Andyjr1515

Love it!

What I meant to do, and then forgot, was to leave the excess at the nut in place and pop a couple of panel pins in, then remove the pins and overhang once the board was on. But I forgot and cut the overhang off first. What I do, but realise didn't show on the photo, is file the neck flush with the board at the nut and body end and pop a couple of spool clamps over the board and against the neck at each end to hold the board from surfing left or right - so I only had to watch that it didn't creep forwards or backwards. It's not as sure as a pin, but generally works. Of course, if I was a normal builder, I'd fret after putting the board on and so hide the pin holes in a couple of the fret slots. But why make things easy for yourself when you have the opportunity to make it much, much harder?

So with the fretboard done, time to prepare for attaching it to the neck. But first, while I still have a flat surface to be able to put into my home-made router thicknesser jig, I need to get the neck down to final planned thickness. With a 2.5mm packer at the nut end to give me the taper of thickness, off we go. The clamps double up as end stops for the router carriage: Then the truss-rod fitted and protected from glue squeeze-out with a thin strip of masking tape: You can never have too many clamps: And - to my admitted surprise and relief - one straight and gap free fretboard fitted Just got the neck carve and headstock to do and then the main build part is complete Of course, then comes the finishing...and I've got no idea yet quite what I will do for that...

Nice proportions. Short scale basses are great. With the right strings and pickups they sound every bit as good as the long scales but are so much easier to handle.

Every build you do, I think "That's his best one yet." I reckon this is your best one yet. So, so good.

Thanks, Ash Although it's on the very edge of OTT, the exposed neckthrough will, once all the metalwork is in place and the finish has darkened it, look quite good. It was, however, born out of necessity - the 335 shape is a VERY wide guitar and this is pretty much the widest you can reasonably easily get hold of ebony. With the frets in (fretboard not glued yet) it's definitely starting to look like a guitar now, though

And so, on a 'measure 14 times and cut once' basis, the fretboard taper was cut this morning: And, using a G&W steel fret cutting template as my flat surface, the maple veneer glued onto the bottom - you can never have too many clamps (or radius block cauls)! And that done, I've been able to start the fretting. I'm using Evo Gold fret wire (I've used those on all my personal guitars and basses and the majority of builds for other folk). After de-tanging the ends of each fret: I 'wipe' a triangular needle file along the slot to take the brittle edge off; then apply a teeny thread of titebond; position it in the slot; whack it one side, then the other, then the middle to engage the tangs; wipe off the squeeze-out; then clamp a 12" radius block (the radius of the fretboard) for good measure while I then prepare the next one to be done. 14 done, 8 to go

Wow! This looks fantastic!! Do be careful with DIY spray boothing, though. You probably already have one, but in case anyone else is reading, as well as plenty of ventilation, you need to use a suitable respirator (with solvent filters, not just dust). They are not expensive and are, literally, life savers - this is certainly no time to end up in A&E with a serious respiratory complaint

And so, all going well, this week should see the fretboard tapered, fretted, glued, neck tapered and headstock shaped. For the fretboard, Jack is opting for no binding and a veneer pinstripe - this kind of thing: That all done, then that will leave just the neck profile to do (Jack will be sending me profile tracings and sizes taken from his favourite neck. All necks have their own feel but, hopefully, I can get him a pleasing familiarity with it ) and the build itself will be essentially finished. And after that, the finishing can start...and that's where the magic really starts with nice woods like these

One of my friends said it looked like a black forest gateau...so I know what you mean, Scott.

For inlays on a curved board where I've used a dremel/precision router, I personally just deepen the router bit a tough and take the 'hump' off. When the epoxy mixed with dust I use is put in, it fills any voids but it means that the extremities of the inlay are properly seated. Love the last build - looking forward to seeing this one develop.

Looking good, Ash

For darker woods, I generally use epoxy mixed with a generous amount of fine sawdust. The squeeze-out fills all gaps, including the micro gap present even in the closest fitting inlay. Sanded down it is as invisible (to your eye and fretting fingers) as your excellent fretboard hole fills. Works less well with lighter woods such as maple where the dust darkens and so can look like a border if the fit isn't very tight. Impressive build and fascinating discussion about actually designing the nut-to-post distances to match exact harmonics....

