Some time in the late 90's I decided that I
could build a bass. No, I had to. At that time
I had discovered the boutique bass market and
simultaneously the world of exotic woods and I
wanted in. Graduate school is good for many
things but one of them is not financing a bass
collection.
Did I have tools? No. Did I have skills? No. But I did have books,
usenet, and friends with tools and skills. Over the next couple of
years I stumbled my way through a couple of basses with some help from
my friends. I bought some tools, brought them out onto the deck of my
apartment, and started. By 1998 I was building basses that were at
least good enough to trade or sell for enough money to fund the next
wave of wood, tools, and parts.
Fast forward to the early 21st century and I am 100+
basses deep in my bass-building career. It's a great foil to compupter
science; working with the hands, no matter how frustrating it gets, is
oddly envigorating, and rewarding in a way that computer science
cannot be. The artifact that you are left with at the end of the
process can be touched and seen, and on top of it all, it makes a
sound!
My brand of basses is FBB
Custom and I have made over 100 basses, from 4 string short-scale
to 8 string extended range long scale.
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