gpcustomguitars

Thanks Scott! I will place them under the saddles, trough the maple, so no problem with that, but for the shaping, no routers or anything, just belt sander, small files and sandpaper. I'll probably CA all of it tho, I think even the sander could send me searching for that missing ebony chip on the floor

...and finally managed to epoxy the fences in place. I seem to do a lot of precise little things on pause at work, in shop it seems like a waste of time, and at home it's impossible with kids. I'm starting to hear smurf-voices all the time in my head I hope I can shape the bridge some more tomorrow. I'm thinking of finishing it differently from the rest of the instrument, perhaps a coat of CA first, the ebony seems very brittle. It will be screwed to the body with 4 black countersunk screws. By gpguitars at 2012-07-26

Out of the clamps, and ready for cleaning up. By gpguitars at 2012-07-24 By gpguitars at 2012-07-24 Sawing the aluminum by hand didn't take that long, but was not much fun. Today I'll epoxy alu-strips in place, but I have to make a spacer to make sure it's all really parallel. Then I can have some fun shaping it on the sander. By gpguitars at 2012-07-24 I've thicknessed this on the router, and now have to resaw it, since I want to scarf it under the lams, and then add the top back on. Well see how that goes. By gpguitars at 2012-07-25 By gpguitars at 2012-07-25

Some more progress...I've rounded the body edge, started some rough sanding and am working on the bridge slowly. Neck lams are glued together. By gpguitars at 2012-07-22 By gpguitars at 2012-07-22 By gpguitars at 2012-07-22

Great build! I just love the bridge recess you did, adds a lot to the shape.

Moving along slowly... By gpguitars at 2012-07-20 By gpguitars at 2012-07-20

Did some drawing at work just now - this is an idea for the headstock. I would route a ledge around 3mm deep, and the symetrical shape would stay full thickness of the headstock, and be radiused the same as the body top. The back would be routed at an angle to angle the machine heads with the radius. I would inlay my logo in pearl or aluminum (I would prefer aluminum to tie it with the rest of the instrument), and add his signature in the upper left part. Truss cover would be aluminum walnut leaf, since everything on it would be walnut except for that one lam of cherry. Comments please! How does this shape work with the body shape? I really hope my friend agrees with the making of the neck, I just don't see this bass leaving with beaten up Squire Jazz neck slapped on By gpguitars at 2012-07-19

Well, some progress today. I took the body home from the shop and did some rasping & sanding while the kids were asleep. Afterwards, I decided to start a neck for it, if he doesn't want it, I'll have a neck for something else. It'll be two lams of walnut with a stripe of cherry in the middle. I'll make an truss rodd too. I'll scarf the headstock on it from the piece I've shown earlier to match the body. Next, I got some 8 mm alu rivets to make all the ferrules from. By gpguitars at 2012-07-18 By gpguitars at 2012-07-18 By gpguitars at 2012-07-18 By gpguitars at 2012-07-18 By gpguitars at 2012-07-18 By gpguitars at 2012-07-18 By gpguitars at 2012-07-18 By gpguitars at 2012-07-18 By gpguitars at 2012-07-18 BTW, here's 2 pics of an finished bass out of same material. I call it Thunderjazz. It's really an Thunderbird shaped like a Jazz bass, with a EB pup. Sounds BIG!

OK, thanks a lot! I'm just shaping the top now, so this is probably the best time to do it.

Thanks Scott! Perhaps I should consider mixing Titebond with sawdust also? Will test on scrap, Titebond+dust would probably accept the oil nicely. I'm really not a big fan of oil finishing, since I have very nice oiled/waxed bass with mostly maple neck, and it gets dirtyer and grayer the more it is played...but for this bass it's not my call, so I get to learn about oil finishing

Any thoughts on filling the gaps on this - I can use CA or epoxy, mixed with sawdust and perhaps black dye, but I probably have to finish it with oil, which I have no experience with. So, I don't know which will react better with the oil/wax finish, meaning no stains - CA or epoxy? I plan to mix my own, 1:1.2:1 ratio of boiled lineseed oil, turpentine and varnish, followed by liquid wax 3:1 turpentine to beeswax for polishing. Is this about right? Thanks in advance!

