DIY Bass Guitar For Fun and Profit

So after I put up my initial story about my homemade bass guitar, I thought about maybe making another one on spec. I decided to ask the bass forum at Harmony-Central what they thought about this. Here's my initial post:

a while back (4-5 years ago) I built my own DIY electric bass with around $700 in materials/tools outlay

you can see pictures and a bit of a story about my instrument at http://www.maxopedia.org/?q=DIY_bass

I have a couple questions for you guys.

1. If this bass were made to a very high level of fit 'n' finish with even higher quality materials, would you consider purchasing it for yourself or someone you know?
2. What do you see as the fair value of this instrument?

I am thinking about building another custom instrument based on this design. This would be a speculative build with the intent to sell, and the vast majority of my efforts would go into perfecting the design, sourcing high quality woods/components, and producing an instrument with an extremely high level of polish.

just wondering what people think - would it be worth it to build a spec instrument?

People's responses varied. For some reason the people over at the Harmony-Central bass forums believe that CUSTOM_BASS = MULTI_PIECE_NECK. I have no idea why they think this, and perhaps a different forum would yield a different response. Here are some of the better tidbits with my responses.

is that a single slab neck? I'd be concerned about it's stability.
-catphish

Is this really a concern? Is it a must that high-end custom instruments have laminate necks? My understanding is that this issue is very contentious from a practicality standpoint. Some builders swear by one-piece necks, others don't. Personally I somewhat prefer the single-slab in terms of aesthetics. Sandwich basses are not my thing. As an aside though, the exact neck in this instrument carbon fiber reinforced. I am not sure if this is a good thing or bad thing. Perhaps if I went with an all-wood neck I would want to go laminate.

like some of the ideas, but in my honest opinion the complete finished item looks like a collection of styles that you'd expect to find on three different guitars. The elabourate scrollwork on the horn looks out of character with the generic shape of some aspects of the rest of the guitar. You should've done more to make the head stand out as much as the body does.
The electronics cavity cover could do with a re-think, It looks rushed and out of character. If I had your woodworking skills I'd make a more rounded shape out of the cavity cover and sink an acetate cover in flush with the back of the body, using CSK screws. This would look a lot more professional, and because its not aluminium, it'd be easier to shield the electrical connections to prevent shorting.
On the bright side, I'm a fan of original/quirky guitars and if I saw this one hanging up in the shop, I'd deffinately be tempted to pick it up and play. The finish looks good and I'm sure you could find a more mature or denser mahogany to recover some of the tone.
as for price, you have to bear in mind that mass made guitars are made in vast numbers, and as a result the manufacturer gets materials and components in bulk VERY cheaply. I heard that manufacturers and distributors can easily make a 400% mark up on final sale price, meaning a squire stratocaster would probably cost less than £25 to manufacture. They make so many that this profit margin is enough for the factory to cover overheads and labour. On this basis, a $700 guitar with the features on yours would not make a good value sale, especially considering that you probably spent hundreds of work hours building it and this would equate to $1200 in labour (100 hours, semi-skilled labour). The finished guitar, all things considered, probably cost you closer to $2000. However, I'm sure that if (in the unlikely instance) you actually made this guitar as a prototype for a mass market guitar, through outsourcing, mass buying and careful consideration to the number of components and manufacturing processes, you could manufacture that guitar for less than 5% of what you spent.
But at the end of the day, I'm taking this all to seriously and if practical creativity and design innovation makes you happy, then this project was a 100% success. I wish I could work wood as well as you, I've only learnt how to work metal!
- James_Russell

For some reason I just really wanted to do a scroll. I can understand where you're coming from in regards to the pastiche of styles that were the genesis for this bass. Personally, I love the design. I am a much more an artist than I am a woodworker. I've had many people flip out over the curves and proportions of the bass; I feel comfortable I've made the right decision in regards to overall silhouette. I was looking for something that marries the modern instrument to the classical one while not forgetting the stylistic conventions that make the electric guitar so playable and comfortable.

I agree that the headstock design could possibly use something more, and that the control cavity cover was rushed. I believe on the next version of the design the control cavity cover will simply be part of the bass itself (made from wood). This was what I originally intended in a vague sort of way, but poor planning reared its ugly head. As far as the headstock, I very much prefer the simple design, with the overall shape only elaborated/extended by a small amount in version 2. I would also make sure that I put a 'signature' of some sort on each instrument if I was producing them commercially, most likely on the headstock. Perhaps a striking logo or design on the simple headstock is all that is needed.

I guess I should have said more clearly that I wasn't intending for this to go into 'production' as in mass production. Even if I have a 'production design' I'm working off of, the instrument is going to lovingly hand crafted and carved by myself personally. I'm thinking more along the lines of a design aesthetic and template that I perfect so I can guarantee as much as possible that each instrument that leaves the shop is well-designed from every practical perspective in terms of playability, maintenance, and ease of construction.

As far as making a living doing something like this and getting an economy of scale going - I have no desire! However, I would like to see if I could perhaps make a small profit while doing something I think is cool and learning more about it. If I perfected my existing design and did a spec build, I would have no trouble putting a $1500 - $4000 price tag on it, but I'm curious what others think, and that's why I posted on this forum.

Also, making my first bass was very fun and fulfilling, but making another one for myself wouldn't be nearly as worthwhile. I'd like my creations to get out into the world and have lives of their own.

Nope I wouldn't buy it. I don't mind the shape, although I don't like the lower horn, but I realize what it takes to make a great bass and most luthiers perfect their trade over years and years. Maybe in 20 I will though?
- willsellout

yea! That's exactly what I wanted to hear.

I think your bass looks very nice, but I dont know you and I will not gamble 1500-4000 dollars just to see if the bass sounds good. When you get into that price range, you are competing with vintage basses, Sadowsky, Warwick, Pedulla, all the biggest names. I know I can buy one of those, and 99 times out of 100 it will be unbelievable.
- landbriancoe

If I built a spec bass and it did not match up to one of those very excellent instruments that you mentioned, I would not attempt to price it as such. I was actually sort of thinking of Sadowsky in particular, and how they take a simple design and make it something spectacular in the execution.

As for selling the bass, that is a secondary consideration to crafting the bass I was aiming for when I made this one. However, one option is to place it on consignment in a high-end music store here in the Chicago area where I live. I wouldn't expect any potential buyer to not be able to play the bass before purchasing. That would be ridiculous. I certainly wouldn't buy my bass without playing it and hearing what it sounds like, preferably through a multitude of amps.

I think it takes guts to make something like that and then say "If I built more similar, would people buy them?".
- bassman1956

yea! More people need to get some guts and learn how to believe in themselves.

Just as an aside, I probably would have never conceived of perfecting my design and attempting to sell it except for the numerous people over the years that have played my bass and said they wanted one too.