ADFinlayson

The Carry On films were a series of British comedies from the late 50s to the early 70s, a good era of tele. I'd post a pic but there aren't many where Babs hasn't got her bangers out

Thanks bud, I shall turn up with a clipboard nearer the time to canvas for your vote I tend to do my inlays after radiusing the fretboard then file the inlays as closed to flush as I can and just touch up the radius, the good thing about aluminium - if you get a thin piece like 1mm it can easily be bent to match the radius and clamped while glueing so you'd have a lot less filing to do, that's how I'd do it anyway

My sort of build this, following

phwaaaar

Snuffy meets his new bass

Yep, they have a habit of showing up when they are wanted least! Finishing touches.. I've entered this one in GOTM though I expect it will lose badly to an outrageously good looking red burl, there will be no shame in that.

I'm entering the Billy Bongo bass, full build thread here: Specs Neck: Black limba one-piece neckthrough with macassar ebony fretboard, white MOP inlays and side dots, golden pheobe backplane on the headstock. Body: Black limba wings with bog oak contrast veneers, golden pheobe top, ebony ramp and control cover Hardware/electronics: ABM bridge, Nordstrand soapbar pickups, Darkglass Tone Capsule 3 band active EQ, Hipshot tuners Finish: Clear nitrocellulose on the body and headstock, crimson guitars finishing oil on the neck shaft Weight: 8lb 10oz

I got myself a hanging basket hanger from amazon and screwed it to a stone wall in my garden.

pah 50% of my neck pockets have required a veneer, I'll never learn. Cthulhu is looking awesome

There were more than just a few gotchas during this build (other than the obvious dropping it on a concrete floor) here's an example of what happened when I was trying to remove the nut to shim it. Fortunately it glued back in without being visible, but I was rather angry,

I appreciate this doesn't look like it's progressed much further that the last photos, but it's wired up now. The active stuff took a bit of figuring out - Glad I realised I needed a stereo jack to stop the battery draining. The pickups sound awesome, so does the active EQ, I think Snuffy is going to be chuffed with it. I just need to lower the nut action a bit on the bottom C string and screw in a string tree when it arrives FIRST BASS DONE

How thin did you go? you'd be surprised how thin you can get away with on a fretboard, the DCs I'm working on are 4.5mm in the centre after radius, pretty sure the rosewood board on my fat strat is no thicker. In fact reducing the fretboard thickness is a good way to get a thinner neck without compromising too much strength under the trussrod

It's together (ish), still have to do strap buttons and string tree, which I've a feeling I forgot to order, and wire it up. Really impressed with the ramp though! if ever I build myself a bass, it'll have one of those. I noodled on it for a good hour tonight, it has surpassed my expectations for my first bass. I think the back fo the headstock is my favourite part

From a whole other continent too I must be a sissy then because my right shoulder is giving me agro today

That is an obscenely good looking guitar Scott

Buffed and ready for assembly very little effort required in hand buffing having sanded to 7000. I was thinking about buying/making a buffing machine, but with these results I just don't think it's worth the effort.

Frets polished, fretboard and neck oiled. The end is nigh

yeah I had a real PITA setting those frets, I ended up having to wick in super glue and clamp each fret for a minute before moving on to the next. you're right of course, SS frets are the better longterm option and they feel great once the've been polished up nicely, they're just not much fun to hammer in, level and crown.

it's getting there. I got the ramp and control plate sanded up to 320 and a couple of coats of crimson oil on them today Got the bridge holes and earth wire hole drilled and did a bit of a test fit, there were a couple of bottles of Hopping Hare that needed testing too and I've spent a couple of hours on the frets tonight - damn I hate stainless steel. They're levelled and crowned and the fret ends are done, I just need to get all the crowning file marks out of the tops before I can buff the frets and scrape the fretboard. Not too many jobs left to do.

Somethings on accu are quite reasonable like those hex screws, but their screws suitable for pickup rings work out 26p each which isn't too bad but when you've got to buy 100 @ £26 it gets a bit steep, then again 8 screws per guitar, you soon get through them.

They are 6mm deep and require a 4mm hole, I just dropped in a dollop of superglue and tapped them in

TBH I really like them and I'll be sticking with them for future builds, for the price you might as well get yourself a bag of 100 http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-53481-19255-0/1?ff3=4&pub=5575536527&toolid=10001&campid=5338593098&customid=&mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fitm%2F100x-M3x6-Brass-0-6x0-43cm-Cylinder-Knurled-Threaded-Round-Insert-Embedded-Nuts%2F273292787795%3FssPageName%3DSTRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT%26_trksid%3Dp2057872.m2749.l2649 These are the hardened steel hex scews, they're very good quality, work out 2p each but some of thier itemshave to be bought in batches of 100 from Accu: https://www.accu.co.uk/en/countersunk-socket-head-screws/495095-SSK-M3-10-10-9-Z I also bought 20 of their steel hex wrenches which work out 10p each https://www.accu.co.uk/en/hexagon-socket-key-wrench/495452-HDKS-S-2 I did some testing and gave the allen keys and hex screws some abuse to see how good they were, they're definitely not soft metal so I highly recommend.

turned out to be a 5 minute job with the belt sander now I just need some suitable screws and tidy it up a bit.

Well we have the start of a ramp, I got a few faceplates from maderas barber which I highly recommend - they're only about £5 but they're 6-8mm thick and big enough to get almost 3 face plates out of. which meant I was able to get 2 offcuts to glue together for the ramp and enough left over to make a large control cover (the old golden pheobe control cover warped when I glued 2 4mm layers together). I still need to put the 12" radius in the ramp, round it all off and drill some screw holes. My radius beams are not wide enough so I think I'm going to rough it out on the disc sander then finish it off by hand sanding. I've used brass inserts and machine allen screws for the control cover. There is going to be a 9v battery in there because snuffy doesn't like battery clips and I expect plain wood screws will end up de-threading the wood after a few battery changes. Took me ages to track down the right screws and inserts, the only place I could get the brass inserts was ebay/china but the machine screws are really good quality screws from accu.co.uk - only trouble with that site is most things have to be bought in min batches of 100 and their threaded inserts are £1 each!

I didn't consider that tbh, but it would require a lot of precise planning and carving to get the ramp the right size and in the right spot in relation to the pickup routs, and precision in terms of neck break angle and fretboard height etc. I tend to make things up as I go along and make adjustments as necessary. I expect Snuffy will want to be able to remove the ramp as well and I don't know how good he is with a flush trim saw