maull

Nice build, and nice VTX.

Thanks on both accounts. The only downside to this guitar building obsession is that I haven't ridden the bike very much in the last few weeks. I have kind of it blocked in with all by tools.

You can easily afford to carve the heel more. You don't need a gradually sloping heel like that for support. Your neck will be plenty strong enough with a more aggressive heel carve, and will also afford better higher fret access.

Chris

I was kind of thinking the same thing. Thanks for the input though, as this is exactly the kind of thing I was hoping to get out of posting this build.

So I really like the CnC name plates on the control cavity covers. Have you given any thought at all to filling the lettering with colored epoxy (kind of an easy inlay I suppose) which could increase the contrast and make the model name more legible at a distance? Just a crazy thought but it might look cool.

I am really loving how this looks. I also agree with some of the previous comments that the claw marks look great on it. Glad to see you incorporate them into the finish.

Did a little smoothing to the head and neck looking for defects or areas to tweak a little bit.

Body all clamped up. I routed a 1" deep slot in the lower wing to accomodate the wiring and drilled a hole from that slot to where the control cavity will be prior to gluing up. There will still be a bit more work on the neck to heel transition and general tweaking done to the neck once the body comes out of clamps.

Got a little more done yesterday.

Side dots installed.

Rounding the neck profile started. I really enjoyed this part. It took a while with the rasp but it was nice to work intuitively rather than to a strict spec or measurement.<br />

Rounding pretty much finished. I still have a few spots to tweak but will work on that tomorrow.

Used to use Boomers on my bass (for about 15 years). I now use D'Addario's. Bought them when I couldn't get Boomers and really liked the tones. I use Martin's on my acoustics and have switched to D'Addarios for my 6 stringers as well.

I would love to say 5 bucks and 15 minutes to get a new set of strings (the price might work for my 6 stringers) but bass strings cost me about 20-25 bucks for round wounds and about 40 bucks a set for flatwounds for my fretless. A new shop just opened 5 minutes away but prior to that I was driving a minimum of 35 minutes to the nearest shop.

So I am a little new at this but I am curious how you did those bindings to match the frets. It looks awesome and my next project (just in the design stage) is a LP copy for a friend. Would love to add some detail like that.

Had a little router mishap tonight. I was trimming down the laminate on the headstock and tightening up the shape by a few 16ths of an inch when I got a little tear out on one of the ears.

So I am sitting looking at this and thinking "I can fix this". I look around and just see sawdust everywhere. I am starting to feel a little bummed when my wife shows up. I tell her I can't find the piece that tore out and she looks at the sawdust covered floor. I start to say "You are never gonna find it in there..." when she reaches down and grabs something. She hands it to me and says "How about this?" Wouldn't you know she found half of the tear out. I eventually found the other half a few feet away and glued the pieces back in place.

All clamped up. Finishing up the routing will have to wait until tomorrow when the glue dries thoroughly.

That happens more than people are willing to admit Maull. It still takes an eye and a mind put together all the ingredients into a cohesive whole though. Just watch the direction you rout slots if you rout them full width as one way causes the router to bite in and away from the fence. Easy to patch in a few layered pieces of veneer in there to conform to the curve.

PJ pickup config eh? I am halfway through a replica build which will have a PJ and I believe that it is worthwhile making sure that the J has sufficient output to match the P. Do the EMG PJ sets counter for this imbalance?

I am no electronics guru by any means. I don't have a solid technical answer for you, however my 2 main basses are a Ibanez SR800 with a PJ pickup config and a Schecter Studio 4 FL with soap bars. I much prefer the brightness and tone I get out of the PJ pickups compared to the mellower soap bars so I made this decision based on what I have read about this pickup set and my preferences. If anyone out there has anything to add experience-wise I am all ears.

I love the body and headstock shape on this!

Thanks but I can't take too much credit on the design. The body shape is very similar to the Warmoth Gecko and the headstock is based on the Ibanez SoundGear. Since this is my first "from scratch" build I decided to take elements from two basses I really liked.

Side profiles complete. Still need to thickness the neck and head.

Rough cut of body wings completed. Inner horns routed to shape. Couldn't resist mocking it up a little.

Spent a few hours building a router sled to profile the head and the back of the neck.

Added a fillet above the truss rod channel.

...forum is still preventing me from posting more pics.

<p><p>Head routed to shape.

Forum keeps chopping my posts...will update more when there is time.

Ears glued on to head stock.

Body wings laid out.

Specs:

Neck: Maple/Bolivian Rosewood 5 piece laminate.

Body: Maple body wings.

Fretboard: Bolivian Rosewood board. Fretless design with NO visible fret markings (side dots will exist on the actual fret positions for 3, 5, 7, 9, 12, etc per normal).

Hardware(going back and forth between black and gold):

    Schaller 463 bass bridge

    EMG-PJ Active Bass Pickup Set (eventually adding an on board pre-amp)

    Gotoh compact bass tuners

Body and headstock design.

Wood for neck laminate

Neck glued up.

Neck blank out of clamps

Scarf joint being glued.

My first oops. Router jumped away from me. I was expecting something like this to happen since this is my first build but was still a little ticked at myself.

Holy H311 man! That jig looks better than my finished work.

I absolutely love how that head stock turned out. Glad you could turn your problem around with such a solid solution. I am really enjoying this build a lot and look forward to seeing more.

Hey, new guy here. Only been lurking for about a month but am enjoying your builds immensely. I am curious as to which type of strap buttons you use when you recess them like that. I have scoured Allparts, StewMac, and many other sites but have not found anything that looks suitable.