"strong bench press weak pushups"

If this is you, bad news bears. This indicates to me that you lack strength in various stabilizer muscles that are needed to bring your bench press to new heights. Bench press does not work out the stabilizer muscles, back, and abdomen, but push-ups with good form will work a large portion of your body.

Although you lay on the bench, various stabilizer muscles are still needed for you to achieve maximum bench press poundage.

prescription: just do push-ups

trouble locking out the bench press

This indicates weak triceps, end of story.

prescription: diamond pushups - similar to close grip bench press, but for pushups! (put palms of hands on ground and touch the thumbs and index fingers of both hands together)

alternatively: handstand pushups (for the record I can only do them in poor form against a wall)

signs of a plateau on bench press

If you're hitting a plateau in your training, that's both a bad and a good thing in my opinion. It's good because it means you've hit your stride, and you can now handle a good bit more than you were used to before. However, it indicates complacency. It is very easy to become complacent in your strength-training activities.

prescription: CLAP-PUSHUPS! (push-ups in which you forcefully push yourself off the ground and clap your hands together before catching yourself)

Although Plyometric exercises shouldn't be performed by most people, if you're plateaued on the bench press (or any exercise) performing a plyometric version of that exercise (with appropriate resistance of course!) will help you break through the plateau. Explosive exercises increase the ability of your nervous system to recruit fast-twitch muscle fibers, and they provide a new form of resistance curve that your muscles have to deal with.

The traditional method of breaking through a plateau is one that simply involves willpower - you force your way through it. Although this can be effective, it is often a woefully inefficient method. You have to remember that your body and mind are ridiculously lazy contraptions, and will only adapt when forced to do so. You can either force your body to change with sheer effort, or you can provide it with unexpected, changing conditions that force it to adapt.

Although strength training is about increasing the weight (resistance) you can work with, oftentimes you need to provide yourself with the path of least resistance.

difficulty with initial move off the chest

This is my main problem. This is large a function of weak pectoral muscles. If this were an article about how to simply increase your bench press by any means, I would recommend that you perform decline bench-presses or bench presses with an extra wide grip in order to increase the strength of your pectoral muscles.

However, I am writing about how to increase your bench press using only push ups, so that's cheating. Also, I do not currently have a bench in my apartment, nor would one fit, so I am in the same boat as anyone else that wants to increase their bench press with just push ups.

The way I have been approaching the problem lately is by performing wide-arm pushups where I focus only on the lower part of the push-up range, as this is the part of the motion that most intensely recruits the pectoral muscles.

In order to increase the workload (push-ups for the moderately physically fit are a relatively low-impact exercise) I elevate my hands on top of a couple pairs of two-by-fours. Increasing the range of motion of an exercise increases the force required to perform that exercise. Combined with a wide-grip pushup where I only focus on the on the specific range of motion that recruits the pectorals, this approach has been effective.

Specifically, the range of motion that I am discussing is where the widest angle the elbow forms while doing the push-up is not much greater than ninety-degrees, and using the extended range of motion that the two-by-fours (or books or whatever) allows for a very acute elbow angle to be achieved at the bottom of the motion (my nose is touching the floor at this point). Assuming you have maintained good form throughout the push-up, the pectoral muscles will be recruited in a very effective manner.

if you're too strong for any of these push-up tips...

Get someone to sit on you, purchase a weight vest to do push-ups with, or maybe even learn how to use resistance bands to increase the resistance that your push-ups provide.

good luck!

Tax laws are often obscenely labyrinthine, and the publications that go along with your income taxes are no less so. For better or worse, the greater your knowledge of the tax code, the better off you'll be in this country.

So when I did my taxes this year, I went and looked for ways to reduce the amount I would have to pay. It turns out that I missed the one real gravy train I had - work that 401k! I contributed to my 401k a decent amount the past year, but I could have put more into it.

