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5 string bass build (it's gonna be HUGE in Japan!)


a2k

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I got a quick 5 minutes in the shop last week which was just enough time to see that my maple patch on the lower tear out is *okay* but for from invisible. But that's okay - my mystery "3rd option" doesn't require this to be invisible. 

Progress is going to be slow (and by that I mean "even slower") between now and the end of the year. When I overlapped my work + holiday schedule with the shop schedule, I found 8-10 hours of shop time on the calendar in before January. So if I go dark, don't think I've disappeared! I'll do what I can in November and December and pick back up full-throttle in January. 

 

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  • 1 month later...

After three birthdays, Thanksgiving, and about 20,000 miles of air travel, I'm finally back at it! Things are starting to get real now, too. Here's a run-down of my latest.

I snuck in two quick days at the beginning of the month to work on my trouble spots. I still have that mystery "third option" in my back pocket, but I wanted to see if I could fix things first before going there. On the upper horn, I was able to shave off about 1/8" and get past the trouble. I don't think anyone will ever know the different. Here's a shot of what I took off and the bass laying on the template so you can see how much was removed.

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The bottom section is proving to be a little more difficult. I put in a patch in the maple but the seem is completely visible. Looking at the shoddy job I did sticking that piece in, it's obvious why the seem shows. Maybe I can hide it with a little stain :) . The other problem is the mahogany tear out. I tried rebuilding the missing section with some sawdust and CA glue. I was able to get the bulk back but the CA glue makes it look very different. So it's back to door #3.

Making sawdust:

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Here's the area patched up before it dried:

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And here it is after drying:

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I've fixated on this part of the job enough. I'm not losing any more sleep on it. It'll work out.

Last week I got back in and turned my focus to the neck and fretboard. I got the nut slot cut and deepened the fret slots (I'll probably need to go over them again after radiusing). 

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Then I glued the fret board on. Big step!

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The next day, I came back in and cut the neck profile out. I rough cut the sides of the neck as well, but still need to go back in with the router and straighten them. I haven't 100% decided how I'm going to do the volute and may have removed a little more than I should have, 

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Finally, I played back-to-back gigs last weekend. I thought my terrible Christmas sweater would steal the show, but one of the guitarists played the entire 2 1/2 hour gig in a complete santa suit.

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It's fun to be able to finger the neck and start to really "feel" like I'm holding a bass in my hands. 

Whew.... that's a lot of photos!

Up next... a possible trip back to Shinkiba, where this story began, to see if I can track down some local finishing options.

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IME superglue and sawdust rarely works on paler woods, especially on such a big area. Not to worry, there's always another way around these trials and tribulations that are sent to test us.

Volute looks usable. If you're worried about the amount that's been removed from the headstock-side of the volute you could always shift the 'peak' a bit closer to the body-end (with a corresponding slight reduction in height). Looks like a fairly chunky neck at this stage, so any loss in height of the volute peak may be regained by thinning down the neck profile a little if you wish.

Christmas gigs are never complete without someone in a Santa costume.

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22 hours ago, curtisa said:

Volute looks usable. If you're worried about the amount that's been removed from the headstock-side of the volute you could always shift the 'peak' a bit closer to the body-end (with a corresponding slight reduction in height). Looks like a fairly chunky neck at this stage, so any loss in height of the volute peak may be regained by thinning down the neck profile a little if you wish.

Sounds like a good plan. Right now, the drop in thickness from the neck to the headstock and the angle of the headstock makes it look a little silly. Just gotta come up with a design that makes it look... less silly.

The plan for the neck is to go to 1" thick or a hair under (it's currently just a little over that), with 1/4" of that as fretboard. Maybe a little chunky but I like to have a neck I can grab onto. Here's what I'm planning for the neck profile: 

5678cfa119cf4_neckprofilebasslayout.thum

As long as I'm talking neck... so far "winging it" seems to get me in trouble, so I'm trying to come up with a better plan for neck carving. So instead, I'm thinking I'll use the above drawings to make some templates to work against, and then follow the faceting process shown in this video (and described here):

20 hours ago, Prostheta said:

That sweater though....it should be pretty much obvious that wearing any item of clothing which implies it assists and encourages a necessary-but-embarrassing bodily function is to be avoided in public. :lol:

Wearingly an ugly ironic Christmas sweater in mid-December is one thing, but wait until I bust it out in mid-June. But this is Tokyo...

Tomorrow is the Emperor's Birthday here, so I'm going to skip my precious Wednesday afternoon shop time this week and go over to his place for the birthday party. I hope he appreciates it.

