Geo Posted February 26, 2008 Report Share Posted February 26, 2008 Whoa, I love that headstock. It looks like you really planned the string angles well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted February 26, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 26, 2008 (edited) Whoa, I love that headstock. It looks like you really planned the string angles well. Thanks, the string angles are well planned, but I can't take credit for that. This is just a variation on the 'Higham Open Headstock'. I found it on MIMF, I believe, many months ago and knew that I wanted to use it one day. He put a great, highly detailed, PDF out there with all the necessary measurements on it. Edited February 26, 2008 by mattharris75 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
al heeley Posted February 27, 2008 Report Share Posted February 27, 2008 yes that is a gorgeous neck blank. Looking forward to seeing this build progress Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted February 27, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 27, 2008 Thanks Al. Enjoyed your Ric build and am looking forward to seeing the fanned fret 5 come together. ('The Fanned Fret 5', that sounds like a good name for a band. ) Got the truss rod and CF support rod channels routed for bass #1 and glued in the CF rods. Will do the same for bass #2 in the next few days, then bandsaw both the top and side profiles for both necks this weekend. Also got the burled rosewood and spalted maple plates for bass #1 shipped off to Texas to get thickness sanded. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted March 1, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 1, 2008 Got the channels routed in the other neck and got the profile of both necks rough cut. Possibly Sunday I'll have a chance to route both necks to their finished top profile and rough cut the taper on the fretboards. Also still have to finish chizzeling the recess for the spoke wheel on the second neck, as you can see in the pics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
verhoevenc Posted March 1, 2008 Report Share Posted March 1, 2008 You're makin' two?! Shotgun second! lol Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted March 5, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2008 He heh. Sorry Chris, the second bass is already spoken for. I made some progress the other day. I routed the neck profile on the router table. Got a little bit of tear out right near the end of the process on the top corner of the headstock. But, it mostly just splintered and I glued and clamped it back together and there is only a small imperfection, which should easily be filled with mahogany dust and glue. Not a major deal, but quite frustrating regardless. I'll probably do the second neck sometime next week. The inside cutout of the headstock has not been routed yet, only roughed out. I'm going to wait until I glue the top and back laminates to the headstock before I do the final route. I also got both of the fingerboards cut to length and the rough tapers done, and they are looking quite nice. I got the bridges in, as you can see in the picture. Now that I have the height on this bridge I can determine the exact depth of the neck, which was really the last piece of the measurement puzzle. But, I realized that when routing the end of the tenon down so that it is flush with the top of the bass I could hit the spoke wheel, depending on how deep it will need to be cut down. Looks like some extra care could be involved in making sure that doesn't happen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j. pierce Posted March 10, 2008 Report Share Posted March 10, 2008 Whoa, I love that headstock. It looks like you really planned the string angles well. Thanks, the string angles are well planned, but I can't take credit for that. This is just a variation on the 'Higham Open Headstock'. I found it on MIMF, I believe, many months ago and knew that I wanted to use it one day. He put a great, highly detailed, PDF out there with all the necessary measurements on it. I've been poking around MIMF and through Google and haven't had any luck finding that. Anyone got a link? I'd be interested in seeing the original doc. on that headstock, as I've been contemplating various versions of an open headstock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted March 10, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 10, 2008 J. Pierce, I've got the original PDF. Just shoot me a PM with your email address and I will send it to you. As for these builds, I routed the profile of the second neck last night, and used the safe-t-planer to get the thicknesses of the back of the first neck to its final dimensions. I should be gluing the laminates on the headstock and heel of this neck this week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheIRS Posted March 10, 2008 Report Share Posted March 10, 2008 Holy @#$%! that's a HUGE neck! Cool looking though, can't wait to see the body with that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bassisgreat Posted March 10, 2008 Report Share Posted March 10, 2008 That neck looks dangerously close to neck dive length. Hope that doesn't give ya any problems! Looks great! The thin body doesnt' float my boat (the bass I'm building is 14" at the lower bout, heh) but I like the design, and can't wait to see it finished! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted March 10, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 10, 2008 Holy @#$%! that's a HUGE neck! Cool looking though, can't wait to see the body with that. He heh, it's not that it's a huge neck, it's that it's a small body. the body is only 11" at its widest. Wide bass bodies seem to be the thing these days, so I wanted to try to go the other direction with it, and still create a really modern feeling design. And as far as neck dive, the body core is hard ash, and is quite heavy. That should help with the neck dive issue, but I guess we'll find out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tophski Posted March 10, 2008 Report Share Posted March 10, 2008 Holy @#$%! that's a HUGE neck! Cool looking though, can't wait to see the body with that. He heh, it's not that it's a huge neck, it's that it's a small body. the body is only 11" at its widest. Wide bass bodies seem to be the thing these days, so I wanted to try to go the other direction with it, and still create a really modern feeling design. And as far as neck dive, the body core is hard ash, and is quite heavy. That should help with the neck dive issue, but I guess we'll find out! personally, I love the small body and shape you have there. in my utterly unprofessional opinion as a builder, but professional opinion as a musician, you have a real winner there. I also loved your original design as well, regardless of the upper access. That open head design is great, after seeing yours I'd love to give that a shot on my first bass. (I'm also glad you're keeping them 4 string) Can't wait to see them finished. chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j. pierce Posted March 11, 2008 Report Share Posted March 11, 2008 What are you using for tuners? A set of the Hipshot Ultralites and you can get away with a lot more before neck dive becomes and issue... