Andyjr1515

I've just taken the rig off the bench and, to be honest, it's a bit of a shambles. Three of the bearings will tighten up OK, three have washers both sides but lock up with anything over finger tightness, one has an obviously oversized washer fitted that predictably locks up and one has two washers one side of the bearing and none on the other so also locks up. Looking at your photo, the washers, I reckon, are wider than yours and thinner so are catching the outer race. Now I've had a proper look, I'm surprised that it didn't end up with a scrap fretboard.....in fact, I need to double check the scale lengths to make sure I haven't anyway. Disappointing.... I'll drop Carlos a line right now...

So to fret slotting. I tried out the Guitar & Woods jig on some scrap. The jig is screwed down to the workbench (using some old neck fixing screws, of course!) and then I am using the vertical bench clamps to firmly hold the fretboard (stuck to the jig template with a couple of small strips of 2-sided tape): ...and then using the real fretboard: Using the jig is SOOOOO much easier than using a block, which is how I did the last one. However, the jig is not perfect. Three of the bottom bearings retaining bolts came loose in use - and one dropped out with its bearing that could have been disastrous (you can see in the shot above - the bottom bearing of the top left hand unit - and that's after just 4 slots)! Then, when I tightened them up properly, realised that it locked the bearings - so I had to use them loose and just hand tighten them back up a few times as I went up the fretboard. I will email G&W - it should be easily fixed with the correct size washer retaining the bearing or a spot of loctite on the thread but renders the jig actually not fit for purpose without keeping a very close eye on it (those bearings are, after all, the whole raison d'etre of the flipping thing). Anyway, that aside, here they are, all slotted: Need to discuss with Mick what he prefers for the wider fretslots after the body join (fret the full width of the slot or fret to the 'normal' extent and infill the rest of the slot with maple veneer, but I won't be fretting until the extra-wide radius block arrives and I've driven myself to insanity radiusing it, so a while before we have to decide that one

Well, it's a bit of a wrench, but I suppose I'd better get back to the bass.... I'm waiting for an extra-wide radius block to come though from G&W as the fretboard will be radiused all the way down, including where it widens through the body. In the meantime, I thicknessed it to a touch over 6mm and slimmed it down to fit into the body channel: I've left the top edge straight as I will use it as the datum for the fret-slotting. Finally sorted out a decent slotting jig - the G&W one...it will take some of the nail biting terror out of the process. I've ordered the wider base for this kind of thing but couldn't wait so have temporarily rigged a spacer from some maple offcut to allow the wide board to fit: Easier to see in the bigger shot below, but you see here the small drop off built into the neck to allow at least a few mm of finger room between the strings and the body top: It will still feel like playing with a bridging plate, though...

I like the look of the back very much. Love that little bit of walnut The carve on the top is pretty cool too

Well, I suppose with everyone's mind on the 'whisky wake' later in the day, it's a reminder that funerals aren't there just for the enjoyment... Golly - I hope the 20" radius block arrives soon, otherwise we've got days more of this

