Henrique Schneiter's First Bass

[Henrique Schneiter]

My first try on a bass guitar.

Body: marupá
Neck: goiabão
Fretboard: indian rosewood

Electronics:
Golden Age Jazz Bass pickups
Balance pot
Tone pot

Finish:
Nitro on the body
Linseed oil for neck and fretboard

Comments welcome!

[Peter Wilcox]

Good looking bass - nice design. I like the way the jack and control knobs follow the line of the upper horn. I like the headstock too.

Is the black line around the body a laminate or binding? Whichever it is, it is striking. How did you do it?

[Henrique Schneiter]

Thanks Peter! It's black plastic binding, that was installed before the carving on the top.

[Gilbert Fredrickson]

I love it. That base makes me want to run across a very large stage. It makes me want to leap from the FOH speaker stack and soar over the audience. I love it. Thank you. Seriously, it exudes a feeling of motion.

[Peter Wilcox]

Thanks Peter! It's black plastic binding, that was installed before the carving on the top.

Henrique, can you tell me the order of the steps you took to install it? It looks like it has a semicircular or rounded cross section and stands proud of the wood. Did it come like this, or did you shape it? Did you route a groove for the binding, then install the binding and then carve the wood? How did you keep from digging into the binding when carving? Or is it just an optical illusion in the photo that it is proud of the carving? Thanks - I'd like to be able to do this too.

[Henrique Schneiter]

Thanks a lot Gilbert! Certainly you could do that, I forgot to mention that it's very well balanced and quite lightweight for a bass. I'm very happy with it.

Peter, that's an optical illusion! The binding is flush with the sides and the top. The binding was installed before the carving, in the desired "depth", and then I hand carved the top until I knocked off the outer/upper edge of the binding. Some pics below.

[Henrique Schneiter]

After the gross part of the carving.

[Peter Wilcox]

Thanks Henrique. I really like that look - I think I'll try it on a carved maple top instrument to separate the maple from the back wood.