bluespresence Posted March 17, 2005 Report Share Posted March 17, 2005 EDIT What does KUTGW mean Erik? Keep Up The Good Work..............or in this case Great work I like the ovals but I have to agree it may detract from the overall look of a beautiful bass. My Ric fretless has black abalone dots and they are pretty much useless. You can't see them on the board when you do look down and you can't see them from more than 2 feet away so I never figured out the point of even having them. I'd go for the side markers that you can see or the offset thumbnail style like Gretsch uses on their guitars. I even like the Washburn offset oblongs that they make out of wood......maybe if you had some of that olive left you could inlay that since you're going for an epoxy job anyway. Here's what I mean: Washburn WD32S Inlay some nice wood in the fret spots.......just an idea Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bassman Posted March 18, 2005 Report Share Posted March 18, 2005 Forum is a bit out of wack these past few days.... I have built and I play fretless with only side dots, and have several more in the works right now. With a bit of patience and a decent ear that is all that is really needed, "fake frets" do seem like a bit of a cheat to me. I will admit that I am no pro fretless player, so they definitely would help especially in the higher registers of the finger board where there are no "small mistakes", I don't like the way they look, and I also dont want to learn to depend on them. Keep the updates coming man. I will also post some of my newer work as life permits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moreau Posted March 18, 2005 Report Share Posted March 18, 2005 Skibum, I like that idea too. I had sent it to Philmailloux in a PM previously. Do u know if they just inlay a little piece or if they slot n fill from the bottom instead of the top? I saw it and thought it was cool. I saw a yamaha lined fretless, and your could feel the frets. it was gross. but i like the mosaic board phil. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Incarnation Posted March 18, 2005 Report Share Posted March 18, 2005 Looks quite exotic, yet beautiful. Could you give some specs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geonjorjany Posted March 30, 2005 Report Share Posted March 30, 2005 ...hey, i was just curious how thick the piece of olive is that you used for the front and back of the body?.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Mailloux Posted March 30, 2005 Author Report Share Posted March 30, 2005 The original piece itself was about 3/4 inch of raw wood. I had it planed down to 1/4 inches (6mm). After I started building the bass I started thinking it might have been better at 1/8". I wanted the veneer layers to show more through the contoured sides but the top wood is just too thick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fryovanni Posted March 31, 2005 Report Share Posted March 31, 2005 Looks great mister!!! Kinda reminds me of a Warrior bass. That body shape looks like it will feel comfortable. I can't wait to see more progress shots. Rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Mailloux Posted April 3, 2005 Author Report Share Posted April 3, 2005 Time for another update. I built a fretboard radiusing jig to radius (obviously) the fretboard. I found this jig on a mimf thread somewhere in there and built it from the pictures there. It's only two plumbing pipes bolted paralell to each other on an MDF plank and a radiused "trolley" bolted to the router. The trolley (no idea what its called in english) is radiused at 12". I was expecting this jig to make perfect fingerboards but it didn't. What it did do was to make a very good rough carve of the fretboard. Once done I used my stanley #4 plane and radius block with sandpaper to finish the fretboard. ...and the result... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Mailloux Posted April 3, 2005 Author Report Share Posted April 3, 2005 Neck work was started by drawing the neck on my blank. For those who didn't read all the way from the beginning of the thread this blank is the second half of a 3 piece laminate of a maple and purpleheart block that I used to make the neck for my 5-string bass (the other half, that is) The gluing part of the block and construction of the other half can be seen on my website, link at bottom of this post. I then routed the holes for the rods using the side thingy attachment of the router. There's two carbon rods and one truss rod holes. Here they are. With the rods inside and the truss ajustment pocket. I used the jigsaw to cut off all the excess wood on the neck. and glued ears on the headstock. Once I routed the whole thing with my neck template I got this: It's still a bit rough but it's a good start Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
american_jesus Posted April 4, 2005 Report Share Posted April 4, 2005 very nice looking bass. i've got a suggestion for your inlay work though...since you want something on the fretboard(i think anyways) but dont want lines, why not make an olive(representing the olive tree), and put it across where the 12th fret would be? you can then do small lines up the side of the fingerboard, but not across it, like if you were to take a pencil and draw a line where the fret had to be on the side...i think that'd be pretty cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loosetoe Posted April 4, 2005 Report Share Posted April 4, 2005 Phil, What happened to the two truss rods idea? In your first image and desription you refer to the two truss rods, yet now you show the carbon rods and one truss rod. Why the change? having built a similar instrument, I would recommend the two truss rods. -Wayne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Mailloux Posted April 4, 2005 Author Report Share Posted April 4, 2005 The change came because i've talked to pros who use only one truss rod in a 6 string bass without even carbon rods in them. There's also the fact that this is a three-piece neck. That neck is extremely stable. The 5 string neck I built out of the other half was also done with 2 carbon rods and one truss and that one is stiff as hell. I also happened to get 2 meters of the carbon rod right around the corner of my house at a kite shop for 8 bucks. and finally, it gives me an excuse to make another neck after this bass since I now have a spare truss rod Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