Instead of working my 401k harder this year, I elected to start a Roth IRA. Normally you only get the benefit of the Roth IRA when you take the money out, but I noticed an interesting credit that you can get for 'Qualified Retirement Savings Contributions' and Roth IRA contributions count towards this credit! (as well as 401k and traditional IRA contributions)

Unfortunately, as an individual earning over 26000 AGI (line 38 on the 1040) I cannot take this credit.

But my girlfriend could take pretty big advantage of this particular credit - mainly because she skated into the right AGI based on a student loan interest deduction.

It makes perfect sense to use a Roth IRA to take advantage of this credit, particularly if you are a young person that is currently earning a lower income, but a higher tax bracket is almost guaranteed later in life. Also, it's the only way to get an immediate tax benefit from a Roth IRA.

The thing is though, that the way they structure this credit, the only way you can get the maximum benefit (50 cents on the dollar more or less) is if your tax bill comes to at least $1000 and you contributed at least $2000 to your retirement account. However, the way it is structured, there is no way that any one person can achieve the full $1000 credit.

the retirement credit multiplier

I know that no one can achieve the full credit because I went through these forms in an attempt to achieve the full $1000 credit for my girlfriend, who due to various reasons earned a very low income for the year. Namely, after her student loan interest deduction, her income skated in under the $15,500 mark that is needed to get the maximum multiplier (0.5) that this credit uses. If you are over 15,500 in AGI, but under 26,000 the best multiplier you can get is .2! The multiplier is crucial, because this number essentially represents how much on the dollar (in reduced income taxes) the government will give you for each dollar you add to your retirement accounts - up to the first $2000 worth of contributions. So if my girlfriend contributes $2000 to a retirement account, she will be able to claim $1000 worth of retirement saver's credit.

However, her tax bracket means that she only owes $663 in taxes for 2007. Therefore, the maximum retirement saver's credit that she can claim is $663 - if she contributes at least $1326 to a retirement account for the 2007 tax year. This means she will pay no federal income tax for the 2007 tax year!

Not a bad deal! But considering the income levels that this credit is intended for, shouldn't they bump up their assistance a bit more? The only reason my girlfriend will be able to take advantage of this is because I'm willing to float her an interest-free loan (and I was willing to operate as her free tax professional).

our tax laws pay lip service to equality, while squeezing the little guy

What percentage of people eligible for this credit end up using it? Slim to none I imagine. How many people with incomes under 26k a year even have retirement accounts? How many people with these sorts of incomes are even aware of such tax possibilities? Considering that $1326 is about 8.5% of a 15,500 adjusted gross income, how could such a person contribute that much money to a retirement account, even if they knew they would get 100% of their withheld federal taxes returned to them?

I believe people at such income levels should be encouraged to save more money, and our government should be lending its assistance in any way possible. This is clearly not what is happening.

Either way though, if you're a starving-artist young person-type, you should really be looking at this credit with some dollar signs in your eyes! It's the government's form of 401k matching, more or less.

I noticed someone got to this site by coming in from a Google query "jump stretch push ups". So I thought I'd write in a bit more detail about the important topic of adding resistance to push-ups.

work harder, not smarter

Like any exercise, there are a few basic things you can do to increase the amount of total work that you perform while doing the exercise.

• increase range of motion

• increase resistance
• increase acceleration
• decrease amount of rest

Each one of these items simply alters one variable in the classic physics equation Force = Mass x Acceleration . If your muscles can output more force, you are stronger. The reasons your muscles can output more force might be somewhat opaque, but that's no worry.

push-ups and the home gym

As far as I can tell, the venerable push-up is a forgotten and maligned exercise. However it is an essential exercise for a tiny home gym that lacks a bench. For the amount of space that it requires and the number of exercises that it enables, a flat bench is an awful addition to a home gym.

