bassman

A belt sander and RO sander works great for me. I dont use any rasps or files on my necks. Everyone seems to have their own preferences for neck building.

Erik Total neck thickness is about .81"... extremely thin for a bass neck. Very solid woods were used though- with prefectly quartersawn birdseye, and nearly quartersawn bubinga (with grains of the two pieces running at "a mirrored relationship" for stability). I am not to worried about it, but it does pop into my from time to time when I look at it. Maiden69 Yeah I used to bugged be by headless instruments (what the hell is that thing?) Once you play one (one of my mine that is) you will never want to go back, I have turned a number of people onto the headless thing with my basses. I have been using CA to harden the spalt througout the shaping process, man would it be hell not doing it that way. I will be using system 3 epoxy as a grain filler which will add even more dent resistance to the whole body. For the neck- poly/oil feels the best/smoothest, so that is what it will be. Devon I think I know of what you are speaking, that is not what I am doing here though- this bass does not have any sound chambers like the other one did. It is a very light piece of mahogany-and it should be resonant enough without them.

yes it is spalted as the title of the post says. no dyes or stains. I have not used KTM-9 before- I am in the process of testing the finishing process on a piece of mahogany from the body scraps. More notes about the bass- the neck on this is as thin as possible with a hot rod- not my tastes but I am experimenting with it. If it snaps I will be pissed- but that is aprt of experimenting. Neck is 5 piece birds eye and bubinga with cocobolo finger board and carbon fiber reinforcement. One peice mahogany body with BM spalted maple top. Caivty cover- burled amboyna- bridge bone and probably cocobolo. The extended fingerboard on this sits only a hair above the plane of the body- just trying some different things on this one.

Here is my second of this type- All criticisms are welcome- this is the second of its kind. Still needs final shaping, I have to make the bridge install electronics/hardware... this one will be getting finished with KTM-9. Either satin or high gloss, but definitely a thicker built up finish than I usually use.

Thanks..........I know it will be fine i the short run, it is down the road that I am curious about- of course I am already testing- but it is hard to test the future ya know?

I am working on a mahogany/spalted maple body. I was wondering if I may encounter problems with finishing (I will be using ktm-9) after using CA to harden the spalt, and then later using epoxy as a grain filler? I would think the two adhesives would be compatible- but I am a bit concerned about long term finishing problems. PS> of course I will post about the results of the new KTM-9 after I finish this baby up... assuming no probs with CA and epoxy mixing.

A tip for the heel blocks in general, I make them a bit wider than they will end up being in the end- I only shape them to final width with the neck actually attached. The widths of fender heel blocks and neck widths dont match up- that doesnt mean your cant.

Let me guess, bubinga wings- maple and paduak strips in the middle? Looks great so far, will this be a bass or guitar? It says bass to me.

yep, even a 4 stringer could benefit from it. CArl Thompson builds some of his four string basses with a 36" scale. But they effects of a longer scale are not truly appreciated unless you are using notes lower than the Low E.

SYB 3? I think that is what it is called, I have one- It definitely has some weird ass sounds and capabilities, but for fasterr riffs (as in anything not slow) the tracking is off.

most companys that make 5 string basses have them available as 35" scale. The length tightens up the low B string, thus giving a tighter tone for such a low note.

the abm headless units I use for basses need no additonal parts to use regular strings- just tighten the set screws against them where the "small ball end" is an voila. Make sure you dont overtighten the screw and cause the string to unravel, you just have to experiment a bit to find the right tension that is neither to tight not to loose.

3/4"-7/16" (hot rod)=5/16" remaining- I have never made a neck with single action rear installed rod, but i thought single actions take up less thickness. The oddest part would be the very shallow interaction it would have in the neck pocket. I may be wrong- but I think it can be done, yet I would not try it... except for on a mini instrument for my son.

As long as the spaces between the laminates are minimal there should be no real problems- sanding them before you glued them up could easily have caused this to happen. When you plane the piece make sure that each time you send them through the planer there is no debis stukc on the underside of the lumber of on the infeed table- this will lead to thinner spots on your lum ber and thus gaps in the glue lines. These gaps at best, are not very deep- if so like I said then it might be OK. But gaps between lumber would really bothers me- I would scrap them but you might be able to get away with with. I just laminated a couple of birdseye/bubinga neck last night- birdseye is a real pain to surface properly- but it can be done it go surface in he smallest incremtns your tools will allow.

damn... I just typed a ton of info for you- but the post didnt take... (shortened with less info) There should be an adaptor that you can buy that will allow you to use regular strings as well. MOST strings should work just fine with the adaptor in place- but if you can find some double ball end strings that you really like, then stock up on them- they are easier to use and really stay in tune extremely well (assuming the instrument is built well).

