3rd build - 6 string neck through single cut bass

[SIMpleONe89]

Sorry haven't been updating but I managed to get quite a bit done over the week. It was hard juggling two projects, the flamed strat, and this!

Anyway from where I left off last time, I wanted to show you how I made the body wings without the need to create a custom template. This is just a one time project so I felt no need to make templates.

So I started off by choosing the best figure on the wenge top, which is 10mm. Then I used my original design plans and traced them out on the wenge. 

Cut it out...

And sanded it.

The ideal way would be to glue all pieces, true the edges and cut the shape out with a bandsaw, and fine tune the edges with a random orbital spindle sander. However, since I don't have these equipment, I thought the best way would be to use the wenge top as a template. If I were to make another bass with the same shape I would've made a custom template.

This means I'll have to get the 10mm top perfectly flat on the edges. I placed the top on a shooting board and sanded the edges. Ideally a spindle sander would be of great help.

And I regularly checked to see the edges are squared. This is important if I'm using the top as a template to route the entire body.

Edited July 1, 2016 by SIMpleONe89

[SIMpleONe89]

Once I was happy with the wenge top, I transferred the outline onto the second piece, the Victorian ash.

Then cut it out. The Vic ash is thicker at 21mm so my jigsaw was struggling towards the end. Man I wished I had a bandsaw!

I also decided to use a Jarrah veneer in between the wenge and the Vic ash. This provides a nice contrast which should hopefully show up once I start carving the top.

Here's a pic of the first 3 layers.

Then I glued the first 3 pieces together.

I also hate the gluing process because there's a need to rush before the glue settles and so many things can go wrong! I reckon the scariest bit is waiting for the glue to dry, unclamping everything only to see the piece moved out of alignment! This problem can be solved by using alignment screws/pins but I didn't in this case.

Fortunately, nothing funky happened during the gluing process. I waited for it to dry, then routed the Vic ash out to shape, using the wenge top as the template.

Then flipped the body over and switched to a flush trim bit with the bearing on the bottom to finish up the cut.

Edited July 1, 2016 by SIMpleONe89

[SIMpleONe89]

Lessons learned:
1. Always have good lighting to see where you're routing.
2. Don't try to take too much off at once.

I couldn't glue the pieces back together so I decided to modify the shape a little.

Then I cut out the last piece, the Tasmanian blackwood, which is similar to Koa and it tears out very easily while I worked with it.

 

Then I glued the final piece of the blackwood and now we have a delicious Wenge, Jarrah, Victorian Ash and Tasmanian Blackwood sandwich.

Yum!

I had a few gaps where I didn't have enough clamping pressure but this was easily fixed by stuffing pieces of Jarrah veneer into the gaps. Not good practice but it's fixable.

[SIMpleONe89]

This is how I did a matching control cavity cover. I plan to attach it with magnets so you can easily pop them off without any ugly screws. 

After I cut out the blackwood piece for the lower wing, I cut out a section with my fret saw so that the kerf is smaller and less wood is removed.

Then I glued the blackwood lower horn to the body and routed it to shape. I stuck the cover onto the back and also routed it to shape.

Once the cover was shaped, I rounded over the lower wing. The cover also gets rounded over and it blends it nicely with the other blackwood piece.

[SIMpleONe89]

I was worried that the cover would warp in the future, so I decided to laminate it with some 3mm aluminium. In hindsight I think it wasn't necessary but I bought the aluminium sheet on impulse so why not. The blackwood had been drying for a long time and was stable enough. But laminating definitely reduces the chances of any warping in future!

Then I routed out the aluminium piece on the cover. 

Unfortunately I went 1mm too deep so I'll have to make up for the height difference by gluing on some veneers. This also allows me to hide the ugly free-hand route I did for the aluminium.

To attach metal to wood, I used some epoxy.

Edited July 1, 2016 by SIMpleONe89

[SIMpleONe89]

With the cover all settled, it was time to route out the electronics cavity. I drew out the layout I wanted for a volume, pickup blend, passive tone with a passive switch, and a 3-band active EQ. 

Then I made room for a battery compartment and for the preamp to sit. Having a larger control cavity means lesser weight and more room for any cool mods to be done in future.

Then I proceeded to hog out as much material - this is standard for routing any cavities. This helps relieve the stress on the router bit.

Another smarter way would be to precut the cavity shape on the Vic ash itself, but I didn't do it because I hadn't planned for the layout way back then.

[SIMpleONe89]

The battery sits nicely and there's plenty of room for the battery snap plus some cushioning foam.

It was tricky to route the control cavity because the piece of blackwood which was glued on severely restricted the movement of the router. The smarter way would be to precut and preroute the Vic ash before gluing on the blackwood but this was done some time ago.
I then used some blackwood offcuts as makeshift, temporary templates for the control cavity. Didn't want to make anymore templates!

It came out looking nice!

Then I connected the cavities together.

And finished it off by drilling the output jack hole.

[Andyjr1515]

Looking very good

[Prostheta]

Indeed. For a minimal toolset on a barebones budget, that's progressing very very smoothly.

[SIMpleONe89]

Thanks guys. The build is crawling along slowly but surely. I'm sure with the right tools I'd be able to do it ten times faster. 

