Mr Natural Posted September 13, 2013 Report Share Posted September 13, 2013 you either think this is sexy- or fugly. either way, I had a chance to play one of these, and I knew immediately after playing it I had to build one. Heavy as hell, big as hell, but there was something about it that just drew me in. I had so much fun building a carl thompson copy a number of years ago- I wanted to build something that required carving. This puppy requires carving alright. creating the basis of my drawn out plans. the lovely 6 string TOM bridge that hipshot built me- thanks to Prostheta for suggesting I give them a ring. I ended up having to slightly increase the butt end of the bass due to the string spacing on this bridge. the 8/4 hondo mahog board that will become the body. ritter uses 3 piece maple for the neck so I will follow suit. body glued up, I will run this in my router thicknessing bed and bring it down to just north of 1.5" thick. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob123 Posted September 14, 2013 Report Share Posted September 14, 2013 I LOVE ritters! Please do it justice! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwedishLuthier Posted September 14, 2013 Report Share Posted September 14, 2013 That bass do has some Salvador Dali quality to it. And quite some controls knobs and switches! Looking forward to se more Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted September 16, 2013 Report Share Posted September 16, 2013 Good to hear from you again Scott. This is going to be fascinating to watch. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Natural Posted September 16, 2013 Author Report Share Posted September 16, 2013 glad to be back in the shop Scott. I was "lucky" in that a project I have been working on with work lost its IT funding until 2014- so- no 70 work weeks until then. (hijacking my own thread here) I have been meaning to ask you- do you guys get Sweetwater Brew out in Colorado? I hate to say but this has replaced our beloved Sierra Nevada Pale ale as my #1 go to. (Sierra Nevado will always be the PA from which all others is judged in my book- but - I do love me this 420 and its even better on tap- which is something I dont often say). The wifey and I will be going on a tour of this brewery (in Atlanta) and also Terrapin (in Athens GA) this fall. Let me know if you dont get it out there in CO- I may need to see if they can ship!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted September 16, 2013 Report Share Posted September 16, 2013 I dunno about Colorado--they've got so many craft breweries, they may not bring anything in--- but I don't think I've seen it in Houston. I agree with you that Sierra Nevada PA is the benchmark against which all others must be judged. If this stacks up favorably, I'll be double checking to see if maybe I just missed it. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Natural Posted September 16, 2013 Author Report Share Posted September 16, 2013 crap man- forgot you were in Texas- I think I had your Red Rocks experience on my mind. I saw (dont laugh) the Grateful Dead out there in the 80s- I dont remember much but I know I had a really good time Incredible place. I will PM you when we get down in Atlanta and visit Sweetwater. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted September 16, 2013 Report Share Posted September 16, 2013 It is indeed an incredible place. Since my son moved there, I plan to be a repeat visitor. They've got a ton of pale ales in Red Rocks too. I'm a fan of Oscar Blues' Dale's pale ale. You know, I was in Atlanta earlier this year, Alpharetta actually, and was taken to a nice restaurant there. I asked for Sierra, which they did not have, but they had a local pale ale on tap. I do not recall the name, but that 420 is ringing bells. It seemed like a highway was mentioned too. Whatever it was, it was quite tasty. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Natural Posted September 19, 2013 Author Report Share Posted September 19, 2013 body shape routed, this is seriously going to be a heavy ass instrument. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LightninMike Posted September 21, 2013 Report Share Posted September 21, 2013 I think you will be suprised how much weight is taken off once you do the carving. In looking at the website, the carve is quite complex and almost looks as though the bridge is set lower than the edges of the body. http://www.ritter-instruments.com/jupiter.php Beautiful sounding instrument, especially when wielded by a great player. (I'm a big fan of The Grateful Dead, and Phil Lesh.