Phil Mailloux Posted May 31, 2006 Report Share Posted May 31, 2006 After such a long time i'm finally starting a new instument. It's been a long year settling down in Australia and I can finally start working on my favorite hobby Specs, Brazilian mahogany body core, funky lookin' quilt maple top and back, victorian ash and mahogany veneer between the body woods. 5 piece maple/wenge neck with scarf joint, funky lookin' quilt maple headstock veneer, cocobolo fretboard. Pickups will be mine as usual, don't know yet which one I'll build or if I'll get a preamp in this one either. A couple of pictures of the neck being glued. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v104/philmailloux/181.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v104/philmailloux/185.jpg A picture of my 10 minute scarf joint jig. (time it took me to build) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v104/philmailloux/207.jpg Pictures of the scarf and gluing. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v104/philmailloux/213.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v104/philmailloux/216.jpg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted May 31, 2006 Report Share Posted May 31, 2006 Awesome Phil! I have been excited about your next build. What kind of Mahogany is that? Pretty streaky. The bottom / top wood looks great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Mailloux Posted June 2, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 2, 2006 Thanks Jon the mahogany is brazilian. I spent the last two days just gluing stuff together, that gets long when you've got a lot of laminates to do.First pic is of the neck once the scarf was done. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v104/phi...loux/003005.jpg I glued both my bookmatched maple top and back with this jig coming straight out of compton "make your own electric guitar" http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v104/phi...loux/003217.jpg I then glued a layer of ash veneer and a layer of mahogany veneer both on the top side and back side of the body. That took the whole day since I did one layer at a time, let it dry 2 to 3 hours, trimmed it then glued the next layer. (4 layers total) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Mailloux Posted June 26, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 26, 2006 Progress is advancing slowly on this one. I had problems cutting the electronics cavity with my grobet saw and the lines weren't perfect so I had to do a lot of sanding to get the top wood (bottom wood in this case) to be nice enough. This pic shows the cover inside the body hole The cover obviously needs sanding too. So I've pretty much scrapped that one. Luckily, I cut the maple billet myself to make those two covers and I ended up with 5 boards so I could bookmatch the two tops. That left me with one extra board that ended up being perfect for this. Here's the picture of that. and the final result ain't half-bad either Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erikbojerik Posted June 26, 2006 Report Share Posted June 26, 2006 Go Phil go! Nice looking cavity cover. The lower edge is pretty close to the body edge, so watch out (radius) when you round over as you may round over the cover a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
De Trepagny Posted June 27, 2006 Report Share Posted June 27, 2006 What's happen if you sand the cover contour to make the gap equal all around? Beau top, très funky! Philippe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Mailloux Posted June 27, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 27, 2006 The lower edge is pretty close to the body edge, so watch out (radius) when you round over as you may round over the cover a bit. Thanks Erik, yeah, the cover will be radiused a tad, I'm not too worried it's 1/4" thick. Beau top, très funky! Philippe Merci Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted June 29, 2006 Report Share Posted June 29, 2006 I love that quilt maple, looking great so far! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Mailloux Posted June 30, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 30, 2006 I spent the morning making the truss rout and squaring the bottom of the neck to fit the truss adjustment nut. First pic is the markings of the hole for the nut. I obviously used my drill press to get the hole exactly where it had to be. This pic shows the hole and truss rod inserted in the neck This pic shows the neck with the fretboard on top to see the final look it'll get. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted June 30, 2006 Report Share Posted June 30, 2006 (edited) Looking great Phil, the grain of the Cocobolo greatly resembles the grain on the head of my 6-string fretted bass. The grain became very 3D around 1000 grit, I can't even imagine with it at 1200-2000 grit. Be careful with the stuff, I wouldn't work with it indoors! Also, are the laminates straight? The Wenge looks like it slants slightly to the left in both pictures. The same happend with the Wenge in my 6-string neck, but after finishing the neck up, it's impossible to tell unless you take the neck off the body and examine it. Edited June 30, 2006 by Jon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Mailloux Posted June 30, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 30, 2006 Thanks Jon. No, the laminates are straight, it's just an optical illusion because the picture was taken sideways Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rokeros Posted June 30, 2006 Report Share Posted June 30, 2006 Hey doing a great job. Keep it up! Yet again the striking grains of cocobolo has overwhelmed me. Love your work so far, sso hurry up and get it done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Mailloux Posted July 9, 2006 Author Report Share Posted July 9, 2006 I just found out how to do clickable thumbnails through that other bass thread in this section. Might as well practice that with last week's progress. On the first picture you see a straight piece of wood clamped on my neck blank to cut it to size with the router and a following bit. The second pic is the end result. Cool it works!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Mailloux Posted August 28, 2006 Author Report Share Posted August 28, 2006 It's been a month and a half now, I've been pretty lazy with this bass but I finally got some work done today. Here's a few pics to show. I'm pretty happy with the look the veneer layers have. It'll look even better when the top will be glued on the body Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted August 28, 2006 Report Share Posted August 28, 2006 Looks great! The Mahogany looks beautiful as well, I just sold a bunch of pieces with that lovely ribbon grain (picture here). I'm really liking how the wood colors contrast each other, great choice there. How do you plan on doing the round over? And what kind of finish are you going to use over the bass? