Jon Posted May 4, 2006 Report Share Posted May 4, 2006 I am currently working on two basses at the same time. Both will be 6-string basses, one fretted, one fretless. Here are the specs so far- Fretted: 34" Scale Neck - Padauk / Curly Maple / Wenge / Curly Maple / Padauk. Body - Solid body, Mahogany / Wenge / Mahogany 27-30 frets (modified for extra reach as well) I cut off a small piece of the neck to use as the fingerboard, so the fingerboard will be the same as the neck. Since the fingerboard consists of multiple glue joints it will be impossible to repair in the future if I ever have to remove it. But it will look damn sexy for now. Pickups - Not positive, but I will have 2 soapbar / MM pickups. Fretless: 35" Scale Neck - Curly Maple / Padauk / Curly Maple / Wenge / Curly Maple / Padauk / Curly Maple Body - Hollow body, Mahogany body, Cocobolo top. 38-44ish frets (haven't measured) Fingerboard - Cocobolo Pickups - Not positive either, but I will only have one pickup. The fingerboard will reach all the way up to the pickup. My camera is still not working, but I borrowed my sisters camera for a shot of my progress on the fretted. I know I'm being un-original on the body. But I'm still not that great with the majority of the tools I am using. Any suggestions or comments are welcome! ___________________________________________________________ Ready to taper the necks then cut the necks for the head stock (pictured at the top of the counter and linked at the bottom). http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b74/Jons...ted/Group01.jpg http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b74/Jons...less/Head01.jpg http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b74/Jons...less/Head02.jpg L - R Fingerboard for bolt-on. Bolt-on body, Bolt-on neck, (at the top) the head for the neck-thru, Cocobolo top / Mahogany wing, Neck-thru neck, Cocobolo top / Mahogany wing. Still need to cut out the fingerboard for the neck-thru. Fun stuff, but it's creepy working around Cocobolo! Pretty toxic stuff. I promise I'll get some much better pictures soon. Taken from my original post at ERB, here. If you have any suggestions, tip, comments, or questions. Please ask! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Campylobacter Posted May 5, 2006 Report Share Posted May 5, 2006 Beautiful woods, any progress on this one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted May 6, 2006 Author Report Share Posted May 6, 2006 (edited) Yep, just about to copy / paste on what I put on ERB. After shaping out the body with the bandsaw, I used a belt sander on it's side (tied down) and ran the body against it to smooth 85% of the edges. I then hand sanded just about the rest. I was going to purchase a spindle sander, but the cheapest one in my area is $380. Did some extra work with a dremel and evened out the top / bottom of the body. An angle shot of the body. Lots of hand sanding! Here is a much better group shot How the neck will look finished Top of the body Back of the body Glue joint / nice grain A better look at the cocobolo grain Update on the workshop, around 40 days into the project I have many more pictures found in my photoalbum. So far everything is going very well. I'm a little confused on how to taper a neck down to size, so any suggestions or tips on how to do that would be much appreciated. Oh, and I figured out how to get much better pictures. Sorry for the lower quality ones. Edited May 6, 2006 by Jon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted May 8, 2006 Author Report Share Posted May 8, 2006 Got the body rounded with a 1/2" rounding bit. I'd prefer a 3/4"+ bit though. Dad and I did a lot of hand sanding today, looks pretty awesome. Top of the body (rounded) Back of the body (rounded) I think I'm going to hold off on the contour for now, probably wait until I get a spokeshave. More pictures in my photoalbum as usual! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattia Posted May 9, 2006 Report Share Posted May 9, 2006 Lookin' good! Also, spokeshaves? Get a decent one, flat-bladed, and see if you like it for neck carves. For getting the belly cut done, IMO you're best off with a selection of rasps. I use my round surform (I'd use a round microplane if I had one...soon..) for roughing things in, bit of work with a shinto rasp, flat microplane, and then a good 'ol cabinetmaker's rasp. Controlled, fast, fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted May 9, 2006 Author Report Share Posted May 9, 2006 Thanks for the reply, Mattia! I know very little about rasps / spokeshaves. I don't hear much about people recommending certain types for certain steps. So the last time I went to WoodCraft I got a coarse rasp and a 4 in 1 rasp, just to see how they work and figure out exactly what I needed. Since this is my first project(s) from scratch, I'm trying to be as cautious as possible with what I am doing. One wrong move in the mahogany with a coarse rasp and I would spend a good while fixing that mistake. I did pick out a few tools as birthday presents last night. Fret cutter, fret hammer and flat / curved spokeshaves. I have everything to complete a bass / guitar from scratch except a couple of router bits. I'm not positive which to use for routing the truss / stiffening rod channels. Any help there would be much appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattia Posted May 9, 2006 Report Share Posted May 9, 2006 Just mark out your belly cut counters, and hack away. You're safe from unfixable slips for a good while before you get closer to final dimensions. It's really not that difficult. As for router bits: a simple straight bit (double flute, spiral, whatever) in the appropriate size for your rods is what you want for CF rods and truss rods. Set up a fence/parallel guide for the router to ride against (fence: to the LEFT SIDE of the router, relative to the direction you're pushing it. Only route in one direction. Parallel guide, on the right-hand side of the router, relative to the direction the router's moving. Google 'routers go left' for an explanation as to why/where to place fences). