Finishing Ewan's 20 year six string bass project

[Andyjr1515]

This is the second of the two projects I've been working on - and this has a 'special birthday' deadline of the end of December.

Basically, Ewan started a six string bass build as part of a (school?) woodworking project.

The body carve went well at first but the neck was never finished, the neck pocket was a bit of a compromise and a slight miscalculation with a router depth created the need for an 'unplanned' scratchplate.

This was how far it got before being put into the loft for 20-odd years:

 

Actually, a nice carve.  Being solid Ash (and not the swamp kind!) it is pretty heavy but I've have been well proud if I'd done that in my late teens!

Anyway, it's coming up to Ewan's 40th and his family have clubbed together for him to be able to ask someone if they could do whatever could be done to get a playable bass out of it.

Sadly for Ewan and his family, he came to me...

 

What could possibly go wrong.

 

[mistermikev]

that is a very handsome build.  love the carve. 

[Andyjr1515]

Ewan was happy for me to make whatever changes to the body shape I wanted - he wanted a solid  top rather than a scratchplate, he wanted it a bit lighter in weight and thinner-bodied.

I was happy with that but reckoned that one of the nice things about it was what @mistermikev says above - it was a nice carve.  So my suggestion was that I tried - as much as possible within the other requirements - to retain the vibe of the original.

Other things Ewan wanted included the neck materials, a short scale - 31.5" - lined fretless ebony board, Warwick bridge and stop-tail, and, assuming that it was going to have a new top, this as an option for the top wood.  It is katalox - not a wood I'd come across before:

 

But first. I had to have a look at what we were starting with.  Ah! so that's why there's a scratchplate...

The neck pocket was also a bit 'unconventional'.  To try to give some extra strength to the neck joint to cope with the 6 bass strings, Ewan had added two screwholes of a second neck plate - both plates sitting at right angles to the norm:

Screws in the remaining two holes just screwed into the body.

And the weight?

Only just over a lb lighter than my last full-scale bass's final playing weight!

This was a time to ponder a bit... 

[ScottR]

4 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

It is katalox - not a wood I'd come across before:

I've used it in a couple of neck lams--the center stripe (including the current build). It is wicked hard, and seems to be quite stable. It does darken with time.

SR

[mistermikev]

weight is redic... but that's ash for ya (must not be from the species "swampus ashus" huh?).  just my opinion... but I honestly really like the wood of that guitar and if it were for me (i know, i know - i can't have them all) I would consider making a wood pickguard (i also like this pickguard shape) replacement, carve into the back to make it thin-line, and put the kat on the backside.  upside is you wouldn't have to worry about redo on the carve.  just my 2 cents - I know you aren't asking.

[curtisa]

5 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

Ewan was happy for me to make whatever changes to the body shape I wanted - he wanted a solid  top rather than a scratchplate, he wanted it a bit lighter in weight and thinner-bodied.

So you'll be rebuilding this one around the jack socket then?

[Andyjr1515]

Prompted by @ScottR 's 'Not Quite a Tele' thread, where we were discussing reducing the transition from the neck to the body, I realise how far behind I'm getting on my threads.

One of the reasons that Ewan told me that he never really finished this bass twenty years ago was "I had some issues with the neck joint and pocket."

Looking at the body carve I could see what he meant.

In order to add some strength to take the 6 bass strings, he had taken two Fender-type plates and turned them 90 degrees:

And then cut the pocket so that he had 6 of those hole positions holding the neck and the extra two dummy screws into the solid wood:

 

I wanted to somehow lose at least 4 holes in my joint, but also wanted to lose the 'Fender brick wall' problem when his fretting hand reached the neck/body join.  Losing that step is one of the reasons that I do through-neck for all of my own designs.

So I had a ponder and came up with a few hypotheses.

- surely, particularly if I use machine screws and inserts, 4 bolts are plenty strong enough

- what if I lengthened the pocket rearwards to expose the hidden screw holes and then cut off the pocket area up to the 4 holes at the nut side:

- and then, at the joint, what if I had a deeper heel on the neck blank and carved the transition into the bottom of the neck:

 

I came to the conclusion that is could work so, at this stage, took the low risk option of cutting away 2/3rds of Ewan's original neck pocket  

"Trust me, Ewan.  This might work"

"What do you mean, MIGHT??"

"Don't worry, Ewan.  What could possibly go wrong?"

[ScottR]

Did you actually show Ewan this stage?

SR

[Andyjr1515]

But before I could work out if it really was going to work, I have lots more to do with the body.

First, I took off the 10mm thickness of the katalox top plus another 5mm to slim the body and lighten it - especially considering the weight of the katalox, which was heavy!

Ewan wanted a Warwick bridge and stoptail.  I made provision for this and marked out where I was going to lose some more of that heavy Ash:

Then got the forstners, chisels and router out:

 

Next, I made up the neck blank from mahogany with a central walnut splice.  Note the heel is deeper than you would normally have on a bolt-on...

And jointed and joined the top - with the extra neck pocket are cut out so I could use the top as my routing template:

 

[Andyjr1515]

1 minute ago, ScottR said:

Did you actually show Ewan this stage?

SR

Yes - mindless cruelty is one of the few pleasures I have left in life 

[Mr Natural]

(spoiler) seeing this finished in another thread- has me wondering what a low B on a 31.5" scale is like in both sound and feel. that has to be nearing rubber band territory.

nice surgery btw. 

