Scott Rosenberger Posted April 29, 2005 Report Share Posted April 29, 2005 PG's Maryland mafia! ← Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robmarch Posted April 29, 2005 Report Share Posted April 29, 2005 PG's Maryland mafia! ← ← wow I didn't think anyone else in abingdon built guitars! I've been lurking on this site for a while, but never noticed another builder in my neighborhood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erikbojerik Posted April 30, 2005 Report Share Posted April 30, 2005 wow I didn't think anyone else in abingdon built guitars! I've been lurking on this site for a while, but never noticed another builder in my neighborhood. ← I'm surprised....Scott has quite a reputation on his street. Welcome to the forum Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pibrocher Posted May 2, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 2, 2005 Great to here about all the other Mary-Landers, whats up Chesapeake! Hey there everyone, took a little time off over the weekend. No bass work that is... Went back to wrok on carving the headstock. Here's some pictures of how that is going as well as some shots of the side-glueing fun. I ended up with a pretty crappy glue line on the back. The glue bubbled and left me with some obvious holes, as you'll see. I made sure i had plenty of leakage when i clamped it. Not sure what went wrong. I did wipe off the excess after i had the full clamping strength applied. Anyone ever experience ash soaking up the glue? Only thing i could figure. Not the end of the world however, i will be able to fill the holes and they are quite tiny. Here you can see the "slathering" of the biscuits and the overflow. In the bottom right corner is a finished shot two days later, clamps removed. Here are my crappy glues holes. I've never had this problem before. Maybe the glue edge wasn't completely square? I checked it before hand and everything seemed in order. Here are some shots of me shaping the little ash overlay-horns on the headstock. I wanted a really sculpted look on this instrument. This one shows the tip of the headstock. You can see how i have added a scallop through the mahogany top revealing the maple underneath. The headstock began to take on a Dr. Suess-esque beak almost. Here are some wider angle shots of the whole headstock as it sits before sanding. I'm gonna wait to do all my sanding at one time so this part is done for the time being. I'm pretty happy with it. I think that the final sanding is gonna really bring it to life, smooth all the tranistions out. My next step is to route off the top of the neck-through at the body. Then attach my ash tops. I will also be tapering the neck down to almost final width, and begin carving it in turn. more to come... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tirapop Posted May 3, 2005 Report Share Posted May 3, 2005 That headstock is delirious! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pibrocher Posted May 3, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 3, 2005 That headstock is delirious! ← So is that a good thing then? I've seen so many crazy basses over the years, i figured i go pretty far out on a limb with this before i would lose credibility. I've had so much more fun doing this project then the last one. On my first it was all about getting everything dead-on-accurate more than having fun. I guess i was an artist first so that is what is so appealing about this project. I realized that making these things play right isn't as hard as i first expected. Keep it level. Keep it flat! I really want to know what everyone thinks about this bass so please KEEP THE COMMENTS COMING... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redstein Posted May 3, 2005 Report Share Posted May 3, 2005 That headstock is delirious! So is that a good thing then? As far as this semi-lurker is concerned, DEFINITELY - I absolutely love the concept and execution, and I can't wait for pics of the whole thing. Great stuff - KUTGW! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tirapop Posted May 4, 2005 Report Share Posted May 4, 2005 That headstock is delirious! ← So is that a good thing then? ← Heck, yeah! People spend good money on delirium inducing substances. Like I said, it's very Seussical... a good thing. So, from the sketch, are you going to do an ash overlay with a lattice thing going on? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pibrocher Posted May 5, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 The latice on the top will actually be another 1/8" mahogany piece i have. It will go on top of a 1/4" ash overlay. The inside of those latice holes will be smooth lines like in the headstock. Everything molded. Proabably use the palm sander for a lot of that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregP Posted May 5, 2005 Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 That headstock is absolutely awesome so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pibrocher Posted May 6, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 6, 2005 Man it kills me when i don't get to work on my project for more then a few days. It was Monday when i last did an work and it already seems like ages since i made some dust. Hopefully this weekend will lend me some much needed routing time. I am dying to start shaping the neck and heel transitions. I have ALOT of carving to do on the body and would very much like to start that ASAP. Oh well, going back to work slowed it down some. But money is one of those neccesary evils. Thanks for all the great comments guys, keep em coming. Check out all the cool basses being built by members right now. 4 strings, 5 strings, 6 strings, 8 strings. Who has time to count? