fookgub

Yeah, but if you slot your board before gluing then you still don't want it moving around because the fret slots won't be square to the centerline of the neck. It's not that hard to line up the fingerboard while gluing, and I find the ability to slot before gluing more than offsets the work. I don't taper my boards until after gluing, but good alignment is still key.

Still going back and forth on the pickguard. I really wanted to top-rout this one, but I'm having trouble coming up with a shape that will work with the electronics and not look wonky. For the finish, I'm leaning towards metal flake red, and I think it might be overpowering with no pickguard. A pearloid guard would look great. I may do a decorative pickguard like on the modulus flea:

I use thumb tacks to line up my fingerboards. Just push it hard into the neck, give it a little tap with a hammer if needed (be careful--- they're easy to bend), then cut the head off at an angle with a pair of flush cutters. Then I just line up the fingerboard and push it down hard to fix it in place. After that, it's glue-up as usual. I usually use one thumb tack between the 1st and 2nd frets and another one towards the end of the fretboard on opposite sides of the fretboard. Haven't had one slip yet.

I'll give the pickguard a little more thought. I had always intended for this bass to have one (and I've been planning to build this thing for years), but you're right that I don't really need one. Pickups are a tricky issue. I did a pretty exhaustive search before I settled on the BL's (which I haven't bought yet, btw). I wanted something that sounds like a traditional jazz pickup, so that leaves out the side-by-side rail designs and some of the wild stuff like Q-Tuner and Villex. I don't like Barts or EMGs, so they're out. I didn't want to spend more than about $200 for all three pickups (though I would go up to about $250 for the right pickups), so that leaves out nearly all of the custom and boutique manufacturers. What's left is Carvin and Bill Lawrence, and the Carvin pickups have spotty reviews. Of course, if there are any other alternatives out there, I'm all ears. I'd really like to find something that's hum-canceling, as the BL's are traditional single coils. I'd be interested in the Lace Alumitones if they weren't so outlandishly overpriced. Custom spaced Nordstrand NJ4SV's would be my number 1 pick if I was swimming in cash.

34.625 for the E and 32.375 for the G. The "parallel" fret is about 7.25 (just past the 7th fret). Thanks for all the comments so far... nice to see people getting interested in my build.

Here's the full mockup: Equivalent string spread at the neck pickup is the same as the bridge pickup string spread on a normal jazz bass. I'll be using Bill Lawrence J-45's to deal with that. All three pickups are bridge size.

Been working on this little by little for a while. It's actually an old project, but it got buried by some of my other stuff for about a year. There's a neck in approximately the same state of construction... but it's downstairs. I might take a picture of it later. Still working on the pickguard shape some, but it's getting closer.

I did the first one with a triangle file because I didn't hadn't bought the slotting files yet. A triangle file will work, but it's pretty ugly and it increases the risk of strings binding in the slot. Real nut files are the way to go if you plan to do this more than a couple times. I bought the files that Warmoth sells. They're ok, but if I could do it over again, I would get the Ibanez ones from Allied Lutherie.

I did this a while ago: http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=27107 Although it was perfect when first finished, a line in the finish eventually appeared around the fill. Probably an unavoidable result of unequal wood movement at the joint. I would recommend veneering the guitar front and back to prevent this.

Thanks for the comments. Frank - I was especially inspired by your guitars. I'm quite sure I would not have built it if I hadn't have seen the Less Tall. It was a lot of fun building this guitar, particularly the "no pressure" aspect. I pretty much built the whole thing by the seat of my pants, and it worked out great. It also gave me a chance to try out a number of things -- first scarf joint, first set neck, first hand-slotting of a fretboard, and a few others. Overall, this has been my easiest, and probably most fun build. Btw, I'm using 8-gauge strings. I patterned the scale length and string gauge choices after your guitars.

Well, I bought a 36"x48" piece of 1/16" thick XX from them. I was intending to use it for all sorts of stuff... accent lines, headstock veneers, fretboards (the 3/16" thick fretboard blank I have is laminated from 3 pieces of the stuff), neck stringers, etc. You may just need to suck it up and buy a big piece. That way you'll have extra if you want to use it for other stuff or make more guitars. It's a pretty good material for control cavity covers, too.