volverine Posted April 9, 2005 Report Share Posted April 9, 2005 Nice work Phil! I would stick to the single truss rod too - they seem to work better I always use a 6mm diameter rod in a fender- esque manner the woods look stuning - it should be a killer looking forward to more details Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Mailloux Posted May 3, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 3, 2005 I clamped the neck to the body in this picture to rout the neck pocket. here's a picture of the end result. and down below another one. Then I cut my fingerboard piece of Wenge and glued it to the neck. First picture Second picture Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Mailloux Posted May 5, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 First picture, I glued the purpleheart then maple strips on the neck. Second picture, the fretboard. Down below, another view of the fretboard. Next picture, Here's the headstock raw with lines where i'll shape the verule. Here I started to shape the verule. Here is the neck shaped with the coarse file. and down below here is the neck shaped and sanded down to 80 grit, there's still a bit of shaping and final sanding to do before it's ready. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pibrocher Posted May 5, 2005 Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 Thats looking great man. I've been wondering about the multi piece fretboards. Nice to see how you put yours together. It was also great to hear your input about truss rods and stiffening rods. The eight string i'm building was going to have a truss rod and two stiffening rods but i think my multiple laminations will make it more then sturdy enough. Do you think an 8-string will need stiffening rods? seems like it might not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Mailloux Posted May 5, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 If you're talking about 4 sets of double strings I think you'll be fine. 8 independent strings is a different story though. The F# and B strings will give some serious pull on your neck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bassman Posted May 5, 2005 Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 Its looking sweet so far! I am on sorta the same page as you... I have just recently (this week) made a bookmatched fretboard from some goncalo alves, I created the mirror image of a particularly dark streak in the wood, it really has created a very sleek looking FB- this one will be fretted, so hopeully the frets wont take away from the look to much. I am following your build tut, with interest- perhaps one day I will also make a tut on one of my basses. Let me know how your glue lines (of the agled FB pieces) come out, hopefully nice regardless of lower endgrain adhesion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Sorbera Posted May 5, 2005 Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 (edited) I've been wondering about the multi piece fretboards. Multi peice fretboards you say??? Heres my usual conklin show off multi peice fingerboard Phil you should look into doing something way cool like that. I know it would be REALLY hard but I think it would be sooo sweet if you could make on like that. Edited May 5, 2005 by Godin SD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bassisgreat Posted May 5, 2005 Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 I've been wondering what was up with this bass. It's looking terrific! The fingerboard is going to look really classy strung up, I look forward to seeing that! Maybe on eof these days I'll get my camera fixed so I can take progress shots of my basses...If I can ever scrounge up enough cash that isn't being spent on the bass itself, hehe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hughes Posted May 6, 2005 Report Share Posted May 6, 2005 love the fretboard, i find it really original, keep up the great work, can wait to see it done Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Mailloux Posted May 6, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 6, 2005 Here's today's update. I built the pickups. First pic, I bought forbon sheets from stewmac> I measured and then cut out the pieces of flatwork. Here's the bobbins once glued together with CA. On this pic you can see i've put a layer of electrical tape to insulate the magnets against the wire. This makes sure that if the metal of the magnet ever rusts it won't short out the pickup by eating through the wire. Here is my winding jig, a hand drill with a sanding attachment. You can see the wire bobbin on the floor. Down below is the end result And here is another view of them. Before anyone mentions that the flatwork isn't totally straight and that the bobbins look like crap, it doesn't matter because the pickups will be hidden under wooden covers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duo2 Posted May 6, 2005 Report Share Posted May 6, 2005 This is looking great man. Keep up the good work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hughes Posted May 6, 2005 Report Share Posted May 6, 2005 sweet! looking great. could you tell me more a bout winding pickups? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Mailloux Posted May 7, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 7, 2005 sweet! looking great. could you tell me more a bout winding pickups? ← Have a look at my website in my signature. I made a tutorial. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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