In addition, the bench-press is an extremely inferior exercise to the push-up. Bench-pressing takes most of your body pretty much out of the equation. To be sure, bench-pressing at the power-lifter level requires whole-body technique and effort, but I'd bet the guys at Westside Barbell would agree that bench-pressing is probably the last thing you need to be doing to get your bench-press up. They'd tell you to dumbbell press on top of a physical therapy ball first. They'd tell you to work your triceps to increase your lockout, and they'd probably get you doing some pull-ups or barbell rows to get your lats in action. Strength training is all about the whole system.

So how about ways to make push-ups more difficult and add resistance?

• elevate your feet on a chair
  • although this does increase resistance, it also changes the angle of the exercise - the more you elevate your feet the more it becomes similar to an incline bench-press
• place a weight plate on your back
  • obviously this has safety issues - I'd like to make a vest that can hold a plate or two securely
• buy a weight vest
  • I don't really recommend this due to cost, but a weight vest is an awesome item for a home gym - I wish I had one
• clap pushups (push very forcefully off the floor and clap your hands together before coming back down)
  • these beauties amount to plyometric exercises; do them sparingly unless you want to hurt yourself
• figure out a clever way to use a resistance band
  • I saw an example in the Jumpstretch literature I received with my bands, but it looks uncomfortable...
• one arm push-ups!
• one arm, one leg push-ups!
  • the one place I've seen these mentioned is in Pavel Tsatsouline's The Naked Warrior

Of course, don't even get me started on elevated, one-arm one-legged pushups with a weight vest. Or you can have someone sit on your back, but don't take that as a suggestion.

an achievement-oriented mindset

Ever since I was a little kid, I've liked to learn new things. I tend to have a lot of interests, and like most people, my interests mutate over time. Very frequently, they loop back around, but some times it can take a while.

Because of my proclivities, I end up forcing myself to learn new things. Recently, I learned quite a bit more than I ever expected to about physics simulations, C++, and using OpenGL. Learning new things sometimes just for the sake of learning is something I've always been very passionate about.

I've learned that the attitude I've always had when learning new things seems to be part and parcel of an important psychological construct: the achievement-oriented mindset. You can read an excellent synopsis of the phenomenon in this Scientific American article.

It boils down to the fact that people who believe that they can improve on their skills and abilities through sustained, concentrated effort do better in various measures of achievement. On the other hand, people that believe intelligence and abilities are innate, fixed qualities, simply give up before they even have a chance to learn something.

Granted, it's kind of silly they had to perform empirical research in order to quantify this situation, but it's nice to know that something I've understood intuitively for years has some research backing it up.

personal development literature- useful for fostering an achievement-oriented mindset?

It seems to me that most of the literature about personal development/self-help are simply a bunch of different strategies to get around to developing an achievement-oriented mindset. They then wrap this very basic piece of information around heuristics that make most peoples' lives easier; waking up early or surrounding yourself with a 'peer group that will hold you accountable' - part of one of Tony Robbins' 'pillars' apparently. Is that like one of the Pillars of Islam? Probably not.

If you have any self-help or personal development books, I would say that's a sad waste of money. One great, classic coming-of-age novel or an autobiography of a successful person (by your own definition) has scads more 'personal development' material that's way more applicable and actionable than what you'd find in the best ten percent of the most prolific personal development writer's canon.

academic research and the rhizome at work

Write down your goals. Track your progress towards them. Figure out what stands between you and your goal. Whoop-dee-fricking-doo. Really this sort of behavior just makes me think that these 'self-help gurus' are simply just living out a particular type of life story. My former professor Dan McAdams outlines a personality type in his book The Person: A New Introduction to Personality Psychology that seems awfully similar to the personality types these goo-roos seem to possess. They're these very outwardly-focused individuals that tend to have a lot of intensity and energy. The ones that McAdams profiled also frequently spent a lot of their time working to better their communities. I hear the same thing come from self-help gurus: pay it forward, help others because by helping others you help yourself, use willpower to break through barriers blah blah.

