Andyjr1515

Yes - we also have a brand called Record in the UK and I'm pretty sure their 250 model is also pretty much the same Certainly, their drive belt fit fine as a replacement for the poor floppy one that came with the Axminster saw!

OK - with the concept sorted, it's time to start cutting wood : Don't look at the appalling mess behind the bandsaw. Depending how big the piece of wood is depends whether you get a shot of the mess or the more tidy and ordered part of my cellar-workspace. This bandsaw is the smallest bearing-guided one I could find, but the biggest I could actually physically get into the cellar. I have it on a very neat 'lift and move' wheeled trolley so, where the length is needed (like here), I just foot-pedal lift it onto castor wheels, pull it out of its normal station and twist it round 90 degrees then lower it back onto its fixed feet. Then when it's done, just reverse the operation and pop it back into its (relatively) neat station. Anyway, 10 minutes later we have something that is starting to look much more like a bass!

Yes - should be pretty much where a neck pickup would normally go.

Ah...well...hmmm...it IS going to be fretted. 24 of the little beauties

With the spirit, those colours are really popping out. It bodes very well for a beautiful end result

I think I've sorted the final prototype rig - how to get a hidden magnetic pickup close enough to the strings... Forgive the knotty softwood I used but I rigged up a version of the above concept. The pickup I have at hand doesn't have screw-poles but I have one on order that does. Pretend it is that I am using. Here's basically how the pickup will be fitted at the back of the bass (it will have a cover flush with and matching the neck): From the top with the fretboard removed (remembering there will be the four screw pole pieces): Then using the carved archtop thickness carving trick: ... ...a slot is carved into the back of the radius-profiled fretboard around 1mm- 1.5mm from breakthough: Once the fretboard is fitted the slot will correspond to the pole-pieces on the pickup: Wind up the pole pieces as far as they will go in the space and, from the top, it looks like this: ...but the coil is actually only 4mm from the fretboard top and the pole pieces are 1.5mm from the top. This should mean poles 3.5mm or so from the strings and the coil around 6mm - this should work

Ah, but coming from where I was born and bred in the UK (a town that has a most hurtful reputation ), I will of course cheat a bit Along the length will be more like a smooth 'kink' rather than a continuous curve (my drawing above was a bit misleading). Basically, I'm adding a neck angle, albeit after the 24th fret even though the body joins at the 12th...

Looking good from over here

This has reminded me just how spectacularly clean and crisp your woodwork is, Carl. It's a delight to see

Last bit to work out properly and probably add to my lap steel bass (definitely think there's a market there, @ScottR ) is the hidden magnetic pickup. The challenge here is that the body is very thin to start with and gets thinner very quickly as you move away from the centre-line. Add to this the challenge of getting the coil as close to the strings as possible and you can probably see where I'm coming from. The original concept was this: I did some experiments with various metal bits (slugs and bars) laying across the top of the pickups of my fretless and came to a number of conclusions: Built-in adjustable slugs are better than close proximity metal as pictured above If it IS separate, then a rectangular iron bar across the top of the pickup is better than individual slugs All of the above do increase the volume, but you still need the coil itself to be as close as possible to the strings to get the tone as well. The ideal pickup therefore needs to have adjustable slugs, be narrow and be slim So Mick's MEC, nice though it is, is probably not the one. Here's how wide and deep it is compared with, say, the mini pickup for an EB-3: It extends way past the width of the fretboard, reducing the maximum pickup height by a few mm; it is 28.5mm deep against 19.5mm of the mini humbucker (the body depth at the centre is likely to be 30mm max); it doesn't have adjustable slugs. My fear is that any advantage of a nice pickup would be lost - and some - by the extra distance it would be from the strings. My thoughts at the moment, if I can't find anything else, is to use the adjustable slug version of the above mini & that I fitted to Pete's EB-3 style build last year: The curve of the body top in the drawing below is exaggerated for illustrative purposes but I think it explains what I mean....: I'll do a bit more thinking and research and then bounce the options off Mick.

The build looks great.... and Mount Fuji ALWAYS looks great

Clearly a man of fine judgement .

