Tante's Leaf Bass

Tante wanted a cool bass to learn some fun rock and funk basslines on, so we went halves on this 3/4 size bass from Artist Guitars for her birthday. The size suited her hands well, the price was good and the build quality was surprisingly nice. Very playable little bass.

When it arrived it looked like this. About as generic as you can get, and there are too many black guitars in the world.

So we painted it pink! This makes the black stripe on the pickguard pop nicely. I found this plant in the garden to use as a painting reference, and got to work:

First green line on the body, using acrylic paints. If you look closely you can see the pencil sketches.

I found a technique where I make one brush stroke for each capillary in the leaf, distributing paint the same way the plant distributes water. I'm very pleased with how lifelike it looks!

Leaves continued down the body. The plant actually grows from the earth wire under the bridge, so that in one way it's still growing from the earth. Here you can see my fresh shielding tape in the pickup and control cavities as well.

Made a pink strap for it using some seatbelt-style webbing. Here you can see the leaf embroidery beginning to take shape, using a similar capillary action to guide my stitches.

Leaves complete! If you look closely, you can see how I mixed two different metallic greens on the needle (three strands at once), to give it a bit of depth. The stitching technique meant that I could also keep it looking the same from the back. I worked a thin layer of wood glue into the back side and then pressed it for a night to lock in the thread and flatten out the tension a little.

Strap finished. I usually use two pieces of leather, stuck together with a glue stick and sandwiching the seatbelt in the middle. I press it for a bit between two bits of plywood and then mark out my stitch line. Then I come in with the leather punches and cut all the holes for the stitches. Then it's a simple bit of stitching with a nice thick needle and some strong thread. After that, I oiled the leather (same lemon oil I use on fretboards) and then press it one more time.

Reassembled! The pickguard and control cavities were fully shielded, with the pots and wiring replaced with some higher quality stuff. The neck was polished up with a lot of steel wool and then oiled each day for a week. The frets feel a lot nicer now, and the wood feels smooth and lovely instead of papery and rough.

Two coats of clear went over the leaves to protect them. I wanted to do both of the knobs in green but only had one of them for some reason. Still looks cool.

I did a little pick holder with a chisel and a drill. Cleared out a bit of wood and then folded a thin piece of stainless steel sheet over to make a sort of spring, held captive under the pickguard.

Here you can see the stainless steel spring. Works really nicely to hold a pick in place, in case you want one.

And here's the back, with the leaves questing around the edge :)

This was fun! Tante loves it too. Don't leave your guitar at my house or something like this will happen to it.