Great project!

Started making the radius of the top, I was expecting more trouble, but it seems to be going ok for now. Just a rasp, sanding block and a scraper. I want to angle the electronics cavity, so, I'll be routing it after this is done. The middle portion of the top, around ~80mm will remain flat, but blended with the radius. By gpguitars at 2012-07-17

Had some 2 hours today and got some work done. Started the bridge, thined the body to thickness, drawn the neck pocket, made the back cover and started the front radius. I was planning an setup to do it on the overhead router, but decided to try it freehand, rasps and sandpaper. By gpguitars at 2012-07-15 By gpguitars at 2012-07-15 By gpguitars at 2012-07-15 By gpguitars at 2012-07-15 By gpguitars at 2012-07-15

Not much progress, but we finally agreed upon a bridge design. Maple base, ebony sides, and spacers and saddles aluminum. This is a first, if I don't count the mini bridge for my son's half-sized Les Paul, so we'll se how this goes. I'll be turning ferules from aluminum rivets. By gpguitars at 2012-07-14 By gpguitars at 2012-07-14 By gpguitars at 2012-07-14

I actually plan to fill the little voids with either glue or epoxy mixed with sawdust and black dye, and to dye the whole thing black, and then sand back. BTW yesterday I've resawn the cover piece for the electronics, and may have an actual bridge design. Maple base, ebony sides, and some aluminum.

<_< It's an dust cyclone for my vacuum cleaner - the blue plate is a lid of an 15l paint can, and the beer bottle is supposed to separate the dust into the can instead of the vacuum cleaner. The attachment shown is for my sander. Still have to test it, to see if i got the proportions right.

Thanks! It is very knotty but will look all the better for it when it's done. I've been drawing wooden bridges since yesterday

Some more progress, not much, but I've rounded the back, made the belly carve and sculpted the heel area roughly. I'll blend the lines a lot more, but the bulk of it is done. I'll make an wooden cover out of the matching walnut piece. Then radiusing the front is in order. Also, I might be making an wooden bridge blended with the top out of olive, with aluminum or brass saddles, but that's still mostly in my head and somewhat on paper... By gpguitars at 2012-07-05 By gpguitars at 2012-07-05 By gpguitars at 2012-07-05 By gpguitars at 2012-07-05 By gpguitars at 2012-07-05

No much progress, but getting there. I completed the body outline yesterday, and drawn out the control cavity - just tone, volume, and jack. Now some routing, and rounding the back... By gpguitars at 2012-07-02 By gpguitars at 2012-07-02 By gpguitars at 2012-07-02 By gpguitars at 2012-07-02 BTW used some junk I had and some 20 mins to make this, still have to test it... By gpguitars at 2012-06-29

I was sorting the offcuts for firewood, and got an idea - since this is of the same piece, it could be used for the matching headstock. Probably something Warwick-like. It would be scarfed, and the length of the neck I would laminate out of straight grained, much lighter coloured walnut, perhaps some cherry lams 5mm I cut a lot of some time ago, some maple??? This would mean making the whole bass straight away, and possibly, glued-in neck, with much nicer neck body join that the plain industrial bolt on thing. He wants just one pup now, a MusicMan copy from GFS. Any ideas would be appreciated - since he wasn't exact about what he wants, we are making this up as we go - which is actually fun! I will have a lot of unused ideas after this. For the fretboard, walnut, black walnut (actualy purplish), olive, cherry? Ideas? I'm mostly using local woods, only olive log I got from a relative coming for a visit... By gpguitars at 2012-06-29

Great!!! I love your designs!

Some more pics, not much progress, but I've got very little time with the new baby in the house. Cut out and sanded most of the shape.. By gpguitars at 2012-06-28 By gpguitars at 2012-06-28 By gpguitars at 2012-06-28

Managed to partly shape the outline in the few minutes I had yesterday. The part where the void was looks nice now.

Yesterday I just managed to roughly saw off some parts not needed and started to clean up some corners on the sander. I try to find 15mins to 1h a day to do some work... The void is completely gone, it should look very nice when finished.