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5 String Fretless Competition Build


Simo

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I've been trying to figure out if I want a shinto rasp or something like stewmac's dragon rasp (or the nicholson #49). Any opinions?

Back on topic, I love the silver side dots. What is your technique? I assume you fill the tube with a dowel of fretboard material and then put the whole thing into a regular hole?

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Back on topic, I love the silver side dots. What is your technique? I assume you fill the tube with a dowel of fretboard material and then put the whole thing into a regular hole?

They're 'crimp beads' sold for making jewellery. They normally come with a hoop on one end, so I snip that off with some fret cutters, add a drop of black superglue in to the hole and tap them in gently with a small plastic faced hammer. I leave them slightly proud of the surface and once I've added some more black superglue (if needed) to fill the centre of the inlay, I use a small, flat file to make them flush to the fretboard.

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Back on topic, I love the silver side dots. What is your technique? I assume you fill the tube with a dowel of fretboard material and then put the whole thing into a regular hole?

They're 'crimp beads' sold for making jewellery. They normally come with a hoop on one end, so I snip that off with some fret cutters, add a drop of black superglue in to the hole and tap them in gently with a small plastic faced hammer. I leave them slightly proud of the surface and once I've added some more black superglue (if needed) to fill the centre of the inlay, I use a small, flat file to make them flush to the fretboard.

Ill be stealing that technique please thank you very much.

i used to inlay brass or chrome wire into boards, looked good. but this just too cool.

As for the rasps. I have a pair of those dragons from stewie mac, Pretty good. Iv used them on a few necks & find them very easy to work with.

Got a pair of shintos orderd, a traditional styled jobbie like the one simo has pictured, & a plane styled one.

always good to experiment with new tools.

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I've been trying to figure out if I want a shinto rasp or something like stewmac's dragon rasp (or the nicholson #49). Any opinions?

Both.

I absolutely could not imagine shaping a neck without a shinto rasp, coarse and fine large Dragon rasp. For the price all are unbeatable. The only other way to get a hand struck rasp as good as the Dragon is to 3 or 4 times more.

If I only could choose 2 I would get the shinto and a large fine Dragon rasp.

Sorry for the hijack Simo. Excellent work as always. Are the silver side dots just rosewood dust and CA?

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They're 'crimp beads' sold for making jewellery. They normally come with a hoop on one end, so I snip that off with some fret cutters, add a drop of black superglue in to the hole and tap them in gently with a small plastic faced hammer. I leave them slightly proud of the surface and once I've added some more black superglue (if needed) to fill the centre of the inlay, I use a small, flat file to make them flush to the fretboard.

iv been using aluminium tube for this but recently went looking for some silver tube and found some on a jewellery making site. dont know how they compare in price to what you've been using but heres a link

EDIT: actually, having looked around that site there are crimp tubes and you get 100 of them which comes out at MUCH less than the long tubes

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They're 'crimp beads' sold for making jewellery. They normally come with a hoop on one end, so I snip that off with some fret cutters, add a drop of black superglue in to the hole and tap them in gently with a small plastic faced hammer. I leave them slightly proud of the surface and once I've added some more black superglue (if needed) to fill the centre of the inlay, I use a small, flat file to make them flush to the fretboard.

iv been using aluminium tube for this but recently went looking for some silver tube and found some on a jewellery making site. dont know how they compare in price to what you've been using but heres a link

EDIT: actually, having looked around that site there are crimp tubes and you get 100 of them which comes out at MUCH less than the long tubes

wow... thanks for posting that link. and Simo, thanks for the quick tute on how to do these.

I will probably use this technique in the future, so again- Thank you.

I love learning new things on here.... :D

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Sorry for the hijack Simo. Excellent work as always. Are the silver side dots just rosewood dust and CA?

No dust, just black CA.

iv been using aluminium tube for this but recently went looking for some silver tube and found some on a jewellery making site. dont know how they compare in price to what you've been using but heres a link

EDIT: actually, having looked around that site there are crimp tubes and you get 100 of them which comes out at MUCH less than the long tubes

The ones I use were from ebay, I brought them quite a while ago so I can't remember what they cost. I found the longer crimp beads tend to come with the hoops.. the smaller, hoop-less tubes are often only a couple of millimetres long, which would make fitting them a bit more fiddly. Snipping the hoops off is easily done though, and it definitely beats cutting sections of long tubing down.

thanks for posting that link. and Simo, thanks for the quick tute on how to do these.

I will probably use this technique in the future, so again- Thank you.

I love learning new things on here.... :D

No probs :D

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Beautiful instrument, as always :D little OT question. Are those black strings good? Friend of mine wants some purple on his guitar.

These are different to the coloured strings you'll see on most guitars... They're Labella Deep Talkin' nylon tape wound strings, which produce a more upright bass tone due to the layer of nylon wrapped around the metal winding. For standard electric/acoustic coloured strings try some DR's. I use the DR Black Beauties on my acoustic.. the coating is barely noticeable, they last very well (without losing the coating) and most of all they sound great.

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Beautiful instrument, as always :D little OT question. Are those black strings good? Friend of mine wants some purple on his guitar.

These are different to the coloured strings you'll see on most guitars... They're Labella Deep Talkin' nylon tape wound strings, which produce a more upright bass tone due to the layer of nylon wrapped around the metal winding. For standard electric/acoustic coloured strings try some DR's. I use the DR Black Beauties on my acoustic.. the coating is barely noticeable, they last very well (without losing the coating) and most of all they sound great.

Simo I might take you up on the DR strings...they make NEON!

I tried Aurora strings and was less than impressed. They felt like they were dead... had to go back to d'addario. On a guitar that is more for show they were ok.

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This is beautiful simo, i've been following it, and I had to join just to comment. Love the shape, love the feel, and the wood combination is surprisingly really nice. I usually don't like multiple figured woods together. cool headstock shape too. I will be building a 5 string fretless next with a friend that im really excited about

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This is beautiful simo, i've been following it, and I had to join just to comment. Love the shape, love the feel, and the wood combination is surprisingly really nice. I usually don't like multiple figured woods together. cool headstock shape too. I will be building a 5 string fretless next with a friend that im really excited about

Thanks :D

3rd coat of Tru-Oil, starting to shine up nicely...

IMG_8751.jpg

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  • 4 months later...

Long time, no update!...

I was unable to get the neck finished inside the competition deadline, but I was still allowed to enter and I'm pleased to say I won :D I've had to do some re-finishing work on the body since then, after knocking it by accident against my vice which left a nice mark on the back of the body :D I've been busy with other projects over the last couple of months, so I haven't had much free time to spend on it but it's finally nearing completion, I'll post some pictures and hopefully some sound clips/videos when it's done.

Here's a picture I took for the voting poll, assembled with the un-finished neck.

f1.jpg

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Okay, so I was reading threads in order and asked my question about this build in you other thread while this was waiting on page two. That's waht I get get for letting a few days go by without checking in.

It's beautiful as always. I'm looking forward to the next set of pics.

SR

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