[Prostheta]

Yeah well, as long as its being done correctly within available tools, etc. that's what counts. Better than rushing the work with the wrong tools or none at all!

[SIMpleONe89]

Sorry haven't been posting. I was trying to do as much as I could during the week. I'll write up a detailed process when I have the time, but here's some pics.

 

[SIMpleONe89]

With some mineral spirits applied. The wenge became really dark so I think I'll have to sand to a higher grit and hopefully that won't make it too dark when the oil is applied.

Almost there! I'm doing the headstock inlays tomorrow and will have to make a truss rod cover. I already made some matching wooden knobs and hopefully they'll turn out nice. 
And then I have to wait for the machine heads to come before I can complete the headstock. Then it's the finish sanding and finishing!

Edited July 9, 2016 by SIMpleONe89

[Prostheta]

Nice bit of progress there!

[SIMpleONe89]

It was insanely hard truing up the edges just with sand paper and my lousy hand plane. I really need to get a better hand plane and learn how to joint surfaces.

[Prostheta]

I agree about sanding. The trick is remembering about downpressure; the smaller the contact surface between the sanding thing (technical term) and workpiece, the more will be removed. Ever so slightly. This causes rounded over edges and corners or non-flat surfaces before you know it, because of the lower contact surface area in those places hanging over the edges! Whenever I sand a glueing surface, I use a large board with an old drum belt - or whatever - stuck down, and then drag the piece over that. I know that this isn't the simplest solution unless you have these things, however the key is about support across as large a surface as possible at all times. As the flat surface "develops", that reference needs to be used as much as is possible at all times in order to bring areas away from that into the same plane.

 

Go have a talk with a company that manufactures wooden things, because these belts get thrown out all of the time. Sometimes even when they're unused, because they have a tear in the edge.

 

[SIMpleONe89]

Thanks Carl. Shall look for the wooden things and the belts! 

[Prostheta]

I'd encourage you to knock on these people's doors man. I mean, the school where I'm finishing up my second woodworking degree ("professional woodworker" is probably the closest translation) throws out so much good usable stuff. It's undersize for the purposes of class work in many cases, but given the sheer amount of waste....you can recover so much. Companies can't waste time and money sorting through recovery. Sad as it is, lots of good stuff gets thrown out simply because it is less expensive to do so than to play that recovery game.

I was thinking of spending 10-15mins at the end of each nightclass cutting up waste Birch to paint can size and making my own charcoal in the firepit. Nothing like some high caloric content charcoal in the barbecue!

So yeah. You'll probably make some company feel a bit better about how wasteful it is, and if you take along a pack of coffee or some beers, you might get to get some jobs done that you don't have the gear for....it's worth the time at the very least!

[SIMpleONe89]

Previously I left off with the electronics cavity. Now I'll show you the steps I took before gluing on the body wings.

First, I had to cut off the excess on the neck. I positioned the body wings and drew the outline.

Then cut it out with my hand saw. I reckon it would be much easier getting as much done on the neck before gluing. Don't want to be manoeuvring a 34" scale bass around too much! 

Then I also had to get rid of excess wood on the neck heel. I'm going for an all-access neck heel which would allow me to easily get up to the 24th fret despite it being a single cut. You may have seen the pictures from my previous posts and this is how I did it.

I tried a few ways of removing the excess wood from the neck.

1. Hand saw - wasn't good because the saw was large and hard to control. I could've risked cutting more than I should. Maybe with a Japanese ryoba saw (have been eyeing on these for a long time) I would have more control.

2. Chisel and hammer - effective but very time consuming. 

3. Router - the easiest, fastest and most accurate way. 

After the heel was roughly shaped, I also had to go back and carve out the neck. I also took this opportunity to round the neck over a bit more, but still maintaining a D-shape profile.

Edited July 18, 2016 by SIMpleONe89

[SIMpleONe89]

I also did a fret level and dressed the frets because it would be easier without the body. I'll polish it up after I finish it.

So the last thing I had to do before gluing would be to thin the neck to match the body thickness. The neck was 43mm and the body was at 40, so I had to remove 3mm of wood with my router. Ignore my poor math in the picture. Definitely was a typo!

And of course I had to make sure the edges were trued before gluing.

I used some of the off-cuts as clamping cauls to glue the body wings. I did one at a time because it's my first time. I also used toothpicks as locating pins to prevent the pieces from sliding around.

[Prostheta]

Wow, given the toolset and work-by-necessity, this is really progressing by the numbers. That's some classic PG work right there man.

[SIMpleONe89]

Once both wings were glued and sanded flat to the neck, I started to carve the contours. I did the belly, forearm contours and also carved the neck heel transition. Here's a video with a timelapse of what I did. Enjoy!
 

[SIMpleONe89]

1 minute ago, Prostheta said:

Wow, given the toolset and work-by-necessity, this is really progressing by the numbers. That's some classic PG work right there man.

Thank you Carl! Who or what is PG? Parental guidance? Paul Gilbert? Pooping giraffe?

[a2k]

On July 18, 2016 at 6:29 PM, SIMpleONe89 said:

Thank you Carl! Who or what is PG? Parental guidance? Paul Gilbert? Pooping giraffe?

Carl moonlights for the MPAA and has deemed your video to be safe for children with parental guidance. 

The bass is looking great.

[Norris]

Is Carl playing Pokemon Go?