McAdams researched these people in a relatively simple fashion; he would have them recount their life stories. McAdams believes that a person's own narrative of their life is the key to understanding them. McAdams had an assistant of some kind that was working with him on the study that had no idea what the study was about, and she had to interact with these people each day. For a while, McAdams only sent her people with these outwardly-focused and very intense personalities. When he started sending her just random people, she remarked to him about how she really liked the new people much better because they were much more normal, cordial, and laid-back!

closing the book on personal development

I would posit that self-help and personal development gurus can only assist you if you fit a relatively narrow set of criteria. I would also say that it's almost one hundred percent certain that if their thoughts can assist you then you don't really need their ideas. You are perfectly capable of coming up with your own ways to write down your goals and achieve them. It's astounding, I know. You can thank me later.

More or less, it seems to me that the gurus of personal development are simply following the path of their biological personality imperative. The chicken and egg relationship is very apparent.

Of course, if you're just a dullard and not particularly creative, they deserve to make money off of you. Get your ass to the bookstore, but I'd always recommend something with a little more substance.

apparently there's some good commentary on CNBC (video) regarding our old friend SVN
Larry Forster has this to say about the video:

...George Putnam discusses the selling pressure on SVN. He says due to year end results that there is increased selling pressure and the stock is undervalued and will have a bounce in Jan. This bounce has now started because different holders window dress or take loses [sic] depending when [sic] their year end [sic] dates.

I think those [sic] things are pretty irritating, don't you? They really interrupt the rhythm of a sentence. Its usage is more or less subjective.

As I've said before, by this point, if I had put real money into this stock at the buying window I originally discussed (at about 1.05-1.12) I would have pulled all of my original money out of the stock by now which has been sitting at $2.31 over this holiday weekend.

Lets say I bought 1905 shares of SVN for $2000.25 at 1.05 a share. We will assume a $10 discount broker transaction cost. The following numbers are estimations of what I would have done with real money based on how I acted in my Investopedia simulation.

I would have made two sells on the way up. One at a $1.50 a share, which was my original price target, and the other at $2.05 a share - somewhat over my second target price, which was $2. I would likely have sold about 500 shares at $1.50, so I would have walked away with $750 for the sale. I would have then sold some point the stock reach greater than $2 to get the rest of my money back. Lets say $2.05 a share. Getting back my cash would take about 610 shares leaving me with $1250.50. So at this point, I have essentially made my money back, less the cost of three $10 transactions; $1970.50. Notice how the broker gets paid no matter what happens with your stock.

Of the original 1905 shares, there are 795 left. I would likely sit on this position for a very, very long time. I would only sell down to about 500 shares if the stock reaches a very high level compared to my purchase price, such as over $10. It would just about be a ten-bagger by then.

One problem with this fairy tale I have here is that the tax man comes knocking. I won't even get into that one right about now.

To see the first installment of this series, click here.

To be totally honest, I have no clue how much money I have spent on purchasing weight lifting and exercise equipment. Some of it has been gifts, but I thought I'd like to put down how much I think a good specification for a very minimal space would cost.

Do you have space for an olympic bar? Can you put a mat down?

This is the most important consideration. It separates the small space from the truly small space. I will lay out the core of any small space home gym solution.

• space to do pushups/pistols + elevated pushups (feet on chair)

• wall and space to perform handstand pushups
• two sturdy chairs or stools for dips
• resistance bands, but not wussy ones, more like the ones at Jump Stretch or there is another brand, Iron Woody
  • a simple starter resistance band set from Jump Stretch would be 1 mini band $12, 1 monster mini $16, and 1 light band $22 - if you are not a strong lifter, you probably don't even need the light band right away unless you want to use it for leg or back exercises (pairs of bands are very nice but not needed) $28 - $50
• olympic dumbells - anywhere from $15 + shipping (what I paid on ebay I think) to $83.91 (affiliate link)
  