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Mailloux Posted May 6, 2005 Report Share Posted May 6, 2005 Kick ass bass Pib!!! Gorgeous, I just love all that carving you've done and can't wait to see the finished body. Based on what I saw of your drawing it should look great. I love the headstock. You're really inspiring me for my next bass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluespresence Posted May 6, 2005 Report Share Posted May 6, 2005 Man....another great & creative piece of work on PG!! That headstock reminds me of a pig nose and/or a hammer head. It also conjures up visions of Pink Floyd's "The Wall".....where all the hammers are marching. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pibrocher Posted May 9, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 9, 2005 Thanks, i'm glad everyone is getting something different from the headstock. Thats probably a good thing. Take it as you will. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duo2 Posted May 10, 2005 Report Share Posted May 10, 2005 That bass is awsome. Reminds me of some of the Carl Thompson bass's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pibrocher Posted May 10, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 10, 2005 Well guys i finally got back to work on the bass. Man, it seemed like forever since i had the time. I'm not at my home PC right now but i'll post pictures later today. I have now routed the top of the neck section down to flush with the body, In preparation to put the ash laminate on. Tonight i will be tapering th neck, also with my router. Then it will be truss rod time! Sweet. I need to get that ash on there as soon as possible so i can begin figuring out my mahogany lattice design for the final top. The part that has got me concerned is the triangle design around the control knobs. I'm not sure how i want to do it. I was originally planning on making the circle and triangle into a pickguard piece. One that could be removed to expose the guts. But now i am thinking that i want it to be more of an inlay, similar to the headstock, with the hardware coming through the top from the back side. I don't mind putting in a control cavity and a cover. I'll make the cover from mahogany i think, there will probably be enough left over from the top lattice to use there. Let me know what you guys think about the control area. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erikbojerik Posted May 11, 2005 Report Share Posted May 11, 2005 The lower knob might be a smidge too close to the edge of the body....???? I'd worry that when you rout out the control cavity, you'll be too thin on the body edge at that point and still won't have room for the pot. Especially if you have a big roundover on the edge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pibrocher Posted May 13, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 13, 2005 Thats a very good point about the controls. I hadn't really thought about the pots fitting in the cavity comfortably. I had that problem with my Mushroom guitar Mushroom Project I ended up having to carve out the inside of the cavity more to make room for wiring. On this bass though i was gonna make sure i have enough room, but i haven't got to the point of making the final adjustments. I think i'll be ok if i turn the solder points towards the inside of the guitar. I don't mind if the knob is right at the edge of the roll, but i don't want it out on the roll. Well here are shots of the most recent work with my trusty router. Everything went really well right up until i made a HUGE mistake. which i'll explain in due time. Check it out... Here is my setup for routing off the top of the neck-through. I needed to bring it down flush to the sides so this is how i did it. It had to be done in several steps since it was hard to clamp the guides and still get the router where i needed it all the time. I did the middle, then the bottom then the end of the fretboard. Here you can see the progress as i removed the wood. I went down about an 1/8" with each pass. It was important to rember the bit spinning direction when i got to the end of the guitar. The bottom came out perfect, no chip outs, nice sharp glue edge. Its always imporatant to make your glue lines good where they will be seen. Here you can see my lovely palm sander-light. Heh, have to improvise sometimes. You can see how i have the neck lines laid out already and then clamped on the router guide. I was using a 3/4" bottoming bit as you can see. So then i started making my passes, 1/8" at a time. More shots of the neck routing progress. Notice my marks near the horns to make sure i didn't clip it with the router. You can see how the laminates