Andyjr1515

This is it in sunshine. Quite something, isn't it Whether it will still show when it's been radiused, who knows, but I can't think why it shouldn't

It has to be said that in daylight, it doesn't show up the quilting anywhere near as much. But in artificial light, or flash, it seems to show up clearly. I'll try and get a closer shot of the effect

I've never come across it before either - it was bought as just standard ebony

Did the contour steps on the other wing while the router was out: In terms of weight, the total wood content is going to end up around 5lbs, assuming I don't do any more chambering. That's fairly comparable with the piccolo bass (which ended up at a touch under 6lbs total finished weight) but the hardware on this will, of course, be heavier. Just got to cut out the control chamber and the back wings can then be glued to the neck

Been working out the area needed for the control chamber. There's a lot of real-estate taken up by Tim's chosen piezo/magnetic pre-amp (Schaller 'Flagship'): Working that out has meant I could cut out the control chamber shape. Here are all the main wood components (it'll end up about 5 1/2 lbs wood content) with the back wings now ready to glue to the neck: You can just see the quilting in the ebony of the fretboard in this shot...

Next machine set-up for Tim's Alembicesque sister build is getting the scroll saw out to cut the control chamber. So while the router jigs are still out, I've done the main cutting for the main back wing of this build. This, if you remember, is going to be curved in cross section, so I needed to know just how deep I can cut the weight relief chamber at different points from the neck join. From the back, it will look something (very approximately something!) like this: The actual cutaway will be on the bottom only. The upper dotted line is just a datum. So this is how deep I can go in mm. The fact that I can only go 6mm deep near the neck illustrates just how skinny this guitar is going to be: Still got some chiselling to do, but the bulk is out: And then at the back, to save a bit of effort, I've routed some carving steps: So the router can be put away and the scroll saw brought onto the bench for both builds...

I like that a lot

This particular piece was from Exotichardwoodsukltd.co.uk although I haven't seen any of the same kind in his stocks since I bought this. The Camphor Laurel that is destined for this present build was also from there but is, of course, a totally different wood.

I never get bored of praise, Woden To everyone's great surprise, the tuner block gets nowhere near the player - either standing or sitting. It curves round your right-hand hip about two inches clear! It is actually one of the most comfortable basses I've played (and Mick the owner who already has 12 or more basses says the same) - but I stress, pretty much by total luck! The other really bizzare thing is that it actually does lay almost flat, with the tuner and headstock bracket acting like a built in metal stands You can see that here: All that said, the praise needs to be aimed at Mick, who it was built for and who dreamt up the shape and concept, and Lady Luck who helped it actually work - against all the odds It's certainly the most unusual build I've tackled to date

Tim's spec includes an enclosed (ie no f-hole) semi-acoustic-with-centre-block approach, trying to get it as light as possible but without compromising balance, etc.. This means a major chamber in the top half, most of which is routed into the rear mahogany wing: Note truss rod slot is also now cut. The wall thickness of the chamber thickens at the top horn to give plenty of meat for the strap button, but also thickens at the top of the lower bout to allow the 'sucked lozenge' (as Tim describes it) cut through that he has also asked for. This will be similarly done as on Kert's camphor-topped bass which many of you will have seen before: Tim has sent me his recently purchased fancy Schaller pre-amp so that I can now work out the optimum size and shape of the control chamber to sort out the lower wing cuts and routs before they are then both glued to the neck.

Lovely piece of wood, @Fretjack I have no idea about stabilising wood but I'm sure someone who does will be along shortly and educate both of us I look forward to seeing how this progresses Andy

Thanks, folks Very much appreciated, as was the encouragement, thoughts and tips thoughout the build

I simply LOVE your carves, Scott. Inspirational and aspirational....

