Jump to content

Narcissism

Established Member
  • Posts

    672
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Narcissism

  1. I like it a lot. I think the headstock would look a lot better if it didn't have that laminate stripe going through the middle and completing the entire tip. Perhaps tapering the laminate over the natural wood would look better for the tip of the headstock? I like the shape of it other than that.
  2. you can buy all the above glues in almost sample sized packets. Try taking some of the scrap wood that you have left over, cut it in half with a motorized saw such as a jig saw or band saw, and then glue them back together. You can find out which glue you like the most that way. It may be a waste of time, but its a good way to verify for yourself that the glue you're trying out will work.
  3. I hear Condor beaks make pretty good picks!
  4. I'm not sure if they're still doing it, but i remember Ibanez making "erogodine" basses, which were made from a "synthetic" material that was mold injected to come out with the correct body shape... They sounded okay *shrugs*. I have a feeling they were made of press board, or particle board or something though.
  5. I'm going to assume that there's a company out there called "TK" because this is where i got the bridge: http://www.warmoth.com/hardware/bridges/br...fuseaction=tk_5 The chrome one is the one shown, but on backorder, they have gold and black.
  6. Just a quick update as to what i'm doing, Over the past week, i've glued both wings to the neck. Right now what i'm working on is profiling the body to the heel of the neck. After that, i'm going to sand down the side profile of the part of the neck that goes through the body. As of right now, the neck itself is thicker than my body wings. For the profiling of the body to the heel of the neck, i'm using a big ugly file that's just made for ripping wood off. Should be good!
  7. Yeah, i think i'm going to keep the bottom wing the way it is. I may hit my knee on it, or I may just adapt to playing with it and hold it to the side when walking with it. Either way's doable. Today i received my pickup in the mail, so i spent most of the day measuring and drilling control holes. I used pennies as markers for where the knobs will be, as i don't have 3 gold knobs. I only have 2 silver ones, and one gold one so i don't get quite the effect of gold hardware from the 3. The pickup(s) will be offset diagionally / so as to go along with the body shape. I also drilled some pilot holes and attached the bridge. A while ago, i measured out the placement of the bridge by using the spot on the saddles where the strings sit as my point. The scale length of the neck is a standard carvin 34" 24 fret fretless. So all i had to do is measure 34" from the nut down to the middle part of where all the saddles sit, make it even, slap an old tuner knob in there, and make sure it was intonated correctly. I used Stu-Mac's fret calcuator to do that. Its kind of hard with a fretless, but i managed with some masking tape as fretlines. (edit) Here's a picture with the bridge attached, the pickup location drawn out, and the wiring channel. I grinded out the channel with a dremel that my friend let me borrow. http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w13/dar...ss/IMG_0882.jpg The Channel leads to a diagional hole in the bottom wing which leads to the first drilled pilot hole for the first knob. And here's a pic of the other half of the body being glued on:
  8. As far as a test fit goes, when i originally redesigned and drew out the bass, i had a cardboard cutout of what the end result would have been. I put that over my old 5 string (which i've sold and unfortunately don't have a picture of) and i basically just cut it out little by little until it was comfortable. When i hold this bass, my palm goes along one of the top edges so that the edge lines up right with the heart line in my hand. It feels perfect
  9. Horay, an update! It took me a while, because i wanted to research and test out different planing techniques. I tried out the hand planer... i failed at that. I tuned the planer perfect and everything. *shrugs* So then i tried the shooting board. That worked out pretty well, but unfortunately, i don't have a true flat surface available to me. So i discussed this with some coworkers, (I work at Lowe's) and my buddy, Ray in Hardware brought in his electric hand planer for me to use. It was basically a jointer that was hand held, which i couldn't have asked more of Well, a jointer would have been nice, but i have no room/money for one of those, seeing as this is the only time i'm going to use one. So i planed it, and it came out perfect. I glued the upper wing onto the neck first, because i couldn't find a method or pattern to do both wings at the same time accurately. I'm also waiting for my pickups to come in so i can use them as a tamplate for the routed cavities, as well as a reference for how far away i can put my controls. I'll also use that to determine where to put the channel that the wiring will fit in when i glue it together. Here's the top half clamped to the neck. I used Titebond II to hold the two together as that's what was used on one of the tutorials on this site. I later read that Titebond original is the trusted glue here, but whatcha gonna do? This stuff worked perfectly well. I did a test piece first using a piece of scrap mahogany from the original cut. I basically cut it in half with the jig saw as flat as i could (didn't bother to plane it) and then i glued and clamped them together. The next day, they were officially stuck. I gave it a good hard pull and wrenched with a screwdriver to see if i could pull it apart, but all i did was chip the wood. So i trusted it, used it on the upper wing, and now i have this: http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w13/dar...ss/IMG_0880.jpg Here's the joint for anyone who's interested: http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w13/dar...ss/IMG_0875.jpg More to come as soon as the pickups come in!
  10. One more thing about FRs, There's a slight chance that your knife edges (where the edge of the bridge contacts the post) could be dull. That's only if you're not returning to tune when you use your wammy. If this is the case, then you're going to need to sharpen them.