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The "faceting" technique is a nicely-described one. I tend to make strokes more along the length than around the shaft (FNAR) simply to keep the profile transition consistent. Realistically though, it's just about consistent ordered technique. I prefer a spokeshave in the mix.

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24 minutes ago, Prostheta said:

I figured that you would like this sweater also.....
http://theuglysweatershop.com/shop/alex-stevens-t-rex-dinosaur-tacky-ugly-christmas-sweater-mens/

I'll just edit your post to embed the video.....

Was I supposed to use the https link to make the video work (I thought it was the other way around...)?

A few years ago my wife and I got all of our siblings ugly Christmas sweaters - made for a great photo. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Fun with router tables last week! I was able to get into the shop once before the final round of holiday closures hit over New Years. I spent the time trimming the neck (now with fretboard) and headstock down to size. I'm finding working with routers to be a very intense process, not helped at all by @MasterOfTheWind's tail of a router taking a "chunk of meat" out of his finger during his very cool Dopamine build. So I go slow, work a section, step away, work another section, step away, etc. The final result is great though - the super smooth cut, and I love the way the rosewood and maple shavings look together. 

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Anyway, here is an action shot from the neck (template is on the bottom, the routing goes to halfway):

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And headstock (template on top, didn't quite make it all in one pass):

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Here's the final product:

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I had to come back and trim just the fretboard from where the neck meets the body on. I'll have to trim the body-section of the neck down by 1/4" at a later date to the right thickness to match the wings. 

There is one small trouble spot - my design has the upper wing attaching to the neck at a tight angle. There's no way to get a router bit in the tight spot. I'm going to have to finish that section by hand and it's gonna be tricky. Should have made it curve in - live and learn. Here's the trouble spot:

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Finally, I'm dropping some photos here that I've taken over the past week - they're the seeds of some ideas I'm hoping to work into the project.

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Up next, I'm going to finish the round-over on the wings and route out the electronics cavity. Any rules of thumb for depth of cavity or thickness of top remaining above the cavity? 

Thanks for following along!

 

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Good to see this one back on the go.

No real rules of thumb regarding cavity depth. Deep enough to allow all your components to clear the cover on the back of the body. The remaining thickness of the top above the cavity will be governed by the amount of thread you have to play with on your pots and switches. Too thick and the nuts won't go on.

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I had to cancel my shop time yesterday due to a last minute work call, but I did sneak into the shop for a minute to grab a few scraps of the maple top for finish testing. While there, I noticed something disturbing - when I put the neck on a flat surface (at least I think it's flat), there's an slight curve back over the length of the neck. Here's a picture:

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The vertical line drawn on the side of the neck is at the first fret. It takes just a slight bit of pressure to straighten things out and close the gap, so my guess is string tension will take care of things, but it's still got me a little worried. I'm pretty sure this was straight when I started, so why is it bent now? Glue thickness being inconsistent? Is the wood moving on me? 

I think this gap will disappear when I sand the fret board, and like I mentioned before, string tension should compensate, but still, it's got me wondering. Should I be concerned?

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Is it off only just behind the first fret? If so, string tension will not correct that. But on the other hand it is not going to interfere with fret leveling, which is really the only critical thing about the fretboard when you get down to it. Your wood is just reacting to changes in humidity. Sand it flat and keep an eye on it. It may move some more until it gets a finish on it.

SR

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Thanks for the info on the little neck back bend - it does actually curve back very gradually, but it's only to the point of being noticeable at the nut - 2nd fret. Hopefully I'll be able to fix things in sanding (I do find myself saying that a bit more than I'd like) and the neck is certainly getting plenty of time to "settle".

I made a little bit of progress last week - with only about 2 hours in the shop, I was able to finish the body round-over and make my first cuts on the neck. Seeing the neck shape start to come together is ridiculously exciting. I didn't go too far because I'm waiting on a spokeshave, but it still feels like a bass neck now. Here are some pics:

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And second, I tracked down some finishing products. In case you are wondering what a shelf of finishing materials looks like in Japan, here's a shot:

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It turns out what I thought was stain is in fact a one-step color and seal material with a pretty ugly result. But I did also get urethane varnish that I've been wiping on a sample. Here's what it looks like after four coats:

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I'm happy with the result - it feels great, seems to be durable, and brings out the wood without looking unnatural. I wouldn't mind adding a stain to bring out the figure if I can find one, but so far no dice. 

Finally, yesterday I made a trip back to Shinkiba to see if I could track down a traditional Japanese spokeshave and some more finishing options. If you think (as I did) that the place that sells wood would also sell woodworking tools and finishing products, you'd be wrong. So no dice there, but I did find a "retail" wood store (unlike the wholesale-type places I stopped in at last time) with some amazing wood. Lots of ideas for the next project. Here are some photos:

The Shinkiba train station:

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Black-suited salarymen returning from lunch. The offices in all of the warehouses are full of guys like this. 