Thanks for the comments, guys! Drak - The Variax system is not too hard to deal with. The connectors are all keyed, so you don't have to worry about connecting things wrong. The are a few loose wires to deal with, but as long as you make a note of how things go together when you're disassembling it, you won't have any trouble putting it back together. The one gotcha is the flex circuit that connects the piezos to the mainboard. If you decide to move it from the bridge baseplate, you will need to solder longer wires to it (see this picture: http://users.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/vax-eleinstall1.jpg). Soldering to flex can be a bit tricky. You have to be careful not to overheat the board. Make sure you don't swap any of the channels because the guitar may not sound right if you do. The flex circuit can be inserted into the connector on the mainboard in either the up or down direction. This is very helpful when moving the flex circuit, but again, you have to make a note of what goes where so you can put it back together right. One other Variax gotcha is the power supply. The Line 6 guitars have the option of using 6 AA batteries when mains power is not available. Unfortunately, you don't get much runtime, and the battery compartment is, in my opinion, ugly and poorly designed. I just left it out, which means the guitar is useless without the external power supply, but it's one less battery mucher. Power is supplied on the ring terminal of a standard 1/4" stereo cable, so there's no requirement for a separate power cable. Also, if you buy a lefty Variax like I did (usually cheaper), you will need to flip the connectors on the volume, tone, and model pots, and insert the flex connector for the piezos upside down. Erik - I was a little concerned about the neck joint, too. It wasn't supposed to be that thin, but I accidentally sanded it down when I was stripping the guitar for refinishing. It seems to be holding up so far, though, so hopefully it will be all right. It does afford very comfortable upper fret access. Anyway, I'm really digging the stainless steel fretwire on the neck. Very smooth feeling, and it's reassuring to know how slowly it will wear. I'm planning to start using SS wire on all my new necks. Here is a picture of the guitar hooked up to my computer for some patch editing. Note the 1/4" cable (necessary for power and output to an amp) and the network cable for hooking up to the computer (via the Line 6 USB interface). And in case anyone is wondering... yes, that is indeed a 13-year old Duke Nukem mousepad (came with the Atomic Pack, IIRC) http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/duke-mousepad.jpg

For years, I used Ernie Ball 9-42's, believing that the thin gauges made it easier to play faster. About 2 years ago I started using 10-46's on a few of my guitars and now I've equipped all my guitars with them. It is ever-so-slightly harder to bend the 10's, but I find it a little easier to pull of fast double-picking lines because of the increased tension. I also think the thicker strings have a slightly meatier sound, which I prefer.

The binder for XX Garolite is actually phenolic resin. I don't know if that would make a difference when gluing. I always rough up the gluing surfaces with 80-grit or coarser sandpaper or an old hacksaw blade, and I have had more wood/Garolite joints come apart than not. I've tried a couple different brands of epoxy with similar results. Too bad, because it would be a great material for accent pieces if I could only figure out how to glue it. Oddly, almost all of my joint failures have been between maple and Garolite, so it may be a problem with my wood prep. The Garolite/Garolite joints seem to be holding fine, as is the one Garolite/mahogany joint I glued up. Bonding is really the only problem I've had with Garolite, but it has been a real problem. I would glue up a few test pieces and make sure you're getting consistent bonds before you glue up your fingerboard. I actually have a 3/16" thick piece that I was planning to use as a fretboard, but it's been shelved until I sort out my bonding process. I would expect radiusing to be a huge chore with Garolite fretboard... it is a very tough material. It will probably show some grain after radiusing, due to the fact that it's made up of multiple layers of paper and resin, but I believe it would take a high polish. Anyway, I have only tried the XX grade Garolite, but I would expect XX, CE, and LE to all be suitable for fretboards. Stay away from anything with glass cloth unless you know how to work with these materials... they will rapidly destroy most cutting tools. I would not expect the graphite-impregnated grades to be any stiffer than the standard grades. Graphite is added to reduce friction and increase surface wear resistance, not to increase tensile strength.

