Nicco

More or less finished sanding the carve on the back of the guitar last night, last little bits will be when I'm doing final sanding for the whole thing now. 

I wasn't going too, but I couldn't help myself, I started on the carve of the top; I really wanted to see what the reveal of the blackwood looked like. Anyway, pictures attached. It's very rough at the moment with obviously a lot more refining to do, but still, super excited by how it looks!

Oh yeah, sorry, I meant in a negative way that the temperature and humidity in there fluctuates wildly. Definitely not getting kiln like drying going on out there! Ha ha

Worth adding though, even though it's hot I'm grateful for having a shed! Much nicer than being in the garage like I did at our last house! Ha ha 

Yeah, it's definitely greener than that! It's been in the shed for about 4 months. To add to it though, we kind of skipped spring in our past if the world though unfortunately, it went from 18 degrees and raining to 35 degrees and bone dry in about 2 weeks. The shed is uninsulated and out in the sun too, so temps in there are pretty high. 

I've got the sides and back effectively sanded now, which let me do the round over on the back of the guitar. I wanted a 9mm or so radius, but the hardware shop only had 6mm or 12mm. I figured going with a 6mm allows me to go back and take a bit more off later. 

Then, I got super excited and got the angle grinder and flap disc out to rough in the back carve. 

We've had a couple of really hot days here, it seems the highly figured top didn't like the temperature! I've got a couple of little cracks now that I didn't before, plus my centre join has opened up a bit. I'll push on for now, but may need to revisit it at some point, maybe some epoxy to stabilise it or something. 

Thanks guys, appreciate the comments. I've been doing little bits of sanding when I can, hopefully I'll get that finished soon, then I can get stuck into the fun bit of doing the contours on the top and the belly carve

So I've had my shed days for the week, all done and dusted. Very happy with the progress.

The 6 P's really helped with making good progress... Prior Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance! I spent the time making the templates and using my drawings and the end result was some nice and clean pockets. 

Quick list of progress, then I'll just dump in photos. 

- Qld maple cap joined onto 2mm Tassie blackwood veneer, jointed and glued into a single cap

- This guitar will have a face mounted output jack, so rather than have to carry around a right angle adaptor for the straight end leads I've got to suit my other guitars, I've made a sneaky little adaptor holder. I had to sink in a blank jack from the top

- Wiring channels routed into the top side of the body blank, then cap glued on

- Body trimmed to shape minus 1mm sanding allowance to go 

- Cavities routed in the back

Next up will be sanding then doing the contours. I'm still waiting on the truss rod, so can't really start on the neck yet, unfortunately. 

Boo! Not sure why that photo is upside down.

I picked up a Roarockit kit after reading someone on here using them (sorry, can't remember who) and got to glueing the 2mm blackwood veneer to the cap. Both sides are now done like this.

I'll glue the two halves into a full cap ready for sticking onto the body as soon as the channels for the wiring are all done. 

Yeah, it was just a smidge awkward when it was the reduced size. Looks great now, just how I hoped it would. Crazy how such a little change had made such a difference. 

Managed to sneak in a little time to do some jointing on the qld maple top. Almost there but not quite. I've never used a shooting board before, so having to go slow to make sure it doesn't get away from me. 

Templates redone exactly 3% larger. I've stuck to my guns with the original body design. Not sure if it's just my mind playing tricks on me or not, but it doesn't look too small now. Ha ha ha. 

Next week is the week off, so keen to get everything ready to go for Monday to get some serious work done on this thing. 

Nothing to add other than this looks sensational! 

Thanks gents, appreciate the comments and support. Agreed too, Mike, that fret board really looks good under that light. Also, I've never actually played a short scale bass, but the concept sounds great, I always reckoned a 34" is a bit gangly for me. Ha ha. It's nice to hear you both say good things about them, I'm hoping it'll really work for me. 

So I tweaked the body design to add another 25mm to it to see what it would look like. I printed it out and tried it side by side... I think I'm leaning towards the original now; I love that look of the bridge being way down the back on a bass. Going to stew on it for a few days and then decide. 

Oh and top tip, when you print out templates, make sure your full page print isn't scaled to 97% somewhere in the back of the print options. Oh well, it's only the templates I'll have to remake, at least I hadn't cut the actually body yet. Ha ha. 

Laser cut the fret board layout today to see how it all looks together, I'm feeling like maybe the body is just a bit on the small side. I've tweaked my cad model so will print it out tomorrow and see how it looks in person. 

Overall, either way it's going to be a compact bass, it's closer to the strat shape in size than a 34" bass. 

Far out!! Amazing

Thanks gents! Looking forward to really getting stuck into this one. I've got a day off coming up in a couple of weeks so I'll be spending the whole day in the shed hopefully (probably not, he he he) making good progress. The main piece of hardware I'm still waiting for is the truss rod, so I'll be kicking off with the body.

And Bizman, yeah, Drak's Beryl looks pretty amazing after it was finished, such a big change from where it started. I spose as we go along through the process I can always shift the goal posts a bit if it's needed. I'm pretty used to moving goal posts in my day job. ha ha. 

Hey everyone, 

Build 1 is now done and dusted, so I'm moving onto build #002.

