DigthemLows

Really starting to look great!! I like the idea of giving it a "head" so that you know where the neck ends.

From a website "BC5CBC Classic Bass Series, Dual Coil Humbucker. "Classic Bass" CB series bass pickups are passive designs featuring an extended and more resonant frequency range. They have far more "air" and definition at the top without sacrificing lows and low mids. They are cast in epoxy to remove unwanted feedback and microphonics." I have a NTBT that's prewired with 4 knobs, but I'm not sure what they are (I bought it used) I'll be looking into that soon. I'm almost positive it's bass/treble/volume/blend .........

Since it's my first, I'm going for the tru-oil finish in the hopes that it will be easy for a beginner. Plus it looks nice on walnut.

I used Fret Find 2D FretFind it's a great program. And no I didn't radius, I'm a big guy with big fingers and I wanted a big feeling neck! Yes I'm still sanding some, although not much more to go.........I may round the upper horn a little, but I'm not going to get crazy with the carving. The barts are passive and I have a 2 band NTBT Bart preamp going in there with Volume, Treb, Mid, Bass, Blend going in. The butt is officially gone now, it was just excess to ensure I didn't need to Match the wings perfectly when I glued them on.

I was a busy guy over the weekend! My understanding wife is the best for letting me disappear to the garage for so many hours! I finished shaping/sanding the heel area, I really like how it turned out. Heel Shaped Then I started on the dreaded fanned frets, first with a pencil. Fretlines in Pencil Upper register pencil Then after practicing on scrap it was time to break out my fretsaw that I bought at StewMac. Sawing the Fretlines Turning out good! I sure hope that everything lines up, I'm sure it will since I was very careful. Next I layed the pickups and bridge pieces out to get the angle I wanted for routing the pickups. Layout of bridge and pickups Then it's time to carefully make a template, I realized after I made the first one that you need to leave room for the router to move so I had to make a second one with extra wood to clamp onto. Pickup route template It came out great, actually a little too tight. I need to do a small amount of sanding to make them slightly bigger, and it will be a perfect fit. Both Pickup routes done Closer shot of the neck pickup route I then routed my 3/8" deep route for the control cavity cover, and still need to route the cavity to depth in the center, but it came out great! I did have to raise the template so I could use the bearing on my template bit. Control Cavity Template Control Cavity Routed for the cover! I did most of the finish sanding after this but didn't get photos of it. There's still a little more to do, but I got anxious and decided to put the frets in! I read a bunch of different points of view and decided a drop of CA on each end and one in the middle couldn't hurt. I got them all in and need to file/dress/etc...and it went over without a hitch.

Are you talking about the access hole in the fretboard? The truss rod is a stewmac hotrod with a spoke wheel and I am able to turn it enough to get to each spoke.......Otherwise if that's not it, did I do something wrong?

14" at it's widest. I'm guessing as I finish sanding it I'll take a little off of that.

Some more progress worth posting! The neck is roughly shaped now, I just need a little more radius towards the upper register. It's about 1.1" thick top to bottom and figure I'll lightly sand from here. Rough shaped neck I do still need to take some width out of the headstock but I'm debating on the best way to do it. I also glued up and clamped the body wings (one at a time) after I reshaped the upper horn. Clamps on the wings I also decided to thin out the upper horn to shed some weight and it looked a little thick to me. The one on the left is the finished thickness....I like it better! This weekend the dreaded fanned fret slots will be cut! Hopefully I'll find some time for a belly cut and some touchup on the body. I really like this stage of the build because it's actually starting to look like a bass, and it almost looks like I know what I'm doing......

Thanks chris im going to try get it nicley shaped out as soon as possible Thanks rich il be sure to remember that for when i do my next build. Here's a little picutre of it out of clamps. But i have a question my fretboard is really thick and i was thinknig maybe im ment to sand it down abit but its pre-cut fret slots so im not sure if that would make them to shellow and i would have to re-cut them. I bought the fretboard here. Any one else bought one from there that might be able to help me out? all the best, travis 5/16" is standard if you didn't raise the neck (basically if you're doing a neckthrough it is the right height for most bridges. I would check the your bridge height. I also wouldnt sand off the top, sand from the bottom so you don't lose the fret slot depth.

Progress! Here's the initial start of shaping! Still haven't totally finished the headstock. Starting to shape the neck After a while it's really coming along. As I get closer to the thickness I'm going for I'm checking constantly that I don't go to thin, I know I have room before I hit the truss, but it's still scary. More shaping I also got the fretboard glued on and my trussrod access routed. Lined up perfectly! Access to the spokewheel I also glued on a head plate before I finished with shaping the headstock. I did a rough trace on the 1/8" thick piece of walnut and used a xacto knife to cut it out. Then I used a jig saw to get closer to the shape and I'll finish with files and rasps. Glueing the Headplate I kept sanding on the body wings too........it's starting to take shape! The neck isn't done yet, but here's a closer bodyshot. Fret slots are soon! Closer Body Shot

Truss Rod Time........I was worried, but it was actually pretty easy. Just had to be careful and double check everything. So I set everything up to route dead center. Ready to Route I did a small amount and inserted a thick piece of paper and marked it to make sure the depth was correct. Double checking depth Everything went in just fine! One small nick from the jerk when you turn the router off, but it wont affect anything and it's soon to be under the fret board. I've now learned to never turn the router off when it's anywhere near the wood! Oh and here's the cheesy thickness jig since I didn't have a band saw. This is a learning process for sure! And I'm having a blast!! My wife thinks I'm a little too obsessed, and she thinks I'm in over my head too, I'm really hoping to show her different at the end of all of this! Thickness Jig

Nope, it's a cheapie Carlo Robelli...........it's my camping bass......plastic back and you can accidently leave it outside and it's still good.........best $100 I ever spent!