Those are really amazing effects. I was intrigued by your last post and this one promises to be just as good

I like that cross-section @Mr Natural Apologies that I never posted the explanatory sketch! Basically, the idea is that the fretboard will be absolutely flush with the body, so it is a continuous curve of 20" radius as seen from the cross section viewed from the back. Forgive the rubbish sketch, but something like this: The frets would extend just past the lower cutaway. The problem however, if the body was straight with the neck, is that at the playing position (a few inches in front of the acoustic-style saddle), the strings will be only around 3mm away from the body. Any decent length fingernails and there would be a deafening clattering of keratin on maple! So the idea is to curve the body along its length, after the end of the fret-run. Grossly exaggerated, a bit like this: So the body top will actually be semi-spherical! In terms of how I intend to do it - well, the plan is planes, cabinet scrapers and sandpaper. Yes, I know...this could all end very badly

Finished the prototyping of the string tuning and clamping arrangement. At the headstock, the mechanism will again be hidden at the back. The supplied tuner system differs to the Steinberger units in that it has a double clamp system rather than the usual need for double-ball end special strings. It is designed for the more standard 'sudden blunt stop' headless systems so out came the hacksaw again: Then drilled a few holes in the rig and strung up two of the strings (would have been all four but my pseudo fretboard was too narrow!) Here it is from the back at the tail end: ...and here from the back of the 'headstock'. Note the double clamps - allen key studs and then floyd-rose nut type clamps It is so very easy to string up - capture the ball ends at the tuner end; feed the string through the headstock and pull tight; tighten the grub screw; bend the residue 90 degrees and pop on the double clamps; trim to size; couple of turns of the tuners and you are at pitch It also has to be one of the most secure arrangements I've ever done. Those strings and components simply can't go anywhere at all. Here it is from the front: So...just a wipe of tru-oil, couple of strap locks and ship it off to Mick. I always said to him that there may need to be compromises along the way but I reckon it has more than just the mere essence of his original design brief: it's offset; it's white; it's VERY light; it's eye-catching What more could he possibly expect? Miracles? ....

Every time I get onto the cad package I get distracted by something or other and then can't remember how to do even the basic stuff when I get back on, so in the end it's usually quicker for me to use a pencil and rubber.. (and I don't do that many so in the scheme of things....) Even when I did cad, I actually found it easier to think through initial issues and solutions with a pencil in my hand...probably my age...

There are so many things new to me on this build! It's great OK - the owner wants a headless tuner system (that he has supplied), basically hidden at the back of the bass, with the strings coming through the full-length fretboard and onto the bridge. The tuner system he has supplied is similar to the Steinberger headless systems, with an important and helpful difference at the headstock clamp end. This is how I've designed it to fit: Basically, a split neck allowing the correct seating of the tuner block and access to the fixing screws and ball end 'grabs'. The strings will then exit the top of the fretboard at a decent break-angle and then over a (piezo equipped) acoustic-style saddle. Great in concept but many, many things that could go wrong. So it called for a test rig. First I got some pine the same depth as the neck will be and another pine piece on top representing the fretboard. I cut the 'neck' with a 35 degree cut and positioned it so I could ensure access to the tuner pullers and fixing screws: As above, this would have the end of the tuner block poking through the bass top if I did nothing different. So out came the hacksaw: Then I made a pretend 'wing' and chiselled out a cavity for the tuner overhang to slot into: Then glued the body 'wing' on. This is broadly how it will look from the back: Here you can see there is good access to the tuner grabs (for stringing up) and fixing screws: The advantage of the slots in the body wings is that they act as the end-stop for the bridge and the fixing screws then merely hold the tuner in position - the body wings take the full force of the sting tension. I will now fix the other body wing, add a pseudo-saddle and use the same jig to try out the headstock clamp in what, at about 5", might be the smallest fully strung up bass guitar in the world