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erikbojerik Posted August 28, 2006 Report Share Posted August 28, 2006 Nice work Phil, the back is gorgeous enough, with the top on it will be tré cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Mailloux Posted August 28, 2006 Author Report Share Posted August 28, 2006 Looks great! The Mahogany looks beautiful as well, I just sold a bunch of pieces with that lovely ribbon grain (picture here). I'm really liking how the wood colors contrast each other, great choice there. How do you plan on doing the round over? And what kind of finish are you going to use over the bass? I'll just be doing a semi-gloss nitro lacquer on this one. I've been thinking about the roundovers for months and I'm still wondering if I should do the back roundovers before I glue in the neck and top or not. It just looks too easy to screw it up once the neck is attached and it'll be so much harder to work around the bass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erikbojerik Posted August 28, 2006 Report Share Posted August 28, 2006 Roundover before you glue the neck in....most definitely. I distinctly recall hating the task of feathering the roundover transition against the neck on my neck-thru. Without the neck, you can run the bit right to the end of the neck pocket (if you want). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maiden69 Posted August 29, 2006 Report Share Posted August 29, 2006 Very nice Phil, I will hate to cover that mahogany, but the quilt is nice! Hope to see more soon! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Mailloux Posted August 29, 2006 Author Report Share Posted August 29, 2006 Roundover before you glue the neck in....most definitely. I distinctly recall hating the task of feathering the roundover transition against the neck on my neck-thru. Without the neck, you can run the bit right to the end of the neck pocket (if you want). Thanks for confirming my suspicions Erik. I'll round it over first. The worst is that I do my roundovers with files and the thought of filing the body close to the glued-in neck sends shivers down my spine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
De Trepagny Posted August 30, 2006 Report Share Posted August 30, 2006 It's going to be a kick *bip* bass Phil! I realy like your veneer pattern (détail très soigné). Lâche-pas! Philippe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted October 26, 2006 Report Share Posted October 26, 2006 http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v104/phi...oux/Bass018.jpg Yeah, so immediately after I saw this picture, I realized what a moron I am. I went thru all this trouble to drill a hole thru my 8-string head to figure out the tuner spacing from the back of the headstock to drill it from behind. When I could have adjusted the drill press table a little to the side and clamped the neck down. I fail. I was looking over this thread to look back at how you tapered your neck. I was originally going to use a method involving my table saw, but I had to have the head scarf jointed to figure out the spacing at the nut, to figure the taper line in the first place. You can't figure out how to taper it without that line! So anyways, I decided to go your route with the router. I tried this once on another neck and it worked fairly well (clamps weren't tight so they slipped once). Other than that incident, I felt confident I could get a board on nice and tight to get a flawless taper line. Obviously you know what happend, as it turned out poorly. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v104/phi.../Picture005.jpg Can you explain what I'm seeing in this picture, or go over your process? I only see one clamp. Even if I were using two clamps, I wouldn't be comfortable using a router pressing against a board that is clamped (I had my board screwed into the neck). If it were to slip, I would be kicking myself for days on end making my 5th attempt at the same bass neck. If anyone else has router help, please PM me or post on my 8-string bass thread. I'd prefer it be public, I'm sure others could use the help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erikbojerik Posted October 26, 2006 Report Share Posted October 26, 2006 Whenever possible (for this very reason...), I try to screw my templates to the lumber using drywall screws (usually 2 with a countersink drilled into the template so the router won't catch on the head). If you use short-enough screws, you can just screw into the back of the neck blank where the screw hole will get carved away, or into the top of the neck blank where the truss rod rout will go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Mailloux Posted October 26, 2006 Author Report Share Posted October 26, 2006 I've been thinking of doing it Erik's way for a little while but haven't got to it yet. Eventually I'll make permanent templates (in better material than MDF) that will have screw holes in them to do just that. In the picture you showed, you're actually missing half the information. There's another clamp attached at the bottom of the neck. Those two clamps are screwed on really tight! There's nothing that's going to move them. I reposition them once or twice so I can get the whole lenght of the neck done. It goes pretty fast and the result is dead flat. Even if I were using two clamps, I wouldn't be comfortable using a router pressing against a board that is clamped (I had my board screwed into the neck). If it were to slip, I would be kicking myself for days on end I wouldn't try that with MDF, from what I've seen, it feels like MDF has a lubricant capacity to it. It slips easy. Plus it's a bitch to work with. I love that neck blank I've been using as a straightedge I was going to use it for my next bass but now I might keep it as a fancy-pants laminated straightedge. It's 1" thick and has been jointed flat on all four sides. It's great for these applications and doesn't slip as much as MDF. At 1" thick I know the bearing is not going to miss the template and ruin my workpiece. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted October 26, 2006 Report Share Posted October 26, 2006 I always appreciate the information, thanks for your time guys! So Phil, you take two passes on the taper? The second time around, do you have the bearing follow the straight edge neck again (lowering the router bit a far amount) or do you remove the straight edge neck and have the bearing follow the neck you just tapered? Or does it not matter? I think I'm going to try cutting the neck down to size with a band saw as close as possible and use this method with purpleheart. I'll purchase a new router bit that is 1 1/4" - 1 1/2" long to attempt it in one pass. Both passes must be perfect! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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