Do you get the impression I'm pleased? Clearly the tactic of shameless bribery and blackmail worked . The cheques are in the post and the dossiers have been shredded, folks Many thanks for the votes

Pretty but skinny....gosh....you must have been talking about me* *Those who have ever seen me or witnessed ScottR's immaculate taste and judgement will know that none of the words in the above statement is true

It's great stuff. Pretty good for fretboards, too. I used it for the multi-scale piccolo bass and it slotted well and fretted without any splitting or chipping. If you can get some at a decent price go for it...it is usually eye-wateringly expensive in Old Blighty...

I use a reasonably cheap Bosch level, available at many EU DIY chain stores, but not sure about USA or Australia. It's got a few beam options but this is the one I use the most - nice and thin beam:

Gosh....I was transported into another world with that imaginative description. Of course, then reality hit me that some of that vista will have to be cut off because the fretboard is narrower than the blank Anyway, to get over that disappointment, I've made a bit more progress. Taking advantage of the equipment set up from the Alemic-esque build, I whisked the components for this one through the same processes. Here are the resulting components: And placed in position: The notch has been routed in the neck blank, at around 2 degrees angle so that when the mahogany wings are glued flush with it, the top and body will be at the correct angle to the neck for the bridge height. Although it looks very similar to the Alemic-esque, it is in fact quite different. Here, the neck is thinner than the body sections to allow for the convex and concave carves of the top and back respectively. The neck, and thus the body at it's thickest, in the centre, is around 1". But because of the neck angle dropaway, at the tail it is closer to 3/4". Told you it was different. Could all end in tears....

It was getting too confusing to cover both builds on one thread, so this thread will be just the build I'm doing for myself based on the the piccolo bass I built last year: I'm going to see if I can further develop the ultra slim, ultra light, curved back approach to produce a full-scale 6-string electric at near to or under 6lbs weight. Construction is going to be essentially the same as the bass, although I will be putting even more chambering in to offset, at least in part, the weight of the extra pickup and tuners. As a quick recap, this is the neck blank, with wood originally planned to be shared from a common blank with the Alembicesque build described on the other thread. The neck is maple/purpleheart/mahogany/purpleheart/maple: The back wings are mahogany, the top is Camphor Laurel and the fretboard is snakewood. This is with the top slightly dampened: Next job is cutting the notch in the neck blank for the top to slot into. For those who saw what I did in the other build, this slot is going to be in the right place....honest

OK - this will now cover just the Alembic-esque 6-string. And pleased to report it's back on track. After cocking up miscalculating the rout position for the original neck, new wood was bought, and a new beam assembled: Spent much of today squaring up, trimming down, checking and double checking and triple checking and routing and we have the basic components...and this time all in the right places Assembled, it will go together something like this: The two mahogany wings will line up with the notch in the neck, giving a full-width flat surface for the top to be glued onto. The notch itself incorporates a 2 degree drop to create the correct height range for the bridge (a lovely Schaller piezo job supplied by Tim, who this is being built for) Next task is to sort the position and sizes of the various chambers and cable runs before gluing the wings to the neck...

Two guitars. One for Tim, an Alembic-esque with this top: And one for me, based on the shape of my piccolo bass but this time built as a 6-string electric with this top: Both are using Camphor Laurel. I abandoned the use of the Amboyna burl on mine above because I thought the orange would detract from the snakewood fretboard. Hope this temporarily clarifies - but I will indeed set them up as two separate build threads because, as I say, it's confusing me too!

Hi, Scott This is going to be broadly like the piccolo so, under the top will be a large chamber - a bit like a semi-acoustic. As such, the f-hole will be all the way through the top like this: I don't trust my carving enough to try anything approaching the magnificent carved holes I've seen you do.... How are things where you are floods-wise? Looks pretty serious stuff from over here....

Hmmm...clearly you've got the T-shirt too

Ah...my careful concealment of the truth is uncovered...darn it! I will use the neck for something in the future, so it's (probably) not a total scrapper. Besides, the guy who I'm making it for might not react well, having asked for a Fender scale length, if I raise my eyebrows in astonishment and say, "Fender Scale.....oh, THAT Fender scale! Well, you should have been a bit clearer about that...." Not that I practiced the raising of the eyebrows, of course....