• olympic plates - fifty cents to a dollar a pound at most sporting good stores, sometimes plates are on sale estimated $20-150
• if you have space for an olympic bar, I highly recommend getting a combo deal like this olympic bar and 300 lb weight set for $178.91 plus shipping
• physical therapy balls can be an excellent way to bring in new exercises - power lifters actually recommend doing various dumbbell exercises on top of a PT ball for increased hypertrophy and strength - here's an affiliate link to exercise balls that would be about $15 after shipping
• a pull-up bar is an excellent cost-effective solution and can be put in any space with a door this is a friend's pull-up bar that he recommends - GoFit Chin-Up Bar $18
• one important thing - if you do not have a long bar to do dead lifts with, you will have to devise many more resistance band exercises that target muscle groups located in your back

bottom line: small budget, full body workout

• requires space for pushups/pistols and handstand pushups
• already has suitable chairs/stools for dips
• pull-up bar $15 (I paid $14 at target for my crappy one)
• resistance bands - mini + monster mini from Jump Stretch $28
• olympic dumbbells + clamps/collars (we'll split the difference) ~$40
• sixty pounds of weight for said dumbbells ~$40
• exercise ball (makes some existing exercises harder like the dumbbell press, and adds new exercises) $15

Total: $138, which is less than half a year at most gyms

bottom line: most exercises for a strong lifter while maintaining high value

• space for bodyweight exercises (dips, pistols, pushups, handstand pushups)
• pull-up bar $15
• Olympic 300 lb. weight set $200
• thick rug or ideally a rubber mat to lift on (usually you already own a thick enough rug) ~$20
• Olympic Dumbells $40
• resistance bands - 1 light, 1 monster mini, 1 mini $50
• exercise ball $15
• curl bar $30 - I really like these for skullcrushers!

Total: $370 - a year's membership at a lot of gyms these days

It would be nice to have a bench included in this setup, but that requires a lot of space. Bench is also largely not needed if you have access to dumbbell presses, particularly on top of an exercise ball.

The only thing I would add to this setup if I had the space would be a power rack, which I would buy a a nice adjustable weight bench for. Of course, these items balloon the cost of the home gym by over 130 percent! They are worth it for the exercises (squats + bench) along with the safety factor they provide. They can also be used in conjunction with resistance bands for all sorts of power-lifter craziness.

So apparently, the dead-cat bounce of SVN stock is continuing. Despite a lukewarm news story today about how they are going to be doing in the coming year, their stock price shot up today. This counteracted the downward trend seen since Monday.

In my fictional stock buy, I was able to sell 2000 shares of SVN at $1.50, locking in about $700 or so of gains. This leaves me with 13000 shares that I purchased at a mean price of $1.12. I believe I will attempt to sell 3000 of my shares when the price hits $1.60-1.70. I will attempt to sell another 3000 shares when the price is greater than $1.75; I will not attempt to unload the rest of my shares until the price hits my original $2 target.

If I was playing with real money, I would attempt to have all of my money out of the stock before it hits the $2 mark, and only keep the position that the stock created for me. Even more likely, I would have pulled out all of my money by now due to the low amount of capital I would be willing to put towards this bet especially with the specter of multiple commission fees haunting me.

If I had invested $1000 worth of real money in this stock at the $1.05 price point, I could have sold today at the high of $1.51 and made about $400 after commissions. However, once again the reason I did not put real money into this is because it is a straight-up gamble. This should not strictly be considered investing. You can go here to Adam Dada's site to read something that echoes a lot of my own thoughts on the matter.

It is possible that this stock does represent an excellent opportunity for investors, because of the special situation that is occurring, but it's nearly impossible to tell. The outlook seems okay for the next year, and I would imagine that the major stakeholders in the company are pushing for at least a couple dollars worth of raise in stock price before they would let it get bought out. I wouldn't bet on it though. I see this strictly as an opportunity to make some quick cash, and the chance to buy at the sweet-spot seems to be fading fast.

