Mr Natural

not much work done this weekend- my youngest was in a (fall) baseball tournament. Had a neighbor who has a planer plane the inside (glue surfaces) of the outside boards and the middle board (both sides) for me. The middle maple board is somewhat curly- and had a bit of tear out along the edges. we had to run that board thru a few times- just skimming it so as to avoid taking chunks out. The two outside maple boards are from the same board- the middle curly one was slightly wider- I will save that "extruding" 1 1/2" piece- maybe someday when I get a fancy bandsaw I can make bindings out of it. I am hoping to either get 3 necks out of this- or the neck for this bass and a neck thru blank (if the figuring comes out ok) for a future project. This maple is the least figured of my hard maple stock- so- we will see. (bob123)- this will be done in gloss black laquer (pauli)- even with carving- I expect the end weight of this bass to be in the over 10-11lbs range. ritter's site has some of these ranging from 11 to 14lbs! Not a bass I would want to play a full gig with! Right now- this blank weighs approx 6.6lbs I will post updates to weight after carving

thanks Luis- I used the dremel freehand. Once I traced the holes onto the wood- and then adjusted for my body being a bit smaller than a normal KL- I used a drill to get most of the wood out. Started to use files but using files at that point was a pain- so-this wood cuts like butter- and the dremel plowed thru it pretty quickly. I still have a few hours probably left to fine tune and completely smooth out all the contours in those holes. There are some lines that just dont flow smoothly enough to my liking- and I just need to sit down and carefully fine tune those with files. I did one of the medium sized holes already and it took me 20 minutes- so- I probably have a good 3-4 hours left just cleaning and smoothing those lines. My rifler/needle files dont exactly remove a ton of material- and it just takes time to get them "just exactly so".

in case anyone was interested- here are two boards of osage orange. I make notes on my lumber- these two say purchased Sept 1997, these boards are 48" x 8.5" wide each, which is tough finding- at least outside the midwest and central parts of the country. These trees tend to twist from what I am told. These boards were bright yellow orange when I bought them. This book match has been wrapped in cardboard all this time- otherwise I would have expected the boards to have turned darker more than they have- the face of the boards that was "in" (two boards on top of each other- then wrapped in cardboard) did not turn as much as the outside faces did. inside face (not sure what that funky spot is) outside face

pics!!! :croudwaits

bump hey Prostheta- did you ever finish this one? wondering how things went with your bridge. any set up issues- I am debating neck angle vs raising the neck up a bit on the ritter copy I am doing.

cool inlays!

You know-I would have never thought of bursting a piece like that. That is what I love about this forum- opens your eyes up outside the boxes in your (my)own brain.You pulled it off wonderfully. Great job man. I think If you have made that burst thicker it wouldnt have pulled it off quite the same (imho) its subtle enough to accent the piece and yet not take away from the figure like so many bursts sometimes do. Great job dude. seriously- that top is sick. Really nice score on that wood.

Welcome back Luis. This looks great - and I am glad you went with 2 P90s!- love'em. Any plans for future builds? I still say your ES355 build and at least one of the les paul builds need to be pinned in this forum- those were excellent build threads. Hoping you will be building more soon.

congrats Doug- the new place looks great.

and we have a winner. Scott ,I know how it darkens- well aware. I have a couple of boards that I have had for oh lets see- 10 years+- and it has darkened up a bit. Which is fine- orange may look stupid on a fretboard- and if it darkens- so be it. Might end up looking better that way. I will post pics of the boards later this weekend. I had these "thins" for years- and wanted to use them up- I realized I only had enough maple thins made up for half a fingerboard- and so- eh- we will give this a try. So- prize time- look to PM- sending now. and you can post when you receive so everyone doesnt think I full of bs.

negative. try again pls.

nice job on colossus RAD. Curious- how much did it weigh?

So- resurrecting another project from my long absence from the group. Trivia time. and yes I will mail (world wide) a prize to the person who guesses correctly. QUESTION- What is the wood I am using for fret lines on this? Hint- this wood comes from the mid-west/central part of the USA. the color(look at the dust) should also be a hint. I will also throw in that American Indians used it, and farmers still use it today. The thin on the left has been sitting for a few years - the thin on the right was just sanded. more hints if no one guesses. I have used maple, bondo (under poly), etc over the years on fretless lines- I sort of wanted something different here. Seeing how I already jacked the heck out of the back of this neck- I figured- eh- what the hell. Try something different. Prize will be music or luthiery related and I promise it wont "suck".

