First Build, up-right tub bass for the girl

[Edgel R Gillespie II]

My 12 year old daughter brought home an assignment this past friday, seems they are being tasked to build home made musical instruments. And her choice was an up-right tub bass of all things. So, to break in our newly acquired, used shop equipment, we are building a tub bass as our first instrument. We found an old bed frame with some good wood and wares for the build just a couple blocks in the hood. The neck has a natural warp that will fit onto a 5 gln bucket for the tub. My daughter was really ammazed at how the shop tools work in shapping the parts.

First we made some measurements on which end to use on the neck. Figured what she needed for the head piece and what would work for the main body of the neck. Our next step in building is shaving the head to get an angle for the tuning keys and to set the nut, mount the neck to the tub, and build a bridge for the unit. Since this is to be as authentic as possible, I will teach her how to make tappered tunning pegs out of walnet and then reaming the holes to fit. Which means we will use the scroll saw to first cut out here peg shapes. I have tapered tool which resembles an over size pencil sharpener that will be used to set the tapper on the pegs themselves. Hopefully she gets it right with little troubles.

We decided to wind our own strings from nylon kite string. 4 strands for the 4th string, and on down to just 1 for the first.

Twisting strings requires a good deal of patience and time, for the correct length, we need to triple the actual length of the final cut. She will need to make a hole disk to help guid the strings as we wind them with the drill. For being only 12, she loves to be out in the shop with me all the time. Anything to do with tools and creating stuff, she is right there along with me, best shop rat I have ever seen in a long time. Pictures will be posted soon. 8-) Maximo

[Edgel R Gillespie II]

She was really pumped up on the string winding process too, her grade for the class was 150% out of 100%. She turned in the most authentic hillbilly bass/ instrument for the assignment and extra points for winding her own strings.

[Edgel R Gillespie II]

Well just posted the pictures of my messy garage poising as my shop while helping the girl build her bass. And added some shots of the small group of collective tools for the shop.

[Mark Bliss]

Really cool to involve the kids, I love that.

Cant wait to see some pics and more details of the build.