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sethgali

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About sethgali

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  1. I'm steering away from making my own neck from scratch this time for one big reason: I don't actually play the instrument yet so I don't know what I should be aiming for. I don't know what properly leveled frets should look or feel like. I definitely want to try it on future builds though.
  2. I ordered the Whiteside 2" bit, 1/2" shank. I thought the larger diameter would help get the job done more efficiently, even though we aren't talking about very much surface area to begin with. Thanks for the tips on necks. I'll check those out.
  3. Thanks for all the advice. I finally decided to just bite the bullet and do it already. Got two body blanks cut from my slab yesterday. Didn't get the grain match as good as I hoped on the extra piece for the one on the right, but I don't think it will be distracting. That one also has part of the deep crack in the bottom end. We'll see how bad it is once I trim it down to the final shape. I'll stabilize it with some epoxy and see how well it holds. Got a flattening bit for my router on the way, and will build the sled and do that next week. In the meantime, any suggestions on necks? I can get a Mighty Mite from StewMac and be pretty authentic for not a terrible amount of money. Somebody else I talked to suggested Eden, available on Ebay. That would be much cheaper, but I can't tell if they have a truss rod or not. My search fu doesn't seem to be very good on Reverb, trying to find a used J Bass neck. Any other ideas? Cheers. Seth
  4. Something about IT guys (and gals) I guess. We think we can do anything. Now that you mention that option, that's an easy fix. I can probably do that one almost seamlessly with the wood grain, too. You'd think I would have thought of that one. Thanks!
  5. Heh, and all this time I always called them "dutchman" patches. But yeah, that's not a bad idea. Thanks!
  6. @willliam_q Oh yeah, I'm a big Crimson Guitars fan. And while I don't love everything Ben does, it certainly shows just how far outside of the box you can go and still have a functional piece of art. For a first attempt though, I'm going to try and avoid the checks as much as possible. @Bizman62 I watched April's build with Crimson (also been a fan of her work for years), but don't remember her using a scarf joint. I'll have to go back and look again. I do appreciate a good bit of joinery. Unfortunately, I stored the slab standing on end while it was drying. I'm guessing this is the largest cause for the cupping. @Andyjr1515 Woohoo! I last measured the moisture content at the beginning of December and it was around 5.5%. Started at 15% when I got it in August. I suspect it's mostly done drying at this point (or maybe I'm too impatient to wait any longer). The guy I bought it from had it in his garage, and it's been in mine since I got it. I plan on using a prebuilt neck. Not ready to tackle bulding one from scratch on my first project. @mistermikev I'm an IT guy for my day job so I look at a lot of forums. I could tell pretty quickly that this was a good one. Thanks for the advice on weight. I was thinking about the option of using the narrower portion of the slab and just shaving a bit off the edges, just hope it won't make the overall shape look too unbalanced. Right now, I'm leaning towards staying away from that bad check in the end entirely. The one in the middle of the heartwood at the other end of the slab (which actually starts about 13" in from that end), while it looks potentially significant, seems like an acceptable risk. It's location would put it right in the middle of the body, which seems less critical than say near the neck pocket. I'll have a better idea how deep it is once I surface and flatten the rough cutout. Then I can stabilize it with either CA or thin epoxy. Does that sound reasonable? Thanks for putting up with my rambling and the great responses. I don't know anybody to talk directly to about these things so I'm basically thinking out loud and looking for advice here. I'm sure once I build a dozen of unplayable instruments, I'll figure out what actually works.
  7. tThanks for the great input. Good to know about the required thickness. That's something I was going to investigate as I got closer to those parts. I hadn't thought about dressing the top. That could be an opportunity for a nice show piece of wood. I'll keep it in mind. As far as the "blemishes" go, I'm not averse to some character, I just want to make sure they aren't going to be a problem structurally. I don't think those smaller knots should be a problem, but I am worried about the larger knots and checks. I hand-sanded the template pretty thoroughly to even out all the transitions, but it's worth hitting again. I know that the better the template, the better the final cut will be. And I do have a scale handy to check on the weight. What is considered a good target for that? I've attached some pics of the serious problems. The first is a large check in one end. The other is a significant check within the heartwood near the other end. There are a couple of big knots at the same end as the second one, but any layout I've tried so far avoids them. For higher res pics, I created an album on Google: https://photos.app.goo.gl/WninU6UtABRt5L6n9 I tried some layout options and it appears the only area I can fit the full width of the body is the end with the check in the heartwood. It would also fit at the other end but not clear of that bad check. It also seems that due to the position of the bad check, there doesn't seem to be any way to get a second body out of this slab, even in pieces, which is disappointing. So how bad is that check in the heartwood? I can't tell how deep it is. I don't think it goes all the way through, so maybe it's not a problem? There is a very slight check on the other side in that vicinity, but the orientation is different than this side so I don't think they're connected, but I could be wrong about that. I can cut out enough pieces to do one body and not worry about any of the major flaws, so that's still an option. And I'm sure I can find a use for the leftover wood, just not in a guitar project. Maybe I'm just overthinking it and over-worrying and just need to bite the bullet and do it. Any further advice is welcome. Seth
  8. Let me begin with this: I don't know anything about basses, I'm a sax player, but I've always wanted to learn. And I've been itching for a while to build one because it looks like fun. The plan is to build this one and then learn how to play it. I'm a moderately capable woodworker with a decent collection of tools and have watched a ton of videos about guitar building in general. I've always loved the classic look of the Fender Jazz Bass, so that's what I'm working on for my first project. I plan to go with a natural finish and no pickguard. I found full-scale technical drawings of the J Bass somewhere online and have already prepared an MDF template to use for routing the shape of the body. I purchased a rough cut ash slab in August, and it finally got dry enough to work with last month. It's 56" long, 1 3/4" thick, and averages 14" wide, I'm hoping to be able to cut two bodies out of this in case I have problems. The width is just barely enough for a single-piece body. You'd think there would be plenty of length for two bodies, but now that it has dried, it has a few issues. It's bowed on both length (about 3/8" gap at the middle) and width (about 1/8" gap at the middle. I should be able to correct this in the flattening process, but it means losing some thickness. It also has a bad check (crack) at one end about 12" long, a bad knot and additional checking at the other end, and some smart imperfections in the middle. I figure I have two options: 1) Cut out two single-piece bodies as originally planned, cutting around the worst cracks and filling in the knots and other lesser cracks with epoxy as needed. 2) Cut the board lengthwise and get several smaller pieces (probably three each) to glue up into the two bodes, allowing me to not have to work with any of the imperfections. So that's my first question: which of these options would be recommended by those who have done this before? I'm documenting progress on my Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/sethgali/) if you'd like to see examples of the issues with the slab. I'm not fishing for followers, I've just already started the process there. I'm open to any and all advice on this project, so please fire away. Thanks in advance for your help. Seth
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