Pibrocher

mmmmm, Buffalo-Burgers

As far as buying a table saw.... Most people have price issues (me included) i have purchased a number of tools through auctions. My local auction house has a general tool auction once a month. Its a great opportunity to go and look at ALOT of used tools which can give you a greater understanding of what is worth purchasing and what isn't. Also be able to compare quality versus prices of different manufacturers and see what others are buying and why. Check it out even if only for a learning experience. Also helps greatly in networking with other local tradesmen. People who might have tools they need to dispose of too. Good luck, remeber that quality in machinery is not skin deep.

Yeah check out that tutorial. BigD has it all worked out....

So is that a good thing then? I've seen so many crazy basses over the years, i figured i go pretty far out on a limb with this before i would lose credibility. I've had so much more fun doing this project then the last one. On my first it was all about getting everything dead-on-accurate more than having fun. I guess i was an artist first so that is what is so appealing about this project. I realized that making these things play right isn't as hard as i first expected. Keep it level. Keep it flat! I really want to know what everyone thinks about this bass so please KEEP THE COMMENTS COMING...

Great to here about all the other Mary-Landers, whats up Chesapeake! Hey there everyone, took a little time off over the weekend. No bass work that is... Went back to wrok on carving the headstock. Here's some pictures of how that is going as well as some shots of the side-glueing fun. I ended up with a pretty crappy glue line on the back. The glue bubbled and left me with some obvious holes, as you'll see. I made sure i had plenty of leakage when i clamped it. Not sure what went wrong. I did wipe off the excess after i had the full clamping strength applied. Anyone ever experience ash soaking up the glue? Only thing i could figure. Not the end of the world however, i will be able to fill the holes and they are quite tiny. Here you can see the "slathering" of the biscuits and the overflow. In the bottom right corner is a finished shot two days later, clamps removed. Here are my crappy glues holes. I've never had this problem before. Maybe the glue edge wasn't completely square? I checked it before hand and everything seemed in order. Here are some shots of me shaping the little ash overlay-horns on the headstock. I wanted a really sculpted look on this instrument. This one shows the tip of the headstock. You can see how i have added a scallop through the mahogany top revealing the maple underneath. The headstock began to take on a Dr. Suess-esque beak almost. Here are some wider angle shots of the whole headstock as it sits before sanding. I'm gonna wait to do all my sanding at one time so this part is done for the time being. I'm pretty happy with it. I think that the final sanding is gonna really bring it to life, smooth all the tranistions out. My next step is to route off the top of the neck-through at the body. Then attach my ash tops. I will also be tapering the neck down to almost final width, and begin carving it in turn. more to come...

Good design work. Nice to watch the process at work and see the ideas unfold. Can't wait to see you make some cuts.

Wow man, you are a very prolific luthier. Great to see a hobbyist so passionate. What is your opinion on building guitars professionally, as in selling the creations ?

A quick update... I have glued the sides onto the body and it has been sitting for a day or two now. Things got real busy for me so work has slowed down the last few days. I hope to get some of the top routing and nekc shaping done this weekend. Probably bve next week before this gets really going again. I'll post some more pics tomorrow. The headstock has been shaped down much farther, almost all round edges now. That bass in the GOTM competition was very inspirational. Can't wait to put this baby in the line up. more to come...

Never seena carved flying v before. Looking very good man. I like the fretless idea as well and the acoustic bridge pickups. Is that what i understand is happening here? keep up the good work

That guitar is looking great. Can't wait to see some hardware getting attached.

Awesome bass man. I like the contrasting woods, good design and smooth.

Well, i was out partying last night, so i didn't get to work till tonight. Here are some pictures of the headstock as it is being carved. I am definetly gonna go with the Dr. Seuss idea a bit more. I figured i'd drill all the holes before I finish the carving. It's important to keep the tuners functional so i can't roll the edges too much. It also allowed me to see the tuners in place so i could decide what type of design overlay to add next. Check it out... After the first round of carving and the tuner holes have been drilled. Tuners test fitted all the way around. Had to make sure i had lines marking the dimensions of the hardware. The tuners marked out on the back of headstock... Markings on top. I also had my overlay blank traced out on the headstock here. I originally had planned on putting a piece of ash on top, this is it rough cut. After I messed with it I decided I didn't like that shape at all. So i kept trimming until i came to this... The design process at work. I will sand it down quite a bit but the end effect will be good. I'm gonna use a black corian nut blank. Probably cut it down to resemble a fender style nut. Not sure yet, might just end up carved out a bit. After this last piece of ash goes on, i'll sand the tope of the neck flush again and turn my attention to the body sides. At this point in the project i have A LOT of loose ends and more unraveling all the time. But i'll be closing in soon on the body shaping portion of this project. This is the area i am most interested in. I can't wait to start making some curves. Have to route the truss rod channel here soon and taper the neck with the router. Then on to the fretboard and the last mahogany overlay. I thought all this talk of overlays might make more sense if you all saw my design drawing. More to come....