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob123 Posted September 21, 2013 Report Share Posted September 21, 2013 True that mike! Buddy of mine owns a jupiter and its impossibly light! Its so big but it just worksergonomically and lt looks amazing in person. What kind of finish... i have asuggestion if youre willing to hear it haha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pauliemc Posted September 22, 2013 Report Share Posted September 22, 2013 thats true on the carve/weight comment from lightninmike. I did a ritter-esque bass a few years back & the carve just ate the weight away. between the contouring & the routing for pickups, neck cavities etc - you couldeasily be loosing about %40 of the timber you have there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Natural Posted September 30, 2013 Author Report Share Posted September 30, 2013 not much work done this weekend- my youngest was in a (fall) baseball tournament. Had a neighbor who has a planer plane the inside (glue surfaces) of the outside boards and the middle board (both sides) for me. The middle maple board is somewhat curly- and had a bit of tear out along the edges. we had to run that board thru a few times- just skimming it so as to avoid taking chunks out. The two outside maple boards are from the same board- the middle curly one was slightly wider- I will save that "extruding" 1 1/2" piece- maybe someday when I get a fancy bandsaw I can make bindings out of it. I am hoping to either get 3 necks out of this- or the neck for this bass and a neck thru blank (if the figuring comes out ok) for a future project. This maple is the least figured of my hard maple stock- so- we will see. (bob123)- this will be done in gloss black laquer (pauli)- even with carving- I expect the end weight of this bass to be in the over 10-11lbs range. ritter's site has some of these ranging from 11 to 14lbs! Not a bass I would want to play a full gig with! Right now- this blank weighs approx 6.6lbs I will post updates to weight after carving Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LightninMike Posted October 18, 2013 Report Share Posted October 18, 2013 So any progress? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Natural Posted October 20, 2013 Author Report Share Posted October 20, 2013 (edited) So any progress? Hey Mike- yeah- I am just behind on posting. We had a death in the family which took a couple weeks out of the picture for me as well. As I mentioned earlier I had to increase the butt end of this due to the string spread on the Hipshot Style D bridge I had made. Compared to the Ritter bridge, the profile of this bridge is huge, and the upper bridge post will come very close to a carve line (the line diagonally connecting the upper and lower body in the picture below)- and I hope this looks ok and not awkward when its done. We will see. I ended up not liking the string spacing, and (partially because of the size of the bridge)- ended up increasing the width of the neck 1/8" on each side, . In the pic below I am using a laser to line up a temporary neck template with the center line and then move the laser and check string line up between bridge saddles and nut. This is how I decided to increase the neck width- I didnt like the way it lined up. If I had proper plans on this one drawn out I would have avoided this- but I guess I should mention the Ritters are 35" scale and I decided (just last week) to go 34" scale. I will have a low E and not B on this one-and I just didnt want to stretch in those low positions. the neck blank as been prepared as well- thought i would share this picture- not sure if my jointer blades need sharpening or what- these nice chunks were taken out on a less than 1/16" pass. I ended up getting them cleaned up and all is well- but this first pass was kinda disturbing. Edited October 20, 2013 by Mr Natural Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LightninMike Posted October 20, 2013 Report Share Posted October 20, 2013 Sorry to hear about your loss. As far as the progress goes it's looking good. Maybe having that bridge slightly recessed is also something to look at. With the Willis ramp, you can set the neck how you like and the body transition won't look odd. In doing this, you can transition the carve to suit YOUR bass, even though it is a Ritter INSPIRED instrument Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob123 Posted October 24, 2013 Report Share Posted October 24, 2013 The real question... how many bolts are you going to use for the neck? xD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killemall8 Posted October 24, 2013 Report Share Posted October 24, 2013 Where you are getting that tearout in the wood, turn the wood around and run it through in the opposite direction. That normally helps. Wood grain is very directional. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Natural Posted October 25, 2013 Author Report Share Posted October 25, 2013 Where you are getting that tearout in the wood, turn the wood around and run it through in the opposite direction. That normally helps. Wood grain is very directional. KEA- I know what you mean- but the middle board is flipped- the two outerboards have their grain going same way- the middle board has it going the opposite way. I got the wood cleaned up- flipping and reducing the amount for each pass- I just needed to apply very little pressure and just let the jointer nick off the slightest amount. Turning the board around didnt really help that much- that middle board was just going to tear out no matter what. I mean- I was barely kissing that thing and it blew out- I have never had one do it that bad before- especially considering I was taking very slight amounts in the cut. But like I said- I got it cleaned up. I am going to look into getting new blades. its been way too long. Bob123 said- "The real question... how many bolts are you going to use for the neck? xD" Probably not that many- I think that is a bit overkill. We will see. I was thinking six like the old music man basses. Lightning Mike said- "With the Willis ramp" Mike- not sure what the Willis ramp is (?) Are you referring to the Ibanez GW model bass? