scottyd

I dont know about the burl thing, but Thats pure genius.......Or in the case of a neck through you could just notch out that laminate to where the truss stops. Im gonna try it I hate routing truss channels!

I turned some new knobs on the metal lathe, they work a whole lot better. Also all the grooves will have orings in them. They do a great job giving grip. I cant decide if i want them in the vee shape or all the same length.

Well like I said I wiped down the surfaces with acetone and it didnt do the trick. Maybe I had a bloodwood fingerboard that was more oily than average I dunno, But what I do know is it isn't fun removing a half glued fingerboard with 3 hours worth of fiber optic work in it because the glue failed. So it won't ever happen again. In my shop oily wood gets poly plain and simple. It holds up well, I havent had a problem with a joint yet. Being into my 10th from scratch bass/guitar project, Ive learned to stick with what works for me. Ill leave all the taking chances to you experts!

Poly is the only glue Ill use for oily woods like cocobolo and bloodwood. I learned my lesson trying to use titebond with the bloodwood. The wood just turned the glue red and it wouldnt set up. The cocobolo prob would have been alright wiped down with some acetone but I didnt want to risk it. Ive since used poly on alot of different stuff including tops and body joints. It works good just makes a hell of a mess, but a strong joint no doubt water proof too.

If he doesnt have any other basses and doesnt know his fretboard go for the 4, IF he has some playing time (which i doubt or he would know what he wanted) go with the 5.

Wow im suprised, I looked at some of the kits on ebay and if the hardware is halfway decent its a heck of a buy!

Thanks Jon, my design will be a lot more "pretty" when i work out all the kinks. SHould be alot slimmer and polished aluminum.

A little progress, Keep in mind this is somewhat of a prototype.I made the entire setup and for the most part I have mixed feelings with it. Being that its all hand made all the mounting holes and part sizes arent exactly the same mosty because there was some welding and grinding involved. The knobs in the photo arent big enough in diameter so you really have to crank down to get to the tuning. (they are made from an old 3/8" ratchet handle perhaps a 1/2drive would work better Bigger diameter knobs will fix that. Im also trying to come up with different ways to make them smoother. All of this set up was made with steel. The next one will be made of aluminum and more care will be taken to get everything more consistant. SO basically back to the drawing board! Top clamping device VERY UGLY! ANother VIew

You never cease to amaze me Russ. The body blank with the veneers is ultra cool!

$52.00 Dollars for some pine??

Outstanding first build!

Yeah im kinda leaning to just buying one of these from Status only 43 bucks

yeah kinda like that, pretty basic. I dont want it intergrated with the nut because then id be limited to metal for nut material.

A clamping system kind of like a floyd rose, except seperate from the nut.

The tuner worked great, I mounted it last night tuned up an E and a G string with and electronic tuner and it works flawless. Then I tuned an A string and left it overnight. It was still tuned perfect this morning! Now all i have to do is make 4 more to convert this thing. Its a fretless 5 string i built for a friend about a year ago. I will be making it headless, extending the upper horn, reshaping the lower horn, smoothing some spots out and fretting it. This thing was fairly neck heavy on account of the shorter horns.

"scottyd - PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE continue to share your progress! Any details on how you went about making them?" Will do! Ill give out the full details when Im sure that they work properly. Thanks for that pic by the way, its cool to see one of those trems broken down.

The ball end and recess will be contained inside the hollow square tube (for lack of a better term) The 3rd pic shows how it should be once you start tuning it theres no way it'll come out. Good point on the threads, Ive put some thought that as well, simply put if these dont work it'll be time to hunt some finer threads. Im sure this will pull the string no problem, they are 32 pitch threads but as far as fine tuning Im not sure we'll see. Also it should be pointed out the 20:1 is a gear ratio (it takes 20 turns of the handle to move the post 1 turn) and this type setup does away with any gear ratio because its just a horizontal pull. So the measurements will be totally different. I did however detune a string on my 6er Ibanez and noticed it took 4 full turns which rotated the tuner about 1/8". On the homemade one it took 3 1/2 turns of the knob to move the string retainer in 1/8". You have a valid point none the less I just dont know the answer yet

Yes sir you are correct, I plan on buiding a pipe like cover that will cover up the threads. Mostly because the thread is steel and the tuning knob is stainless steel so a small amount of lube or anti-seize will have to be used, and the exposed threads would get you dirty otherwise.

That thing is crazy! Im thinking my next bass will have to be fanned, how do you like the flat fingerboard?

Ive been designing and building my own headless tuner setup. Now I know this has been done before and Im not claiming to be a pioneer. But I was severly distressed on my last bass project which i wanted to be headless but couldnt do because of the price of the tuners. Ive researched all of the other tuners and came up with something that uses a little bit of eachs design but beefed up. Now this is by no means complete and has not even been tested yet. the one in the pics is a prototype to test out. I hope to have all the details worked out by next week. I should have one mounted to tell how well they tune and what steps need to be done to make them better. Im thinking of making the tuner and bridge one piece and a locking device that will lock the string holder in place when the desired tune is achieved. Also this design will use regular strings not double ball (more later). The best part is these things can be made for about $1.50 in parts each. Tell me what you guys think. Broken down view another view (crummy pic)

Looks great! you gotta be carefull with Zebrano, it splits and checks very easily. Which I learned the hard way on my 2nd bass.

Had to vote for the bass, looks comfy and solid.I'd change the knobs though but thats just me, but in my opinion that doesnt reflect the build itself because they are simple to change out. Great job to all!

Cool bass, i want that Boba Fett!!

Looking good! i really like it.

Yeah ive ordered from them twice, both great boards the only ones ive found that have bloodwood, Mine were great very nicely worked.