Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

Just returned from International Society of Bassist's Convention in Rochester NY with a Certificate of Merit for Tone.

Top is Western Red Cedar
Back and sides are Silky Oak
Neck and scroll is Qld Maple
Trim, nut etc is Wenge
Ebony FB and fittings.
Removable neck
Finished in hard shellac tinted with spirit stains.

Now that's real nice and there is no need to ask how it sounds.

A work of art.

Congratulations Mathew.

Cheers

Alan

Congratulations, Matthew. It's good to hear from you again.

How beautiful is that! All class, and is only going to get better looking with age.

Very nice work Matthew and good to see you around these parts again
Is there much of a tonal difference between the Cedar & Spruce and do you carve/graduate differently for the different timber?

Wonderful stuff, Matthew! The detail work like purflings and the back of the scroll look great, and the general front view as well! Beautiful tuners, btw.

Thanks for showing!

Cheers,

Nick, I just build it a bit thicker and leave the edgework a bit more robust to deal with dings. I use chladni pattern analysis and weights to let me know when the plate is getting around the right thickness. Oh and a gut feeling and some mumbo jumbo.

Gorgeous Bass and nice workshop by the way, looks like similar humidity control to what I have.

Jim

Yeah, just nice, really nice. I can't begin to imasgine the time for a project like that....

Outstanding again Matthew! The bow work makes it sound like a horn, lovely indeed!

Congrats Matthew. Very nice.

Yep, couldn't agree more. Very nice.

Peter

matthew wrote:Just returned from International Society of Bassist's Convention in Rochester NY with a Certificate of Merit for Tone.

Dude, congrats! Would you mind elaborating more on the heel/removable neck?

Neck is fit in a standard chalk-fit tapered mortise joint.
The bolt threads into a captive nut attached to the underside of the neck block. It cannot pull out.
Use a pin to pry open the small plug in the heel (darker in the pic above) held in place with a magnet.
Use a 1/4" hex key to undo and remove the steel bolt.
Remove neck. Simple as that.

Of course you need to have a strategy to retain the soundpost in place and a place to keep the endpin, bridge, strings etc. But that's easy.

I took the bass to USA and back in two plywood crates, checked luggage.

Gee that's a lot of work, but all worth while when you get an instrument like that. And it stands up to air travel too.

*speechless*




[in the corner where I'll stop pretending to build instruments]

Congratulations...nice work.

Thank you guys.

I have two more in planning, one with all-australian woods (Huon pine, king billy top, not sure yet what for neck and scroll)

But these will have to wait until I finish a certain long-standing restoration project.

Beautiful work Matthew,
Is that the bass we saw you start here, that the Silky Oak came from a shelf or wardrobe part in your shed ?
I think you showed us the bending of the sides.
If it is , I like seeing things going from one extreme to the other.

yes, it started out as shelves rescued from an old guy's garage

Very nice work Matthew and congratulations on being awarded a certificate of merit for tone at what must be a well attended bass makers event on the international calendar.

Kim

Congratulations Mathew