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted May 16, 2006 Author Report Share Posted May 16, 2006 (edited) Got a little progress done on Sunday, not much. Got a decent amount done today. Spent a while brainstorming Sunday night on how to make a neck tapering jig. I came up with a great idea, and my dad and I put it together today and it works great. Here is a group shot of the current progress. Sorry for the quality, the camera takes horrible shots inside. L - R Fingerboard for Bolt-on, Bolt-on neck / body, Neck tapering jig, Neck-thru wings / neck. Tomorrow I will be tapering both necks correctly and gluing the wings to the neck-thru. Edited May 29, 2006 by Jon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Campylobacter Posted May 16, 2006 Report Share Posted May 16, 2006 That cocobolo on the neck-thru is SWEET! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
~john~ Posted May 18, 2006 Report Share Posted May 18, 2006 the grain on it incredable, can't wait to see that finished Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted May 18, 2006 Author Report Share Posted May 18, 2006 Thanks guys, it's coming along. Roughly, but things are coming along. Onto my post, copy / pasted from my previous post on ERB. I learned a lot today, but accomplished very little. I happend to do the math for the neck jig incorrectly, but luckily cutting the distance (i.e. 13/16ths over the distance of 17") in half worked correctly. So my dad corrected the jig while I finished up rasping the belly guard. We then proceeded to cut several pieces of wood to see how it works, and it was off give or take a 16th on each side. Easy enough to correct by hand. But one of the worst things that could have happend while cutting the neck-thru happend. The jig slipped a little and the table-saw cut inwards to the neck. This happend when I was reaching over to unplug, so luckily it happend around the nut area, it's very fixable. Just very stressful. After punching the walls for a couple hours, we proceeded to taper the bolt-on neck. Correctly. After this was done I started working on shaping the neck. Got a bit of progress, but a little too dark to continue. I should be finished the next time I get a chance to work on the basses. I'll be in studio recording this Saturday and my birthday is on Monday, so I've got a fun week coming up! Once again, exucse the horrible quality. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted May 23, 2006 Author Report Share Posted May 23, 2006 Copy / pasted from original post on ERB. Any tips / suggestions etc. are welcome! I got some better quality shots of my current progress. Outside + Shade = good pictures. Had a hard time with the routing, the idea my dad and I were using would only work for one side and half of the bottom. So I attempted to make a template out of acrylic and have failed 3 times. I need to find the correct bit to cut plastic as well, any suggestions would be welcome. The neck is about 90% shaped, needs some serious hand sanding and it should be done. I have come up with several ideas for the neck-thru mistake. One consisted of finishing the tapering of the neck and fill in the accident cut with epoxy. Then glue binding along the entire neck-thru (like an extra laminate). I'll probably do bocote along the edges. Oh, and the epoxy wont be showing because the cut is around the nut area, and will be rasped down anyways. I have to rely on an idea similar to this because we took off a little too much on each side. While it is a consistent taper, it would have to be a 32" scale bass to work correctly. I'm not making a midget bass, so the extra laminate idea will work best. Oh yeah, I purchased this today. http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b74/Jons...ood/Wood001.jpg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted May 25, 2006 Author Report Share Posted May 25, 2006 Copy / Pasted from my original post on ERB. Looking pretty sweet, if only you could see the flame grain on the Padauk! The neck is shaped. The ball bearing on the router bit locked up and wouldn't rotate, so I used a hammer + chisel to finish the rest of the neck pocket. It still needs to go down another 1/4". Side shot of the neck Body + Neck Distant shot Close up Together shot As you can see, I poorly planned out the treble horn. Far too little wood is supporting the right side of the neck pocket. With a simple flick I could break that thin piece, gotta be careful! Having a hard time locating parts to make pickups. Any suggestions on where to go to buy all of what I need to wind a pickup? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j. pierce Posted May 26, 2006 Report Share Posted May 26, 2006 I've had good luck cutting acrylic with a very fine-tooth coping saw blade, or a very fine toothed jigsaw blade. Go slow so it doesn't melt. Depending on the thickness of it, to keep it from cracking, I like to throw some scrap under it. If I'm cutting by hand, I just push it up against the edge of the cut. By machine, I usually cut through the scrap underneath. Polish and clean up the cuts with smooth files. Honestly, unless it's something I want to hang onto and use over and over again, I'd just make my templates out of MDF, it's cheaper and easier to work with. Stewmac sells p'up parts, and I believe I've seen a few small retailers selling supplies. I remember Electronics Goldmine (http://www.goldmine-elec.com/) used to have great prices on wire that would work really well for p'ups. They deal mostly in surplus, or something like that (or at least they used to - their website is all different now, I can't really tell.) and I don't know if they still carry it. But you should be able to order the magnet wire stuff from electronics places online, use your imagination for the bobbin parts (I used phenolic board cut offs from when I was making eyelet boards for a tube amp in a pickup experiment I made) Magnets, well, those I don't know about where to get. