JGTay

I did mean easier on me for chiselling out , but I haven't done any clean up yet, still got more sanding to be done and hopefully it should look right by the end.

After gluing up the bottom piece of the lower section I moved on to doing the control cavity. First cut the cover to shape (straight lines on this one to make things a bit easier) After drawing round it cut the cavity to size within the area. Then scored the lines with a Stanley knife and followed up with the chisel around the lines. And then set to work removing the wood down to the poplar. Cover in place with a bit of sanding to level it off. And then setup a sanding area to level off the whole piece. Chiselled out the cable access for the pickups. Glued the top piece in place and then checked how much needs taking off. (lots of squeeze out that is taking a while to dry) Cavity after gluing, And then glued the upper section pieces together and checked the height. Couple of mm to be taken off top and bottom, shouldn't take a lot. Need to square up the edges, but happy with how it is coming along. Will start shaping the neck profile, headstock and volute before gluing on the wings.

The other option is to suggest a laminated neck, much stronger and you could just do it with the maple.

Thanks Scott. Said that to the wife yesterday, keep finding new ways to make it more difficult.

Nice fix. Sounds like a good project to work on, look forward to seeing it progress.

Went through my wood stocks and didn't have enough mahogany for anything close to the sizes needed, so called round to my dads house and raided his wood stock. Found some pieces that would be big enough for the shape with a bit of work, but not thick enough, so brought them home and set to work on another way of doing it. Had a big enough piece for the lower section, but had to cut a couple of pieces to size for the upper section. After squaring up the edges and joining the pieces for the upper section (hopefully the join will not be too obvious afterwards), I cut them to their basic shapes, leaving clamping points and then set about halving them... times like these I would appreciate access to a band saw. Upper section first. I then glued and clamped the first piece of this onto a piece of poplar and then cut round the shape. Didn't take any pics during this, was too busy and forgot. Then got on with halving the lower section. Need to glue and cut the other sections with the poplar yet, but this is the progress so far. Next up will be to glue the bottom piece on, square up the side section for joining to the neck and level it off top and bottom, then do it all again with the lower section. But the poplar sandwich is looking good so far to me. (Get that BLT out of your mind!) Hopefully the green poplar showing through with the bevels afterwards should be a nice feature against the mahogany.

Sanded the fretboard up to 10,000 Grit, then did 3 coats of Danish oil on it, with a small amount of sanding and buffing in between each coat. Did a final sand after the last coat with just the highest couple of grades. Still needs a final buff and polish, but will wait until I am ready to do the frets. Next up was taking the excess wood from the edges with a Shinto rasp. (Really need to spend some time and clear up my work surfaces!) Started getting some shape into the headstock, needs a bit more work yet, but it is beginning to look more like the final shape. Tried it in place with the Mockingbird template again, it is looking like I will go with this shape body, the neck goes really well with the shape and the wife really likes the one I have made for Dan. Considering going with a mahogany body if I have enough left in my stockpile, need to have a dig around and see what I can find.

Have been busy working on the fretboard the past couple of days, so a few updates on progress. Got the fretboard glued in place and then did the markers. Then got the radius started using a piece of wood to keep the block central, worked out very well with the laminated wood being the exact size for the centre position of the block. Next up I cut some 2mm wide strips of mahogany and glued them to the outside edge, leaving an overhang for the nut. And then put the nut in place to measure for the end piece. Cut the end piece and glued it in place. And then tested the nut in place again. This way the nut doesn't need to be glued in place and can easily be raised if needed with pieces of wood underneath. Was considering putting magnets into the bottom of the nut and then I could just use thin pieces of metal to adjust the height if needed, but will see how it goes. I then sanded the radius up to 1000 grit (highest I have until my delivery gets here later today) Then took it outside in the sunshine so I could see how well the wood grain shows up. Need to recut the fret slots as they are no longer deep enough after doing the radius. Then when the delivery gets here I will continue sanding up through the grades and hopefully get it all polished up ready for trimming the neck edges to size so I can get the frets in.

Managed to get some time on this today. Started by positioning the truss rod and drawing round it, then lined up a straight edge and used a Stanley knife to score along the lines. Then checked the truss rod fell in the lines correctly. And started chiselling out the channel. And then put the truss rod in place. Then made a start on cleaning up the fretboard edges and tested it in place. Hopefully I will get some time tomorrow to glue it in place and then I can get on with the radius. Probably should find some time to tidy up a bit as well...

Yes, the cuts are mirrored so that it follows the wave pattern from both sides (if that makes sense) and it was a real pain to do... Didn't think too much about the actual process beforehand, just went for it and found that trying to clamp the pieces without them folding in on each other was something I should have realised and worked out before applying the glue. Wow... Eddie Lang must have turned in his grave at that one. But at least it gave you another instrument to play and your mom supported you in it.

I am in the same boat. This will be the bass I learn on. The only bass I have tried has been a U-Bass. Thanks for the input , I agree, think the 12" will be the best bet.

500mm double action truss rod ordered and it should be here tomorrow. Can get that in place, then get the fretboard on and cut the edges of the neck to size. Then it will be on with the radius. Can't decide between 10" or 12" radius (which are the two blocks I have), reading through some bass guitar forums a lot of people say a flatter radius is better on a Jazz bass?

