Finished pics! Psilos Ultra-modern bass build

[Andyjr1515]

6 minutes ago, Prostheta said:

I'm not sure exactly. I used what was on hand, and that's maybe 2-3mm thick. The ideal choice isn't known to me, however this works. I'm sure that the slightly amount of conformity in the leather because of its thickness may work against it, but I don't notice much deformation unless is am drawing back the bevel itself. The back has such a large surface area that it stays nice and flat.

When I think about it, I think I have an old plain leather belt where the buckle is shot.  It's probably about that thickness and is pretty even.  That might be ideal....

[Prostheta]

Ebony glues up just fine. The darkness of the wood is quite distracting from how absorbent it is, but it wets well enough. Like you said, it's not oily. That's when a second look is worthwhile.

A belt might be fine if it's flat enough. If you can't get ahold of any flat fresh leather, I could drop some strips in the post. I'm sure that I still have plenty.

[Prostheta]

This is useful too: http://www.popularwoodworking.com/projects/wicked-sharp

[ScottR]

I've got a strop that I've had over thirty years now. It's actually made of 1/4" silicon in a wooden holder and the compound I got with it is a small bottle of aluminum oxide powder. I still have most of that too. It works just the same as leather and buffing compound or jeweler's rouge. There's many ways to get it done...the key is to get it done. The difference a few strokes can make is quite noticeable.

SR

[Andyjr1515]

I found the belt and I reckon it will be perfect.  I'll glue it onto a flat block later today and have a go .

In the meantime, I ran out of reasons not to glue the second wing on.

This is a busy picture! :

There is more clamping going on than it appears.

The top clamps are loose-ish and are really only to keep the two halves flat and therefore the joint square.  I have the two offcuts from the original body blanks in place to give me a square clamping set-up and then the big bench vice giving most of the oomph.  Then I have a couple of sash clamps and a standard adjustable to give specific pressure in specific places.

I also used an old bass string to swab out any glue squeeze-out that might have accumulated in the cable channels and the tuner block loosely positioned to make sure that the wing was in EXACTLY the right place:

 

And now I have a self-supporting assembly...and everything appears to still be in the right places.  Wonders never cease 

 

Next task is sorting the fretboard.... 

[Prostheta]

Your rate of work is astonishing, Andy. How many hours are there in the standard English day again? I'd think you'd be better off with a standard EU 24.

[Andyjr1515]

3 hours ago, Prostheta said:

Your rate of work is astonishing, Andy. How many hours are there in the standard English day again? I'd think you'd be better off with a standard EU 24.

To me it all seems so slow - but, in that it is a hobby, I know the workrate is pretty high.  

Three reasons: retiring from the 'proper job' has made SUCH a difference; sorting my tiny, tiny workshop in the cellar has nevertheless made a HUGE difference; and, I'll admit, I'm a bit obsessed with it at the moment 

  Once of the reasons is that I'm on a bit of a ticking clock with a particularly nasty variety of arthritis in both of my hands (and elsewhere) and so am getting as much building, playing and sax playing as I can...just in case it starts seriously encroaching.  So far it hasn't caused a problem and I still play the sax's, and the guitars, as awfully as I ever did 

 

[Prostheta]

Saxophone. Well, every cloud and all that. 

I'm having trouble finding hours in the day, or at the very least, good hours. I have concerns about my fingers some days as well. I've had a few rumblings, but that's typical over-40 life I think. Finding a quiet aisle in the supermarket to fart is a task. Ask Nina.

[Andyjr1515]

11 minutes ago, Prostheta said:

Saxophone. Well, every cloud and all that. .

Well, I treat is as a community service.  

There are numerous pubs and clubs in our local towns and villages that have their emergency evacuation procedures thoroughly tested by my playing.  24 seconds to clear a three-storey building of 125 people, including 3 registered disabled (2 manual wheelchair users and one motorised) plus two cats and a dog is a decent result by any standard....

[ScottR]

Decent result? Hell, that sounds like a record to me!

Well done laddie, well done.

SR

[Andyjr1515]

1 hour ago, ScottR said:

Decent result? Hell, that sounds like a record to me!

Well done laddie, well done.

SR

I've been described as a human area denial weapon .  Now, where did I put those bagpipes......

[curtisa]

There's nothing I like more than the sound of bagpipes.

Unless it's the sound of a Kenworth Prime Mover using engine brakes down a steep hill.

 

[Andyjr1515]

One of the challenges I find in this kind of build is envisaging quite how things are going to work - particularly curves and carves. And then that, of course, links to the sequence I do things.

If I was better at envisaging shapes (some people are very good at this but I'm not ), then the last thing I would want to do for all the other practical reasons, would be the tuner-block infill. 

