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Son of Magni

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Posts posted by Son of Magni

  1. That's jaw dropping awesome! I love working with Zebra but I've never put a trans finish over it becuase I was afraid to see what would happen! Now it's time to go down to the shop for a little finishing!

    Believe me there was no guesswork in it. I did about a dozen tests with different colors and mixtures over a couple weeks.

    what kind of finish is that? looks great!

    I ended up with 90% red 10% blue mixed in water and wiped on one coat. Lightly sanded because of grain raising. Two coats of Watco with red mixed in. Then 6 coats of Tru-Oil.

    Nice! It makes sense that a lighter shade of Zebrawood would take a stain well.

    DR Red Devils?

    Yeah I thought the red strings would be nice on it. Who makes gold alloy strings, I know I've seen them on juststrings.com?

  2. man that would seriously help me out with some left hand technique....very nice

    how do the pickups sound set up like that??

    They sound great! I did some experimentation with them before doing any routing.

    Holy cow man, that is the coolest thing I have ever seen, its crazy and huge and awesome and I don't even play bass at all. The first thing my eyes went to was the fretboard and I thought I was looking at a tiled counter or something, all these squares everywhere. I thought to myself hmm, nice tile laying and interesting silver grout. Amazing stuff man, thanks for sharing. Best of luck. J

    lol!

    9 strings, 4 pickups, a billion laminates...

    One volume knob :D

    My tiny hands and I are going to sit over here, with the less-than-3" necks, thank you very much. Awesome job, Magni, really spectacular.

    Actually there's no volume, it's a pan control. I can add more controls when I sell it, but I never touch a volume on the bass so I left it out.

    Thanks for the compliments!

    head3_070107_.jpg

  3. what is the dark wood in the neck, is it ebony?

    Yes, the neck is Ebony, Purpleheart, and Maple.

    How many truss rods did you use?

    2 trusses

    Excellent work, Magni! Just as impressive as the spalt top you posted a while ago, though admittedly with 10 tuners, the headstock looks a bit crowded. How does it balance, with that many tuners on the headstock? And is the bridge/tailpiece homemade? It looks sharp, though I noticed that each set of two is adjustable for intonation, not every string.

    Again, awesome job :D

    It balances ok considering. They are lightweight tuners and half of them are guitar tuners. I really haven't played it much standing up but it didn't bother me. I built the bridge and tailpiece. The bridge has 5 adjustable saddles and the saddles have a fixed offset for the two strings. I did some tests first to determine what offset to use.

    Also, the heights of the saddles are set to follow the radius of the fingerboard and the bridge height can be adjusted at each end.

    bridge1_.jpg

  4. Dave, I haven't read the whole thread, but based on your first post and the pics things are looking really nice! One thing I have to say is, I'm impressed by your evaluation of your work at every step. You're taking every opportunity to learn by seeing where your techniques could be improved. Sign of someone that will be making some great instruments :D

    Edit: Yeah Bloodwood. I bought a couple boards to make tops from. I haven't cut it yet but it's amazingly dusty with fine red dust. I bet it'll be great fun putting this stuff through the plainer...

  5. Thanks Jason and Jon, I can't take all the credit though. Mother nature supplied the beautiful materials...

    that came out so amazingly, great work. how much room is there between the tip of the lower horn and the fingerboard? the first guitar i built has a lower horn very similar to that, and an issue i used to run into was when playing up high i'd hit the horn, cause it was too close, but maybe on a bass thats not an issue, as technique up high probably varies dramatically... course i just now actually measured mine, and its 2 3/4", yours looks a bit wider than that...

    I realized I never responded to this. It's actually about 2 3/4 inches. This is something I experienced with the first bass I build with this template and made some changes to give a little more room. The guy who contracted this bass wanted the body width reduced, and the way I accomplished that brought the lower horn closer again. I'll probably reshape it a bit thanks to your timely question :D

    So, here's a short clip of me playing it. I'm really just a fretless player but it came out ok I think...

    Spalt Bass

  6. wat wood is that used in the laminates and for the fb?

    That is Cocobolo, anyone considering using it should think twice because of the allergy risk.

    Played this bass in a couple jams over the last few days and it sounded great. After I get some clips uploaded I'll link to them if that's allowed...

  7. The article I read about hardening with shellac was specific to spalted wood which is much more porous than solid wood. I seems to penetrate quite well since after three coats the spalt is still not sealed. The hard areas did seal with the first coat as you imply.

    I wonder what the durability is like compared to an oil/varnish finish like Tru-Oil...

    - SoM

  8. A little update. I was going to use CA glue to harden the spalt top and back of the body, but I wasn't looking forward to breathing the fumes from the glue or the dust from sanding later. So after a little research I learned that clear wax-free shellac is also a good hardener. Shellac also has the advantage that you can use pretty much any finish over it. So heres a pic showing the body after three coats of spray shellac. The spalted areas are not completely sealed but are much harder than they were.

    - SoM

    shellacbody_.jpg

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