Zenith Bass

[Alucard0811]

That carve looks really good!

[mattharris75]

First carving session on the neck this evening. It's looking somewhat neck-like now, but it's got a long way to go, I'm just too worn out to keep going tonight.

A bit of an odd-one for me, as with the single cut design it's highly asymmetrical, which requires me not to fall asleep at the wheel and take a bite where I shouldn't...

[mattharris75]

Getting started on the back. Routed the control and jack plate cavities. Found a nice little piece of walnut that I bookmatched and turned into the cavity cover. It's still a hair proud of the back, but the fit is really nice, just needs a bit more massaging.

 

Now it's time to carve!

[Bizman62]

7 hours ago, mattharris75 said:

Found a nice little piece of walnut

I could search all week and I couldn't just "find" such a piece in my wood storage! Then again, my main wood storage consists mostly of arm's length pieces of log chopped into quarters or smaller fractions.

[mattharris75]

12 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

I could search all week and I couldn't just "find" such a piece in my wood storage! Then again, my main wood storage consists mostly of arm's length pieces of log chopped into quarters or smaller fractions.

Most of this 8' long rack is full of walnut... 

[mattharris75]

First pass on the back carve. I think it's going to look nice when it's all said and done!

[Andyjr1515]

7 hours ago, mattharris75 said:

. I think it's going to look nice when it's all said and done

So do I

[ScottR]

17 hours ago, mattharris75 said:

I think it's going to look nice when it's all said and done!

Me too!

SR

[Bizman62]

21 hours ago, mattharris75 said:

Most of this 8' long rack is full of walnut... 

I could show you piles of alder...

[mattharris75]

This cherry has a lot of character. Really looks like 'barn wood'.  It's pretty great.

One of the things I like about taking progress pictures is that the lighting gives you the ability to see things that you might not see in the midst working. You can sit down and study it and see the little things you need to work on, surfaces that don't look right, curves that need to be smoothed out, etc.

[mattharris75]

My football season is over, so it's finally back to house projects and a little time in the shop to work on some less pressing projects, like this bass.

Rounded off the headstock a bit to tie it in more with the body, fretted the neck, glued the neck, and routed it flush then finished the pickup cavity. 

Next step is cleaning up the neck around where it meets the body, and then a whole bunch of finish sanding...

[mattharris75]

I knew this area was going to be a pain in the butt when I was designing this bass... So here we are. Trying to smooth out the area of the neck near the cutaway and work on the transition into the pocket. I've had 4 or 5 sessions working on this area over the last week, just 10-20 minutes each, as there's not much room to work, and it's too frustrating and fiddly to spend a couple of hours straight working on it. 

Weird angle for a pic I know, but sighting down the neck helps me see where I'm at and what needs to be worked on. It looks better in the picture than it does in real life. Not quite there yet, but getting closer. 

[Bizman62]

To me it looks like you're doing good there. WIth that design a smooth transition is impossible but you've managed to get quite a good access even to the highest frets, with adequate support for the thumb. Considering that most bass lines are played below the 5th fret or so I'd call that better than good enough!

[Retrosonix]

On 2/28/2022 at 5:36 AM, mattharris75 said:

Pickups routed. Started working on the top carve on the bass side.

You can see the knot on the upper bout, which I think is a pretty nice little beauty mark.

 

I like that a lot. I need to do another bass

[mattharris75]

First grainfilling session on the top is done. This is the sanding with danish oil slurry method.

[Bizman62]

That carve on the horn!!! Elegant in its simplicity, yet an example of highly sophisticated craftmanship for those who understand. I'm impressed!

[mistermikev]

i like the idea of the strat jack on the back... might have to try that some time.  some lovely walnut there, and a very nice carve.  

[ScottR]

On 1/1/2023 at 2:48 AM, Bizman62 said:

That carve on the horn!!! Elegant in its simplicity, yet an example of highly sophisticated craftmanship for those who understand. I'm impressed!

I agree with Biz Matt. I could not have said it better myself!

SR

[mattharris75]

Thanks guys.

The whole bass has had two sand and slurry sessions. I'll wait a couple of weeks and then start the Tru Oil. Here's a pic with a little more natural light.

 

Lots of little things to do in the meantime.  Aligning and drilling the holes for the bridge, as well as pre-drilling for all the other hardware. But the fun project that I'll be working on is making a set of knobs. I glued up up some laminates, a mini version of the body blank, and cut them into squares. I had to order a few things, grub screws, 6mm ID aluminum tubing, etc. But this should be fun. I'm also going to inlay some brass tubing in the top and fill that with black epoxy to use as a directional indicator.

Here's a blank compared with an offcut from the body.

[ShatnersBassoon]

Absolutely gorgeous! 

[Mr Natural]

Looking great Matt- can't wait to see it with the Tru Oil. 

[Andyjr1515]

Lovely job

 

[ScottR]

On 1/7/2023 at 2:41 PM, mattharris75 said:

But the fun project that I'll be working on is making a set of knobs. I glued up up some laminates, a mini version of the body blank, and cut them into squares. I had to order a few things, grub screws, 6mm ID aluminum tubing, etc. But this should be fun. I'm also going to inlay some brass tubing in the top and fill that with black epoxy to use as a directional indicator.

Ah Matt, you are a devil for details. And damn if you don't pull them off brilliantly!

This just keeps getting tastier.

SR

[mattharris75]

Thanks guys!

So, I had never made a knob before. Did some research, watched some videos, etc, and figured out a procedure that I thought would work for me.

So, to make sure I didn't screw things up I came up with a plan:

 

Step 1, use a 5/8" forstner to recess a 4mm deep hole in the blank so that the nut and washer clear the knob.

 

Then, step 2, drill the 9mm hole into the blank using that center point from the forstner bit. I didn't take a pic of that. Thanks to Amazon, though, I spent the week dead in the water after this step, as I was waiting for the aluminum tubing to arrive. Finally, 5 days after it was supposed to be delivered, it arrived this afternoon.

Since I couldn't proceed with the other steps I drilled the 1/8" hole for the brass indicator tubing and went ahead and epoxied them in in with black tinted epoxy.

So, now that the aluminum tubing is here I cut a piece of the 6mm ID and 9mm OD tube to fit and pounded it down into the center of the knob, and hit it with a little CA glue. Then I drilled from the side with the 3.2mm drill bit for the M4 grub screw, which I then tapped.

I then rough sanded off the corners of the blank with the disk sander and then chucked it up onto a 5.5mm drill bit on the drill press, using the m4 grub screw to hold it in place. I used my sanding block to shape it with 80 grit, making sure to measure frequently with the calipers so it stayed square. You can also see the aluminum tubing inserted here:

Then just took it up through 320 grit and wet sanded it with 400 and a bit of Tru Oil while it was spinning on the makeshift lathe. I'll do at least one more coat of  oil once this is dry, but here's the first one more or less finished:

 

 

[Bizman62]

Starting from a square block sure makes finding the center easy! Nice job.