Andyjr1515

Forgotten? I've never known..... I thought clean, well clamped joints were the things of myth and legend, talked about round a crackling open fire by an old sage with a body length beard. "Long, long ago when warriors were brave, damsels were women and a gallon of ale was less than the cost of a bus fare to Tipton...."

Stunning on so many levels.... I am in complete awe over the build quality and also just the choice of woods colours - love the logo. I am in hyper-awe that the discussion of the logo started in 2010. I was a young bloke back then. Now I'm an old git! Please, please do enter it in GOTM! Mind you, I'm now not going to enter anything until you have already done it and won it

Lovely clean joins

I love the carve on the body. It brings out the grain pattern beautifully

Hi, Scott I'd got a bit out of date with this.... ....I kneel in my dribble and bow to the master. I'm pretty certain this would have defeated me. In the end, I would have had to rip off the binding, run a 45 degree bevel all the way round and declare that I've always liked the simplicity of an unbound mandolin....

Looks like some important progress, @Prostheta I use Titebond Extend for all of these kinds of job. To me, in all respects other than the workability time, it seems identical to standard Titebond. But the benefit of that extra working time is, again for me, invaluable. On something like a neck laminate with standard titebond, I feel that the glue at the end I started at is often already getting draggy by the time I'm trying to squeegee it. Also, one small delay (eg a short reposition of the clamping set up) and I often find myself in difficulties.

That's a thought....I wonder what the sonic qualities of cyano and titebond are, combined with 30% timber. Might have stumbled across the holy grail of tone glues woods

Another four things Mick, the new owner, asked for was: A tune-o-matic bridge (yes....I know what you're thinking...more of which later) To be able to use medium scale strings (it's a long scale bass) Some stupendously expensive but very fancy UK pickups - SimS Super Quads (also more of which later) My 'swifts' logo In reverse order, the logo was an easy fix: Note the "not sure where I should drill the D string tuner so I'll put it in a number of places...I'm sure one of them will be OK..." thought pattern of the original builder or (more likely) subsequent modder The edge shaping asked for earlier was straightforward: Mind you, cleaning up the edges revealed some old friends: OK NO MORE MR NICE GUY!!!!! Superglue wicked in until it was oozing through every crevice in the pesky bass's internal organs clamped that tight and for that long until it was within an inch of suffocating to death: And then a VERY stern talking to. One where it crept quietly back to its case and never made a peep all that night and nor the next day. The following day, it re-emerged, meekly and humbly and even offered to do the washing up...now THAT'S the kind of respect I expect from my bass builds!!!! OK....now we could consider Mick's other requests...

They sort of do - and I can certainly précis it in the review - although it's a bit vague about the best way of honing the curved blade (though no different to any curved blade. The last couple of Veritas planes I've bought have made a big play that the blade back is now already fully flattened and 'ready to go' so it's only the bevel that needs honing. Based on the cut, I would agree...

That is looking very impressive, Matt. A scarfe sledge is on my list of rigs to build and this thread has reminded me to pop it a bit higher in the priorities... In terms of your fret cutting, do you use any kind of mitre block or rig to keep your blade vertical?

I'm really pleased with it. For a Veritas, it was also very reasonably priced. I think it is primarily designed for wooden seat scooping and the like but it it is ideal for smooth concave curves. What caught my eye is that it is configured to pull. I find that much easier to use and control than push for this kind of thing. I have some compound curve push planes but they are quite hard to position right and control. It'll probably take me an age to get round to it, but I'll do a quick review when I have a moment.

In terms of the carve, there were two things that the owner specifically wanted me to do: A scoop of the back A carve cut through of the body laminates at the edges and arm relief I was more than happy with that - the body carve is where you have some freedom to make things a bit more special For the scoop, I was able to try out my latest tool acquisition - a Veritas Pull-shave. I bought it as a prelim to tackling a solid-topped archtop. This was a great try out and it is FABULOUS! It made very light work indeed of the scoop: Then I started on the edge carve: ... and the edges on the back and the neck heel: Starting to look a bit less clunky.....

Looks very good, @Norris Andy

You are both very kind. I actually did do a fair bit of writing a fair few years ago. Never really broke through, but I did start getting a much, much better class of rejection.

Wow, Scott. That is some great grandaddy of a task! You look to be defying gravity and achieving the impossible at the moment! Great skill, determination and patience on show

PM coming up, Chris! Andy

With the decision of the back panels made, first job was to rout off the panel that 'wasn't going to shift come hell or high water'. I only had a passing regret But first, to give me a decent routing datum, I glued the first walnut panel on the side already removed: ...and then off came the other side. I could almost hear the bass give a sigh of relief like after unbuttoning the top button of your bought-when-you-were-younger-and-slimmer suit trousers back home at the end of a formal dinner out. ...and then on with the second walnut panel: Pity, of course, that I will be cutting a flaming great control panel in the nicely book-matched pair....oh, well By the way...Top Tip for panels and veneer work if you don't already know...ALWAYS take a paper impression of the hidden voids and holes before you cover up - you will need to know where they are later!

Another great batch of superb builds. And all so different to each other. So different that it made choosing that much harder. In the end, I just had to go on the old technique of 'which would I choose to take home with me.' In brief: Variax Equipped Love the colour. Like very much the combo of great classic plus variax - that's been on my build wish list for ages but getting hold of reasonably priced variax donor has proved to be v difficult in UK! Love the sheer quality of finish of this one. Maui Pallet Using unconventional materials from unconventional sources really rocks my boat - and this one has been done so well! Great build. Love the black detail pieces on the back. Baptist More conventional shape than some, but done with such panache! Nice subtle curves, great colour and wood choices. Superlative build. Sushkov Love the shape of this. Very taken also with some of the design details - for example the jack lead exit. Nice, nice carving and finish quality Which would I most want to take home...the Baptist. I'd be very happy with that in my arsenal. But actually, when no one was looking I'd be running off with the lot of them - every one! Well done, all. Fantastic! Andy

I agree with the others....very impressive carve and a beautiful piece of wood It also made me ponder what would the result if I tackled a carve with a flap wheel. I would probably end up with a guitar body the size of an acoustic guitar bridge peg and a pile of sawdust that would fill a sack....

That looks like a tru-oil slurry and buff job....it is what the walnut species evolved for... Great progress

I've just caught up with this thread. Good progress up the very steep learning curve, @steve1556 Your body blank join is soooooooo much better than my first few ever were...great stuff

Well that will match well with the squinty eyed dude who's just about glue it on

....or WALNUT perhaps

I find that weeping uncontrollably while lying prostrate, clinging pitifully to the persons leg sometimes works. Best not dribble on his/her shoes, though....

Having concluded that it was going to be a case of flossing, swamping and clamping, I set about cleaning up some of the other joints and re-gluing in situ. The second back panel was only about 20% parted so I set about that one first. One of the unusual features of the build that the back panels were oak....and cross-grained. I managed to get the captive one re-glued: It was glued SO well, and clamped SO tightly, this critter wasn't EVER coming off again. I did the same with a split on one of the mahogany layers. I then set about regluing the removed back panel after cleaning it up and re-flattening it But this was odd - it had shrunk quite a bit - in TWO DAYS!!!: Still drying and shrinking maybe. But, hang on....it's also got WIDER in the same time: So clearly, whatever stresses and strains had pulled the bass apart in the first place, were still pulling it apart! So back - once again - to the drawing board. The oak cross grain panels were going to have to go. Oh...remember the "this critter ain't never coming off" pledge?