Scrap bin challenge. Doghouse Ubass build

[muttley]

Round Christmas every year a bunch of guys I know who are all in the guitar making game have a scrap bin challenge to see what we can come up with. Rules are simple in that everything has to come from the bin or off cuts from other builds and the like. You are allowed to buy hardware and anything that isnt glued on. The neck on this is actually an old door frame and the top is from a pallet. Sides are an old walnut shelf as is the back.

My entry this year is a nice little Ubass. The only thing that I had to order in for this was a set of tuners and a pre-amp tuner for the undersaddle. Both from China total cost about £20.... This thing is soooo much fun to play and sounds surprisingly good.. This one is fretless and I am just finishing up a fretted one the same.

ubass1.jpg

ubass2.jpg

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[Greg_L]

Lol goddamn that's pretty fucking amazing. Well done!

[muttley]

Lol goddamn that's pretty fucking amazing. Well done!

Note to teh Gergs awesomeness : It has your headstock design I used on that Jnr pup test bed guitar...

[JD01]

That looks really cool, mate.

[vomitHatSteve]

You built that from scraps?! That's beautiful.

[Greg_L]

Note to teh Gergs awesomeness : It has your headstock design I used on that Jnr pup test bed guitar...

Haha yeah it does pretty much.

[Tadpui]

Wow that looks great! Nice work, Mutt!

[Lt. Bob]

that's fucking awesome and beautiful!
I really like the soundhole rosette.

I must point out that as a long time luthier your idea of the scrap bin is all stuff we'd have to pay good money to acquire

[WhiskeyJack]

I have no words for how in awe of this i am. Good friggin' job on ya mutt dude that is marvelous. bonus points for me having the neck done up out of pallets and old building supplies. I get boners for seeing works of art made out what is essentially garbage to most people.

Any chance we could ever get a listen to it? Sound bites?

Will you be selling this now or is this one for the collection?

[muttley]

................

I must point out that as a long time luthier your idea of the scrap bin is all stuff we'd have to pay good money to acquire

Haha, you'd think so but in this case all the wood is genuinely from a normal fire wood pile.

The neck is made from an old door frame that I ripped out during our house remodel last year. It is full of finger joins and laminations but it is dead stable having prolly been in place in all weathers for 40 plus years.

The top is five pieces of Spruce laminated so the grain is straight and tru and the braces are made from the same stuff. It came from a pallet that I saved from a woodburner we had fitted and as that came from Scandinavia its pretty much slow grown Spruce which they have tons of. Its not normally used for guitars because it comes in long but narrow stock but it is as good as any Carpathian Spruce.

The Back and sides are from an old walnut wardrobe that I found in a skip/dumpster. Cleaned up real goof for usable timber. In this instance I used the top shelf as it was the perfect size and I got two sets out of it.

The rosette is spalted Holme Oak. I have a bunch of them on our plot and limbs get taken out from time to time or fall on their own. I burn most of it but as I cut them for firewood often a nice spalted piece emerges and I lay them by for small projects as they arent usually that big. Perfect for headstock veneers etc.

The binding is made from old plastic ducting that was ripped from our kitchen. It was a bugger to prep but it worked OK.

Perhaps the biggest advantage I have is that I have all the tools needed to rework all that salvage stuff. Its out there, you just need to know where to look.

[muttley]

.................

Any chance we could ever get a listen to it? Sound bites?

Currently its with a mate of mine who is a bass player extraordinaire. I'm seeing him Saturday as we watch the Rugby together and then jam around a bit. I will see if I can capture something. His family are in our bubble and he does some work for me in my workshop and deliveries so we are good with the lockdown thing.

Will you be selling this now or is this one for the collection?

I'd happily sell it. Like Lt. and few others here I have WAY to many instruments kicking about the place.

TBH though I recon I could make these for about £200/250 mates rates. I'd make maybe four or five at a time if I could shift them. It would take me about 10 days in between other jobs I guess. There is nothing too complicated about them. The biggest part of the cost would be strings which are £30- £50 depending on type and then the tuners. The wood cost is minimal and just what it costs in consumables, decent bandsaw blades etc... which aint cheap and dont last too long for fine clean cuts.

[muttley]

...... Oh and left handers no problem..

[WhiskeyJack]

...... Oh and left handers no problem..

HAHA!! Cheers dude. I have 0 extra money currently given the state of my work and life situation but in the event i start generating some expendable earnings, i may want to talk about a custom something made from your old shit laying around. A pallet neck has my interest for some reason. i know it shouldn't. But it does.

[muttley]

...... Oh and left handers no problem..

HAHA!! Cheers dude. I have 0 extra money currently given the state of my work and life situation but in the event i start generating some expendable earnings, i may want to talk about a custom something made from your old shit laying around. A pallet neck has my interest for some reason. i know it shouldn't. But it does.

Yeh I hear yer. About 100% of the world are in the same boat, me included.

The neck is an old door frame BTW not pallet. The top is pallet wood.

[WhiskeyJack]

Yeh I hear yer. About 100% of the world are in the same boat, me included.

The neck is an old door frame BTW not pallet. The top is pallet wood.

Yes i know!!! Even better!!

man, that reminds me i have been holding onto a piece of old pallet wood that i can't identify. All i know is that is freakin hard and heavy as fuck. i want to do something cool with it but i've no idea what? If we ever could make this happen i'd ship it over to you. I'll see if i can dig up a picture or video of it and PM it to you to see if you can maybe identify it. My guess is it is either maple or birch. I just remember tearing apart pallets and this one pallet in particular i took from an auto supply place was stupid heavy. I assumed it was just because it was waterlogged and frozen. nope. the stringers were oak and the top pieces were whatever the heck this wood is. Crazy.

Anyways. Cheers, i'm gonna tap out now so as not to derail your art sharing thread too much. Beauty guitar Mutt!

[muttley]

lol, you aint derailing anything. The beauty of these places is you rarely end up talking about what started you off.

Pallets can be a good source of wood and I have found all sorts of decent timber on them. I have a load of brace wood that came from pallets shipped over from Eastern Europe where some of the best European Spruce comes from. Man that stuff is quarter sawn and dry as a bone. To buy what I found would have cost a fair bit. I scored enough to last years from a guy I know that sells TV's. he asked if I could help shift a load of pallets from his yard and bingo.

[Lt. Bob]

lol, you aint derailing anything. The beauty of these places is you rarely end up talking about what started you off.

^^^^^^^^^^^ this ^^^^^^^^^^^^

[Armistice]

Nice work mutt.

[rayc]

Looks cool.

[SweetDan]

Nice! Sign me up on the list for if/when this becomes "these" and "they" go on sale.