Whilst waiting on the parts for Dan's guitar, I am getting on with a project for myself. I have been wanting to add a bass to my collection of guitars for a some time, so I did a bit of research and decided on doing a short scale (30") Jazz Bass. May need some help along the way with pickup placement and wiring details, will see how I go. The experimentation with the fretboard - Going with a dual wood, Panga Panga with oak and using some leftover dust from sanding Dan's fretboard as a dark fill line. Got started on the fretboard yesterday, made an oak fretboard to the same thickness as the Panga Panga offcuts I had from a previous build, then cut a piece of the Panga to shape, followed the cut on the oak and then glued it in place (didn't think beforehand how much of a ball-ache this would be). once it was dry I then marked out for the next piece following the same shape. Cut and glued in place (again cursing myself for such a stupid idea, clamping two 9mm boards together like this is a pain!!) I made sure to keep straight edges along both sections to allow for marking out the fret cuts. Marked out the frets and cut the slots. Still need to straighten out the bottom edge (I keep on looking at it and thinking the fret slots are wonky, which they aren't!! ) Next up was the neck. Going with a Through neck using mahogany and poplar (both from the piano) Cut to length and thickness, then glued. And after it had dried, planed it flat on both sides, glued on some extra mahogany for the headstock width and then got on with cutting the headstock angle at 9 degrees. Then glued on the offcut to the reverse side to give the headstock enough thickness along the length. Then roughly marked out the string and machine head locations so that I could get a rough headstock shape cut. (will wait until I have the machine heads to do the locations properly) And last thing today was testing how it would look with a Mockingbird body (not decided on body shape yet, but this was to hand from doing Dan's guitar ). Still need to work out what wood to use for the body, need to go through my stock piles and see what I have. Sorry for so much in one go, two days work in one hit...

Thanks Mike. Have now sanded everything up through the grades. Dan came round to check everything and he is very happy, the neck shape is exactly how he wants it and is extremely pleased with the progress. Need to order the rest of the parts now. I can then get the jack plate in and do a test fit of everything before Dan takes it away to do the finish. He has taken the truss rod cover as he wants to do some engraving on it and try out the final colours after some test pieces.

I just came across that with the Mockingbird I am working on, 31mm body (maybe 30mm after all the sanding) and I had to chisel out extra depth for the pickups, was getting very close, probably around 4mm to spare

As well as mowing the lawns, weeding the garden and cleaning up the clay pizza oven ready for the Jubilee street party on Friday, I managed to get some time on the guitar. Sanded the headstock, truss rod cover, volute and neck up through the grades.

That is some next level custom part work. Fantastic job.

Started on the truss rod cover today, had a few offcuts from the through neck and so marked out a basic shape, then cut off a piece to the depth of the channel. Cutting past the minimum length line to give excess for sanding. Bevelled the back edge where it will come in contact with the nut. Then cut to depth for the channel leaving enough for the cover. And then cut through on each side. Chiselled off the excess channel piece. Cut the angles and tested in place. Rounded the edges. Put a small bevel on the underside of the front for access. And then put in the magnets, one on the underside to pull it down and one at the back edge to pull it towards the truss rod end. One in the channel lined up with the cover magnet. The white nut will be replaced when I order the actual nut, but for now it gives me an idea of how it all looks. Can get on with the clean up now, lots of sanding to be done and hopefully it will be ready for when Dan returns from his holiday in Scotland.

Got a bit more time today, so decided to sort out the pickup cavities before sanding the top again to remove the marks. First part was marking out the areas and then carefully scoring the lines with a Stanley knife. Then follow the score marks with a nice sharp chisel, no hammer needed, just plenty of hand pressure. And then start removing the excess wood, gentle pressure with sharp chisels soon cut through. Then drilled to depth for the mounting screws. And tested the pickup in place with some spare pickup rings. Iron Gear Hot Slag pickups. They will have gold covers on them when finished. Then the same with the neck pickup cavity. Plenty of adjustment available. Looking more like a guitar Next up will be the truss rod cover, then I can get on with the tidy up and prepare it for Dan to do the paint job.

The back bevels are all done. I then moved onto sanding the front up through the grades and tidying up the front bevels. Cleaned it up with white spirit so I could see if I missed anything. At first glance I thought it was clear of marks, but then I noticed some after uploading the pic... Went back out to the workshop to confirm and they are visible. So looks like I need to do a bit more sanding as they would likely show up in the finish.

Thanks Scott. I am in total agreement, think it works really well together. Will be interesting to see it when Dan has done the translucent blue finish on it. Had a bit of spare time today, so got on with a few things. Sorted out the the upper section that @Bizman62 noticed, it is looking much better now. Also cleaned up the sunken bridge area and tested it with the bridge. And then got on with carving the back sections. Bit of tidying up to do on the bevels, but love the way they are coming along. Will do the upper section with a rounded carve in the morning, feeling a bit tired now. This is the slimmest guitar I have done so far, coming in at around 31mm. It is very light weight, but obviously the hardware will add some weight to it.

No worries. Good that people are taking a close look. I did notice that myself and made allowances in the rounded edge. I still need to sand the sides down a bit more and it should hopefully be right when finished.

Managed to get on with some more carving. Did a transition from the top bevel into an arm curvature. The front shape is basically there, bit more tidying up on some of the bevels and plenty of sanding to be done on the sides. Then I will get on with the shaping of the back. Will be busy over the next few days with the plastering job, hopefully can get some more done on this some time next week.

You can adopt me if it means I get one of these made! Your nephew is a very lucky boy, fantastic build. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks Mike. Didn't get a lot of time on it today, had a job to do for one of my neighbours. Managed to get some carving done on the front. Should get a bit more time tomorrow to get the front finished.