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Another fun week last week. I think I got the neck pretty dialed now. The asymmetry is gone and the bumps I could feel but not see have been erased. No pics for that. I also spent some time adjusting the forearm cut, and then carved back the 'waste' to expose some mahogany. I felt the straight 1/4" round-over was just too mechanical and wanted to bring a little more organic feel to the shape. Here's the result:

Next up, I began the process of radiusing the fretboard. Took it down some, but not all the way because I had some inlay work to do.

Now, the next fun thing - I spent some time cutting out a little 13 piece 12th fret inlay I wanted. I think it turned out really well. I made myself a little board to cut against with some MDF and then spent an afternoon working away with my little scroll saw.

If I got impatient and tried to go too fast, saw blades snapped. This happened a lot.

But I finished. Here's the fit check.

And seeing how it looks...

Up next, I had to get the inlay in. I did the chalk outline. Not perfect, but good enough to work with.

I tried using the drill press with a small flat tipped bit at a fixed depth to carve it out, but it kept grabbing, so I ended up using a dremmel by hand and just slowly removed the wood. Not perfect, but at least I didn't go too deep.

Then I glued the pieces in and filled the gaps. I may have been overly liberal in with the CA/sawdust mixture.

Now I'm just sanding it back. I want to make sure I don't lose my fret slots, though - they aren't deep enough, so I'm going to re-cut those before I finish sanding. Here's where it stands right now:

Most of the CA glue and sawdust is on top of the fret board, not filling the slots, so I think it will end up looking much more clean than it does right now. I'm pretty excited by how things are looking right now!

18 hours ago, Prostheta said:

Well, you're quantifying and vocalising your working steps which is very positive and organised.

I've learned that if I don't walk in with a clear plan I don't get done what I planned (you know, by definition). Plus I've got so much to learn and figure out that I do my best to walk into the shop with designs, decisions, measurements, etc all printed out. Otherwise I could easily spend two hours just standing there trying to figure out what I'm doing. 

I haven't yet tried my hand at fretting so I have no advice, but I do have another video that might be helpful.

On January 22, 2016 at 5:06 AM, ScottR said:

Truer words were never spoken.

Not necessarily. Asymmetrical can be really comfortable when done right.

Gets the old juices flowing when it all starts to come together doesn't it?

SR

Just gotta make sure it's "good asymmetric" and not "bad asymmetric". 

The juices are flowing for sure!

No Japanese class this week so I hope to get three afternoons in at the shop instead of my usual 1 or 2 (or zero). Here's an ambitious list of what I'd like to get done:

• clean up neck
• add curve to arm comfort cut
• carve 'heal' of neck and body wings
• radius fretboard
• inlay work (I've got some overly ambitious ideas here - we'll see...)
• side dots
• pickup cavity template
• pre-drill holes for ground and pickup wires (I didn't do those under the top)
• thin down neck at body section
• electronics holes
• test urushi logo idea

We'll see - that's still a pretty big list and details are starting to matter a lot more. I've gotta resist the urge to rush. 

On January 22, 2016 at 8:19 PM, Prostheta said:

Watch out for allergic reactions to Urushi. It's hard as hell and beautiful but you need to either get guidance or gen up.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urushiol

Sounds like you have some great times ahead of you with your son, adventurewise!

Thanks for the heads-up about Urushi - poison ivy gets me so I'll be careful. Sounds like even the vapors can cause a reaction, so I'll make sure I'm totally covered up. 

Definitely some adventures ahead with my son. And his twin sister! 

Awesome! That wood needs to be turned into a guitar. It is your obligation.

Whoa, big week!

I keep hearing you all talk about how satisfying carving a neck is, but honestly I've been a bit scared about it. It seems so "free form" and prone to screwing things up. The faceting approach seemed to make sense though, so I worked out a solid game plan and yesterday when a spokeshave and set of cabinet scrapers appeared in my mailbox, I cancelled my plans and headed into the shop. Somehow, I magically ended up with a pretty damn nice bass neck a few hours later. Dare I say that the wood wanted to be turned into a bass neck and I was just there to help it along?

Okay, all was not 100% perfect. I have no idea what I'm doing with a spokeshave. It's probably one of those situations where if I could have someone with a little knowledge spend 2 minutes with me, I'd save hours of trial-and-error. My draws tended to skip and hack along instead of producing nice clean cuts. I ended up using it with the blade almost perpendicular to the wood so it really was shaving off instead of cutting at all. In the end, I switched to the cabinet scrapers and did all of the refined work with them. 

