Unusual Bass project

[loef]

The story began in a phone call ! It was a man who worked at a law firm. I was a bit hesitant and thought, what have I done this time...
He told me he had watched my instruments on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w22hOt7cFs and wondered if I could build an acoustic bass to his wife. No problem!
So he explained his idea a little more in detail. He and his wife are renovating the house where his Father in law was born. This house is almost 200 years old. His idea was to build a bass guitar from the wood that I can find in this old house!

To make a long story short. As we say in Finland “ The Mad does what the wacky ask”..

So I went there to find some useful wood. I found some real nice Birch, a nice piece of Alder! A 7”x7” Beam of 200 Year old Picea Abies Spruce. I asked my customer if it is ok to use my own ebony for the bridge and the fretboard.

The “youngest” wood was cut some 40 years ago and the oldest parts where 200Years old.

Today is the Bassguitar ready and delivered. I must say, I´m glad I accepted his request!
The Bassguitar is far better than my wildest expectations!

Here are some pictures from the process:

This is the House


Here are the prepared wooden parts


The neckwood


A Paintbrush painting of the house on the guitar






I hope You enjoy reading this!

Olav

www.loefguitars.fi

[arnelson]

Fantastic build and story. That spruce was an incredible find.

[caljon58]

Great story and a wonderful Loef instrument as always. She can play, "This old house" on the bass:-)

[loef]

This is a perfect place to find old Spruce!


In northern Scandinavia it was common to use Spruce (Picea Abies) as Inner roof Beams in old houses! Most of these where built from late 1700 to the time of WW1.



Olav

[Mark Hatcher]

Olav,

Great story! It's wonderful to build guitars from found sources.
Nice bass too!

Mark

[Dogpa]

Awesome bass and great story on the wood source. Thanks for sharing.