Son of Magni

...Does graphite lubrifiant can work? They dont dry complettely but i saw some cavity that let graphite mark on my finger.

thanks!

Philippe

The graphite paint will come off on your fingers.

Are you talking about "Liquid Wrench" of something like that? I wouldn't get that anywhere near an instrument

Where did you get the camphor, if you don't mind divulging...

cellos also often only play one note at a time.

Don't fret

http://www.thorbass.com/sounds/sonata3.mp3

Interesting comments you received on that

You still playing it like that?

Plug-in iron + foil. Then use something kind of sharp or very flat (not sure what it's called, used often in non-guitar painting). Once the glue heats up, attempt to push whatever object beneath it, and keep pushing it forward as you heat the next section up. Should take a good 10-30 minutes. Remember, hot wood bends easily! Don't let the board change shape on you.

Yup, that's pretty much it. Only difference is I use a high power heat gun. Usually takes me about a half hour.

Dielectric paint would be non-conductive paint. Useless for shielding. Stewmac sells the graphite mixed paint that I use. But I only use it for the controls compartment. As Russ mentioned, most pickups are pretty well shielded on the back.

I'm not saying not to do it or even that it's necessarily a bad idea, but most people will tell you that a low B should have a 34 or 35 inch scale length. With a 32 inch scale you will have to use heavy gauge strings and even then the strings will probably feel a bit floppy. Of course if you have a light touch and/or mostly play near the bridge it might not be a problem.

So I'd just recommend that you do a little research on low B's and scale lengths to make sure this is really the way you want to go.

A simple fingerboard clamping caul I made from scrap pine. The two bottom edges are cut at angles that approximate the fingerboard radius.

Magni, thanks for the tip. The neck will be blended. I wasn't worried about nicking the back of the neck I was worried about nicking the small gap between the edge of the body and the front of the neck where the fingerboard is.

Ah, I see. You do have to take some care. The horns can be in danger too depending on your design. But I find neck carving and neck to body blending to be about the most fun and rewarding tasks of building an instrument

Using a router or even a router table, these I don't really enjoy...

Roundover before you glue the neck in....most definitely. I distinctly recall hating the task of feathering the roundover transition against the neck on my neck-thru. Without the neck, you can run the bit right to the end of the neck pocket (if you want).

Thanks for confirming my suspicions Erik. I'll round it over first. The worst is that I do my roundovers with files and the thought of filing the body close to the glued-in neck sends shivers down my spine

Unfortunately I don't have a good pic of blending the body to the neck. But I rough shape the neck and roundover the body. Then after I glue them together I go at it again with the rasp to blend the two together for a nice smooth transition. Ideally it should end up looking like it was all molded from one piece. Someday maybe I'll have pictures of every step

I guess what I'm saying though is, if you assume you're going to blend the joint then you won't be worrying about nicking the neck with your file...

I'm 99.9% sure a zero fret should be on the same plane as the rest of them.

After all, if you put a capo on the first fret, it is effectively acting as a zero fret, and you don't have to raise it.

My only concern about that theory is that when you use a capo, you're creating a break angle over the fret. This in effect cantilevers (sp?) the string over the next fret. If your break angle at the zero fret is the same then all is well. If not, then it *might* make sense for the zero fret to be higher (probably only by a few thousandths).

Thanks for making very unique and inspiring basses! I actually didn't play the game with him at the same time, I just found out we played in the same game. I talked with him a bit later on when I found out (we were posting on the same gaming forum). I was posting pictures of my fretless 4 I was working on and he mentioned that his father made basses and linked your site. I found it pretty funny, because I was basing a lot of one of my future builds around one of your 6-strings at the time.

Wow, that is pretty amazing.

Anyways, back to threadstarter, I wouldn't try to just add a pickup to the J configuration. Try to use all available space. My bridge pickups are much closer the the bridge than the standard J pups in order to get the most variance between pickups.

Oh.... wow.... Oh my..... wow.....

Any bass player would be more than happy to play that piece of work.

Except, perhaps.... mine but that's another story.

How many different types of wood did you use for that one? I LOVE that body shape

That bass is Claro Walnut top and back with Mahogany core and Maple highlights. The neck is Maple, Macassar Ebony, and Purpleheart. One cool thing I did with that bass is the front of the headstock, the fingerboard, and the plate on the front are all from one piece of Macassar Ebony and it's cut so that the grain is continuous.

I have a question, looking at your website at the close ups of the bridge on that acoustic-electric-electric bass the bridge looks original. Did you make the bridge/saddle yourself? or have i just not done enough searching?

Yes I have a small gearhead mill that I make bridges and tailpieces on. I also use it for cutting truss-rod slots and plaining neck angles, etc.

I got a question how thick is that bass there looks prittty huge!

Basically it's like two basses stuck together, but without the extra top and bottom. So it's standard thickness, 1 1/2, plus about another 1 1/4. So just under 3 inches.

Thanks everyone for your questions and interest.

SoM

Maybe I'm missing something here, but it sounds like you're re-crowning without leveling the frets first. If what you're after in the end is nicely dressed frets, you should use your scrap neck to practice the leveling procedure first, then move on to recrowning and polishing...

Bind the access panel with a binding the same thickness as the router bit. That way it will also be possible to do a square access panel. Mitre the bindings likely at the corners. It will give you an elegant look and the router bit has better odds to last.

Ha, that's a great idea! Actually I did this because I glued the body wings together and forgot to cut the access first. Now it's my standard method.

Hey, thanks guys. Here's another unusual one. Same shape but this guy wanted sort of a cross between an electric and an acoustic-electric. It certainly is unique!

Here's some pics I took to help explain calculating neck angle. I haven't written the explanation part yet But here's the pics anyways...

http://www.thorbass.com/images/coconeck1_.jpg

http://www.thorbass.com/images/quilt1_.jpg

http://www.thorbass.com/images/quilt2_.jpg

http://www.thorbass.com/images/billTop_.jpg

All your pics are too big and only one allowed per post as per forum rules!

Sorry about that, I will reduce...

Stuart Hamm.

The would be a fair difference in tone from "middle" position as compared to "neck" position. The string vibration is much different as the pickup gets closer to the neck.

http://www.thorbass.com/slideshow/medium/0012.jpg

Check out Thor basses. Kind of funny story about the guy. I'm a computer gamer and a big fan of custom basses. I just so happend to play a game with the guy's son that makes those basses.. Alright, so it's not funny. But just a neat coincidence!

Ha Jon, where did you meet FM, at Drexel? Well, thanks for the props

So, I've been building basses for a few years, just ran across your forums and though I'd say HI. Some of you might know me from talkbass or sputnik(mx)...

Anyways, I'll just be lurking... helping out if I can

When I needed some measurements on a Hipshot bridge, I just called them and someone, Jason I think, was happy to measure one and give me the info.