[Andyjr1515]

I put a 0.6mm ebony veneer on the back of the katalox to act as the demarcation line:

Marked the chambers on a sheet of paper before I forgot (only way of remembering exactly where those voids are!):

Then cut the stop tail, bridge and pickup holes in the katalox

Tidied up the control chamber, ensuring I would lose the fixing holes in the hatch rebate:

Then chambered the back of the katalox to lose a bit more weight:

And glued it together:

 

 

[Andyjr1515]

7 minutes ago, Mr Natural said:

(spoiler) seeing this finished in another thread- has me wondering what a low B on a 31.5" scale is like in both sound and feel. that has to be nearing rubber band territory.

nice surgery btw. 

Personally I have issues with low B's anyway for the same reason - even on 34"!  Ewan has special strings wound for all of his 6 stringers (all at the same short scale) and that probably helps but it's still a bit too flippy floppy for my liking.  He reckons he will be fine with it and open note it sounds fine.  It just rattles a bit as you slide up the fretless board...

Anyway - that's jumping ahead

[ScottR]

Katalox is heavy isn't it?

SR

[Andyjr1515]

19 minutes ago, ScottR said:

Katalox is heavy isn't it?

SR

Very.  Not my favourite wood to work with, to be honest, but it is what Ewan wanted and sourced.  When you see the finished pics it actually looks quite nice but to work with I found it very hard and yet quite brittle.  Sanding was not bad, but for chiselling I found it unforgiving...

[mistermikev]

I don't wanna sound like the posterchild for the 80's but there is only one word I can think of that describes this transformation... "radical".

[ScottR]

1 hour ago, Andyjr1515 said:

for chiselling I found it unforgiving...

Yes. I think it has a nick name of Mexican Royal Ebony and seems to work similarly to ebony. It would probably make a great fretboard. I seem to remember @KnightroExpress made a whole neck from it at least once.

SR

[Andyjr1515]

16 minutes ago, ScottR said:

Yes. I think it has a nick name of Mexican Royal Ebony and seems to work similarly to ebony. It would probably make a great fretboard. I seem to remember @KnightroExpress made a whole neck from it at least once.

SR

Gosh.  Respect, @KnightroExpress , respect. 

[Andyjr1515]

Rattling on to bring the thread up to date...

I cut the notch in the end of the neck heel to leave a tenon which sat in the neck pocket in the usual way.

The notch was cut to be flush with the heel of the body:

This is my first 6 string bass.  I am sure that 4 machine screws and good quality inserts will suffice for clamping but, just for good measure, I decided to put an ebony 'biscuit' into the heel join to prevent any possibility of the joint lifting.  This would hopefully compensate for the reduced length of the tenon joint due to using the original 90 degree rotated neck plate position.

To do this, I filed a flat on my Dremel flexi-drive:

Cut a slot into the neck:

Then, clamping the drive to the bench, drilled a slot into the body's heel:

And popped a 25mm slice of ebony into the slot:

This alone proved to be very strong and then once the machine screws were fitted, all fears of any joint movement were dispelled:

And a nice tight joint ready for carving:

 

 

[gpcustomguitars]

Excellent idea with the slotting jig! Now I have to try it asap..... Also, great workmanship all around Waiting for the developments!

[Andyjr1515]

And bringing everything up to date:

Ewan wanted an ebony fretboard - flat - and lined.  I marked the board out by hand (31.5" is not a size for template availability!) and cut the slots on the G&W mitre box to make sure they were vertical and didn't move around

 

I filled the fret slots with some redwood veneer, aiming to give it a subtle lined look:

After flattening with a 400 grit diamond stone, the ebony polished up nicely using 1000 grit paper and 2000 to 12000 micro-web:

 

 

The body rounded and the neck reinforced with carbon rods:

Then the headstock winged and shaped and the neck carved:

 

The inevitable swifts but this time I went for ebony:

 

And after a disproportionate number of 'just a few things to finish off jobs' - finished

 

Thanks for looking!

[ScottR]

That came out quite nice Andy! The top does look good. I presume the headstock cap, backstrap and cavity cover are all Katalox as well? I love the way the backstap is fitted around the volute. I expect it will keep looking richer as the katalox darkens over time.

I presume Ewan is suitably impressed and appreciative.

SR

[Andyjr1515]

1 hour ago, ScottR said:

That came out quite nice Andy! The top does look good. I presume the headstock cap, backstrap and cavity cover are all Katalox as well? I love the way the backstap is fitted around the volute. I expect it will keep looking richer as the katalox darkens over time.

I presume Ewan is suitably impressed and appreciative.

SR

Yes - managed to keep enough offcut to take slices for the front and back headstock plates and control cover.  The control cover and truss rod cover have magnet fixings.

Ewan hasn't had it back yet.  He asked me to fit the original electrics but both pots are shot.  When the replacements have come later in the week, it'll be packed up and shipped off back to him.

Based on the photos, though, he is very, very pleased which is nice

[mistermikev]

very nice work.  you did the carve justice.  looks great.

[Andyjr1515]

Post-script on this.  It was buffed up, packed up and despatched to Ewan earlier this week.  It buffed up nicely:

It's Ewan's 40th on the 27th December so this was squirrelled away by his family soon after he received it.  But he did get to have a quick play on it before they beat him off it and took it away 

I'm pleased to say he is over the moon about it.  And he said some VERY nice things about the feel and playability - including about the neck profile (which I can assure you that was, in reality, pure guesswork).

I love this hobby.  I flippin' well LOVE this hobby

Happy Andy