Bassisgreat

Ahhhhh, Pillar Drill = Drill Press to us Yanks. I get it now, great trick. Myka is a great craftsman. Thanks for the tip! Al, the neck looks awesome!

Brilliant! You just taught me to make inlay dots. But, uhhh, what is a pillar drill? and how do you attach the copper tubing? You can PM me if you feel like it would take attention from the beautiful bass in this thread. Who knows, maybe Al has similar questions? I think Bloodwood dots in ebony would look awesome, Al! Edit : I am picky about my spelling. Edit again : Wow you can't say the word that starts with "A" and ends with "NAL" on this board.

Are ya going to veneer it, or leave it as is? I'd probably go with a Mahogany or Sapele veneer, which can be had for a reasonable price if it's available in your area. Bloodwood would be nice, but I'm big on only using woods that exist elsewhere in the guitar for headstock lams, control covers, etc. Just personal taste. It's coming along nicely!

Dude! It sounds great! You have every reason to be very proud of this one!

I just have to say again that this thing turned out beautifully! How does it play?

Hey Al, it looks like you've routed the truss rod channel all the way through the top of the headstock. Is the route that long by design? Could you explain the reasoning for this? Perhaps I'm missing something, but I thought the route should end shortly after the adjustment nut (just enough space for adjustment tool access). Thanks! And the bass is looking phenomenal!

I'm selling a Boss DR-880 drum machine in mint condition that has been used for maybe 6 hours by it's only owner, my guitar player. It will come with the owner's manual, but the box was thrown away. The price is $300 obo + actual shipping cost! Here's a pic to further entice you...

yep, well I have access to a jointer, but for this top (about 3/16" thick) I think that this method will be safer. A sanding table is another way of effectively doing things. I had a shooting stick available, so that's what I used. Power tools are great! If you can afford them and the space they occupy!

I don't know if this is useful to anyone or not, but I figured that since I've gotten so much useful info from this site that if I had ANYTHING to share, I'd pass it along. Maybe someone will be able to use it, who knows. Anyhow, I take the wood to be joined and if it doesn't already have a pretty close to straight line on the joining edge, I'll stack them (using double-sided tape to avoid slipping) with the surfaces to be jointed on one side and make the smallest possible rip with the tablesaw to flatten the edges. At that point, you'll be close to the perfect joint already, but the next step will ensure it. I then take the two boards and clamp them together (you can stick them together with double-sided tape in between to avoid slipping) between two larger pieces of MDF with just about 1/8" of the edge to be jointed hanging out, as level as possible. Then I take a shooting stick (a flat, square board with sandpaper double-sided taped to it) and run it along the exposed edge until both sides are nice, flat and smooth. Then, when you take it out of the clamps, voila, a perfectly invisible seam! I'll be using this process to join a top that is too thin for me to be comfortable using a jointer, and I feel it gives a better join anyhow, if you're willing to expend the elbow grease! I can take pics of the process if anyone is interested in seeing them. Hope this helps somebody...

Ummmm, meant to post this in Reference and tutorials... I'm going to put it there as well, and a kind mod can feel free to delete this version. Thanks! I don't know if this is useful to anyone or not, but I figured that since I've gotten so much useful info from this site that if I had ANYTHING to share, I'd pass it along. Maybe someone will be able to use it, who knows. Anyhow, I take the wood to be joined and if it doesn't already have a pretty close to straight line on the joining edge, I'll stack them with the surfaces to be jointed on one side and make the smallest possible rip with the tablesaw to flatten the edges. At that point, you'll be close to the perfect joint already, but the next step will ensure it. I then take the two boards and clamp them together (you can also stick them together with double-sided tape in between to avoid slipping) between two larger pieces of MDF with just about 1/8" of the edge to be jointed hanging out, as level as possible. Then you take a shooting stick (a flat, square board with sandpaper double-sided taped to it) and run it along the exposed edge until both sides are nice, flat and smooth. Then, when you take it out of the clamps, voila, a perfectly invisible seam! I'll be using this process to join a top that is too thin for me to be comfortable using a jointer, and I feel it gives a better join anyhow, if you're willing to expend the elbow grease! I can take pics of the process if anyone is interested in seeing them. Hope this helps somebody...

Looks killer! I'm definitely going to have to check this beauty out! It's going to make the 6 string I'm building look tiny!

I dig it! I like the upper horn, the curve is unique and the grain orientation on that part of the body accents it wonderfully. Great work! My first bass body is now in a closet and will, at some point, become a guitar body... I'm moving on and saving the challenge of rectifying those mistakes for a future build...