Only just spotted this, @Norris Starting with the (only) slightly spurious strategies, you could: persuade him (correctly) that the true LP DC Jr is single pickup. With the old '58 wiring (sooo simple to do) it can get everything from jazz to clean to screaming overdrive without getting anywhere near the amp controls - just using the volume and tone control point him to Thomann who are selling the Gibson 2015 Les Paul Special (because it has the two pickups) DC Jr for only £507!!!! And they are in stock. tell him to buy my beautiful cherry red single P90 one for even less than that (likely to sell sometime over the next couple of years because of the relentless progression of arthritis) But - he will, of course, have seen your present build and will quite understandably want to wait the 5 years or so (sorry, I exaggerate - 8 years or so) for a real Norris DC Jr Special. And (here I'm being entirely serious) I can fully understand that. In that case, don't overly worry. Remember that: Gibson gained their reputation more by poor QC than fundamental design. I'f you've ever seen size of the gaps in the joint of the short tenon on some examples of their SG's over the years, you will understand what I mean. A well fitted joint of that area and depth should be immensely strong If you want added comfort factor: As @ScottR says, do an extended tenon under the pickup, with same type of dog-leg that I use on my solid-body neck-thru builds. Like this but with a much shorter extension: This also means that the joint line is even deeper and you can transition the heel to the body very nicely : In terms of other tweaks that help - note Gibson's own (2015 £507) modern version below. The joint has actually been extended by the cutaways on the modern design, creating decent haunches for the joint (the originals were straight cut from the bottom of the cutaway curves and therefore didn't have this extra joint-area): Note also that, although the pickup goes right up to the end of the fretboard, the fretboard itself overlaps the end of the body by around an inch. That is a significant joint area. (compare the back view here ref the fretboard position with the top view here): So, in summary, we who have dabbled or lived in the 'dark side' of the bass world know know that all electric guitarists need to be knocked into shape a bit , So, on that basis, I reckon with my tongue only half in my cheek: If he wants an exact copy, he should buy the above Gibson, which is cheaper than the wood and the bits will be for you to build him one If he wants a custom, best leave the builder/designer to design out the flaws that were in the original and also force out any voodoo by substituting their own creative magic ...and let's face it, he'll have a few years to come round to our way of thinking. Oh crap! Just realised you may well know where I live How big's your guitarist?

I've been watching this develop with great interest. Yes - valuable lessons being learnt along the way - but whatever, this is going to be a really nice guitar once it's finished

Yes - not the clearest explanation... I need to draw a sketch, really, but in brief: taking a cross section of the body, the body top is going to be a 20" radius - the same as the fretboard. So, effectively the body just becomes a very, very wide fretboard! The downside of this is that it would be like plucking or picking at, say, the 20th fret. That is, you would be plucking 2mm off the bass top - which is a bit close so, I will be also adding a curve along the length of the body, so that the body at the bridge is more like 7mm away from the strings than 2mm. The fretted part of the fretboard must, of course, remain straight, so this curve can't start until after the last set-in fret. When I get on the desktop again, I'll pop a quick sketch to illustrate what I mean

Yes - sliders were an option like on some acoustics - as were the teeny 'trim' pots you get on some effects pedals. Having said that, the mini-pots should fit. If, in real life, it doesn't quite fit, then there are those other options to try out. Onto other parts of the spec. It is intended to be basically all white! Well, certainly from the front. I've managed to get hold of some lovely bookmatched wavy sycamore for the main body wings and then matched that with a 5-piece through neck of maple and ebony. The full-length fretboard will also be maple, not shown here yet: Because the design is offset and single cut and book matched, there is a LOT of wood wastage...but that can't be helped. Here's broadly how the body shape fits into those pieces: The neck will be inset around 7mm and the fretboard continuous right up to the tail end. The body will be compound curved to give a pseudo 'neck angle' to ensure there is at least a little clearance between the strings and the body top at the hand playing position. You can see the angle joint - which will be rounded off with the fretboard curving a few mm downwards rearward from where the frets end. This is one of those 'think about it a lot, then cut a little bit, then put it down and think about it a lot more!' projects

Hi Mike and a warm welcome! Some impressive woodworking skills on show here . Watching with great interest. I hadn't realised that Staind used baritones. Was it a baritone used on 'It's been a while' ?

Beautiful work, Andrew. Gosh - if I took on sorting properly my early builds I'm pretty sure it would take longer than the projection from my present age to the average life-expectancy of a non-smoking-but-every-other-vice-you-care-to-mention male born in the fifties!

That is one heck of a shape for a bass....the black really emphasises the lines

Yup - looking forward to this