Bass and Baritone update

Luke's Short Scale Bass

As you can see the short scale bass built for Luke is now completed. Luke is really pleased with it and he will be using it with his band, “Hands on Heads.”
One aspect that I’m particularly pleased with is the amount of subtle detail, such as the green lines in the laminations which go unnoticed until you pick the instrument up and examine it. I think I would describe my approach as “making an electric guitar for grown-ups.”

I finished this bass in Tru-oil, which is something new to me, although I know a number of US luthiers use it. It’s an oil based finish that has been formulated for gun stocks and is therefore presumably resistant to all manner of chemicals and weather conditions. So it will be interesting to see how hard-wearing it is.

The Tru-oil finish has a similar visual and tactile qualities to French polish. The obvious difference between the two is that with Tru-oil, the grain is not filled and on woods like the ash of this bass’s body, the grain is still very much open and natural looking.

Ian's Baritone Guitar

Ian’s Baritone guitar is progressing nicely and you can see that the body is together and is ready for the rebates for the purflings and bindings to be routed. The English walnut looks stunning, so I can’t wait to see what it will look like with some finish on it .