But actually, because as soon as I start carving, pretty much everything is going to be curved, I have decided to put that on first and at least get the shape in my head from one 2-D viewpoint. 

So on goes some laminated neck offcut, angled accordingly and with an ebony veneer demarcation line:

And then out come the chisels.

The finished article will have two thin outside maple curved fillets to finish it off - and that will carve through to the general curve of the back, but I now can see how that will work (remember that the body panels at the back will be scooped so that the body edges at the join will be level with the neck, taking away completely the rebate you see in these shots):

 

Of course, now I have a lump of wood in the way for all the subsequent operations, but that's the price for being poor at spacial awareness... 

[ScottR]

15 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

I've been described as a human area denial weapon .  Now, where did I put those bagpipes......

You'd be great for riot control.

Ah bagpipes. I normally take my lunch in a nearby park. It's a chance to recharge and get away from phones and people in a peaceful setting, and I take a book and enjoy the birdsong, and gentle lap of waves on the lakeshore....and the occasional sight of a comely female jogger. There was a three or four month stretch a few years back where a couple of guys would show up with a (what, a bagpipe; a set of bagpipes; some bagpipes....) anyway that instrument. I presume one was in training and the other was teaching him the most effective way to clear out a park. good lord, that sound is the absolute opposite of peaceful.

SR

[Prostheta]

11 hours ago, curtisa said:

There's nothing I like more than the sound of bagpipes.

Unless it's the sound of a Kenworth Prime Mover using engine brakes down a steep hill.

 

Aina suomesta!

 

[Prostheta]

On 5/2/2017 at 4:31 PM, ScottR said:

You'd be great for riot control.

Ah bagpipes. I normally take my lunch in a nearby park. It's a chance to recharge and get away from phones and people in a peaceful setting, and I take a book and enjoy the birdsong, and gentle lap of waves on the lakeshore....and the occasional sight of a comely female jogger. There was a three or four month stretch a few years back where a couple of guys would show up with a (what, a bagpipe; a set of bagpipes; some bagpipes....) anyway that instrument. I presume one was in training and the other was teaching him the most effective way to clear out a park. good lord, that sound is the absolute opposite of peaceful.

SR

 

They were commonly used on the field of battle, which often led the opponents to kill themselves instead of listening to the racket they make.

It is however, a long way to the top if thou doest want to rock and roll.

[ScottR]

31 minutes ago, Prostheta said:

They were commonly used on the field of battle

...and funerals, where the dead can no longer hear them and the living are already crying.

SR

[Andyjr1515]

1 hour ago, ScottR said:

...and funerals, where the dead can no longer hear them and the living are already crying.

SR

[Prostheta]

16 hours ago, ScottR said:

...and funerals, where the dead can no longer hear them and the living are already crying.

SR

 

I guess the role of a piper is to underline suffering, if not simply to cause it.

[Andyjr1515]

1 hour ago, Prostheta said:

 

I guess the role of a piper is to underline suffering, if not simply to cause it.

Well, I suppose with everyone's mind on the 'whisky wake' later in the day, it's a reminder that funerals aren't there just for the enjoyment... 

 

Golly - I hope the 20" radius block arrives soon, otherwise we've got days more of this 

[Prostheta]

I'm sure that we can stretch this out whilst you're on tenterhooks.

I pulled my back out this morning whilst drinking coffee in bed and sneezing. I need some form of entertainment!

[ScottR]

10 minutes ago, Prostheta said:

I pulled my back out this morning whilst drinking coffee in bed and sneezing. I need some form of entertainment!

and maybe some exercise? Just kidding, I know that's got to sting!

SR

[mattharris75]

 

[Andyjr1515]

Well, it's a bit of a wrench, but I suppose I'd better get back to the bass....

I'm waiting for an extra-wide radius block to come though from G&W as the fretboard will be radiused all the way down, including where it widens through the body.

In the meantime, I thicknessed it to a touch over 6mm and slimmed it down to fit into the body channel:

I've left the top edge straight as I will use it as the datum for the fret-slotting.  Finally sorted out a decent slotting jig - the G&W one...it will take some of the nail biting terror out of the process.  

I've ordered the wider base for this kind of thing but couldn't wait so have temporarily rigged a spacer from some maple offcut to allow the wide board to fit:

 

Easier to see in the bigger shot below, but you see here the small drop off built into the neck to allow at least a few mm of finger room between the strings and the body top:

 

It will still feel like playing with a bridging plate, though...

[Prostheta]

Mitre boxes are a pleasure. I think my clamping arrangement could be improved on my auxiliary fences though. Sometimes the board is held down with one clamp and me at t'other end.