Five-string Chambered Warwick Infinity Bass

[low end fuzz]

How about some guitar pictures?! Finland shminland! lol

Chris

ya! were on the 5th page here; its waay to cool looking to be patient!

[Prostheta]

I'm afraid that with perhaps one-two years before I can put tool to wood (uh huh huh huh) after we move, this needs to be done right. Rushing it is not an option!

[Buter]

Pictures?

Lookin out the window of the lovely hotel here in Helsinki everything is under a couple feet of snow.

Apparently there are no lakes in Finland, Pros, only seas, so you'll have to shave in the sea. Better you than me!

Oh, yeah, nice build.

Buter

[HenryM]

Pictures?

Lookin out the window of the lovely hotel here in Helsinki everything is under a couple feet of snow.

Apparently there are no lakes in Finland, Pros, only seas, so you'll have to shave in the sea. Better you than me!

Oh, yeah, nice build.

Buter

Yeah no lakes

[Prostheta]

Joo joo, olen merirosvo...

[Prostheta]

Whilst I am thinking about it - I believe that I have a SM Hot Rod 24" spoke wheel truss rod somewhere....the shorter length of the rod compared to the 26in-26.5in of "adjustable range" in the neck (nut to 24th fret) should perhaps be countered by the spoke wheel being located slap bang in the middle of the 24th fret, bringing the far brass block to somewhere just after the first fret.

Any pointers on this? I was concerned that as I am using a zero fret, the area beyond the far end of the rod might buzz. I can't see that happening, especially as string tension should pull this area ever so marginally more concave and reducing buzz if anything. Probably immeasurable in practice.

Given that the option is to either pay through the nose for shipping a custom length LMI rod (well, I have a cold so that's not an option) to the UK or making a single action rod myself, this sounds like the best option so far. It also means that I do not have to consider fitting a truss rod cover!

[Prostheta]

Bought fifteen of these Sterling Silver tubes today - 4mm external diameter and 3mm internal. I really should track down those 3mm pearl dots of mine.... :-\

Damn. 10x 2mm pearl dots, 20-odd 2mm Paua dots and tons of 4mm Paua dots....anyone want to trade 15x 3mm pearl dots for all of these?

Edited February 12, 2010 by Prostheta

[Prostheta]

I power planed, handplane trued the Maple today. The centreline was marked, and two lines 7mm and 18mm either side popped in for ripping and laminating with the 6mm QS Wenge. The ripping/planing/glueup order is:

- cut along a tapered line

- take smallest piece and plane the cut face up

- laminate face onto Wenge

- plane up other cut face

- laminate to the glued-up piece

- rip down remaining tapered line

- follow planing/laminating steps above

This avoids the central tapered laminate ever being seperated from the blank (PITA to plane/sand tapered pieces without them bending under any kind of weight) whilst maintaining a nice consistent taper.

Useless without pictures, I know. You've all seen wood being glued up though, so no loss. :-)

[travismoore]

Awesome man, This bass is going to be too amazing for words when its done =D

[Prostheta]

I hope so too. It's very important to me since I won't be building anything for a long time after this one :-\

As you can see - i'm alternately ripping, planing and laminating without ever removing the piece that will end up as the central piece. I've highlighted the area where the next rip will be. The width of the neck blank should mean no ears on the headstock :-) Check that squeezeout!!! There's a scrap of Macassar veneer in the background....I might use a larger piece of that as a backstrap and pop a flame maple headcap on the top face. Debating on whether or not to recess tuners....hell yeah!!

[Prostheta]

Fingerboards came in today for the RBX refurb (will create a new thread for the work on my war axe) and the single-scale bass.

[low end fuzz]

and here we go!

[Our Souls inc.]

Far be it from me to offer you advice ( You > me ) but I'd use a rasp to knock the edges of that top to its final shape. Routers are just so unpredictable and the extra little time would be worth it to be able to really control how much meat is coming off of where.

Looking good - Love the idea of the swirly epoxy in the holes.

[Prostheta]

Advice is always a welcome additional to the pot. I think that keeping my head screwed on whilst routing the edges will do the trick though. I'm going to use pretty much the same approach as I did with the Zeta, except that the destined body thickness of this/these bass(es) is/are exactly the diameter of the roundover bit I used. I will most likely use a combination of stepped depth cuts and slightly larger bearings to get as near as possible to the final cut, before committing to final shaping.