I only call it mahogany when I make a mistake, as I did a little bit ago. Actually, I care about proper english. No porta can cleaning here- I got that out of my system by being a dishwasher in a busy restaurant when I was 14-15.

the glue underneath a veneer is absolutely the biggest tone killer ever,ha?! What about the glue holding the two piece bodies together, and the dye in the wood, and the finish on the wood, and the dyes in the finish, and the subatomic particles left on top of the finish by the polishing compounds. If you want to hear the opposite end of things, then check out www.ctbasses.com .... carl himself ridicules the many myths of guitar building in a very odd way,just check out the interview. I am glad I ran across his interview, because that is the way that O often feel about everyones unfounded claims about tone, and what really matters in affecting it. Oh yeah blue tinted instruments sound better than red ones because of the differentiating manner in which they reflect/absorb light waves- thus matter and energy. Not to bash anyone but there are just way to many unscientific, hairsplitting views on topics of tone. Build it tight and good with decent wood, and good pickups, the rest is just icing on the cake.

Godin, I just got a piece of mohogany 15"x28"x1 3/4", dry, for only $37. Check your local lumber mills for wide mohog... mine seems to have huge pieces of it all the time for a very good price. Of course it looks pretty boring to me so it will most likely be getting a killer top.

you must have the windings wrapped around the magnet... the easiest kind of pup to build would be a lipstick pickup... just wrap a magnet with 42 gauge wire a couple thousand times with a single wire, then put the wrapped magnet in a "small box" of "lipstick tube"- connect each end of wire to your amp. This is the easisest it will get.

it has a closed back for a reason, if hte speaker was meant to be used in a free air situation then it would have no back. before trying it with the back off you should take your time to find out what is actually causing the rattle, then use some thin foam or cork, anything soft in the right places will take care of that rattle, keep in mind that sometimes rattles can be a pain in the butt to find, but it can be done.

yes, drill pilot holes, they should be about 80% of the size of the screw threads.

I built basses for a living, for a very short period, but these basses were not designed by me or sold by me- I was just paid hourly- and the necks were made by carvin. While I have had many people asking me to build them a bass I have declined until now. There is a huge difference between building a bass then selling it to someone who really digs it, and building a specific bass for a specific customer on a written contract basis. I am still not ready to take a down payment for a custom bass- although I may in the somewhat near future- but I am willing to make a bass that I know a particular person will want, then offering to sell it to them upon completion. My reasoning is that I am not ready for the responsibility of contracted piece. If I screw up the bass in any minor or major way then I really only have burdened myself. This being said I am about to start building a specific bass-similar to my fretless hybrid- for a specific jazz player... if he wants to pay me the big bucks for it when it is done, then sweet. He actually offered me a great deal of money for the one I entered in Feb GOTM (6x the cost), I declined as it is a prototype. If not then I would have built a similar one anyways. Making money doing this sort of thing is no easy gig to get started, there are just so many inexpensive and pretty good instruments out there to compete with, and other very good luthiers. After the time it takes me to build a bass right now, and the cost of pricey hardware and woods I use I must charge quite a bit of money to making a living at this.

longer scale lengths require higher action, because the strings vibrate more- true. thus the higher action on basses and especially extended scale basses like 36"+ and double basses. The actual length of the string from, anchor point to anchor point can also affect the amount of string that you have to stretch from- regardless of scale length. The more length of total sting the more you can stretch or bend it, but still- more string length USUALLY indicates longer scale and thus higher tension. Certain factors seem to play against each other to a degree.

"String angle coming off of the bridge can also effect the string tension. I believe the greater the angle the more tension, and the less the angle the less the tension. " I think this is blatantly false... different break angles only produce more or less tension on the bridge or nut. If what he said were true then there would be no need for 35" scale basses- cause all you would have to do is increase the "break angles."

acutally yes, it is a giant chair- no kidding. This is me sitting in the exact same chair.