orgmorg

Soon come, mon. soon come. Cool, what sort of bass?

Thanks. Ya, I think this one will be a lot of fun, both to build and to play. We do a lot of celtic-influenced stuff in our group, and this will fit in quite nicely with that. It also gives me something to do with this pickup, which is a Dearmond turbo jet bass pickup. I got it, and a few others a while back, and later realised the pole piece spacing was too narrow for a standard bass. I don't know what they were made for, probably something like the old Hagstrom basses, but the string spacing works out just right for this. The neck will be set, with the fretboard ending just past the top edge of the pickguard ( which will be cut to fit it later ) and the neck shaft extending underneath the guard, ending just before the hollowed out area. There are 24 fret slots now, but I am going to trim it back to 22.

1/2", 3 or 4 teeth per inch is best for resawing. The saw may take a 3/4", but it will perform better with the 1/2", as it may not be able to put enough tension on the wider band.

Here's something ya don't see everyday: I mentioned this project briefly in another post regarding string gauges, and a couple people expressed interest in it, so here is what I have so far. A mandocello, for those who don't know, is a member of the mandolin family in the range of a cello, with 8 strings grouped in pairs, like a mandolin. My version is a bit different, with octave strings instead of unison pairs, ( kinda like the lower strings of a 12 string guitar ) and a slightly longer scale length ( 26.25" ) And, as you can see, it is electric. It will be tuned in fifths, Cc-Gg-Dd-Aa The body is 1 piece of Kentucky Coffetree, hollowed out in the middle, and the neck is hard maple, with a scarf jointed headstock, and Mesquite fingerboard. The pickguard is padauk. Here's a pic without the pickguard: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v645/orgmorg/mcello3.jpg And a closer one with it: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v645/orgmorg/mcello2.jpg The bridge will be made of mesquite, with 8 movable brass saddles.

No problems there. Just called them, and all shipping charges will be refunded, didn't even have to ask.

Looking good, Jon! I guess you kinda need to use the Hipshot ultralites to keep the weight down? Have you thought about using guitar tuners for the smaller strings, or would that look too goofy?

Don't worry about putting the extra time into making a template, it will be worth it. Besides, you would end up spending about the same amount of time trying to get the edges of the recess perfect if you did it without a template. Once you get the template right, and the pickguard fits in it perfectly, the routing of the body will go pretty quick, and there will be much less worry about screwing up the body.

Somethings screwy. The specs for the M6 locking tuners give .950" for the post height. A 5/8" headstock ( .625" ) should leave .325" or just over 5/16" 9/16" is not on the thick side for a headstock, actually it is pretty typical. 5/8" is even fairly common. I went and measured every tuner I have, and couldn't find one that wouldn't accomodate a 5/8" headstock under the washer and locknut, with the top of the locknut right about where the post starts to narrow. Stew macs page says the M6 lockers do have graduated posts, but only list one length in the specs, so I guess it is possible you ended up with all short ones, and they are indeed too short. I would call Warmoth.

I went ahead and bought one of these, the 18" one, figured I'd give it a shot. The readability issue soapbar brught up is not much of a problem, since the material is translucent. If it were opaque, I can see how the 1/4" thickness would make it harder to see a gap under it, but I found it pretty easy to read. What is a problem is the flatness, or lack thereof. I tried it on a few surfaces that are supposed to be dead flat- my jointer and tablesaw tops, and found a gap under it, in the middle. When I flipped it over, there were gaps at the ends, and I got these same results repeatedly, with repeated cleaning of all surfaces, so it was not a problem with the jointer or tablesaw tops. Then, I placed it with the gap in the middle, and put my dial indicator on it, in the middle of the beam, and lightly pressed down. The gap easily closed, and the dial read .003" change every time I tried it. So, basically, I would have to say it sucks. Glad I didn't get the 30"

The top piece in this pic is persimmon, which is a relative of ebony. The bottom is hard maple, for comparison. Haven't finished this one yet, so I can't say how well it works, but it is very dense and hard, so I believe it will make a very nice fingerboard.

Thanks for posting that. I have an old Alvarez acoustic with a fingerboard just like that. I was going to take a pic of it, but now I don't have to. Strings, fingers, whatever. If a rosewood board gets worn like that, a spruce board would get ground to mush. Mine belonged to a old redneck preacher man who must have wrung the fear of god out of the thing. The frets are worn almost all the way thru the crown in places. I found the tip of a rattlesnake tail inside, as well.

No, the wood I am talking about is dry, between 6 and 8% moisture content. Small changes in relative humidity will do this to wide thin boards left with one face exposed to the air. Keeping them stickered helps, as does keeping them dead stacked with thicker, heavier pieces on top. I just often forget to put stuff away properly.

Before you do anything else, try this: Just place it on a flat surface in a warm, dry room. Wait a day or two and see what it does. If it doesn't change, flip it over, and wait another day or two. It may even itself out over time, or not, but I would give it that time before trying to add weight or water. I have pieces like this that I have glued up, that will bow 1/4" or so, and if I flip them over, they will bow the other way an equal amount within a day.

Probably something to do with not having grubby fingertips grinding steel wires across it.

Well, not so much the price, but the fact that it wouldn't last very long as a fingerboard. It's quite soft.

