Part 1 - Here We Go Again

The electric cello is mostly completed, except for a few tweaks to the nut (the high E string is still a bit too high off the fingerboard).

So, with wood to spare from that project, and some new pieces (from Ebay, of course), I've decided to make an electric upright bass.

The thing I remember from the cello project is that the hardest step to take was to make that first cut. I'm going to make that cut today, and hopefully lots more.

So, the design:
The neck:
I'm going for a neck-through bass, which means that the neck literally runs the length of the instrument. I've got a 49-3/4" neck blank for this. With a scale length of a full-size double-bass being 41.75", my EUB will have to be a shorter-scale instrument. I've settled on 36", so that I can fit the neck, headstock and body sections on the same piece of wood. I thought about making an EUB with a bolt-on neck for a while, but decided to go neck-through with a shorter scale, more for the building challenge than anything else.
The body:
Since the neck runs through the body, the body itself will consist of three pieces: the neck slab, and two "wings" attached to that (I'm thinking that I'll use wooden pegs and some good strong glue).

To picture what the woods will look like, here is sapele mahogany:



and here is hard maple: