wild one - Tasmanian Blackwood body, and a Lace Bass Bar - a great sounding pickup!
An early single cut - 30", Solid Blackwood body and some McNelly Goldfoils.
Blackwood body and neck, 32" scale and some Duncan Soapbars.
30" Scale, Blackwood body, McNelly Soapbars.