De Trepagny

What kind of wood do you use for your accent line? It look like Ipe?

Realy nice work, nothing radical, smooth line and nice choice of wood, that's the way i like bass

Philippe

Looks great but I think that the neck is a little bit high on the pocket (distance between the fretboard and body) this is how I have it on the kelly and the bridge saddles are adjusted almost all the way up on mine.

I took my value from a cad drawing. The neck pocket is 5/8 deep and the neck is 31/32 thick. It give me .341"(distance between the fretboard and body). Is it too high? I will do a trial fit, anyways it's not too late to route it again.

thank for the remark,

Philippe

I finaly cut the tele's body on my band saw and sand it to the line.

I'll gave it a final sanding (grit#320) this week-end and apply a danish oil finish. The end of the precess is near!

Philippe

Great work! It's a nice way to hide this big adjustement nut. Is it hold by a magnet?

Have fun with this good sounding bass!

Philippe

I'm back to my workshop! The body cavity's routing is now done. The neck fit pretty tight into the pocket. Next step is the body contour and a little groove to clear the truss rod adjustement nut. I dont know if I'll use a template with my template bit or simply cut the body to sand it flush to the line. Making a template make the sanding time shorter...

See ya!

Philippe

That and you might lose one of the saddles if you break a string!

I always like the look of wood hardware too.

breaking a string... on a fretless bass?

I never broke a bass string, but it's a good idea to find a way to keep the saddle locked on the bridge

Philippe

Cool!

do you have a close up of it?

Go there so see the bridge :

wood bridge topic

Philippe

Pics posted!

It's a proto, next one will be more sofisticated, but still wood on wood! You can notice the wood shim under the saddle, it's ugly but it's R&D !

Philippe

Well done!

Damn nice looking bass there too!

Did you make that bridge yourself?

Thanks! I made it with my drillpress with a router bit and a two axis vise (like a milling) It's a lot cheaper than the cheapest bridge you can found on stemac and give to that bass a warmer sound.

Philippe

Try again

yeah!

clickable tumbnail now....

Philippe

My only concern, however, is how much it's actually going to sound like a Tele--

This is a reason why we make guitar, we never realy know how they will exactly sound. It's a part of the challenge

Philippe

do you have a closer photo?

is your saddles running along a set screw or something?

thanx again

I will take closer pics by the end of the week and will post them on photobucket. No set screw, no spring loaded screw, just wood

Philippe

It's Montreal Jazz Festival this week! And i'm waiting for my new 14" band saw. two good raison to take a brake

See ya,

Philippe

Hi low end fuzz, I made my own wood bridge for my mahogany fretless. rosewood bridge String through body with individual saddle all made from rose wood, so i can intonate every string proprely. I did not have any machanism to adjust the height or the intonation. I simply move the wood saddle to adjust the intonation and the string tension keep it in place just like a violin. For string height, i took a fine rasp and sand the bottom of the saddle. nothing had moved and i play this bass for 2 month. The bass sound realy natural but dont exepct a snappy fretless sound à la Jaco, it will sound much more like a cello. My string are grounded by a brass plate insert in the back of the body. brass insert I dont think the brass plate affect the sound, anyway you have to make a strong achnor to keep the string tension. And making your own bridge cut the hardware price!

I hope this will help and good luck!

Philippe

hot-rod

Martin style

Philippe

This is my first guitar In french we offen said guitare for guitar and basse for bass guitar. Sorry for the misunderstanding. Effectively this is my project #4

badsnap: pick-up are 2 wilkinson (single coil) from stemac. Nothing fancy but i think they will do the job. I'll finish it with natural Danish oil, simply.

redwhiteandthemaple: the fretless one was my first instrument. I just can't wait to hear how the tele will sound! But i've got to be patient

thanks for your comment!

Philippe

The neck is now shaped. It's a asymetrical soft V shape that give me some hard time to blend but i think that my brother will love it.

Rasp job

Final result

The G tuning key hole is off a little, i'll oversize it and put the tuning key before showing it to my bro

Philippe

What's happen if you sand the cover contour to make the gap equal all around?

Beau top, très funky!

Philippe

Did you get that plan from where ? transfered for template? If so , what material did you use do do it? Does the neck fits the body firmly and tight?

I ordered some templates from guitarbuildingtemplates.com and im a bit desapointed when routed the neck pocket and checked out a huge difference between the neck and the neck pocket.

Thanks.

I ordered my drawing from http://www.mimf.com/. The essential is on the plan. I use 3/4" thick plywood to build my template. I transfer the plan on the plywood with carbon paper. For the neck pocket, i always used my neck to draw the body template. So the neck fit tight in the pocket. This is why i build my neck first.

Check out the gap between the neck and the neck pocket on american or mexican made Fender and you will be conforted

Philippe

My Brother saw the basses i made so he ask me to build him a tele to his specs. He want a light guitar with a bassy tone, a soft V neck with the cassic look. I proposed him a mahogany neck/body for three reason 1- i like to work it 2- I have the wood stock 3- the neck blank is quater-saw so relatively stiff. So i began my first guitar last week.

Specs:

-gotoh keys

-wilkinson bridge

-wilkinson bridge and neck single coil

-medium fret

-corian nut

-stemac hot-rod

-flatblack pick-guard

See the work in progress here http://s53.photobucket.com/albums/g79/de-t...y%20Telecaster/

any comment are welcome!

Philippe

Hi there...

check out this thread, unfortunatly the pics have gone but there are detail ideas and links on making a composite neck.

Welcome to PG and good luck with that... pete

Sorry, but i can't see this thread (no links) but i'll search "carbon" on this forum. Thanks fryovanni for the links, it's a realy interesting discution on composite.

I will complete my brother's project (a mahogany telecaster) and by the end of the summer i'll began my master model for my carbon project. I work as a modelmaker for the aerospace industry so it's a inevitable project!

thanks for your help!

Philippe

If they've got a patent, do a patent search.

It's gonna be expensive if you don't have the tooling, and you will very likely have to do a bunch of experimenting before you get it right.

If we can build guitar with rasps and jig saw we can do anything C/f is expensive but for a neck you can put 50$can for the material... and a another 50$ for a strong fiberglass mold. If you know a friend with a vacuum pump you're in buisness

Philippe

Does anyone know were i can get some info about carbon fiber neck. I'm searching specs for laminate thickness, how they are build (construction), hi modulus or low modulus, carbon/carbon or epoxy/carbon? I know that Modulus have a patent on the concept, but i want to made one for me.

Philippe

It took me between 40 and 50 hrs to build a bass. I work 1.5 hours a day on my project so it's about 10hrs/week. I'm a beginner and i realy take my time 'cause i'm relaxing when i'm in my workshop and i dont have more time. But at the end of the process i rush to make it playable. It's like to receve a new toy!

Philippe