Andyjr1515 Posted November 24, 2015 Report Share Posted November 24, 2015 Hi In my Alder and Camphor bass thread, I've made reference a couple of times to one of my more unusual builds - Tom's African Fretless Bass It had some challenges quite new to me and forced me to re-evaluate what REALLY matters and, alternatively, where you can take a few liberties on a typical bass build. It also was one of those builds where the customer had quite fixed ideas on some of the things he wanted (which I always find quite helpful) but some of those things were sometimes at the very edge of the possible. It started with a meeting at my local railway station. Tom - a contact from one of the UK-hosted bass forums (basschat) - was mid travel between London and the UK Midlands and had asked if I could meet to discuss a potential project over a cup of British Rail coffee. Out of his large holdall, he pulled out this: Tom explained that he visits and plays in a number of bands in Africa and on one visit he'd talked to a guy who makes traditional african drums and they had mused whether you could make a bass out of the same wood. At his next visit to Africa, and to Tom's surprise, the guy presented Tom with this piece of wood...who then, on a rainy UK railway platform, presented it to me. Tom wasn't sure what the wood was. Tom wasn't sure how, or even IF, it had been conditioned. Neither Tom nor I were sure why the dark brown bits were as hard and brittle as glass, and yet the lighter bits as soft and open as balsa. The carvers clearly hadn't been sure what thickness is regarded as a normal minimum for a bass body...this one varied between 1/2" and 7/8". Nor were the carvers aware what width or depth a neck pocket would normally be...this one was 30% wider than a normal bass neck and had about 3mm of balsa-wood looking timber to bolt anything onto. So Tom's question was - pulling out from his holdall an old Ibanez GIO neck - could I make a bass out of those two pieces? You know those times when all of your instincts are 'No - walk away from this one!'... ...and then your mouth says 'I'm not sure - but, well, you never know... I tell you what ... I'll take the bits away with me and see what I can come up with....' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted November 25, 2015 Report Share Posted November 25, 2015 There's all kinds of wrong in there, but that's not to say it can't function as required. I think a lot of people would have walked away on judgement, yes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted November 25, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 25, 2015 49 minutes ago, Prostheta said: There's all kinds of wrong in there There certainly are! And, as I will describe, the more it went on, the wronger they became.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted November 25, 2015 Report Share Posted November 25, 2015 On the other hand I can certainly see the appeal of the challenge. This has all the makings of a wonderful story. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted November 25, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 25, 2015 (edited) 58 minutes ago, ScottR said: On the other hand I can certainly see the appeal of the challenge. SR Yes - to be honest, although I didn't commit at that stage and made it clear to Tom that it might not be able to be done, part of me was thinking that it would be pretty cool if it could! I took the wood back with me and mulled over the options. First off, it was clear that a bolt-on neck of any sort was out of the question as it stood - the body, at its thickest, is not much deeper than a neck at the nut! As far as I could see, there were three options: Go conventional - ie skim the back flat and glue it onto a bass-thickness lump of alder, mahogany, basswood, etc. Conventional but a bit boring for such an unusual piece of wood. This is the only option where a bolt-on would have been feasible Go semi-conventional - ie through-neck, probably wider at the body than normal, cut the body into two and glue them on as thin 'wings' . Seemed a shame to lose so much of the top face - with its very unusual grain, colour and primitive-style carve marks and gouges Go unconventional. IF it would hold together during the construction process, basically build a neck, with everything needing strength either bolted, glued or screwed onto it, then do my routed-slot approach to slip the body over the neck. Basically, the neck would be the bass, and the body would be pretty much pure decoration. That might JUST work... Tom, however, also wanted some very specific specifics: A 34.5" scale Removable (replaceable) truss rod Carbon rod neck reinforcement Cocobolo fretboard The option to have a non-symmetrical neck profile Use a recycled Ibanez bridge Fit a single EMG passive p/up Neutrik locking jack Interestingly, the one area of concern I had was that last one - those jacks are designed to plug in vertically. A jack 'prong' is over 1.25" long. The body, where the jack needed to be was just over 0.5" deep... ...there were going to need to be some style or functional compromises along the way.... These were my initial drawings: If you haven't already lost count of them, I'll point out a few of the construction challenges in this design in the next post Edited November 25, 2015 by Andyjr1515 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted November 27, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 27, 2015 The design was approved, with full understanding by Tom that this simply might not work, had a high probability of falling to bits and - even if it could be made and did stay in one piece, would almost certainly neck dive like a cormorant and sound like a lump of mud. The first task was to build the neck. Tom wanted a maple neck with cocobolo fretboard. I suggested, therefore, a cocobolo central splice: The neck was planed either side to match the width of the fretboard at the body join. However, this wasn't wide enough to take all of the screws for the bridge - and, remember - I had to assume that the body would have no strength at all. I decided, therefore, to slot the body wider and to insert two cocobolo strips either side. I basically put off routing the slot in the body until I'd run out of excuses not to In the meantime, the body wood was developing cracks: ...all over the place... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted November 27, 2015 Report Share Posted November 27, 2015 Yikes. What IS that stuff? Looks less stable than your typical conservative right presidential candidate this year. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted November 27, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 27, 2015 1 hour ago, Prostheta said: Yikes. What IS that stuff? Looks less stable than your typical conservative right presidential candidate this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted November 27, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 27, 2015 2 hours ago, Prostheta said: Yikes. What IS that stuff? Looks less stable than your typical conservative right presidential candidate this year. ...and it gets worse....much worse... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted November 27, 2015 Report Share Posted November 27, 2015 You know like how we can't agree on whether Voyager 1 has actually left the solar system or not? Yeah, plenty of digging in the barrel but it still seems to be a long thick dig. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sdshirtman Posted November 27, 2015 Report Share Posted November 27, 2015 Looking forward to see progression shots of this one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted November 28, 2015 Report Share Posted November 28, 2015 18 hours ago, sdshirtman said: Looking forward to see progression shots of this one. Indeed. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted November 28, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 28, 2015 Onto the next challenge. There was now an urgency on getting the neck in - that would have the potential of stabilising everything that mattered. But to do that, I had to find a way of routing a VERY accurate slot (in terms of depth, to within sub-3/16" of breaking through the top) on a piece of wood that was wavy both on the top and the bottom. Having a wavy bottom (keeping it clean) was to be solved with a sled: The wavy top was a case of judging where the thinnest points were likely to be and making 1/16" less that that the limiting depth. Then, I had to find a way of clamping it without putting any bending force on. This was actually a more straightforward one. Lots and lots of different thicknesses of hardboard placed wherever there was a void, so that the clamp was always holding something that had already naturally 'grounded'. The routing began: You can see in the slot the fresh air where the 'neck pocket' was. Against all odds...it worked!!! ..and then there was what I can only describe as a **sigh**. The kind of sigh that we all give out when, having been to a formal dinner in a suit that doesn't quite fit any more, we get home and undo the top button. It has to be said, that I could almost sense that the wood was in some way more comfortable. I wondered why that might be: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted November 29, 2015 Report Share Posted November 29, 2015 It is certainly acting like you undid the top button. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted November 29, 2015 Report Share Posted November 29, 2015 Yep. That tiny flake of wood holding it all together has been removed. The pin is out and the grenade is ticking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted November 29, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 29, 2015 4 hours ago, Prostheta said: Yep. That tiny flake of wood holding it all together has been removed. The pin is out and the grenade is ticking. Indeed! Now the conundrum was this - gluing the neck in was now a priority...but I was AGES away from being able to do that because of my crazy method of sorting the body slot first, then working how much to notch the neck for the right height / action. But I did need to hold the body in position, because as soon as I moved the supporting slivers of hardboard, the weight of the two halves either side of the slot would simply bend and break its back. I took off the clamps but left the supports in place and checked the size of the two cocbolo widening strips: The observant amongst you will see just some of the myriad of other radial cracks where the router dust has got in. I checked the resulting slot to make sure the neck blank was going to fit and then stitched the crack with a piece of 0.6mm veneer applied crossways, held by epoxy. It would give no strength, but should stop the crack from continuing up the body. That done, I slotted the neck blank in place - unglued but just there to neutralise any bending strains: Now at least it could be moved about and stored while I sorted out the next steps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted November 29, 2015 Report Share Posted November 29, 2015 By that point the body wood is more of an accessory than an integral part of the instrument.... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted November 29, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 29, 2015 55 minutes ago, Prostheta said: By that point the body wood is more of an accessory than an integral part of the instrument.... Absolutely! That was the design concept. As I said at the beginning, this whole project allowed me re-evaluate the whole 'conventional thinking' on design. Realising that the body can be designed to be pure decoration is very liberating! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted November 29, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 29, 2015 1 minute ago, Andyjr1515 said: Absolutely! That was the design concept. As I said at the beginning, this whole project allowed me re-evaluate the whole 'conventional thinking' on design. Realising that the body can be designed to be pure decoration is very liberating! ...but actually, there turned out to be one aspect that made me realise that the body did serve a major structural purpose - and that this particular odd wood was ideal for that purpose... Explanation soon... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted November 29, 2015 Report Share Posted November 29, 2015 As a story teller, you're a natural. This is fun! SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted November 29, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 29, 2015 9 minutes ago, ScottR said: As a story teller, you're a natural. This is fun! SR Thanks, Scott.... let's hope it has a happy ending Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted November 30, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2015 A bit like in my present Camphor/Alder build, the main task was to work out if I would need to angle the neck at all, and do the outline saw-cutting of the neck. But before I could do that, I had to work out what I was going to do about the pickup. Tom wanted an EMG HZ40 passive, which I got EMG to send me the full dimensions of, including the 4 pin connector they put on the bottom of the pickup. With the connector, it made the pickup around 1" deep. Pretty much the full depth of the body. So, unless the bridge and neck were going to have to be raised to provide string clearance, I would have to route the body and neck to within of a few mm of fresh air at the back. So, my great theory that I was going to build everything onto the neck was a teeny bit flawed...because between the bridge and the nut, there was going to be a b****y great big slot... But the cracking of the timber got me thinking. This wood was given to Tom by a notable traditional drum manufacturer. It was unlikely that is was just a duff piece - they themselves had gone to a fair bit of trouble. So how could they use such unstable wood? Then I realised what the difference was. The wood in a drum is generally in compression. This stuff in parts was as hard as concrete (which is also rubbish in tension). Like when you use concrete, it didn't matter it was rubbish in tension because it was always going to be in compression. On the other hand, most of the time, we put wood in tension in guitars (think neck, headstock, etc). But - and usually it doesn't matter - the top of the top is actually in compression. Usually not so much that it makes any difference. But if you have a neck that is likely to clap hands if unsupported... Blimey! It might just work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted November 30, 2015 Report Share Posted November 30, 2015 Can't add more than you're already illustrating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted December 1, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 1, 2015 Placing the body unglued over the neck, and having already radiused the cocobolo fretboard, I could now check the various heights and angles of the neck, and the actual position of the body/neck join: As luck would have it, I judged that the fretboard thickness would get the action correct within a few mm, once the bridge area had been flattened, without any angle or notch needing to be added. I could also work out where the fretboard would come to in relation to the body...I would set it into the body. This required cutting out some of the 'carved' neck pocket - and some of the horrible crack! The veneer fix was holding OK and the other cracks seemed to have stopped spreading so I felt confident enough to get the razor saw out. It also allowed me to take out the slightly odd 1/2 moon cut-out in the original carve! It still left me with the additional width of the pocket, now with the cocobolo widener showing. I popped a temporary block in the body to stop it breaking its back and routed the truss rod and carbon fibre stiffener slots and band saw cut the neck basic shape: Note one advantage of having a body no deeper than the neck...you don't need a heel! At last, I could glue the neck in and guarantee a bit more stability... I used more clamps than this, but this shows the side clamp that was making sure the sides didn't do a "B-52 landing wing droop" on me. No outrigger wheels on this one! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted December 13, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 13, 2015 So what to do with the over-wide neck pocket. As there was a distinct cocobolo theme to the incidentals of the build, I shaped the pocket sides and rough carved a fillet to pop in: I chose a square-ended fretboard, to take out as much of the visuals of the crack as I could, but wanted to take away the squareness. I did this with a curved scallop from fretboard height to body level. You can see the curved pencilled in on the fretboard. By now I physically had the EMG pickup. There would be no room whatsover for electrics - almost all suitable pots were deeper than the body, so the pickup would be direct wired to the jack. Now I had the fretboard in place, I could workout the very highest the pickup could go, and therefore workout just how thin the bottom of the pickup chamber was going to be. From memory, I think it was 3-4 mm! Here is the rout and the finished curve feature at the fretboard end: Next challenge was the jack socket...and an interesting discussion of options with Tom 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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