I met David around October of 2021. I was purchasing an RV from his family and we got to talking about music and instruments. It turned out he’s a bassist. I mentioned that I enjoy building guitars and he was immediately interested in talking about a commission. He had a bass that he liked, but wanted to do something different with it. He wanted a custom body to go with the neck and parts.
His only request: “I want it to look like it’s 100 years old.” From there he gave me complete creative freedom. It was delightful, and terrifying.
I dug through the stock of scrap wood in our garage and found a length of floor/ceiling joist. The plank had a live edge to it, likely a cutoff from when our house was built in the late 1800’s. I thought the live edge would make natural comfort carves to the body. The bandsaw marks are still visible. Not only could we make it look 100 years old, it turned out to be about 120 years old!
The cavity cover is made from another scrap of oak from about the same time period. David’s components are well-used and look great with the overall design.