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted March 11, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 11, 2008 What are you using for tuners? A set of the Hipshot Ultralites and you can get away with a lot more before neck dive becomes and issue... I was planning on using Gotoh GB7's, but I'll look into the weight difference between those and the Hipshots before I make any final decision. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted March 11, 2008 Report Share Posted March 11, 2008 Roughly, 9-10 Hipshot Ultralite's weigh about the same as 4 GB7's. I can't seem to find the weight of either tuner right now, but I calculated the 8 Hipshot tuners I'll be using on my current build to weigh right around .77 lbs. Neck dive shouldn't be much of an issue, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted March 13, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 13, 2008 More work done on bass #1. I'll get back on the drill press this weekend and start getting bass #2 caught up. Got the headplate/backstrap/ heel laminates glued on and got a little shaping done on the headstock. All three are macassar ebony. However, on the back of the headstock, in order to get a little more thickness, I put a 2mm black wood fiber laminate underneath the macassar. You can tell it's thicker if you look closely at the picture. The back of the headstock laminates also stick out further into the neck in order to carve a nice looking volute of sorts (even though it's not a tilt back headstock). Got most of the basic shaping done on the headstock, but still needs some work on the far end as well as the transitions from the headstock to the neck. In the headstock image, I placed on the fingerboard and the logo disk, both of which are bloodwood, as well as held up the ebony that the fingerboard will be bound with. It just gives a little bit of an idea of what this neck is going to ultimately look like. Obviously I haven't gotten the inside area of the open headstock taken care of yet. I still have to figure out how exactly I want to do that. The rails need to be 16mm. Debating whether or not to use a router, or set up a fence on my spindle sander, or possibly some other option I haven't thought of yet. click the thumbnails Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j. pierce Posted March 13, 2008 Report Share Posted March 13, 2008 if it were me, (and it's not) I'd get things closer with a rasp or a scroll saw (if they aren't close enough yet) and then finish up with a router, bearing-guided bit, and a template. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted March 13, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 13, 2008 if it were me, (and it's not) I'd get things closer with a rasp or a scroll saw (if they aren't close enough yet) and then finish up with a router, bearing-guided bit, and a template. Regardless of how I finish it, I'll get it close using the spindle sander. My biggest concern with using a router is tear out. I've already experienced that on this headstock when working with it on the router table. I do have a template prepared, which is how I initially routed the outside headstock shape, but I'll only use it if I decide to route to final shape. I'll think over my options for a few days... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bassisgreat Posted March 13, 2008 Report Share Posted March 13, 2008 That neck looks killer! Hopefully neck dive won't be an issue. Does the tip of your bass horn come anywhere close to the 12th fret? I'd go with the lightest tuners possible, if it's going to be a small bass, it may as well also have the advantage of being extremely light! Looking forward to seeing it done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted March 13, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 13, 2008 That neck looks killer! Hopefully neck dive won't be an issue. Does the tip of your bass horn come anywhere close to the 12th fret? I'd go with the lightest tuners possible, if it's going to be a small bass, it may as well also have the advantage of being extremely light! Looking forward to seeing it done. Thanks. The upper horn comes to the 15th fret, which is obviously less than ideal from a balance standpoint. However, I play almost exclusively sitting down, and the way the body fits with my body is quite ergonomic and comfortable. If it is a bit neck heavy, I imagine that it can be countered by using the Hipshot ultralight tuners. By the way, for the sake of comparison, the Gotoh GB7 tuner weighs 2.3 ounces. The Hipshot ultralight weighs 1.88 ounces (with schaller style knob, the fender style is heavier). This makes a standard set of 4 Gotoh's 9.2 ounces and a set of 4 Hipshots 7.52 ounces. Of course, based on the center of mass of the bass that additional 1.68 ounces at the end of the headstock probably makes more difference than it sounds. If I was motivated to do so, I would work out the physics of the situation, but i'm not nearly bored enough for that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j. pierce Posted March 14, 2008 Report Share Posted March 14, 2008 The bass in this thread has the strap button at about the 14th fret. No neck dive problems at all. It's got a bit more girth that your instrument, but it's fairly light as it's chambered extensively. Yours also has more wood past the back of the bridge, which works in your favor, moving the balance a bit. That's with the Ultralite tuners on that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted March 27, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 27, 2008 Got a little more work done on the headstocks. The second bass now has the wenge laminates on front and back, and has been roughed out like the first bass was in the previous pictures. I've now got the sides of the headstock on the first bass right at final dimensions, and I used the spindle sander to get the inside of the headstock down to approximately 1mm away from it's final size (Except for the upper left corner which still has a bit more material to remove). I'm still debating whether or not I want to try to finish it out with the spindle sander or the router. I also still need to finish the profile on the rounded top section of the headstock. It's fairly close, but I'm going to take off a bit more material to cover up a slight mistake I made. I also ordered a couple of sets of hipshot ultralights, as you can see in the pictures. Once I get the first headstock done the second will go much more quickly, and then I can get the fretboards on and get the binding channel routed and get the boards bound. Then I will move on to the bodies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j. pierce Posted March 27, 2008 Report Share Posted March 27, 2008 Looking great! I'm really thinking I'd like to try this type of headstock on my next bass build (for my brother) but it'd take a bit of tweaking, as he wants a five string... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bassisgreat Posted March 27, 2008 Report Share Posted March 27, 2008 It's coming along great! I love that neck! I'm also thinking about doing a 5 string with an open headstock, so I'll be working out the same tweaks as you J. Pierce. BTW, gorgeous guitar/bass in the link. Very nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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