mattharris75 Posted April 9, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 9, 2008 Got the redwood burl top plate back from being thickness sanded (Thanks Jon.) and went ahead and wiped it down and put on a coat of epoxy. For such a visually non-porous wood it really drank down the epoxy. I'll probably do one more coat to stabilize it before I work with it. As you can see it's got some very interesting figuring and some seriously deep chatoyance. The effect will be even more pronounced under lacquer. I think this is going to make a very striking and slightly bizarre looking guitar top. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andronico Posted April 9, 2008 Report Share Posted April 9, 2008 Simply beautiful ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted April 14, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 14, 2008 Progress on bass #2 this weekend. I'll be gluing up the body for bass #1 this week, but since bass #2 was a simple 2 layer body of ash and wenge I managed to get it glued up and rough cut. Starting to get a feel for what this one is going to look like now. I threw on the neck just to get an idea of how everything was going to work together. The body is a .75" wenge top that will be carved and contoured quite a bit, with a 1.25" ash back. The neck actually protrudes a bit further into the body than I have it lined up here as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Ross Posted April 14, 2008 Report Share Posted April 14, 2008 Looks nice! I'm a bit unclear as to the purpose of the notch at the bottom of the neck. Maybe you explained it & I just missed it? -dcr Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted April 14, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 14, 2008 Looks nice! I'm a bit unclear as to the purpose of the notch at the bottom of the neck. Maybe you explained it & I just missed it? -dcr Actually, I never did explain it, good catch. The reason is that the neck tenon is extending halfway through the neck pickup. Most of the time when people do this the end of the tenon would still be straight across. However, in this case the neck picup is a P Bass pickup, which is staggered. So, the tenon is staggered as well to line up right in the middle of the pickup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted April 17, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 17, 2008 Bass 1 has had its body blank glued up and rough cut, and both bass bodies have been edge sanded. I'm about 90% done with the shaping of the edges, maybe a few details here and there to make everything perfectly smooth. I chose to use the spindle sander on both of these rather than a router and template bit. I really enjoyed doing it that way. Overall I don't think it took significantly more time, it was safer, easier, and was very enjoyable in that it allowed me some flexibility with regards to shaping as I progressed and got a feel for how I wanted things to go. Here are the current pictures: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted April 17, 2008 Report Share Posted April 17, 2008 Very clean work, great job Matt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted November 13, 2008 Author Report Share Posted November 13, 2008 I know it's been a long time, but I finally got some more work done on these basses. I was sidetracked while completing my 2/3 scale build, and then football season started. Now that it's over for me, life is a bit more back to normal. Spent some time working on both of these basses over the last week and a half. The wenge topped bass has had had the round-over done on the top and back, as well as the belly cut carved. I'll be doing quite a bit more contouring/carving on the top of that one in the near future. I've been spending more time working on the redwood burl bass. Front and back round-over, arm carving, belly cut. These are all rough carved, and will obviously require a little more smoothing and whatnot around the edges, but they are looking pretty good I think. Also got the bloodwood fretboard glued on and got it tapered to the width of the neck. Also got the P/J pickup templates finished. Next up on this one is getting the binding channel cut on the neck and getting some more rough sanding done to give everything a more organic look. Then the neck pocket and pickup routes. Also need to catch the wenge bass up to this one. So, here are the pics: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted December 8, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 8, 2008 OK, got more work done on both of these basses. The fingerboard is currently in clamps, being glued up to the neck for the wenge topped bass. Ive spent some time contouring the wenge bass body as well. I'm attempting to give it a nice organic and curvaceous appearance. Here are a few pictures of that progress. As far as the redwood burl topped bass, I've done a fair bit more sanding on that one, and continued to smooth the contouring on it, including getting the arm roundover to flow more organically with everything. I cleaned up the headstock on it, which has been quite a bit more work than a traditional headstock, but will look great when it's finished. I've also added the binding to the neck, which looks great. However, the fingerboard is about .8mm too high, so I've got to sand that down and radius it, which will be quite a chore. I hope to get the neck pockets and pickup routes done in both of these basses in the next few weeks. I'll have 11 days off at Christmas, which will be great for getting most of the woodwork done, hopefully. I also finally ordered pickups for them, got 2 sets of Tonerider P/J pickups on the way from rjhalsey as we speak. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted December 21, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 21, 2008 Got the neck pocket cut on the redwood topped bass. The wenge bass has had the carving cleaned up on the top, and the fingerboard has had the flamed maple binding applied. Hoping to get the majority of the major woodwork done on both these basses while I, theoretically, have some time during the holidays. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted January 15, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 15, 2009 Gotten some work done on this one. As you can see in the picture, the fretboard has been sanded flush with the binding and radius'd. A lot of the detail work on the headstock has been done or started. Carved out the area where the strings will break over the headstock. Drilled the tuner holes. Inlayed the bloodwood logo disk and filled it with black epoxy, and have started rounding over and smoothing everything out. This style of headstock has been significantly more work than I anticipated, and I'm not sure I'll do it again once these two builds are done, but it will be really cool once it's finished. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HuntinDoug Posted January 15, 2009 Report Share Posted January 15, 2009 Very cool Matt! I'd like to see a guitar done like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SD83 Posted January 16, 2009 Report Share Posted January 16, 2009 great looking instruments! I love the look of the Mahogany/Padauk/Mahogany neck and that Wenge-top... just beautiful woods and great body shape. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted January 22, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 22, 2009 More work done on the redwood bass. Got the pickup routes cut. I plan on doing a bit more shaping to the body before I glue the neck in. I'm also going to do some more shaping to the headstock before then as well, make it a bit more organic. I'm very pleased with this one so far. The task for this weekend is my arch nemesis, believe it or not, side dots. Once that's taken care of I'll go ahead and carve the neck with my new shinto saw rasp, looking forward to trying that tool. As you can see, the redwood burl is quite beautiful with a little naptha on it: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Ross Posted January 23, 2009 Report Share Posted January 23, 2009 Beautiful wood! What did you use for the black accent veneer? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted January 23, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 23, 2009 Beautiful wood! What did you use for the black accent veneer? It's a black wood fiber veneer from LMI. Honestly, I don't recommend the stuff. It sands like plastic and stinks like plastic when you drill it, kind of melts a bit I think. And it seems to be harder than the surrounding wood, which is tough when contour sanding with a soft pad or something of that nature. It might work better in the thinner sizes. This is the thickest that they offered. I will probably try using dyed poplar or something of that nature in the future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ae3 Posted January 24, 2009 Report Share Posted January 24, 2009 It may be a pain, but it looks awesome! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
verhoevenc Posted January 25, 2009 Report Share Posted January 25, 2009 I bought some veneers for similar work recently... and can to the conclusion that natural wood is the way to go and picked up some wenge veneers packs. Also, there's some great dyed aniegre out there in veneers too! Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottyd Posted February 1, 2009 Report Share Posted February 1, 2009 Wow the bass looks really nice Matt! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted February 1, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2009 Wow the bass looks really nice Matt! Thanks ScottyD, that means a lot to me. Especially since I've probably voted for you for GOTM at least half a dozen times. I think we have similar aesthetic tastes. Since I'm updating this thread I'll post the latest progress. I routed out a recess in the back plate, near the neck. It was mostly for aesthetics but also as a recessed area to put ones palm while playing in the upper register. After routing I attempted to carve with riffler rasps and sand the bevel on the edge of this area. Unfortunately the spalted maple did not cooperate. It ended up looking quite poor in one area. I've flooded the area with epoxy finishing resin attempting to fill it in so that I can re-carve the epoxy and make it smooth. I have no idea if this will work. If worse comes to worse, I will have to route off the back plate. If I do I will probably replace it with flamed redwood. I did finish the side dots, which are brass tube filled with black epoxy. They look pretty good. I've got my frets cut and just need to cut off the tangs and grind the bottoms smooth before fretting, then I'll get to carving the neck. It's been a busy weekend, and I haven't gotten much accomplished on this bass, since I just bought and assembled my new 12" craftsman bandsaw today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted February 9, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 9, 2009 More work done. Fretboard sanded to 1500 grit, and the fret tangs were cut and ground smooth then pressed in. No pictures of that. Once I got that done I went ahead and carved the neck, which is one of the more rewarding parts of the build. These pics show the neck profile as well as the 'volute' area, which is kind of unique because of the headstock configuration on this bass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
al heeley Posted February 9, 2009 Report Share Posted February 9, 2009 Beautiful work, the wood combination is stunning! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted February 12, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 12, 2009 Thanks Al. Figure I might as well show the fretted neck, since I forgot to post it before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
verhoevenc Posted February 12, 2009 Report Share Posted February 12, 2009 Just such clean execution! Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted February 22, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 22, 2009 Thanks Chris! Here's more progress on Bass #2. Side dots installed, headstock shaping completed, and neck pocket cut. Will be working on the fretboard radius and fretting the neck over the neck week or so. Trying to get this one caught up to Bass #1. I've discovered that dark wood tops can be tricky see your pencil lines on, thus the blue tape. Also, the join is so good on the top, I can only see the center line on the wood at the very tail end of the body. Good problem to have, I guess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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