Tonight, on Reader's Fingerboards! No sanding, just a polish with a Scotchbrite pad.

I cut the fingerboard on the bandsaw ~3mm from the final size, so any chipout from sawing the fret slots can be removed. I simply scored the positions with a knife and used a Stewmac slotting jig, manually aligning each fret slot. The slots are at a depth of (checks) ~2.85mm thanks to my handy Perspex depth stop on the saw. Once the board is radiused (20") i'll carry this out again so the slots conform to the radius also (technically, a 505.15mm radius or thereabouts!).

[Prostheta]

Okay, I really should redefine the objectives of this project since various things have happened which have turned it into something else entirely.

BASS 1 "MÖBIUS": Multiscale fretted Infinity-style hollow 5-string bass

- Macassar Ebony back/Flamed Maple top (see story about cracking above)

- Maple/Wenge laminated five-piece neck-through with scarfed headstock

- Truss rod spoke adjustment hole at 24th fret

- Macassar Ebony faceplate and backstrap

- Wenge fingerboard (Möbius loop inlay at 12th fret)

- Delano DJC-5HE/JC-5HE pickups (eventually aiming to get an Aguilar OBP3 preamp)

- EVO FW57110 fretwire with zero fret

- Grain-matched rear cavity cover with neodymium magnet capture

- Black tuners (Wilkinson to start with, Hipshot Ultralights as future upgrade)

- Hipshot Triple Lock Down bridges/ETS tuning forks/ABM singles (dependant on cost)

BASS 2 prov. "Persehattu": 35" scale fretless Infinity-style hollow 5-string bass

- English Walnut back/Burl Maple top (Maple voids filled with epoxy)

- English Walnut one-piece neck-through with carbon fibre tube reinforcement

- Truss rod spoke adjustment hole at 24th fret

- Burl Maple headcap with Macassar Ebony backstrap

- Ziricote fingerboard (likely to be epoxy coated) with no position markers or inlaid lines

- Ebony nut

- Madagacar Rosewood/Ziricote laminated bridge

- Through-body stringing with angled top holes and rear recessed ferrules

- 2x Delano JMVC-5FE pickups (Aguilar OBP3 pending)

- Grain-matched rear cavity cover with neodymium magnet capture

- Black tuners (Wilkinson tuners - Hipshot Ultralights as future upgrade)

I've decided that given the speed at which I need to complete these instruments, I'm dropping the sidemarker LEDs and other complications. The pickup routs are not going to be added till I have the pickups in my hand, again due to cost. The slotted Ziricote neck above will be being used to refurb my RBX.

Incidentally, my fretwire arrived today (cheers Wes!) so I should now be able to crack on with the work. The only thing I think that I am missing is a second spoke wheel bass truss rod....!! Duh.

Edited March 12, 2010 by Prostheta

[low end fuzz]

i am sooo stealing that backlighting idea! thinkin more of a drilled out pattern with some routing that leaves enuff material to just let light thru; you will of course get full credit; but i dare you to try and stop me! muhahwhahwa!!!

[Prostheta]

Doesn't matter - just do it well. I have more ideas than time or opportunity to make them happen...

[Prostheta]

A bit of an update on this one, but not much! Time and money have been at a premium again....

Going to install Carbon Fibre into these. I found a good hobby model company selling it in the UK:

http://www.elitemodelsonline.co.uk/Product...ibre/Round-Tube

...the 4mm x 3mm looks plenty! Would filling the square section with Epoxy be overkill or perhaps detrimental?

[supplebanana]

in my opinion it may be detrimental as the CF can flex a little but if it's filled it may "rupture" the tube

[Strandberg Guitarworks]

Prostheta,

my EGS guitar has a 15 mm OD tube with a 2 mm wall thickness, which adds some strength to the neck and has allowed me to create a custom light-weight adjustable truss rod, but it is still not enough for the neck not to flex.