McMaster-Carr sells it under the brand Garolite. The XX grade is paper-based, as I recall. I ordered some a while ago and had nothing but problems. For one, it's difficult to glue. I had more than one glue joint come apart. This was with epoxy... word is Titebond can be used, but I haven't tried it yet. Polyurethane glue might work, too, but I haven't tried that either. Garolite is not very stiff. A 1/4" thick piece will be noticeably more flexible than a piece of wood. It's probably better when glued up, as the stuff has a lot of strength in compression, but I would want to make sure I was building some extra strength into the neck itself if I was planning to use a Garolite fretboard.

A little progress to report. Color coats are done, and I've sprayed 2 sealer coats on top. Still have about 10 clear coats to go. I swapped out the top-loading bridge for a lower-profile string-through bridge from Mighty Mite, and moved it back about 1/4". That fixed the intonation, saddle height, and break angle issues. Also swapped out the no-name crappy tuners for some Gotohs that are a little shorter. That fixed the break angle over the nut and also made tuning much easier (the old tuners had about a half-turn of backlash!). I had to lap the bottom of the bridge as it wasn't flat. I was really starting to get frustrated because I couldn't measure any deviation on the guitar face, but the bridge wouldn't sit without rocking. Finally a friend of mine came over and stuck a straight edge against the bottom of the bridge. Sure enough it was out... by a lot, too. http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/octave-colors-5.jpg

Finally (almost) done! Only thing left to do is make a cover for the jack cavity. I probably won't get to that for a quite a while, so this is as done as it's getting for now. This project got backburnered in a big way, and at one point I wasn't even sure I would ever finish it. I wasn't really happy with the neck I built for it, so I ended up ordering one from Carvin just to get the project finished up. Now that it's done, I'm actually very happy with it. Lots of sounds are available, and with the right settings it sounds quite convincing. The other neck is getting reworked and will end up on a different guitar eventually. http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/variax-done-3.jpg http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/variax-done-4.jpg http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/variax-done-6.jpg http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/variax-done-7.jpg

Neat, but kinda gimmicky... I'd rather have this: http://www.frets.com/FRETSPages/Fun/PickMa...ickmachine.html

There are a couple companies floating around making steel guitars. Hollowbodies made from thin sheet steel welded at the edges seem to be the common path. I may have a couple of these guys bookmarked at home, so I'll see if I can dig them up when I get off work. A steel-bodied guitar is perfectly do-able given the proper skills, planning, and tools. Anyway, common steel will interact with magnetic fields, possibly changing the sound by altering the shape and strength of the field. However, the magnitude of this effect is up for grabs. My gut feeling is that it won't make much difference.

http://www.frets.com/FRETSPages/Luthier/Te...acecontour.html God I love Frank Ford's website!

Sounds like your best bet would be to find a used Charvel neck on eBay that's in pretty good shape. You might look into Carvin, too. I bought a neck from them recently and was pleasantly surprised by the quality. It's got a fairly thin carve (about halfway between an Ibanez and a Strat), clean fretwork with lots of options (I got mine with med-jumbo stainless steel frets), a few headstock options (you may be able to reshape the reverse headstock shape to fit your tastes, or cut your own from a blank paddlehead), compound radius, and they're pretty cheap. One thing to be wary of, though, is that the Carvin necks are a bit wide, so you may need to modify either the neck pocket or the neck to make it fit. Also, don't buy a left-handed neck unless you want to install side dots. They will be on the wrong side of the fretboard for right-handed use.

EE would give you the tools you need to learn this stuff, but programs that actually teach it as part of the curriculum are few and far between. Best thing to do is learn circuit design in school and apply it to guitars on your own time.

There's always this:

Just wondering what you guys are using to remove the fret tangs on SS wire. Do the tang nippers that Stewmac sells hold up? Is the LMI jig worthwhile (It seems like a lot of cash to plunk down)? Any other options?

I sent them an e-mail last year and never heard back. I couldn't be bothered to send another one. I figure if they don't need my business, then I don't want to give them my money. I may try again someday, though... they have some really nice looking sets. Maybe the e-mail got accidentally filed as spam or something.