About the angles- Check this thread out, if you haven't already: http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=14036 Based on what you have said, you may find you do not need a neck angle at all. Also, if your neck blank is only 2" thick, you may not have enough material for much of a headstock angle. A 13 deg headstock on a guitar requires 2 1/4" of stock for a 7" long headstock, and your head will probably be a bit longer, being a 6 string bass. Draw it out on paper. You may get away with it, but you will probably need to reduce the headstock angle a bit. If you decide for some reason you need some neck angle, you will need to cut the angle out of the body end. ( This is neck-thru, right? ) in order to have enough height left at the headstock for any kind of angle there. Sounds like a fun project, and you are doing well to work out these details beforehand.

Ya, I've been playing around with that first one quite a bit. Acoustic instruments usually use higher tension than their electric counterparts, so I didn't want to just adjust the standard mandocello guages to a longer scale. Before I posted this,I had read thru a bunch of posts here about electric baritones, and there were a lot of different preferences for string gauges for a bunch of different scales and tunings. I was hoping someone had done one with a low C around 26.25" and had a string gauge they were happy with. I was, however able to use the info I found to plug into the string calc and come up with what seems to be a reasonable equivalent for my application. What I ended up with was 66-42-28-18 for the fundamentals, and 30-20-12-08 for the octave strings. Should be a good starting point, anyway. We'll see how it turns out. I will definitely post progress pics and such, as I get further into it. Thanks for the reply.

Yep, made in Japan, and actually pretty decent quality. Not just for newbs, either. Rick Derringer, Peter Frampton, and of course, Leslie West endorsed and played them. $100 is probably about what they tend to go for these days. The Dynasty was a weird one. Pretty unique shape. Could be a fun project.

This is why I suggest the guide bushings. With a guide bushing and a plain straight cut bit ( no bearing ) you can use the same template, and lower the bit in whatever increments you need. The bushing is on the router baseplate, and the bit goes through it. After that, you are left with 1/16" of material to trim off with your ( still nicely sharp ) pattern bearing bit, with the same template in the same position,. Yes, it still takes a long time, if you only have a router, or only want to use one, that would be the best way, as I see it, and actually I would prefer that to a jig saw. As the consort mentions, they can wander quite badly in curves in thick stock. If his neighbor happens to have a real nice Bosch with the proper swiss fleam milled blades, then he could do it ok, if he left it at least 1/4" oversize. But then he has to trim that 1/4" with the pattern bit, increasing the chance of tearout. Personally, I don't use a router at all for this. I use my template to draw the outline on the wood, cut it about 1/16+" oversize on the bandsaw, and sand to the line with a spindle sander.

If your router can use template bushings, you can cut the outline 1/16" oversize by taking many shallow passes with a regular straight cut bit. Time consuming, but about the only way I would want to do it if I could use only a router. Then you can finish up with the bearing bit on the same template.

I need to figure out string gauges for an electric mandocello I am planning on building. This is 8 strings, in pairs. The typical acoustic mandocello is around 25" scale, tuned CC GG DD AA, with the low C's a fourth below a guitar's E string, gauged .074, .048, .034, .022. I want to use a 26.25" scale, with octave strings, instead of unison. For those of you into the baritones, what gauge seems to work best for a low C ( or B ) around that scale length. Also, for the higher strings, do you want less tension than the lows? Thanks.

Cool! let us know how you like it. That's one I have been interested in. Black and Decker, actually. They bought Pentair's power tool division in 2004, which included Porter-Cable, Delta, Oldham, and a couple other entities. B+D also owns Dewalt.

Make sure you check out the string spacing, though. I think some of the older Gibsons and Gretsches and such had a narrower spread than the Fenders and most other basses, which most pickups are designed for.

I don't know which model it is off hand, but my friend has a Dewalt 2hp plunge router which I have used. I really like the depth adjustments on it a lot. They allow for a great deal of precicion, and easy to use. The Porter Cables I have used seem a bit clunky in comparison. I also have the Makita 3612, and like it quite well. It has tons of power, and is real smooth running. I have used it under a table, but found it awkward to adjust. I've heard great things about the Triton as well, and I would definitely consider it over the PC for table use. It just seems ( from what I can see ) that it is better suited for high precision router table use. towards trapping more dust in the grooves, yes. Best to keep them dry, and use a dry teflon type spray. Then just pull the motor out of the base frequently, and blow it out with air.

On the big porter cable, or even the 690 with the non-plunge base- I used the big one in a router table once, and had a huge problem with dust getting packed in the spiral grooves inside the base. If you are thinking about either of these, get a plunge type, or remember to clean out the grooves frequently. The one I had got so jammed up I couldn't adjust the height anymore, or even get the motor out of the base to clean them. I never had this problem with my 690, even in a router table, just that big speedmatic. Also a note on the horsepower- they say they are 3hp, but they rate high speed motors differently than normal ones. Even the biggest hand held routers draw only 15 amps at 120v. That's really only 1.25 hp at best. Granted it is 1.25hp at 20,000rpm, but keep in mind the smaller ones like the 690, and other routers in that range pull 11-13 amps, so it isn't as huge a difference as the nameplate HP ratings make it out to be. But yes, there is a noticable difference in power. I doubt you will need that extra power for what you are doing, but it's nice to have it available.