I would not recommend that anyone put money into this stock unless they perform the needed due diligence and they come to the conclusion that this stock is an excellent value buy over the long-term. The closer this stock gets to the $2 mark, the more likely I see it rebounding back very quickly. It's entirely possible that the strategy the management team is supposed to unveil in the middle of January might be a breath of fresh air. I would imagine there will be a bounce in the price around that point as well. This is probably the earliest point I see the stock hitting my $2 target. More likely the stock will be around $1.70 at that point, as long as people still see it as a value stock or speculation buy.

Amusingly, since I originally suggested to my co-workers that they buy this stock, it has appreciated nearly 40%!

5 day chart for SVN stock 12/17 - 12/21 showing a 21.67% gain from Monday's open to Friday's close

So after I put up my initial story about my homemade bass guitar, I thought about maybe making another one on spec. I decided to ask the bass forum at Harmony-Central what they thought about this. Here's my initial post:

a while back (4-5 years ago) I built my own DIY electric bass with around $700 in materials/tools outlay

you can see pictures and a bit of a story about my instrument at http://www.maxopedia.org/?q=DIY_bass

I have a couple questions for you guys.

1. If this bass were made to a very high level of fit 'n' finish with even higher quality materials, would you consider purchasing it for yourself or someone you know?
2. What do you see as the fair value of this instrument?

I am thinking about building another custom instrument based on this design. This would be a speculative build with the intent to sell, and the vast majority of my efforts would go into perfecting the design, sourcing high quality woods/components, and producing an instrument with an extremely high level of polish.

just wondering what people think - would it be worth it to build a spec instrument?

People's responses varied. For some reason the people over at the Harmony-Central bass forums believe that CUSTOM_BASS = MULTI_PIECE_NECK. I have no idea why they think this, and perhaps a different forum would yield a different response. Here are some of the better tidbits with my responses.

is that a single slab neck? I'd be concerned about it's stability.
-catphish

Is this really a concern? Is it a must that high-end custom instruments have laminate necks? My understanding is that this issue is very contentious from a practicality standpoint. Some builders swear by one-piece necks, others don't. Personally I somewhat prefer the single-slab in terms of aesthetics. Sandwich basses are not my thing. As an aside though, the exact neck in this instrument carbon fiber reinforced. I am not sure if this is a good thing or bad thing. Perhaps if I went with an all-wood neck I would want to go laminate.

like some of the ideas, but in my honest opinion the complete finished item looks like a collection of styles that you'd expect to find on three different guitars. The elabourate scrollwork on the horn looks out of character with the generic shape of some aspects of the rest of the guitar. You should've done more to make the head stand out as much as the body does.
The electronics cavity cover could do with a re-think, It looks rushed and out of character. If I had your woodworking skills I'd make a more rounded shape out of the cavity cover and sink an acetate cover in flush with the back of the body, using CSK screws. This would look a lot more professional, and because its not aluminium, it'd be easier to shield the electrical connections to prevent shorting.
On the bright side, I'm a fan of original/quirky guitars and if I saw this one hanging up in the shop, I'd deffinately be tempted to pick it up and play. The finish looks good and I'm sure you could find a more mature or denser mahogany to recover some of the tone.
as for price, you have to bear in mind that mass made guitars are made in vast numbers, and as a result the manufacturer gets materials and components in bulk VERY cheaply. I heard that manufacturers and distributors can easily make a 400% mark up on final sale price, meaning a squire stratocaster would probably cost less than £25 to manufacture. They make so many that this profit margin is enough for the factory to cover overheads and labour. On this basis, a $700 guitar with the features on yours would not make a good value sale, especially considering that you probably spent hundreds of work hours building it and this would equate to $1200 in labour (100 hours, semi-skilled labour). The finished guitar, all things considered, probably cost you closer to $2000. However, I'm sure that if (in the unlikely instance) you actually made this guitar as a prototype for a mass market guitar, through outsourcing, mass buying and careful consideration to the number of components and manufacturing processes, you could manufacture that guitar for less than 5% of what you spent.
But at the end of the day, I'm taking this all to seriously and if practical creativity and design innovation makes you happy, then this project was a 100% success. I wish I could work wood as well as you, I've only learnt how to work metal!
- James_Russell

