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my 38" 6 string fretless bass project


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I like the way you addressed the neck thickness underneath the top single-cut. Very classy, and hopefully very effective. Does it feel weird to play?

Also, I love the woods, and the all-wood neck with the wood side dots is very classy too. I think it's cool that you're going with all natural woods, not dyed woods or painted woods. Keep up the good work! :D

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Another update.

I did some shaping on the body. The tummy cut and forearm contour are in place.

neck-008.jpg

The upper portion of the instrument is coming along nicely.

neck-009.jpg

The heastock was thicknessed and contoured as desired. The volute was reduced significantly as it's previous size would have impeded playing.

neck-012.jpg

The frustrating part was making the template for the bridge recess. I did complete it as seen below, but it took me 2 hours to do this (no particular reason why....it just dtook a long time). Then before I could complete a pickup template, my Stew-Mac patern bit decided to throw the bearing. So no more routing till i get a new bit or bearing.

neck-010.jpg

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I finished shaping the body today.

The most difficult part has been the transition between the neck and body. NOw it is perfectly smooth.

bottom-001.jpg

bottom-002.jpg

The remainder of thebody was shaped. All shaping was done with a spokeshave, rasps, and sanding.

bottom-003.jpg

We are now getting close. So i put some of the harware in its place to get a feel for the finished product. I should have all work on the instrument finished on Wednesday. Then onto finishing.

bottom-004.jpg

bottom-005.jpg

bottom-006.jpg

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whoa thats looking alot better than I thought it would! well done!

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that carved / rounded lower cutaway is very Ibanez JS / Warwick like.....

awesome bass!

pleeaaaaaaaaaaase finish it in natural B)

:D

Roman

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skibum5545,

The knobs are matching tupliwood. They came from the same billet as the fingerboard.

I turned them on a lathe then drilled and installed a marker dot from ASB plastic side dot material. I wish I hadnt used the abs material, as it wil now be the ONLY non-wood piece on the instrument (besides the bridge, pickup and tuners). The nut will be HArd Maple to compliment the maple aready on the FB.

-W

AND YES...this will be finished with an oil/varnish finish.

Black Lacquer is fine...for explorers (which i do have 2 of)

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I finished all of the machining /shaping this evening.

The tuners have been "installed" . The nuts have not been tightened yet as im too tired to do it correctly. I also added a matching truss rod cover. The nut blank is hard Maple. It will be resized before being cut.

machined-002.jpg

Rear shot. One looks crooked in this shot. It's not in real life...it just began to finagle itself free.

These were custom ordered Sperzels. They are Black and Gold

machined-004.jpg

The pickup cavity was routed and the controls are now properly in place.

machined-003.jpg

The cavity cover was made of pseudo-matching wood. IT is from the same piece, but the grain direction doesnt match, so i am a little dissapointed here.

machined-005.jpg

The next steps will be final sanding and application of oil /varnish.

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Guest Litchfield Custom Gutars

Looks HOT! Even tho you dont like the cavity cover, I do. It flows with the body and accents the curves.

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These will be the last pics I post until the bass is completely assembled.

There is now 2 coats of tungoil / spar varnish on the instrument. The maple body has darkened SIGNIFICANTLY.I really do like that the sugar maple (hard maple) stayed rather white, whereas the red maple body turned brown...almost mahogany. The color of the mahogany neck s absolutely mesmerizing.

The figuring is coming out nicely. The gloss will build over the next week as i continue to add a coat a day.

varnish-002.jpg

varnish-003.jpgvarnish-005.jpg

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