Before I get to the neck, though, I also did some comfort cuts. I'm happy with the tummy cut, but I am going to add a curve to the arm-rest cut so it flows with the outline of the bass better.

Now, onto the neck. I created some templates to work against, but honestly I used them to verify I was on the right track, not to guide me. 

The volute is starting to take shape as well.

And here's looking down the neck:

I took the neck home last night so I could compare it with my other basses and spend some time to see if it felt right. Amazing what little details hands can feel that eyes can't see. The shape isn't 100% symmetrical so I need to clean that up, and there is one ever-so-slight dip that needs to be smoothed out. But damn, I feel like I've got a bass in the works now.

Today I stopped by a local arts supply shop and picked up some Japanese lacquer called Urushi (you can read about it here). It forms a very hard, durable coating. I'm going to do some tests of doing my headstock logo with it - gotta figure out if it works and the technique, but it could be a really cool little local detail to work into the project. 

And finally, my four-year old son is now telling people he wants to be a bass maker when he grows up. I promised him he can help out with sanding.

So that was the week!

A Japanese guy told me the big stack of 2" thick curly boards is tama, or Japanese Ash. I haven't seen it used in instruments before but seems like it could be a good option. The pieces are $300-400 but enough for many many instruments. 

I made a little progress on my bass this week - nothing fancy, but I got the electronics cavity routed out. I put a 3/4" bearing on my 1/2" template bit to get an offset, and then taped in some square pieces to the template to get screw mounts. Overall it turned out okay, though the tape moved on the mounts so they ended up a little lopsided. Im happy to report that I'm feeling more confident with the router, and also happy that this part of the project will be covered. 

The photos...

Thanks for the info on the little neck back bend - it does actually curve back very gradually, but it's only to the point of being noticeable at the nut - 2nd fret. Hopefully I'll be able to fix things in sanding (I do find myself saying that a bit more than I'd like) and the neck is certainly getting plenty of time to "settle".

I made a little bit of progress last week - with only about 2 hours in the shop, I was able to finish the body round-over and make my first cuts on the neck. Seeing the neck shape start to come together is ridiculously exciting. I didn't go too far because I'm waiting on a spokeshave, but it still feels like a bass neck now. Here are some pics:

And second, I tracked down some finishing products. In case you are wondering what a shelf of finishing materials looks like in Japan, here's a shot:

It turns out what I thought was stain is in fact a one-step color and seal material with a pretty ugly result. But I did also get urethane varnish that I've been wiping on a sample. Here's what it looks like after four coats:

I'm happy with the result - it feels great, seems to be durable, and brings out the wood without looking unnatural. I wouldn't mind adding a stain to bring out the figure if I can find one, but so far no dice. 

Finally, yesterday I made a trip back to Shinkiba to see if I could track down a traditional Japanese spokeshave and some more finishing options. If you think (as I did) that the place that sells wood would also sell woodworking tools and finishing products, you'd be wrong. So no dice there, but I did find a "retail" wood store (unlike the wholesale-type places I stopped in at last time) with some amazing wood. Lots of ideas for the next project. Here are some photos:

The Shinkiba train station:

Black-suited salarymen returning from lunch. The offices in all of the warehouses are full of guys like this. 

This is the wood store I found, Mokumoku (that's what it says in Japanese):

And here are some of the things I found. None of the fancy stuff is cheap, but many of these pieces were big enough for 2 - 8 tops.

]

These pieces are much taller than shown in the photo and about 2" thick:

Fingerboards?

This piece is about $250, but should be enough for 3 or 4 instruments. 

I have no idea what this is, but it is EXPENSIVE. This piece was about $600.

Hope to have a little more progress to report next week.

Hey Chris,

Just read through this whole thread (it's fun to be able to zoom through a build that took months of work in 30 minutes or so!). So first, congratulations on finishing the project - the guitar looks great and it sounds like you're leveling up your skills too. Second, thanks for detailing your project's highs and lows. As another newcomer to this, it's good to see some similar struggles and solutions to what I'm facing.

With so many of the build threads here done by masters of the craft, I find it tempting to hide the warts in my own project. I don't want to look too bad! But the point is to learn and improve. So you've inspired me in another way - to try to be transparent in my build thread for my benefit and for any other newcomers. 

I'm looking forward to following along with your next project.

Aaron

Also, hello from Camp Zama, Japan! We've got a nice wood guitar building shop here. 

On December 8, 2015 at 10:25 AM, 14thandclark said:

No negative reaction for new guys here which is really nice.