For some reason I just really wanted to do a scroll. I can understand where you're coming from in regards to the pastiche of styles that were the genesis for this bass. Personally, I love the design. I am a much more an artist than I am a woodworker. I've had many people flip out over the curves and proportions of the bass; I feel comfortable I've made the right decision in regards to overall silhouette. I was looking for something that marries the modern instrument to the classical one while not forgetting the stylistic conventions that make the electric guitar so playable and comfortable.

I agree that the headstock design could possibly use something more, and that the control cavity cover was rushed. I believe on the next version of the design the control cavity cover will simply be part of the bass itself (made from wood). This was what I originally intended in a vague sort of way, but poor planning reared its ugly head. As far as the headstock, I very much prefer the simple design, with the overall shape only elaborated/extended by a small amount in version 2. I would also make sure that I put a 'signature' of some sort on each instrument if I was producing them commercially, most likely on the headstock. Perhaps a striking logo or design on the simple headstock is all that is needed.

I guess I should have said more clearly that I wasn't intending for this to go into 'production' as in mass production. Even if I have a 'production design' I'm working off of, the instrument is going to lovingly hand crafted and carved by myself personally. I'm thinking more along the lines of a design aesthetic and template that I perfect so I can guarantee as much as possible that each instrument that leaves the shop is well-designed from every practical perspective in terms of playability, maintenance, and ease of construction.

As far as making a living doing something like this and getting an economy of scale going - I have no desire! However, I would like to see if I could perhaps make a small profit while doing something I think is cool and learning more about it. If I perfected my existing design and did a spec build, I would have no trouble putting a $1500 - $4000 price tag on it, but I'm curious what others think, and that's why I posted on this forum.

Also, making my first bass was very fun and fulfilling, but making another one for myself wouldn't be nearly as worthwhile. I'd like my creations to get out into the world and have lives of their own.

Nope I wouldn't buy it. I don't mind the shape, although I don't like the lower horn, but I realize what it takes to make a great bass and most luthiers perfect their trade over years and years. Maybe in 20 I will though?
- willsellout

yea! That's exactly what I wanted to hear.

I think your bass looks very nice, but I dont know you and I will not gamble 1500-4000 dollars just to see if the bass sounds good. When you get into that price range, you are competing with vintage basses, Sadowsky, Warwick, Pedulla, all the biggest names. I know I can buy one of those, and 99 times out of 100 it will be unbelievable.
- landbriancoe

If I built a spec bass and it did not match up to one of those very excellent instruments that you mentioned, I would not attempt to price it as such. I was actually sort of thinking of Sadowsky in particular, and how they take a simple design and make it something spectacular in the execution.

As for selling the bass, that is a secondary consideration to crafting the bass I was aiming for when I made this one. However, one option is to place it on consignment in a high-end music store here in the Chicago area where I live. I wouldn't expect any potential buyer to not be able to play the bass before purchasing. That would be ridiculous. I certainly wouldn't buy my bass without playing it and hearing what it sounds like, preferably through a multitude of amps.

I think it takes guts to make something like that and then say "If I built more similar, would people buy them?".
- bassman1956

yea! More people need to get some guts and learn how to believe in themselves.

Just as an aside, I probably would have never conceived of perfecting my design and attempting to sell it except for the numerous people over the years that have played my bass and said they wanted one too.

so in conclusion, if you want to build a bass yourself for fun and profit. . .

Make sure you go with at least a 3-piece neck. Hahaha.

and get your learn on

Building Electric Guitars: How to Make Solid-Body, Hollow-Body and Semi-Acoustic Electric Guitars and Bass Guitars

Make Your Own Electric Guitar & Bass