Those builds and finishes are lovely, @Blackdog !

That finished Jag looks very good You can do many of the stages with the simplest of tools...just needs a bit of innovative thinking and a decent dollop of effort

Well, it's starting to look like a guitar at last. I finished off the binding with some maple and ebony offcut. Bent on the side-bending iron and then using the iron-on veneer method as with a number of my previous builds: And then onto the pickup chambers. As many of you know, I hate routers, but for this job they are jolly useful. Nevertheless, I minimise the amount done with the router and only use it when it is fully captive. The wide range Mojo pickups have narrow fixing tabs and so may well be solid fixed. There may be a covering ring of thin ebony, or maybe not...whatever Jack prefers. Again, I've gone over my slightly unconventional method before but, in brief: I mark out the external lines and drill the corner radii: I hog out with a Forstner (hand held as the 335-size body is too wide for my small drill-press): By the way, that is a continuous multiwood strip - stretched out it's over a foot long. Those Fisch Wave forstner bits are something else! This next bit is where I drift away from the conventional - the use of routing templates...but I hate routing templates even more than the pesky router itself. So I chisel up to the external line down to around 5mm from the top: And now, with the top-bearing router bit totally captive, use that to tidy the sides up to the chiselled line and rout down to the final depth: And, with just a bit of chisel tidying to do, we have a couple of chambers: Next job is fretboard taper, fretting and binding

Very nice, indeed

Oh...my...goodness That's outstandingly good - let alone for a save!

Yes, Scott. Where it is going to end square, I usually cut to 24 and the use the fret slot to cut down to final length with a properly square end. If I'm going to do a shaped end, I cut the final number of slots so I can leave plenty of length for the end section. Even though the original was only 20 frets, we are opting for 22 which will mean that the neck pickup will be a couple of cm closer to the bridge.

And I'm glad you haven't been following that approach, @Prostheta - there are some fascinating things going on here. Talk about pushing the boundaries of the envelope!

And then there's the immortal words of Derek Brimstone, 'If at first you don't succeed...then sod it!'

Next job was to get a couple of swifts at the 12th fret. Normal stuff of MoP cut out with a jeweller's saw, chambers routed out with a 1mm bit in the Dremel and glued in with epoxy mixed with ebony dust: In the meantime, Jack was able to confirm where he wanted the toggle and pots (we're going conventional 3-way, V/V/T) and so I was able to thin the ebony internally for the switch to fit - taking a paper template so that I knew exactly where the thinning was - and then glue to second top section on: And then this morning was able to mirror the soft carve on the bottom half. And any excuse for a mockup The fretboard here is longer than it will finish up (this is slotted at 24 frets and it will end up at 21 or 22) and so the neck pickup position will be 2-3cm closer to the nut - but it gives a general idea of how it's going to look: And actually, Jack has sent me some custom Mojo (a well respected UK boutique maker) wide-range pickups for it so this is probably a better representation, again with the neck pickup 2-3cm higher up than in the shot :

Grandparent duties done and it's back to the other little beauty I got a lovely piece of ebony from Luthierwood.com. We are going for a 'standard' 12" radius at 24 3/4" scale. First out was the excellent radius router jig from G&W: It makes quick and accurate work of getting the basic radius, ready for a final 20 mins or so sanding with a block to remove the router-bit step lines. Good time to top up my stash of ebony dust too : Next, the equally excellent G&W mitre-block to cut the fret slots: All done - actually 24 done although it will probably be cut off after the 22nd to make sure the neck pickup is in the right place. I will leave the fretboard double-sided-taped on the template to keep it flat until I've done the swift inlays at the 12th. All being well, the treble-side top (just placed on top here) will be able to be glued, trimmed and carved later this week:

Wow! Kudos for the sheer tenacity I have the distinct feeling it's going to end up an invisible save and a beautiful finish...

Thanks, @komodo. Turning out to be one of my favourite builds yet. One that I will be a little sad to be passing across