If only to keep Mr Natural company with another bass considered by some as a fundamentally fugly design concept - the dreaded single cut bass configuration - although I have to challenge Mr Natural's name for his entry which I think is absolutely stunning and should rightly wipe the floor with us mere mortals in this month's fray. Introducing: Hankerfer Camfer Pretty sure I've never entered it in the Guitar of the Month comp even though I built it a little while ago The spec of this 4-string single cut bass is: Scale Length: 34″ Construction: Neck-Through Body: Chambered Alder Top: Camphor Weight: 7lbs 8oz Neck: Mahogany/Walnut Fretboard: AAA Grade Ebony Position Markers: Luminlay Markers on Neck Pickups: Passive DiMarzio P/J Electronics: Seymour Duncan 2band EQ Tuners: Hipshot with D-Tuner Nut: Warwick Just-a-nut It was built for Kert, a contact from one of the main UK bass forums and a regular gigging musician. It took around 3 months to build, including the wipe-on varnish finishing technique that I have been using over the past few years. The aim was to try and build it light, even though is is a large-bodied design, and for it "to sound fantastic". At a final 7lbs 8oz, the first objective was met...and it does indeed sound fantastic. The neck profile was copied from Kert's favourite playing bass using profile gauge measurements to try to reproduce the same essence of feel. The full build thread can be found here There's a Youtube demo that Kert did somewhere - I'll try and find it and add it to this blurb In terms of me - I am a hobby builder who started off 5-6 years ago, generally upgrading and modding my own guitars, then a few builds and then some builds for fellow band-members and then a few commissioned builds emanating from build threads. I've had a run of bass builds (I'm actually not a bassist myself although I love it when I get the chance for a few numbers in our gigs) but my next two builds after the present one (an ultra-modern bass design) are 6-string electrics, including one for me Anyway....here's Hankerfer Camfer

One of the challenges I find in this kind of build is envisaging quite how things are going to work - particularly curves and carves. And then that, of course, links to the sequence I do things. If I was better at envisaging shapes (some people are very good at this but I'm not ), then the last thing I would want to do for all the other practical reasons, would be the tuner-block infill. But actually, because as soon as I start carving, pretty much everything is going to be curved, I have decided to put that on first and at least get the shape in my head from one 2-D viewpoint. So on goes some laminated neck offcut, angled accordingly and with an ebony veneer demarcation line: And then out come the chisels. The finished article will have two thin outside maple curved fillets to finish it off - and that will carve through to the general curve of the back, but I now can see how that will work (remember that the body panels at the back will be scooped so that the body edges at the join will be level with the neck, taking away completely the rebate you see in these shots): Of course, now I have a lump of wood in the way for all the subsequent operations, but that's the price for being poor at spacial awareness...

I've been described as a human area denial weapon . Now, where did I put those bagpipes......

Well, I treat is as a community service. There are numerous pubs and clubs in our local towns and villages that have their emergency evacuation procedures thoroughly tested by my playing. 24 seconds to clear a three-storey building of 125 people, including 3 registered disabled (2 manual wheelchair users and one motorised) plus two cats and a dog is a decent result by any standard....

To me it all seems so slow - but, in that it is a hobby, I know the workrate is pretty high. Three reasons: retiring from the 'proper job' has made SUCH a difference; sorting my tiny, tiny workshop in the cellar has nevertheless made a HUGE difference; and, I'll admit, I'm a bit obsessed with it at the moment Once of the reasons is that I'm on a bit of a ticking clock with a particularly nasty variety of arthritis in both of my hands (and elsewhere) and so am getting as much building, playing and sax playing as I can...just in case it starts seriously encroaching. So far it hasn't caused a problem and I still play the sax's, and the guitars, as awfully as I ever did

I found the belt and I reckon it will be perfect. I'll glue it onto a flat block later today and have a go . In the meantime, I ran out of reasons not to glue the second wing on. This is a busy picture! : There is more clamping going on than it appears. The top clamps are loose-ish and are really only to keep the two halves flat and therefore the joint square. I have the two offcuts from the original body blanks in place to give me a square clamping set-up and then the big bench vice giving most of the oomph. Then I have a couple of sash clamps and a standard adjustable to give specific pressure in specific places. I also used an old bass string to swab out any glue squeeze-out that might have accumulated in the cable channels and the tuner block loosely positioned to make sure that the wing was in EXACTLY the right place: And now I have a self-supporting assembly...and everything appears to still be in the right places. Wonders never cease Next task is sorting the fretboard....

When I think about it, I think I have an old plain leather belt where the buckle is shot. It's probably about that thickness and is pretty even. That might be ideal....

