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!