Ok so I'm building my neck through and I have the measurements of where the body wings will glue and I need to cut the taper of my neck. I don't have a band saw, I do have a jig saw and a router. Would it be best to use a template bit and router the taper. Should I come within an 1/8" with my jig saw and do the rest with a router? Also is it better to cut the finger board to exact size and glue it before the final taper on the neck or after?

I'm pretty sure that making a jig would have been easier than sanding the scarf joint, but it worked! Since I don't have a band saw I did make a jig for thinning the neck to 1". I'll get pics of that boring little thing up later. I also cut out roughs for the body wings. Next up is cutting the slots for the fanned frets. The angle of the photo is off, but it actually lined up quite nice. I'm putting a walnut cap on it anyways, but the back will flow nicely.

With a block, I just don't want to get it too uneven............I'll keep on rubbin!..........Thanks!

Yeah, I actually added some clamps after I took the pics.................I also order a few clamps like the one you pictured yesterday............ Can someone help me with how to get the excess glue off? there's a couple spots on the walnut lams where it soaked in...............I'm afraid that when I true oil it they'll be problems...........what can i do?

I cut a template out of plywood and started sanding and filing it to be a template for routing. I traced about a 1/4" around the outside with chalk on to body wings. I'll rough cut the body out and use the template for a guide for my router. There's a light area running through the walnut and I can't decide whether to have it be cut off, or put in against the neck, what do you think?

I don't think you'll need to break the neck at an angle, the string shouldn't hit the excess on the high side. I was going to use extra wood from my headstock cap and cover the excess...............or if you check out ThirstyGums fanned fret he just put the nut on like it was a fret and left the finger board all the way to the break. I also thought about the "twisted" which is what Dingwall does, but I had reservations about strength. I read somewhere that there's 150-200lbs of upward pressure on a neck and a fanned fret is probably more, since the point is to get a tighter b string, or at least a more even balance. We'll see, mine's definately a work in progress

I printed out the drawing I did in Corel Draw to scale and taped it together, I'll use this to make a template on MDF or 1/4" plywood. It also made me realize I'll be a little too close to the edge with my B string bridge, I have extra neck room, so I'll move everything up a 1/4". http://starboardbough.com/Firstbassbuild/Papercutout2.jpg Here's the body wings, end pieces for the headstock (since it's wider), Cap for the headstock, wood for the control cavity, and the birdseye board (man is it nice up close, can't wait to see it pop when it gets finished) http://starboardbough.com/Firstbassbuild/mywood2.jpg I also glued the neck up last night (The flame is nice dont you think?)............from what I've read having the excess glue is good, means I covered it all! I'll be sanding of excess glue tonight!..........This weekend may be the scarf joint! http://starboardbough.com/Firstbassbuild/Neckglue2.jpg http://starboardbough.com/Firstbassbuild/Neckglue3.jpg

Yeah, I like one of his basses, the others are too much. What I like are the builders who have taken that Carl Thompson type of design and went further. This kindof takes 2 or 3 of my favorite basses and blends them. We'll see what it turns out like in the end..........I'll be happy if it's playable........

Bought the books, been reading threads here and elsewhere for months now. I ordered the wood last week and it arrived yesterday. I'll make sure to keep a pretty good journal of it here. Specs: 5 string neck through 37" to 34" scale Neck - Flamed Maple / Walnut / Flamed Maple / Walnut / Flamed Maple Finger Board - Birdseye Maple Body Wings - Walnut I'll put a headstock cap in walnut as well, I initially planned to do some sort of fancy top, but I like the look of walnut and wanted to be basic for my first build. Here's my to scale drawing from Corel Draw. The only thing changed is that I'm doing black hardware.

I ordered the Hiscock book 3 months ago and spent the month before that, and the 3 months after reading through sites and viewing build threads...........I think that's the best thing to do, I actually feel semi confident that this is going to work and for my first build I'm doing a neck through 5 string fanned fret bass. I got the wood yesterday! I'll be gluing the neck tomorrow and marking everything for my scarf joint over the weekend...........

So I have my neck glued up and will be doing the scarf joint tonight.........My question is do I finish the fingerboard before I glue in on the neck and do I cut fret slots before or after finish is applied. Also, for a birdseye maple board what's the best finish to use? Oh, and if this is in the wrong place please move it..............I figure it's a finish question, but it's also a build question............