black_labb

fender have done quite a few guitars and basses in swamp ash, as have prs and plenty others

not a bad idea, i have a metal lathe so thats not nessisary for me, but a good idea. i would like a drill press though. aslong as you start with a similarly sized bit of wood you should be able to get some good knobs. if your really lazy you could probably stick some sandpaper to something, mount the wood in the drill somehow and then move the drill against the sandpaper to get the desired effect. dont know if it would work with other tools though.

ask the luthier for sure, he would be able to get you started, and probably lend you some specialty tools. the first one i build (just the body, as i bought a premade neck) i used a jigsaw and a router borrowed from my girlfriends dad. turned out nicely. the neck is where the more difficult work is. you cant really screw up a body if you use templates and make sure they dont slip, keep in mind that all the cavities must be linked for wiring the thing up, and plan ahead how you will do it. for the neck, take your time and plan things out well ahead of time. consider things like the fact that you need a solid neck surface to do the fretting on, so installing the fretboard before carving the neck makes sense. make sure you can piucture how you will do things in your head and see it through in your head before you even touch the wood!!

i havent sued one, but i can imagine using at the end of the fingerboard would make a very clean look. on my current build im having it at the body end of the neck under a minimal pickguard (mainly around the pups and the controls)

for the cavities, you could make the control cavity in the back and then drill between the pup slot and the controls at a bit of an angle, which should work fine as one is in the front and the other in the back, thats what i ahve done in the past. only having a single pup makes things simple in that respect.

sorry, i meant droptop on an electric, but i may still be incorrect edit:its actually victorian blackwood as opposed to ash, who would of thought more than 1 wood grew in victoria

im pretty sure maton use it for some of their tops. that is a beautiful guitar rhoads, but i expect that level from you after seeing some of your stuff.

sorry if it was a bit confusing, the biggest piece of wood for the neck is 23mm by 55mm, which is for the centre. of the neck, i was going to achieve the desired height by cutting off the extra length of wood and gluing it to the rear of the neck where the body will be.

i was planning on doing the sunken body as you mentioned, the only concern i have is ensuring that the strip behind the truss rod is a nice tight fit, but using a "thicknesser" i have made (a router bolted onto some long pieces of steel running on brass rails that are paralell to the surface underneath) i should be able to get the right thickness, and then use small router bits for the corners of the truss rod slot, so that the radius can be sanded easily. the laminate is 1pc of zebrawood in the middle ( 23 mm wide) 2 pieces of wenge either side of that (10mm wide each) and then 2 pieces (10mm again) of new guinea rosewood (i believe its refered to as narra in america). narra is also the wood for the wings as it will be a neck through. ive decided, after getting alot of expensive wood for the neck (wenge and zebrano) and a cheap (but aparrently sounds very good) bodywood, ive decided its the way to go $$ wise, as the body takes up alot more wood, and getting an expensive body wood changes things alot. if i got maple for the centre strip, it would have saved about 7-8 $, but a more expensive body wood, would have been a fair bit extra. i realised that after getting the wood for my last build from a piece of walnut (which wasnt completely usable, so i got a discount already, but fine for a body and a little bit extra) i havent finished that build, but im going to get this one started as its for my girlfriend, who is singing in the band weve started a few months ago, but havent had much luck getting bass players that are easy to get along with, and are not too busy for a band. so my girlfriend will learn bass and make it a 3 piece, hence why i wanted to get this one stated so we dont have to borrow a bass for too long.

im about to make a 1 pc laminate neck through bass, meaning that it is a laminate neck, with a rear mounted truss rod and the neck wood is used for the fretboard. has anyone ever done this before? ive thought about it for a while, and have just picked up the wood to do it. if so, do you have any tips? the only thing that could be an issue is having the neck piece tall/thick enough that it matches the height/thickness of the body for centre of the body, which i will be doing by making the neck blank longer, and gluing the extra onto the bottom where the body will be either side of. are there any other issues that anyone can see happening? thanks

the truss rod should make the neck straighter, not adjust the action. that is the bridges job.

what about danish oil, it gives a oil feel and ease of finishing, but still gives a protective coat to the wood.

im thinking i may just see if i can borrow a bass for a bit while i make a nice neckthrough. now i just have to convince her to let me do a natural or stain, she wants a bright red one, id much rather show the grain pattern, especially if i end up doing the new guinea rosewood for the wings.

if it is a u channel or double acion rod, then it shouldnt be a problem as the truss rod bends itself, and forces the neck to bend, without using the neck for anything other than stopping it from twisting. if it is a traditional truss rod, then im stumped, but im pretty sure it isnt.

hi guys and girls, i am looking to make a bass guitar for my girlfriend to learn on (i have somewhat recently started a band with her singing and a drummer, but have been having trouble getting a bass player playing with us) basically i want to make a bass fairly quickly and cheaply, and if it seem to be working out down the road i will make a neck through from scratch. i am only making my first neck at the moment, but if in the next few days i find it easier than i thought/fun i may change my mind and do the whole thing right away, but i have plans for a neck through 12 string (aswell as the wood and the neck laminate glued up ready for work to be started, so i dont want to be too long before i start on this project, but ill see how the neck goes. my question is (if you got through that rambling) has anyone used one of those eden necks off ebay? i was thinking i might get one of the maple/maple j bass necks and use that for the bass, and possibly get some other parts from them aswell (tuners and possibly a bridge). has anyone heard good or bad things about them? another question i have is about woods, what kind of tone would one expect from new guinea rosewood. they have some at the timber place ive been going to for a very reasonable price and has quite reasonably atractive grain. its quite hard, harder than mahogany and alder, but not quite as hard as walnut, which makes me think is reasonably brightish, but i know that the rosewood usually used in guitars is a warm sound due to alot of oils in the wood. anyone know much about it? its closely related to padouk so i think im going to use it for the body, but i want a reasonably bright body wood for the bass. thanks

for a quick response, ive heard its like a brighter mahogany, but ill see soon as my current build is walnut

the direction of the grain does effect the grain from what ive read. i think it changes the attack of the guitar. the vibrations travel the quickest with the grain, not across it. doing it that way will probably give it pretty sloppy attack and not as good sustain, due to reduced stiffness of the body. you could make the first with a single piece adn the second could be laminated a couple times, but now that i think of it, it wont be laminated with the grain paralell to the glue joints, which isnt the best situation. im sure you could do a flying v or similar with the second piece with a couple laminates.

you can open it up and get the other 2 if your careful, but you have to be delicate.

you could always try your hand at winding your own pickups, it would most likely end up better in my opinion, and you can learn a bit about making pickups.

you can use any truss rod in there. aslong as you can adjust it easily.

maybe the frequency that the rubbing of the fingers on the strings is the same frequency as the peak on the frequency vs. output graph of the pickup(s) that you have. sorry if thats comfusing but i cant think of any better ways to explain it.

i did a strat style jack. i basically did a hole so the metal piece would fit, then did some eratic drilling and chiseling with a screwdriver (didnt have a chisel of the right size) to get it so the jack (electronic piece) would fit in the hole. it doesnt matter too much aslong as it is all under the metal plate thing. if i did it again i would probably be a bit less barbaric, but it deffinately works.

what about alder, its should be reasonably cheap for you and has a nice tone for a bass. a fair bit lighter than maple too.

im pretty sure that the egg containers are infact great for the job. they are the right type of material, and the shape reflects any sounds back into itself to be absorbed if the first hit doesnt fo it.

if you have some pickguard material that would work well, and you could use it for a guitar, not sure if you want to buy some just for that, maybe even a pearl looking one.