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattia Posted May 26, 2006 Report Share Posted May 26, 2006 Guitarjones.com (I think that's the URL) and ampge.com sell pickup making materials. I'd look around for magnet wire at actual wire suppliers, should be a good bit cheaper that way. I tend to make MDF templates because the stuff's easy to machine evenly (but yes, evil dust), and then copy-route those to ply for 'permanent' templates. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted May 29, 2006 Author Report Share Posted May 29, 2006 Thanks for the tips guys! Still not positive on what wire magnets to use in the pickups, any suggestions? More progress pictures! Front shot Back shot And two more shots of the cocobolo grain, I can't say if these are any better but, more pictures! Left wing Right wing The Bocote throws the color scheme off, but is easily fixable. All I have to do is carefully dye the Maple, not positive which color yet. Oh, with the added width of the Bocote the neck-thru will now be a wide spaced 7-string or tight spaced 8-string. I'll have to see how it works out to figure out which will be better. And yes, that is bird crap on the side of the right wing. Damn birds.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottyd Posted May 29, 2006 Report Share Posted May 29, 2006 "And yes, that is bird crap on the side of the right wing. Damn birds.." Ahh it could be worse! Looking good though, the fingerboard is going to be awesome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted May 30, 2006 Author Report Share Posted May 30, 2006 Wait till you see the cocobolo fingerboard. So I got a digital camera for my birthday, rock on. It's taking very nice pictures! But the birds, the birds keep attacking! Finally, common sense has kicked in. I'll be keeping my basses under my workshop until I bring them inside at the end of the day. The bottom of the body is a bit wide, I know. I'm no where near complete on the sanding. And, a few more pictures. Side shot Started on the chambering and did it on the wrong side! Dream bass, will be my next project (8-string fretted) Picture of my current selection of wood Screwed up on routing the chambers on the wrong side. I have a great idea on how to fix this. I will be doing a top and bottom on the bodies now (Cocobolo on top of Mahogany / Mahogany). I will be dying the bottom mahogany to a darker color, thinking a walnut dye / stain would look great. So it will give the effect that the bottom piece of mahogany is not mahogany. Mistakes = Opportunity! To anyone who is wondering about the fretless not having a horn- it is intentional. The fingerboard will be going all the way up to the only pickup and I would like to be able to reach that high. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pibrocher Posted May 30, 2006 Report Share Posted May 30, 2006 What will neck widtch at the nut be? Do those dimensions get adjusted because of the lack of frets? Awesome wood supply. It' a nice rack alright! Looks awesome! Great projects, nice pics too... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted May 30, 2006 Author Report Share Posted May 30, 2006 2 and 1/2 inches at the nut- perfect for a 7-string bass. Lack of frets? As far as I know, everything stays the same for a fretless. You can either make it a lined fretless or go without them (which is what I am doing). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted May 30, 2006 Author Report Share Posted May 30, 2006 Got a couple more hours of routing done on the body. Just need to do 2-3 more passes at the bottom. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted May 31, 2006 Author Report Share Posted May 31, 2006 Worked on the bolt-on today. Got the back cavity finalized. Made the neck pocket a bit deeper. Worked on fixing the scarf joint, might be gluing the veneer / head on it tonight. Front Close-up of the next step Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted June 3, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 3, 2006 A few shots of the past couple of days work before I head out to band practice. http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b74/Jons...tted/Head01.jpg http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b74/Jons...tted/Head02.jpg http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b74/Jons...tted/Head03.jpg http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b74/Jons...tted/Head04.jpg http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b74/Jons...tted/Head05.jpg http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b74/Jons...tted/Head06.jpg http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b74/Jons...tted/Head08.jpg This process has been pretty tricky. It was stupid of me to do this at a later time. I should have done the scarf joint than tapered the neck. Oh well, lesson learned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted June 4, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 4, 2006 Headstock will be gluing over the next day, back to working on the Fretless! Side Above Close-up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted June 5, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 5, 2006 Some more progress shots of the head / neck area being shaped. Any suggestions or comments are very welcome! Above shot What it would look like with fingerboard, closeup Side shot, see the veneer? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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