Wademeister Posted October 5, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 5, 2004 To tell you the truth, I'm having second thoughts about using that fingerboard. It's sanded to 1000 grit and rubbed with a clean paper towel, and that's it. The lignum vitae is very dense and I love the grain, but it's like working with the world's hardest candle! I'm not really concerned about the waxiness as far as attaching it to the guitar, but as it made my fingers feel waxy while working it, I'm concerned that it will feel sticky when I play the finished bass. I'll have to fondle it for a few days to decide before I glue it on. It may just be that the dust from sanding the board made my fingers feel waxy and that it will feel clean in use. If I replace it I'll probably go for ebonol or some stabilized wood to retain the extreme hardness. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted October 5, 2004 Report Share Posted October 5, 2004 I'm not really concerned about the waxiness as far as attaching it to the guitar, but as it made my fingers feel waxy while working it, I'm concerned that it will feel sticky when I play the finished bass isn't that pau ferro? no it won't make your fingers sticky....i have it on a vee i just made...feels just like ebony Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wademeister Posted October 9, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 9, 2004 Guaiacum officinale "Wood of Life" The heaviest densest wood in the world. Beautiful black green and brown grain. Turns like plastic in the lathe. 80+lbs per cubic foot. Cocobolo inc I think it's close to pau ferro, but not quite the same thing. Pretty sure pau ferro is quite a bit less oily/waxy. Also this stuff has a great looking interlocking grain that I love and haven't seen on pau ferro. It also has a gren tint that works well with the fish theme. Seems like it's ok and I'm going to go ahead and use it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skibum5545 Posted November 8, 2004 Report Share Posted November 8, 2004 Well, any progress? (bump!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wademeister Posted November 21, 2004 Author Report Share Posted November 21, 2004 Still working on it! I have the fingerboard with complete fret location marks and dots inlaid into the edge and glued onto the neck. The neck is carved and needs to be refined a bit at the head and heel. I let it sit for a while as I was working a lot and concentrating on learning some songs and practicing with the band. Work is letting up a bit so I'm getting back into the bass project. I'll be making my own bridge as individual saddles and am still working out the details of those pieces in my head. Once that's all solved I think the hardest thing left will be deciding on how to wire the pickups. I'm thinking of putting a microswitch or two inside the control cavity so I can experiment with different configurations without desoldering. Has anyone tried anything like that? Had any noise problems or anything because of it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xebryusguitars Posted November 21, 2004 Report Share Posted November 21, 2004 ahhh im jealous. it looks great. Very creative and original.......if i had a CNC router....the things i would do....my whole house would be redone full of stuff thats not needed. I cant wait to see this thing finished. it think its funny because you jsut started playing bass but you'll have the coolest bass on the block. keep posting pictures Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wademeister Posted November 28, 2004 Author Report Share Posted November 28, 2004 (edited) I got to do some more over the holiday weekend and things are really shaping up. The back is still rough and I'll be shaping it after I have the top stained and maybe one finish coat applied. I want to get the finish going on before the pickup and bridge sockets are routed, and I want to rout those before cutting the electronics cavity in the back. After the electronics cavity is done I'll shape the back. The rest of the bass is sanded to 600 grit and ready for stain. I have used the CNC router to cut the peghead and body outlines, fingerboard radius and position markers. I'll use it to cut the body cavities and that will be it. I think I've done a lot more of this by hand than by machine just because it's been easier for me to get after it and go as I feel rather than to plan it all out on the computer. Here's the best pic I could get to show the body contours. I'm pretty happy with the shape now after doing a little reshaping yesterday. the edge of the fingerboard is marked completely for fret positions and marker dots. The dots are mother of pearl and the frets are inlay made from the maple I used in the neck. Here's the whole thing in one pic Fingerboard grain neck to body transition the neck Peghead back Next step will be adding some color and making that grain pop! Edited November 28, 2004 by Wademeister Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silvertonessuckbutigotone Posted November 29, 2004 Report Share Posted November 29, 2004 (edited) how is the myrtlewood serving you, there's some on the ebay for pretty cheap and the correct dimensions for me and I've never heard of using it except the bass bass , any MAJOR drawbacks? Edited November 29, 2004 by silvertonessuckbutigotone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wademeister Posted November 29, 2004 Author Report Share Posted November 29, 2004 how is the myrtlewood serving you, there's some on the ebay for pretty cheap and the correct dimensions for me and I've never heard of using it except the bass bass, any MAJOR drawbacks? It's very soft, seems to have a bad tendancy to check and warp. That would concern me much more if I hadn't used it as a cap on top of the mahogany body. The grain also chips out very easily. The sanding dust is a mild irritant and made my eyes water and my nose run a bit, but not bad enough to stop the project. The piece I have also has a lot of grey in it and always looks dirty. It does have nice figure though and sands like a dream. All in all I would choose something else if I were starting another project. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wademeister Posted January 8, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 8, 2005 Finally! I got that fingerboard on securely and got the bass stained and the first coat of clear shot. Starting to get impatient to play it now!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xebryusguitars Posted January 8, 2005 Report Share Posted January 8, 2005 thank god you work on it . ive been waiting for awhile to see something, i love this project. haha im probable more excited to see this done than you are you play this . great job, that things kick as$ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddiewarlock Posted January 8, 2005 Report Share Posted January 8, 2005 that bass looks AWESOME!! makes me wanna copy! hehehe, naw it's a very original project, and i sure as hell would have loved to come with that idea first best of lucks man! it's gorgeous Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wademeister Posted January 23, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 23, 2005 Made some more progress! I did the routing on the front of the body and inlaid the pearl eye. While I was levelling the eye, I decided to sand the entire finish to get it ready for the next coat of clear. As soon as I get the back cut out and contoured, finish and assembly will be all that's left! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisb0109 Posted January 23, 2005 Report Share Posted January 23, 2005 is there a reason you stained and partially cleared before routing and inlaying? That seems backwards to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skibum5545 Posted January 23, 2005 Report Share Posted January 23, 2005 There are few instruments that stand out in my memory as some of the coolest to come from PG.com: Perry's brown/orange carve top, loosetoe's singlecut six string, etc. This is up there with those. It's one of those threads where I am truly excited to see an update. It is original, silly, and despite that, perfectly executed. Congratulations. Keeps the pictures coming, and keep the progress up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silvertonessuckbutigotone Posted January 23, 2005 Report Share Posted January 23, 2005 I was beginning to wonder what happened to this thread GREAT WORK. It's very beautiful can't wait to see it in working order. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wademeister Posted January 23, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 23, 2005 is there a reason you stained and partially cleared before routing and inlaying? That seems backwards to me. ← It may well be backward, I don't know! I probably do have a different approach than most because of the tools I have at hand. My concern about completing the woodwork before finishing was that the dye would not be consistent at the edges of the routed areas. I may have been able to get a nice even dye job after cutting, but I definately got an even job the way I did it, and going back to cut after was no problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wademeister Posted February 21, 2005 Author Report Share Posted February 21, 2005 QUOTE(chrisb0109 @ Jan 22 2005, 10:14 PM) is there a reason you stained and partially cleared before routing and inlaying? That seems backwards to me. * YEP!! You were right chrisb0109, but I had to learn that the hard way. It's looking MUCH better now since I sanded off every bit of the finish and restained it. The clear will be complete this week and most likely the whole thing will be complete. new pics coming soon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wademeister Posted February 26, 2005 Author Report Share Posted February 26, 2005 Ok now we're getting close! I still have some details to take care of like making a proper nut, properly mounting the pickups, wiring it up and a few other little things. I'll give it a couple weeks for the finish to cure really good and hard and then disassemble, buff it out and put it all back together for good. So far the results are looking very good! Acoustically I'm getting a very growly mwah, but the Labella tapewounds are brand new and I may need to adjust the action or truss rod a bit yet. The fine tuning will wait until everything has had a chance to settle in for a while. Here's a peek Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wademeister Posted February 26, 2005 Author Report Share Posted February 26, 2005 mmm, one more peek for now. I'll get some more pics up as I get the details wrapped up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recursion Posted February 26, 2005 Report Share Posted February 26, 2005 Wow, Looks very cool. What kinda pickups did you use? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
american_jesus Posted February 26, 2005 Report Share Posted February 26, 2005 very cool wade...looks awesome... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PLUCKyou Posted February 26, 2005 Report Share Posted February 26, 2005 emg pickups???...reminds me of somethin les claypool would play...the creativity is amazing...i love this thing...probably the best idea i've seen yet.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wademeister Posted February 27, 2005 Author Report Share Posted February 27, 2005 The pickups are Bartolini XXM55C. Turns out the switches I got aren't right for the wiring configuration I had intended so I ended up going an alternate route. Seems the P-HB-Reverse P isn't too bad but I still want to try the Series HB-SC-Parallel HB. I need to order the switches from Mouser Electronics since it seems the DP3T on-on-on swicth shown on the papers that came with my pickups is sort of an oddball switch and Radio Shack doesn't have any such thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moreau Posted February 27, 2005 Report Share Posted February 27, 2005 Yeah, i was gonna say, Les Claypool would love that thing... keep it up. GOTM..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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