+1 for that! As another newb, I'm finding the crew here to be super helpful, willing to answer basic/dumb questions, and full of encouragement. And it's inspirational to see amazing work of so many styles (except more basses please!) coming from people all over the world. 

Your project is looking great and coming together fast. I've been working on my first complete build since September and I think you are now officially ahead of me. 

Looks like you've got a great piece of flame maple for the neck - what's the finishing plan for it?

I had to cancel my shop time yesterday due to a last minute work call, but I did sneak into the shop for a minute to grab a few scraps of the maple top for finish testing. While there, I noticed something disturbing - when I put the neck on a flat surface (at least I think it's flat), there's an slight curve back over the length of the neck. Here's a picture:

The vertical line drawn on the side of the neck is at the first fret. It takes just a slight bit of pressure to straighten things out and close the gap, so my guess is string tension will take care of things, but it's still got me a little worried. I'm pretty sure this was straight when I started, so why is it bent now? Glue thickness being inconsistent? Is the wood moving on me? 

I think this gap will disappear when I sand the fret board, and like I mentioned before, string tension should compensate, but still, it's got me wondering. Should I be concerned?

Wow is right! That guitar is beautiful. Nice work. Can we get a video of it being played?

Fun with router tables last week! I was able to get into the shop once before the final round of holiday closures hit over New Years. I spent the time trimming the neck (now with fretboard) and headstock down to size. I'm finding working with routers to be a very intense process, not helped at all by @MasterOfTheWind's tail of a router taking a "chunk of meat" out of his finger during his very cool Dopamine build. So I go slow, work a section, step away, work another section, step away, etc. The final result is great though - the super smooth cut, and I love the way the rosewood and maple shavings look together. 

Anyway, here is an action shot from the neck (template is on the bottom, the routing goes to halfway):

And headstock (template on top, didn't quite make it all in one pass):

Here's the final product:

I had to come back and trim just the fretboard from where the neck meets the body on. I'll have to trim the body-section of the neck down by 1/4" at a later date to the right thickness to match the wings. 

There is one small trouble spot - my design has the upper wing attaching to the neck at a tight angle. There's no way to get a router bit in the tight spot. I'm going to have to finish that section by hand and it's gonna be tricky. Should have made it curve in - live and learn. Here's the trouble spot:

Finally, I'm dropping some photos here that I've taken over the past week - they're the seeds of some ideas I'm hoping to work into the project.

Up next, I'm going to finish the round-over on the wings and route out the electronics cavity. Any rules of thumb for depth of cavity or thickness of top remaining above the cavity? 

Thanks for following along!

Thanks for answering my questions in such detail! I'm going to come back and process this in more detail as I have a little inlay idea I want to try on my in-progress build. 

On October 15, 2015 at 9:33 AM, komodo said:

I found my hard drive that had way more build pics from earlier stages of this build, many of these were from the inlay process. I'll drop those in here, just before we do the dye. 

1. Cut everything from a pattern. 2. tack it onto the board and scribe around it. Rub chalk on that to fill, wipe it off and you have your routing lines.  3. Route those sections out, you can go outside the lines some. 4. Fit all the pieces, and pack ebony dust in the gaps 5. flood with thin CA. 6. Block sand to get everything flush to the board again, and presto. Easy. LOL

The ebony dust trick is so cool it's not even funny. You would be hard pressed to see a line with the smallest loupe.

I've got tons of questions about your inlay process... it looks fantastic. Any chance you can walk through it again for someone who has never attempted this before? Is this before or after radiusing the fretboard? What are you using to route out the sections? How deep do you go? How detailed/precise is your routing (does it follow the serrated edge along the dragon's torso)? 

The design looks great and it's an interesting idea to blend an acoustic pickup. I wonder if you're going to get enough resonance to make it sing, or if it will end up sounding plinky. What kind of sound do you want to end up with?

I'm with Komodo - the value of the time you're going to invest is going to far outweigh the wood costs. I am inching my way through my first build and even with the many mistakes I've made so far, do not regret using higher quality hard wood. Use the materials you want to work with, whatever that may be.

I look forward to following along and learning with you! 

24 minutes ago, Prostheta said:

I figured that you would like this sweater also.....
http://theuglysweatershop.com/shop/alex-stevens-t-rex-dinosaur-tacky-ugly-christmas-sweater-mens/

I'll just edit your post to embed the video.....

Was I supposed to use the https link to make the video work (I thought it was the other way around...)?

A few years ago my wife and I got all of our siblings ugly Christmas sweaters - made for a great photo. 