Yesterday began the headstock shaping. I'm probably sticking my neck way out on the line with my design but i think it is going to help define the instrument. I'm trying to mimic the body somehow. We'll see... Band saw time... And one pass... Another pass at her ... This is as far as i took it with the bandsaw, i'll use a sanding drum on the drill press to get in closer. Which leaves me with this... The mahogany has a cool swirl across the face... This is the design sketch. I will be carving the edges over to resemble the bullets on the body. At the top i'm going to expose the maple underneath the mahogany creating a "white" lick almost. I bought some nice new round files today, and went to work on it earlier tonight. Will keep you all posted.

Actually i hadn't had a job for the last month and a half, but i only recently started working on the bass. I actually got back to work, and college classes this week, so we will see if this slows down the progress. The headstock was an area of concern from the beginning. I didn't want something simple and square, i decided that i should mimic the bullets of the body in the headstock. This was the reason for the mahogany laminate on the headstock. I wanted to beef up the thickness to give me a little more to carve from. I will post more on the headstock, which i actually cut out and sanded in rough last night. Its definetly not simple or square. I hope its not to out-landish. We'll see... Oh, i am an American, i got the name from a Jethro Tull song. "Pibroch: Cap in Hand" is an awesome song... So he carries his regrets like the coat slouching on his shoulder No words he could say that you'd understand So he bundles his regrets, Into a gesture of sorrow Bringing you love, Cap in hand

Yeah, alot of sanding would be an under-statement. I will be using the Orbital D/A sander to do alot of it. Better living through compressed air tools. But also alot of round files and rasping by hand. I want the "horns" to very tubular and smooth, like bullets almost. Not sure how to explain, you'll see more when i get around to shaping the body. Probably wont be till after i put the sides on.

I don't mean to be dense but how could this be? The fretboard is always proud of the body. ← Instead of angling the neck to allow for the height of the bridge, i'll just make sure the fretboard sits high enough. above where the bridge will mount. But yeah the fretboard always sits proud, but alot of guitars still utilize a neck angle to make up for the height difference.

I started this project a week ago so here are more pcitures up to this point... After sanding the sides, preparing them for joing to the neck blank. This view is from the top of the guitar down, so the ash underneath is hidden. Here you can see what the guitar will look like from the back. This shot shows the biscuit joints that will be used eventually to hold the sides onto the neck blank. MMMMM, biscuits..... Adding the ears to the headstock... After the ears dried, i sanded then glued the top piece on (mahogany). Here is the laminate after drying, clamps have been removed... OOPS, didn't clamp far enough out on the mahogany, it'll be cut off so it doesn't matter... After a dusty day of sanding i need a Yuengling (beer)...

We used a table saw and planer to get the neck blank squared up and roughed in. The cutouts were done with the band saw. I used a jig with the bandsaw to cut the headstock to its 1/2" finished thickness. The headstock will get ears and another laminate across the top, i have pictures of that coming soon. My favorite tool in my shop right now is the bench mounted belt sander. That thing has saved me so much hand work, its so easy to feather in the curves with it. The fretboard will sit proud of the finished body, so there is not going to be a neck angle. I have allowed for the bridge height. The top of the frets on the body side of the fretboard will sit about 1/16" above the saddles of the bridge, which will give me room to adjust the action up. The bridge will mount on an 1/8" mahogany piece mounted on top of the ash top. Finished body thickness will be 1 3/4" Scale Length = 34 will only have 18 frets The fretboard is Indian Rosewood, from Warmoth. more to come later today...

Here's some more pictures of the last few days work. Another picture of the heel cutout. If you look close, you cane see my drawings showing the section to be removed with the router. After the ash/mahogany sides are in palce i'll route the top of the neck down flush with the sides. Then ... Glue on these ash top pieces. Then another mahagonay decorative laminate with a design cut in it. I'll elaborate in later posts. Here i have the top pieces laid over the neck blank and sides, You can see that i'll have to notch out the top to allow for the fretboard. The bridge will mount on top of the 1/8 inch mahogany pieces, seen in the background of other pictures. More pictures coming soon.

Hello everyone, This is my second guitar project. I'v decided to build an 8-string bass(4 couplets). Been spending quite a while planning but now its time to make some cuts... I already had the neckblank laminated together (maple between mahogany)... This is after cutting the headstock angle, plus some sanding... Here you can see where the heel will be. In the back ground you can see the side laminates (ash and mahogany). This is what the back will look like with the ash/mahogany sides glued on... As you may be able to tell from the pictures, this guitar has laminations everywhere. I really like to showcase the wood as much as possible so this guitar will probably have a natural stain with statin clear. Wait till you see what i have in store for the laminations...

Yeah this was a bunk vote. First of all what is the criteria that makes any of those band old?

I had to vote for bassman, i am currently building a bass and wanted to show support for the instrument. That burled top is amazing, it looks like a smoldering bed of embers. VERY COOL! If the Fatboy had had a Bigsby i'd have probably voted for it.

I was just wondering still about the classes of entries? Amateurs versus pros ? Why are we all thrown together?

I usually start by tracing a familiar body style to get a feel for the proportions. Then start making modifications to it. This can help aleviate balance issues. After all, those old body styles have been around and modified for years, no sence in reinventing the wheel. Trying to mimick some of the body lines into the headstock is another thing to pay attention to.

Gotta go with Rhoads here. He never got the chance to live to his full potential. Another amazing musician rippped from this world in a most unfortunate accident. RIP. He would have ruled the world if he were still here. tsk tsk