I'm rapidly reaching the stage where I have no excuses to gluing on the second body wing.... The control run slots are cut and rounded to try to prevent snagging, and the second tuner-block locator slot is done: There will be a decorative wedge at the back so the block doesn't look like it's hanging in mid air, but this is broadly how it will fit: The ebony overlap will be cut before I glue, now I know exactly where the wing is going to join. Once thing I'm pondering on is whether to use epoxy rather than titebond for the join - there isn't a huge amount of adhesive area and I'm never sure how well the very tight-grained ebony bonds with titebond. I know it's not oily, but hmmm...what do you reckon?

Great tip, Carl - thanks Leather stropping is one of those things I keep remembering and then keep forgetting again! I'm old enough to remember the barber stropping the cut-throat before every shave! As a six year-old waiting for my pudding-basin cut, I was fascinated. I'll rig something up... What kind of thickness of leather should I be looking at?

The better I get at sharpening and using chisels, the more I use them in preference to the 'you-can-destroy-everything-in-seconds' router. The slot here will be where the tuner block butts up against the body wing. I'm pleased with this feature - it really does mean the tuner block isn't going to go anywhere and is not reliant on the fixing screws at all for strength . This is basically how the block will fit: The pencil marks shows the positioning of the neck. Not that there will be a rebate at the top and the bottom of the body. You can see the top one here - the top wing is glued and the bottom wing not yet glued: The top rebate is where the full-length fretboard will slot into and the similar rebate at the bottom is where I will carve up to the neck to create the back curve. You can see also here the slot where the strings, attached to an upside down tuner block attached to the rear block, will come through the neck and through the fretboard. Next is to sit and think and plan and think again. I need to make sure ALL of the control run slots, etc, are properly thought through and in place before I glue that bottom wing on!

You beat me to it

I'm watching with great interest -especially the trigonometry. I always live in fear of getting my angles the wrong way round....and I qualified in Mechanical Engineering, albeit many years ago! NEVER walk over a bridge I've designed....

Great, isn't it As mentioned at the beginning, it's why, on another forum, I've titled the thread 'A Bridge Too Far?'....because it might well be....

Mmmmm.....there's one bit where the body thickness (carved top and bottom) has got to be sub-millimetre accurate...

One of the things that I've been working on is the possibility of using some custom pickups to avoid having to cut all the way through the neck. With the help of Mick, whose used the guy before, we've got a thumbs up on a set of individual coils for each string. This is the layout we've agreed: The coils will be around 18mm x 18mm and the magnetic poles will be adjustable from the back. This means I can retain the hatchless continuous fretboard as the coils themselves will be inserted from the back too into a series of four 20mm holes drilled through the neck and covered with a hatch using an offcut of 'stripey' neck wood, with a foam pad keeping the coils pressed up against the fretboard. What I have done, to prevent encroaching into the body wings, is add a couple more ebony strips to widen the neck over the body length. Here's the rear view: Now I can start preparing the neck ready for gluing the wings. First job is recreating the platform for the upside-down tuner block to fit into, per the mockup, sectioned here: This bit's a bit scary....

Great job, @a2k They both look fantastic

Lovely job. How do you get on with cocobolo for a fretboard? I loved the look of the one I did a while ago, but HATED using it! Sanding the radius was a pure misery

Easily done - almost all of my builds contain a 'bit of a surprise' when it comes to the final neck angle. To me, this doesn't look overly excessive - especially if the bushes are a good interference fit. If it did become a problem in the future, you could always add a stop tail and swop the wrapover for a standard ToM bridge and then there wouldn't be any string tension on the bridge at all...

Mick has sent me the neck profile measurements of his favourite player so that, as far as possible, I can replicate the general 'feel': Ahead of gluing anything together, I've also done some sketches to get my head around how the single-cut transition of the neck will work: In the meantime, I've done a bit of work to the neck - routing the truss rod slot and band-sawing the taper. Single cuts throw an interesting challenge ref the taper, more of which later when you see what I'm planning with the fretboard