That is just how the piece is figured. The grain is still oriented 6 to 12.

well done man. You know- I dont know if anyone else noticed this- but the way the figure is slanted from 7pm to 1pm at an angle- to me that makes this guitar all the cooler. I mean- if the figure was "typical" straight/parallel 6pm to noon alignment- I dont think it would look as good. Amazing how the orientation of the figure affects the final outcome. I dont think I have ever thought about that before- being so used to the "usual" quilte/flame maple tops we all see . so- was that planned or happy accident?

body shape routed. No tear out. Yeah for me (my track record with maple is not good around the horns)

body shape routed, this is seriously going to be a heavy ass instrument.

crap man- forgot you were in Texas- I think I had your Red Rocks experience on my mind. I saw (dont laugh) the Grateful Dead out there in the 80s- I dont remember much but I know I had a really good time Incredible place. I will PM you when we get down in Atlanta and visit Sweetwater.

laying on reference lines for the truss rod. This truss rod is made of steel square from local hardware store- with a steel threaded rod on the inside. One end of the threaded rod will have a nut attached for adjustment, the other end will have a nut welded on - so when the loose nut is turned- the rod will either push or pull depending on which way you turn. the welded nut end will also have a 'T" in the square rod. More pictures to come. my first attempts at cutting this square need to be cleaned up on sanding disc.

glad to be back in the shop Scott. I was "lucky" in that a project I have been working on with work lost its IT funding until 2014- so- no 70 work weeks until then. (hijacking my own thread here) I have been meaning to ask you- do you guys get Sweetwater Brew out in Colorado? I hate to say but this has replaced our beloved Sierra Nevada Pale ale as my #1 go to. (Sierra Nevado will always be the PA from which all others is judged in my book- but - I do love me this 420 and its even better on tap- which is something I dont often say). The wifey and I will be going on a tour of this brewery (in Atlanta) and also Terrapin (in Athens GA) this fall. Let me know if you dont get it out there in CO- I may need to see if they can ship!!

so- this one has been sitting for a while. got a little work in on it today. cutting the headstock- piece of oak with a true straight edge as a router guide despite my trying to be careful-and taking what I thought were shallow cuts- this purpleheart is determined to tear out on me. this will be fun to fix. headstock done- minus the repair and rounding off the top which I will do on a sander

you either think this is sexy- or fugly. either way, I had a chance to play one of these, and I knew immediately after playing it I had to build one. Heavy as hell, big as hell, but there was something about it that just drew me in. I had so much fun building a carl thompson copy a number of years ago- I wanted to build something that required carving. This puppy requires carving alright. creating the basis of my drawn out plans. the lovely 6 string TOM bridge that hipshot built me- thanks to Prostheta for suggesting I give them a ring. I ended up having to slightly increase the butt end of the bass due to the string spacing on this bridge. the 8/4 hondo mahog board that will become the body. ritter uses 3 piece maple for the neck so I will follow suit. body glued up, I will run this in my router thicknessing bed and bring it down to just north of 1.5" thick.

been gone for a while-life/work/children had me quite busy. Glad to be getting back in the shop. its been like 8 or 9 months, although I did paint my shop (garage) during that time this will be a present for my uncle who will be retiring in 2 years. it will probably take me that long to build it seeing how I take 8-9 months away at a time. He is a huge Beatles fan, and I know he will get a kick out of this. Ricky 12 string. maple body, maple and walnut neck 8/4 maple- glued together. This back side will be routed out, and covered by 1/4" maple back.

while not specifically about any one musician- I read (something like 20 years ago) Bill Graham's autobiography Bill Graham Presents which came out right after he died. Bill was a concert promoter- and was in the thick of some of the greatest events ever. he was the guy behind the Fillmore east and West. I am into that era of music (late 60s thru early 80s) and this book was an enjoyable read for me.

the two points in Chris's statement above I think are most important-as far as a clean cut is concerned- at least in the numerous FAILURES I have had- and reading in this forum-and other wood working forums- I used to use almost the exact bit Curtisa used- changed to an angled bit and found that the fuzz and lift/shattered edges went away.Pulling the wood away (rather than back tracking a cut)- downhill cuts- all that is the way to do it. I think router tables are 20 times safer than holding a power tool spinning at 1000x of rpms. If you are about to sneeze- you can pull the object away from the blade- if you are holding a router- different story. Every cut should be "mentally planned" ahead of time- my router is spinning this way- my push is this way- my hands will be here while I make the cut. I will stop here, I will approach there. etc. I do this everytime- and I can atleast say I still have all my digits still. Doesnt mean though I wont encounter something at some point- but if I think it thru each and every time- the risk is minimized. I must admit defeat when it comes to maple though. I still use a robo sander on horns as I just cannot seem to win- or rather- I am not willing to chance it once I have that much work and or cost into a project to risk tear out. I admit it openly. I am chicken in that respect. I dont want to harp on Chris's video- but if any noobs are watching/reading- please wear safety glasses whenever you are using a power tool.