So, bottom line is: I don't believe that 4x3 mm will do much for you. I would consider maybe using two of the 6,3 x 13 rectangular tubes standing on edge to give some stiffness and remove weight at the same time. Definitely epoxi them in with really high quality epoxi designed to become hard and stiff like glass (not general purpose epoxi which is really soft and flexible)

Cheers,

Ola

[Prostheta]

Cheers guys. I am interested in the weight reduction factor, but am more wanting to test out the ideas that CF can help remove "dead spots" along the neck and improving transmission through the neck. I may spring for solid 6mm rod, or maybe even two 1.5mm thick battens. I could actually drop four battens all the way down the neck through to the bridge area since they're pretty tall. Any opinions on whether this will make any real difference?

I'm buying some West Systems epoxy soon as I have a few jobs for it.

[Strandberg Guitarworks]

Cheers guys. I am interested in the weight reduction factor, but am more wanting to test out the ideas that CF can help remove "dead spots" along the neck and improving transmission through the neck. I may spring for solid 6mm rod, or maybe even two 1.5mm thick battens. I could actually drop four battens all the way down the neck through to the bridge area since they're pretty tall. Any opinions on whether this will make any real difference?

I'm buying some West Systems epoxy soon as I have a few jobs for it.

Ah, I was jumping to conclusions regarding CF use. I wonder what gives the best effect in terms of sound transmission: hollow or solid? I might intuitively go for solid rods. My current experiments involve moulding my own CF rods as laminates in between wood of the neck itself. (Did that explanation make sense? Read my other threads here for details...)

Cheers,

Ola

[Prostheta]

It's a combination of two sources of information re: CF that I have read on here, with other sources reinforcing (no joke intended) this information positively. David Myka noted that he bunched a huge number of CF rods together in a neck which made it "immediate and bright" which is something i've wanted to pursue in a bass sound myself, although IIRC David's use of a LOT of CF was too much so the usual two sounds like a good idea to me. Also the stability and the apparent advantage of CF allieviating "dead spots" in a neck are attractive.

[WezV]

i have been trying hollow round rod recently. as far as added stiffness goes this stuff doesnt do too much.

as far as i am concerned a normal laminated neck is stiff enough, and can even be made too stiff once you start adding CF bars. My hope with the round hollow rods is that it will help with dead spots (it does seem to) and that it will help give a neck long term stability (time will tell) whilst still being easy to adjust for optimum set-up(it is). so far so good.

I am still using the thicker rectangular solid bars on necks that have more tension than a normal guitar neck or use figured wood

[Prostheta]

I am using a different tack for each instrument Wez - the Walnut neck for the fretless is typical in that the grain is wavy and all over the shop, plus it's a one-piece rather than a laminate. CF reinforcement should add a nicer smoothness and even feel through the neck, or at least that is my aim. I'm happy that the Walnut will take the tension, as I have a frets height of thickness I can add back onto the neck to solidify it. I guess stiffness is a bonus if you have a potential issue with string pull, but I don't think CF will make much difference either unless you put in square sections of say, 6-7mm+. Those aren't expensive on their own, but the pennies aren't there to justify it when I'm ordering in Epoxy and other things which are sapping our emigration funds :-\

The Maple/Wenge combo will no doubt fare far better in terms of stability, plus the Wenge is more likely to enhance the sonic properties of the neck where the Maple lacks than mere CF reinforcement. This is the multiscale of (I've forgotten the scales...let me check) 36" over 35" and I'm confident the neck will take the tension admirably. In fact, the tension of a 36" scale should consolidate the low B really well. No doubt the quartered Wenge fingerboard will impart a strong flavour and a degree of resilience.

Ah, I was jumping to conclusions regarding CF use. I wonder what gives the best effect in terms of sound transmission: hollow or solid? I might intuitively go for solid rods. My current experiments involve moulding my own CF rods as laminates in between wood of the neck itself. (Did that explanation make sense? Read my other threads here for details...)

Interesting intuit there Ola. I have no idea of the different properties of the captive air in CF tubes which are laid in Epoxy compared to the transmissive properties of solid CF. Given that Modulus necks are totally CF apart from the fingerboard - and sound very good - then I guess that would be testing the logical extreme of CF properties. I too suspect that rod would "tie" the ends of the neck together better.

Edited March 30, 2010 by Prostheta