22 hours ago, curtisa said:

Volute looks usable. If you're worried about the amount that's been removed from the headstock-side of the volute you could always shift the 'peak' a bit closer to the body-end (with a corresponding slight reduction in height). Looks like a fairly chunky neck at this stage, so any loss in height of the volute peak may be regained by thinning down the neck profile a little if you wish.

Sounds like a good plan. Right now, the drop in thickness from the neck to the headstock and the angle of the headstock makes it look a little silly. Just gotta come up with a design that makes it look... less silly.

The plan for the neck is to go to 1" thick or a hair under (it's currently just a little over that), with 1/4" of that as fretboard. Maybe a little chunky but I like to have a neck I can grab onto. Here's what I'm planning for the neck profile: 

As long as I'm talking neck... so far "winging it" seems to get me in trouble, so I'm trying to come up with a better plan for neck carving. So instead, I'm thinking I'll use the above drawings to make some templates to work against, and then follow the faceting process shown in this video (and described here):

20 hours ago, Prostheta said:

That sweater though....it should be pretty much obvious that wearing any item of clothing which implies it assists and encourages a necessary-but-embarrassing bodily function is to be avoided in public. 

Wearingly an ugly ironic Christmas sweater in mid-December is one thing, but wait until I bust it out in mid-June. But this is Tokyo...

Tomorrow is the Emperor's Birthday here, so I'm going to skip my precious Wednesday afternoon shop time this week and go over to his place for the birthday party. I hope he appreciates it.

After three birthdays, Thanksgiving, and about 20,000 miles of air travel, I'm finally back at it! Things are starting to get real now, too. Here's a run-down of my latest.

I snuck in two quick days at the beginning of the month to work on my trouble spots. I still have that mystery "third option" in my back pocket, but I wanted to see if I could fix things first before going there. On the upper horn, I was able to shave off about 1/8" and get past the trouble. I don't think anyone will ever know the different. Here's a shot of what I took off and the bass laying on the template so you can see how much was removed.

The bottom section is proving to be a little more difficult. I put in a patch in the maple but the seem is completely visible. Looking at the shoddy job I did sticking that piece in, it's obvious why the seem shows. Maybe I can hide it with a little stain  . The other problem is the mahogany tear out. I tried rebuilding the missing section with some sawdust and CA glue. I was able to get the bulk back but the CA glue makes it look very different. So it's back to door #3.

Making sawdust:

Here's the area patched up before it dried:

And here it is after drying:

I've fixated on this part of the job enough. I'm not losing any more sleep on it. It'll work out.

Last week I got back in and turned my focus to the neck and fretboard. I got the nut slot cut and deepened the fret slots (I'll probably need to go over them again after radiusing). 

Then I glued the fret board on. Big step!

The next day, I came back in and cut the neck profile out. I rough cut the sides of the neck as well, but still need to go back in with the router and straighten them. I haven't 100% decided how I'm going to do the volute and may have removed a little more than I should have, 

Finally, I played back-to-back gigs last weekend. I thought my terrible Christmas sweater would steal the show, but one of the guitarists played the entire 2 1/2 hour gig in a complete santa suit.

It's fun to be able to finger the neck and start to really "feel" like I'm holding a bass in my hands. 

Whew.... that's a lot of photos!

Up next... a possible trip back to Shinkiba, where this story began, to see if I can track down some local finishing options.

When I first got here I spent too much free time sorting through secondhand shops looking for Matsumoku-made basses. They're around, but you have to know how to ID them and they aren't generally priced to move. 

Deviser is a Japanese manufacturer that makes guitars, basses, and mandolins under several different brands across every price point (Bacchus, STR, Momose, and many others). Not sure how available they are outside of Asia. I've played several of their high-end basses and they are fantastic. Check out some photos of the #300 serial STR bass. 

Anyway, I came across a factory tour video on YouTube and saw a few interesting things. Specifically, they've got some sort of neck shaping jig that seems pretty intriguing. Not sure if this is standard factory stuff, but I'm curious about it. Anybody know the details of this type of setup? 

Here are the points in the video I'm curious about:

• 2:30 - Installing the neck profile jig
• 7:28 - Neck shaping with the jig
• 10:30 - Crazy neck belt sander (not really related to the jig, but fun)

And here's the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wissbDVfJZ8

On November 26, 2015 at 6:31:40 AM, komodo said:

Wife calls and says she's off work early and wanted me to meet her for a date.  Uh . . . Of all the times?!  Two days of family Thanksgiving time should fix her up good.

Nice bass!

This is a great collection of guitars - hard to choose just one... I love how diverse the entries are. Hope to see some basses next month though!