will come together at the end of the freatboard. Also what parts will be exposed above the ash overlay, that has yet to be glued on. I have it laid on to show you the basic height. Everything was going beautifully until... I let the router roll toward me a little and it left a bit of a divot in the side of the neck. This is isn't realy that bad, as all that will be removed as i shaped the neck. I got lucky with this one. BUT. What happened as i was finishing the neck at the horns floored me. I was dumb enough to keeping droppping the router bit lower and lower until suddenly i had lowered it to the point that the collet was exposed below the router-base. You can see the area where it contacted very clearly. How could i have been so stupid? Still not sure, but i was pretty upset at the time. I know i can fix it but its a particularly bad location for this to happen. A veyr hard lesson for me. Its even right on the top where everyone will see it. I am up for suggestions on how to fix this botching. Probably just fit another piece of ash in and sand it down flush. Won't be too bad but it wasn't not what i was going for at all. Everything else is looking great, so i am not that upset anymore. I'll just move forward witht he project as planned. Rome was not built in a day. Here you can see the end result of my routing. On the back i have the basic contours drawn on. Just about time to start carving. I still need to glue on the ash top before i do that though. So i'll be posting after this weekend, more to come... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robmarch Posted May 13, 2005 Report Share Posted May 13, 2005 you could take this as an opportunity to learn how to do fingerboard binding? mistakes happen, and you've got a great attitude about moving on. It's still going to end up a killer piece. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluespresence Posted May 14, 2005 Report Share Posted May 14, 2005 you could take this as an opportunity to learn how to do fingerboard binding I was thinking the same thing! I'll have to check my new router to see if it drops the collet below the plate like that. That is certainly not something you expect Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RGGR Posted May 14, 2005 Report Share Posted May 14, 2005 I was dumb enough to keeping droppping the router bit lower and lower until suddenly i had lowered it to the point that the collet was exposed below the router-base. You can see the area where it contacted very clearly. How could i have been so stupid? Still not sure, but i was pretty upset at the time. Same thing happened to me. I guess it will happen to anyone working with router sooner or later. Just one of these things that you only learn to avoid by having bitten by it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pibrocher Posted May 15, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 15, 2005 Yeah, bitten is the right term for this. It was an honest msitake and as long as i learn from it then everything will be all good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pibrocher Posted May 20, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 20, 2005 I have glued in the patch piece and sanded it done flush. The repair went real well and i don't think it is going to be noticable at all when its finished. Hey i was given lemons and so I made lemonade, i think thats how that saying goes. Anyhow, i will post some pics this weekend of the whole repairing process. I should be glueing the ash top on this weekend as well, so i will keep you all notified of course, of any further developments. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erikbojerik Posted May 20, 2005 Report Share Posted May 20, 2005 Similar thing happened to me on my (long-paused) bocote neck-thru while routing the neck taper, the template slipped maybe 1/32" without my knowing it...exactly the same spot as yours (you KNOW you'll be looking at it there all the time...). I patched it up exactly as you did. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pibrocher Posted June 24, 2005 Author Report Share Posted June 24, 2005 Ah, again i have returned to the woodshop. Having shaken myself free of the shackles of my college schedule I will be pursuing the completion of "Dr. Suess"with great furvor. I recently notched out and glued on the top ash pieces. Also did some work witht he D/A sander rounding the top edges over and beginning to reveal the "rings" that will make the top look as i have it drawn on the plans. This is the reall exciting part. I've been really anxious to get started on the carving (as there is a lot of it to do). The neck too will be shaped soon as well as the heel. I am kind of coming under the gun here in the next month. I am planning on moving to Oregon in August so i best get snappin if i want to have Dr. Seuss finished in time to play before i leave. It would be a total bummer to have to postpone the project for a few months whilst i get settled out west. I will post some pics of it this weekend. I intend on spending all my time in the shop so i promise lots of goodies. Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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