Hey jmrentis, that was an ingenious way to do it, considering your resources! Edit: I just typed out the same thing Kenny said right above me! :DB) And that was yesterday. Man, I need to make sure I read everything before I reply, anyhow, if you feel like reading it anyway... here's my method. I'll be trying this on my next instrument. You can take a body blank with plenty of extra thickness to a mill shop and have them resaw a slice off the top that is the thickness you want your cavity cover to be (I'd probably have them go a little thicker, then clean up the cut with a surface planer or sander if I'm in the mill shop anyhow). Then you simply route your cavity and cut out the cover from the matching grain on the thin slice you had made. This will eliminate the need for lamination, but requires that you have enough excess wood and resources to do the resaw. Quartersawn Black Limba is an ideal wood for this as the grain is so pronounced and stays somewhat even through the thickness of the board. This also means that since you'll have a full size 1/8 inch or so slice of your body wood, you'll have plenty left over for headstock overlays, inlays, etc, rather than routing it away. With my resources, I prefer a mill shop to the home band saw for 2 reasons: 1) If you've already glued the body blank, it may not fit into the bandsaw you have. You could fix this by just cutting a slice off of half of the body blank before you glue it up, then planing both to be even again before you glue up. It's all about planning ahead! Something I'm not always good at... 2) because the resaw blades at the shop are wider and produce a cleaner cut, you'll have less waste. This is only important if you have a marginal amount of extra wood to work with.

I think the jack placement is more functionally practical for Dirge because it will keep his cord from interfering with the wheel on his chair, which I could imagine would get annoying. I dig the guitar and would love to play one like it, just because it looks killer! Necessity is the mother of all invention, eh? Edit : Can we get a pic of the back? That mahogany is killer!

Sweet! I dig it, man.

I can see now that the fingerboard perfectly compliments this bass. Beautiful. I guess it's all a matter of well thought out combos. I stand somewhat corrected on the persimmon. Still not sure if I'll use it, but it looks great on your instrument!

Thanks for the invite, I'd definitely like to make it that way sometime soon, maybe once you've gotten this bad boy finished. By that time, there's a slim chance I'll have my first bass done to bring out there, but it's doubtful. I head out to Arlington quite a bit as that's where my guitar player and drummer live, thus, where we practice... 2/3 majority means I get to drive... so maybe some weekend I can stop by before practice. Won't be long till you're crossing the finish line with this one! What kind of music are you going to be playing with it? and hey, since you're in the area, know any good metal singers??? Keep up the good work!

It looks great! are we gonna get to hear it?

This is coming along very nicely! Can't wait to see it done, I'm sure you can't either! With 8 strings and 6 tone knobs, it's like you've morphed 2 standard range basses together! I live in Dallas, as well, so I'd love to A) check out that BBQ Mikro was talking about, I'm craving that like crazy now. and B ) check out this bass and both Jon and Mikros instruments and shops! Will there be sound clips/vids when it's done? I'm curious as to how that pickup placement will sound. I imagine somewhat bright and punchy. Good stuff!

Hey, nice bass! I too am looking forward to seeing how this turns out! I have to be honest, I don't know if I fully see the draw behind the persimmon. I've never seen a piece in person, so ignorance as to what it looks like in person may be the issue there. It does have a cool texture, I'm just not sure I dig the color. Different strokes. The inlay, on the other hand, is fabulous! Simple and elegant. Keep up the great work!

I haven't had an opportunity to play on a fanned fret bass, but I must say the concept is intriguing and I am pretty curious about it. Too bad I don't know anywhere to go to try one out. This should be a cool build. I saw the last project you worked on and was very impressed! Now stop reading and start cutting!!

I just came across this thread yesterday and just now finished getting through it all. All I can say is simply gorgeous! Your instruments are definitely pro quality and you seem to get through them so quickly! Great work man! One question. Many of the singlecuts I've seen have incorporated a neck through construction, and I see that you are using either set neck or bolt on construction for these instruments. Is there a reason you prefer these methods? I can see that it allows for alot of variation in the woods you can use for the neck, making for tonal and aesthetic differences that may not otherwise be possible or practical. Is this it?

I dunno, I'd make a center laminate for a neck out of it. In any case, that's a cool score and though I've seen it before, I've not heard it referred to as common. I guess I don't get to play with exotic woods enough!!

Thank you for confirming my suspicion. I thought that was the case, but wanted to verify. I did some reading in the "how to determine neck angle" thread, and couldn't find anything about headstock angle playing a part in that. I'm going to research the neck angle anyhow, just to educate myself if I want to build a guitar that requires it. Thanks!

Hey everybody, I am currently building a bass with a neck that I had pre-built, and it has a 13 degree angled headstock, I believe. My brother in law says that a neck with an angled headstock requires that I make an angle in the heel pocket or body to keep the action correct. Is this the case? As far as I know, if I cut a flat neck pocket, the nut and bridge should still have the correct angle between them. I can't see why it would be any different than a "Fender style" (flat) headstock. What is it, exactly, that causes one to need an angled neck? Can I angle the headstock and install the neck flat? Sorry about the newb question I just want to make sure I understand the concept here before I start cutting any wood. Please enlighten me!