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This is the wood store I found, Mokumoku (that's what it says in Japanese):

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And here are some of the things I found. None of the fancy stuff is cheap, but many of these pieces were big enough for 2 - 8 tops.

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These pieces are much taller than shown in the photo and about 2" thick:

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Fingerboards?

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This piece is about $250, but should be enough for 3 or 4 instruments. 

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I have no idea what this is, but it is EXPENSIVE. This piece was about $600.

Hope to have a little more progress to report next week.

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A Japanese guy told me the big stack of 2" thick curly boards is tama, or Japanese Ash. I haven't seen it used in instruments before but seems like it could be a good option. The pieces are $300-400 but enough for many many instruments. 

I made a little progress on my bass this week - nothing fancy, but I got the electronics cavity routed out. I put a 3/4" bearing on my 1/2" template bit to get an offset, and then taped in some square pieces to the template to get screw mounts. Overall it turned out okay, though the tape moved on the mounts so they ended up a little lopsided. Im happy to report that I'm feeling more confident with the router, and also happy that this part of the project will be covered. 

The photos...

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Whoa, big week!

I keep hearing you all talk about how satisfying carving a neck is, but honestly I've been a bit scared about it. It seems so "free form" and prone to screwing things up. The faceting approach seemed to make sense though, so I worked out a solid game plan and yesterday when a spokeshave and set of cabinet scrapers appeared in my mailbox, I cancelled my plans and headed into the shop. Somehow, I magically ended up with a pretty damn nice bass neck a few hours later. Dare I say that the wood wanted to be turned into a bass neck and I was just there to help it along?

Okay, all was not 100% perfect. I have no idea what I'm doing with a spokeshave. It's probably one of those situations where if I could have someone with a little knowledge spend 2 minutes with me, I'd save hours of trial-and-error. My draws tended to skip and hack along instead of producing nice clean cuts. I ended up using it with the blade almost perpendicular to the wood so it really was shaving off instead of cutting at all. In the end, I switched to the cabinet scrapers and did all of the refined work with them. 

Before I get to the neck, though, I also did some comfort cuts. I'm happy with the tummy cut, but I am going to add a curve to the arm-rest cut so it flows with the outline of the bass better.

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Now, onto the neck. I created some templates to work against, but honestly I used them to verify I was on the right track, not to guide me. 

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The volute is starting to take shape as well.

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And here's looking down the neck:

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I took the neck home last night so I could compare it with my other basses and spend some time to see if it felt right. Amazing what little details hands can feel that eyes can't see. The shape isn't 100% symmetrical so I need to clean that up, and there is one ever-so-slight dip that needs to be smoothed out. But damn, I feel like I've got a bass in the works now.

Today I stopped by a local arts supply shop and picked up some Japanese lacquer called Urushi (you can read about it here). It forms a very hard, durable coating. I'm going to do some tests of doing my headstock logo with it - gotta figure out if it works and the technique, but it could be a really cool little local detail to work into the project. 

And finally, my four-year old son is now telling people he wants to be a bass maker when he grows up. I promised him he can help out with sanding.

So that was the week!

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That's great news! You're 100% correct about letting your fingers do the gauging. Even if you have a slight nagging doubt, feel it again, leave it be and come back to it. Playing an instrument gives you surprisingly large amount of "tactile memory" (like muscle memory for want of a better term) and sometimes your fingers will pick up on things nothing else can.

Watch out for allergic reactions to Urushi. It's hard as hell and beautiful but you need to either get guidance or gen up.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urushiol

Sounds like you have some great times ahead of you with your son, adventurewise!

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12 hours ago, a2k said:

Amazing what little details hands can feel that eyes can't see.

Truer words were never spoken.

12 hours ago, a2k said:

The shape isn't 100% symmetrical so I need to clean that up,

Not necessarily. Asymmetrical can be really comfortable when done right.

Gets the old juices flowing when it all starts to come together doesn't it?

SR

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On January 22, 2016 at 8:19 PM, Prostheta said:

Watch out for allergic reactions to Urushi. It's hard as hell and beautiful but you need to either get guidance or gen up.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urushiol

Sounds like you have some great times ahead of you with your son, adventurewise!

Thanks for the heads-up about Urushi - poison ivy gets me so I'll be careful. Sounds like even the vapors can cause a reaction, so I'll make sure I'm totally covered up. 

Definitely some adventures ahead with my son. And his twin sister! 

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