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Natural Posted October 25, 2013 Author Report Share Posted October 25, 2013 ok- so next step is drilling the string holes in the butt of this beast. This turned out to be a learning lesson in both planning and thinking thru woodworking problems for me. First I placed the bridge on the guitar and figured out what angle I needed to drill. It was roughly 10 degrees. The plan then was to build a jig to hold the body and drill "vertically" into the body- ie- cut two legs, with 10degrees cut into them, attached another board to those two legs so instead of being 90 degrees to vertical- it was 80 degrees. Then- attach the body to the jig and drill into the body. So- marked up some scrap MDF, 10 degree line. These two pieces will be the legs of the holding jig. The left side of these become the bottom- another piece of mdf is attached to the angled cut- and then the body is attached to that- holding the body 80 degrees. body attached to jig and- lesson learned- body is too long- hits top of drill press. duh. Ok- back to thinking mode Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Natural Posted October 25, 2013 Author Report Share Posted October 25, 2013 So- I then thought- ok- I will make like one of those Kreg jigs you see for pocket holes- where you clamp to the piece you want to drill and it guides your drill bit. So- piece of scrap hard maple attached to the jig I then figure out where to place the drill bit guide block using long drill bit (and the shorty on the left)- showing me where point of contact will be. The tape is marked with center line and saddle spacing of the bridge, the mdf is attached to help the drill bit "bite" into the wood since it was at such a shallow angle- at least that was my thinking. I should have used maple. And the result. Not what I wanted- the low string is off-grr (the lines are depth carve guides) all is not lost. That one hole is not that off- so- I will finish carving first- and then decide if I can live with it or if I need to plug with dust and glue and redrill. I knew this step was going to be the hardest to do- and I thought I had it nailed with the original holder jig thing- but- oh well. live and learn. I thought drilling before carving was the way to go- since I would have flat surfaces and be able to reference center lines better- but- we will see. Luckily this one will be painted. :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Natural Posted October 25, 2013 Author Report Share Posted October 25, 2013 ok-so now the part I have been looking forward to most- carving this sucker. Still stuck in the arse end of this thing- previous pic showed the carve depth lines- so- used the drill press to get depths roughed in. and then went to town with my little Black and Decker belt sander. Man I love this thing. I smoothed that mess out in less than 4 minutes with this bad boy. Say what you want about black and decker tools- this puppy is great. Did I mention I love this tool? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted October 25, 2013 Report Share Posted October 25, 2013 You're right about the drilling using the Kreg or pocket hole jig type of method. This is also a useful jig for angled Strat sidejack holes and "island" truss rod access in Les Paul type headstocks. I used one of those tools to carve a neck-through heel and found it a little too quick sometimes. Very easy for it to bite and make an unintended divot which then either needs filling or blending in to the surrounding area. Can't beat it once you have the hang of it though. Nothing wrong with Black and Decker. In fact, their rotary tool (*cough*...Dremel) I have of theirs is sturdier than either of the two Dremels I have owned and with less play in the mechanism and a little quieter because of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pan_kara Posted October 25, 2013 Report Share Posted October 25, 2013 Nothing wrong with Black and Decker. In fact, their rotary tool (*cough*...Dremel) I have of theirs is sturdier than either of the two Dremels I have owned and with less play in the mechanism and a little quieter because of it. same here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LightninMike Posted October 25, 2013 Report Share Posted October 25, 2013 (edited) Lightning Mike said- "With the Willis ramp" Mike- not sure what the Willis ramp is (?) Are you referring to the Ibanez GW model bass? The willis ramp is to keep the fingers at the same level as the pickup. Basically an extention of the keyboard. http://www.garywillis.com/pages/bass/bassmanual/theramp.html Is there some voodoo to the claims made: certainly. Does it work? it seems so Edited October 25, 2013 by LightninMike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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