  11. Thank you very much for the compliments on the flow! I sat there for hours with a pencle and eraser moving lines mm by mm for the template, and the compliment helps a lot! As far as that headstock design goes, I actually pulled the blueprints from this very forum. I suppose i should give credit to them... i can't find the thread that had this CadKey blueprint in it. Someone should recognize it: http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w13/dar...s/194325541.jpg Whoever drew that gets credit for my headstock's shape i guess, lol. Its the guy who made a set of twin KL style explorers. Anywho, yesterday i got myself a hand planer, tuned it up so its completely flat according to the CNC Milling Machine's calibrater, and made me a little shooting board out of a glass cutting board. So now my contact points are all nice and square and they're almost ready to be glued. I just gotta get some pickup measurements, and figure out what configuration i want, and then i'll mark off my routing points and use a dremel to make a small channel through the lower side of the neck for the wiring to pass through. I've also measured out where the bridge should be placed, and i drilled some pilot holes for the mounting screws. That's definately a good idea as far as the screws for the strap pins go. I've had multiple guitars and basses that have had to have those screws replaced because the pin just plain fell out, sending a few guitars crashing to the ground Deep Screws = Stable Strap Pins.
  12. wow, i never thought of the knee thing. Sitting down and playing isn't going to be an issue for me though, because i hang my bass off the side of my body when i sit. It hurts my shoulders and wrists to play with a guitar or bass resting on my thigh. Tell ya what: I'll finish gluing the body together just so i can see if it'll bug me. I didn't notice any bumpage when i put the design tamplate over one of my other basses and played around for a while, but seeing as i was wearing pants cuz it was winter, and the tamplate was made of cardboard instead of heavy mahogany, you are probably right. Its gonna be hard to cut that corner though lol Just for shits and giggles, here's the bass i'm "bass"ing this off of: http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w13/dar...eatherFlame.jpg
  13. Hi! I've been working on this for quite some time now. The end result should be a 5 string fretless bass with a body based off of the Sonic Feather by Sonic Designs, and a headstock that resembles a Ken Lawrence style guitar. The original idea was to make the body out of Bubinga; however, bubinga is very hard to come by. I spent literally months looking for it on Ebay, Lumber Yards all around New England, etc. I found a supplier in Epsom, New Hampshire, but they were fresh out. What i did come across was a very nicely wave figured piece of South American Mahogany. I jumped on that because i didn't think i'd ever come across that again. So here we go: I ordered my neck from Carvin. I don't have the patients or tools to build my own neck, and i really liked the feel of the one that Ken Francis sold me a while back. Its a 5 string, fretless, oversized headstock, unlined, dotted, 24 fret, 34" scale length. You can see that, here: Here's the headstock design with rough tuner hole placements. I won't make the placements for those until i have a bridge so i can line up strings for a straight shot to the tuning peg. I spent a few days drawing, and i decided that a rhomboid would be a pretty good mathematical shape to work off of to modify the Feather design. In this next picture, i have the neck between my already cut mahogany with the rough design drawn out on it. I used a cardboard blueprint to trace my stencle onto the planks. I then cut out the bottom wing using a hand jigsaw that i bought from Lowe's. Then i cut out the top wing. This picture showes the top wing all cut out, and my sanding process. I used little folded up pieces of sand paper that go from 60 grit, all the way up to 600 grit. you can't tell from the picture, but its smooth enough to see yourself in! Here's the two wings. Its kind of a before and after shot as far as the sanding process goes. I haven't cut any of the neck yet, because i was waiting for a bridge to come in. That way, i could figure out where the 34" scale ends and where i could place the bridge, so that if i cut it, part of the bridge won't be hanging off of the end of the body. But here's a picture of what the roughly put together unglued not completed body without any hardware should look like. I just got a bridge in the mail the other day, and right now i'm working on leveling the wings so i can route out a passage for the wiring on the side of the neck and glue the wings to the body nice and flush. I'll update as I go!
  14. A Jointer, huh? I remember seeing those a while ago. Now i also have keywords for looking up processes as well. The shooting board seems to be the most cost effective and space efficient solution to my problem. Thank you all very much for the quick replies!
  15. Hi! I've been lurking around here a lot for the past few years, and i've learned a lot from all of you. I just want to say thank you for all the help! A few months ago, i bought a nice piece of South American Mahogany, and i've been working with it. The plan is to build a fretless neckthrough 5 string bass with 2 humbucker routings and sideways knobs. I've got my shape cut out, i've got my neck, i've got all my hardware, and i'm ready to glue it together. Here's my delemma: You know how the body wings are supposed to be perfectly flat and flush before you glue them to the neck? Well, i don't know what kind of tool i should use to make those contact points perfectly flat. They're definately level. I can hold them up to each other and up against the neck, and there's no space along the edges. However, the edges are sort of rounded, so even though you're looking at the front of the guitar and it looks flush, the back has a gap between the body and the neck that runs the entire length evenly. How do i get rid of this without a jointer or one of those giant long belt sanders? Thank you! P.S. I'm working on getting pictures up so i can share my progress. I'll probably be able to show you all my problem easeir with pictures too.
×
×
  • Create New...