This one is going to be a 30" scale bass guitar, EMG active pickups, Gotoh 4-in-a-line tuners and a Hipshot bridge. These are all parts I bought back in about 2017 to build a bass, but got sidetracked and never got it done. 

The timbers are all Australian, which was something I was really keen to stick to. The main body blank is Bunya Pine (not actually a pine, but looks similar), body cap is Queensland Maple, with a 2mm Tasmanian Blackwood veneer going in between. Neck will be Qld Maple. Fret board is Gidgee (a desert acacia species). I'm foreseeing at this stage that the whole lot will be Tru-Oil finished - I want to let the timbers shine on their own in this one.

I've been trying to do a lot of front end loading on this one to try and make the build quicker than number 1, so I've designed the shape in Inkscape vector software, then designed the hard points and all the cavities in AutoCad. 

I've also bought some new tools (thanks, day-job bonus!) to help speed the job up as well, the key ones being a spindle sander which has already arrived and seen some duty, plus also a 14" bandsaw which is on the way. 

Congratulations, Jolly! Fantastic build. Thoroughly enjoyed watching this one come together

Thanks Curtis. I'll have a good look into it before I try it out. 

Legends. Thanks gents. I'll go with the 520mm one

On 11/22/2020 at 5:43 PM, curtisa said:

Buckeye burl is too soft and fragile to be used as a fretboard. It won't withstand the wear of being exposed to guitar strings and fingers, nor will it retain the frets once they're installed.

Pretty sure cocobolo is used regularly as a fretboard, but its rarity makes it much less commonly seen. Bocote is another related timber that makes for another exotic fretboard option.

There's far more options out there for fretboards than just the five you list. You're not looking hard enough. A lot of Australian desert hardwoods make good fretboards - Jarrah, Gidgee, Cooktown Ironwood, River Oak. I used a piece of Merbau decking as a fretboard once that worked quite well.

Strictly speaking, any timber that has a high stiffness and hardness, and good stability once dried and cut should work as a fretboard. Maple, ebony and rosewood just get the spotlight more due to their plentiful supply (or at least before widespread over-logging started endangering supply) and the expectations of customers and manufacturers that 'traditional' timbers be used in guitar construction.

Hey guys, sorry to dig up an old post, but Curtisa, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on Marri, if you have an opinion at all? It's quite similar to jarrah in terms of working with, but I've not seen anyone who's used it? I've got a nice piece at home that would be suitable, I'm considering having a crack at it. Not sure what it's actual hardness would be though relative to jarrah

Hey guys, 

For my next build I'm going to make a bass guitar, aiming to do a 30" scale. I'm a little unsure as to what truss rod to use. I know LMII do custom length ones, but the international shipping to Australia quadruples the cost; and I don't have the left hand tap and die required to make one myself (and they are stupid expensive)

I was planning on having the adjustment at the head end of the neck, but am open to heel adjustment if required

Looking at options off the shelf, the longest electric guitar ones will come in at 460mm, which lands the end of the truss rod just shy of the 16th fret. There is a Martin style U channel one that comes in at 580mm long that lands just beyond the 24th fret . I have found a 520mm option on Ebay which is goldilocks length to my eyes, but... to be honest, it just looks a little sketchy.

Is the 460mm one going to be sufficient for this application? Or should I heel mount the Martin one and have 24 frets plus some overhang? Or just chance the Ebay one?

Thanks in advance, everyone.

Links to the three truss rods below:

460mm: https://www.realparts.com.au/necks/truss-rods/guitar-truss-rod.html

580mm: https://luthiersupplies.com.au/martin-style-u-channel-truss-rod

520mm: https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/254470536932?chn=ps&_trkparms=ispr%3D1&amdata=enc%3A1ZIxBsr7yS1uGhUilEZEUgw45&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=705-139619-5960-0&mkcid=2&itemid=254470536932&targetid=1395035668216&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9070485&poi=&campaignid=14475548384&mkgroupid=132282084371&rlsatarget=pla-1395035668216&abcId=9300653&merchantid=7364522&gclid=CjwKCAjw7--KBhAMEiwAxfpkWID_KH2D9ENkKCf2vIUDX2pWWsojYGBE8Fasd3ritXRcPLnpeBYlPhoCogUQAvD_BwE

Thanks Scott. Yeah, it's a little detail bit I'm happy with how it's all tied together. 

And also, big news, with thanks to the help from Biz and Mike, the guitar is (essentially) done. The nut is now sorted, the action much more reasonable, and the neck is now nicely back square where it all should have been. I've got a couple of tiny details to sort (changing the screws on the truss rod cover to smaller, black plated screws, etc) but yeah, I'm calling this the finish line.

I'll take some glamour shots later in the week.

Thanks again to everyone who chimed in and helped out with the build, I've learned a metric shitload on the way through and thoroughly enjoyed the process

Thanks Mike. Nope, when I did the course all those many moons ago, the guy who ran it did the nut for us, so it was one of the few bits I didn't get any feel for. Still feels like a dark art getting the nut just right. 

Appreciate the tips, I'll have a crack at that too and try get it really sweet