DigthemLows

Great job, I think I'm going to have to make some knobs for mine now.............

Lookin good!

It's not perfect, but it's my first build and it turned out light years better than I thought it would as far as playability and sound!

Finished 1/1/07

No good idea for a name.........I like elephants, so how about:

The Elephanned Prototype

Walnut and Flame Maple with a Birdseye Board

36.5 to 34 Scale

Bartolini Soapbars

Bartolini 2-band Preamp (Volume, Blend, Bass, Treble)

Hipshot Ultralight Tuners

Schaller straplocks

And well over 25 coats of hand rubbed tru-oil.

Here's my attempts at getting an artsy natural light shot.

Here's a full Frontal Shot

Here's the Back

And a shot of the Walnut Nut I made (before I truly strung it up and wrapped the string ends)

Walnut Nut

I like the staggered fret markers...........creates a weird look for anyone watching.........looks nice!

Like this at all?

http://www.bassplayer.com/story.asp?sectio...storycode=16364

Try searching Les Paul Studio Bass............you'll find stuff.

Thanks, it plays really well too!! Which is the most important part! I'll try and get some sound clips up within the week! Got a show on Friday that I'll put it through it's paces with.....

Looking good, can't wait to see the final product..............of course I'm sure you feel the same way.........

Looks great! I can't wait to hear soundclips. But one question, why don't you put the strings in the tuner holes instead of just having them wrap around it?

I did on the final pictures...........the one with them wrapped is from when I was "finalizing" the nut slots, so I was just wanting the string slightly on there........If you look at the volute photo I have them in the hole and wrapped.

I'll try for some natural light photos this weekend, but here it is! Other than needing to bring the action down a little this thing is done, I'm going to take it to practice tonight and put it to the test.

First, I couldn't find much on a good way to mount the pickups so I just drilled a hole larger that the nut and then epoxied the nut down.......with springs on the bolt, I'm good to go!

Pickup height adjustment

Here's what my little attempt at a volute looks like........it turned out pretty good, although I would have liked to get a little more of a "hump" on the neck side as well.

Volute

Here's a shot of the recessed jack. I have a Nuetric locking jack that I may change it to later.

Recessed Jack

I didn't find much info on using walnut for a nut, but after I got it in there and got the slots done right I saturated the nut with CA glue before I strung it up. The walnut is porous enough that I'm hoping it will be really strong.

Walnut Nut

And here's a full shot of the Front.

I want to get some good natural light shots to show the figure in the fret board because it's gorgeous!

Then there's the wonderful contrast on the back between the walnut and the flame maple....Turned out great!

Rear Shot

Build a jig for your router.........I did this for my neck and the headstock. Worked fine.......get it within an 1/8" and sand or hand plane from there.......

I need to file the nut a little more to bring the strings down and then a few minor adjustments and I'll post final pictures.

I was not sure if you had a neck angle in there.I`m using the same bridges on my neck-thrubass and need to have an angle.

It`s much easier to have to raise the strings with the bridge adjustment.I wish I saw that on yours,but I think you started yours before I started my build.

I thought about it before I started too, but thought it would work right............it's close, but not close enough. I may actually recess the bridges a little. If I file these I'll lose the black..............Live and learn!

ok, I wasn't grounding the outter sleeve of the pickup leads correctly. It's now done and sounds great. I need to file the nut a little more to bring the strings down and then a few minor adjustments and I'll post final pictures.

A bit of brainstorming here...

Seeing as how your preamp is a Bartolini NTBT, it should have come prewired and you only have to make the connections of your pickups to the preamp. It SHOULD work. What else did you connect or reconnect?

Did you check if your amp or amp lead are working properly?

Did you check if the 9 volt battery is a dud?

It's been mentioned before about the jack wires. Did you check that? Half the time when my wiring doesn't work it's because I mixed up the tip and ground wires on the jack.

Did you look if you don't have any cold solder joints?

I bought it used so it was prewired except the battery and input jack and pickups...............so there's a little more. I've tried everything I can do without being able to test things. My father in law is an electrical engineer so we'll look at it tomorrow.

...also,I`m not sure it`s there,it`s probably out of the picture,but that preamp needs a 9 volt

he he.........I wish it was something that dumb.......I'll try reversing the hot and grounds, and also grounding to the bridge.....

Most of all,let us know how good it sounds.

So far, nothing........going to take it over to my father inlaws tomorrow and see what we can figure out.....he's an electrical engineer, so hopefully 2 heads will be better than 1.

...also,I`m not sure it`s there,it`s probably out of the picture,but that preamp needs a 9 volt

he he.........I wish it was something that dumb.......I'll try reversing the hot and grounds, and also grounding to the bridge.....

I'm not even grounding to the bridge....

You should ground the bridge.Attatch a wire to all five and run it to the back of the volume pot.

You think that would solve the problem? I've read you don't need to ground to the bridge, and I've read you need to?

I'm not even grounding to the bridge, I'm going to a lug in the cavity. And I've messed with the jack wires, the only difference I get is I get a pulsing hum, almost circular sounding??........

Man, I got it all set up and there's no sound......just a loud hum and all the pots/jack/everything is amplified except the pickups. I'm searching everywhere to figure out where i'm wrong........I'll figure something out....

Any ideas where I'm wrong?

And I know it's not shielded yet. I wanted to get it wired right before I get it all closed up.

How is it coming?

Have not heard anything as of late

I've got the hardware on, and wired up the electronics..............pickup leads were not long enough. I'll be going to the hardware store today to get some wire and hopefully we'll be all set...............I hadn't updated because I wanted to let the tru-oil cure for 2 weeks............It's looking great! I'll post some pics in the next couple of days!

Looking good!

How thick is that fingerboard?

Have a side profile shot of the fingerboard?

Finger board is 5/16" I believe. It cuts it close on shaping the neck for me (I was afraid of hitting the truss rod). I went to just under an inch at the nut to right at an 1" near the upper register.

More work done this weekend!

Finished my sanding and got about 8 coats of Tru-oil on. The flame in the neck looks so good. Larry and Gallery Hardwoods hooked me up!

There's a small dent right on the upper horn that you can see in the above picture, but it's only at that angle so I'm not too worried. The strange bumps along the belly cut are a reflection from my blinds.

Another pic of the back

The top is looking good too...

Artsy looking top shot

Another Top Shot

I also drilled tuner holes and put them on to see how it worked out.

Tuners installed!

I think I'll probably do about 8-10 more coats and get the hardware and everything taken care of. I also need to file the nut, finish the fretboard, and get the electronics done. Oh, and level the frets.............it's coming along though!! I'm very happy with it at this point.

I spent some time on this last night. I filed the frets down but still need to level and tidy up. There's not a sharp edge left though.

Frets almost done

I put some alcohol on the board, man do I love the grain!

Close up of birdseye

Then I messed around with trying to use the inner template for routing my control cavity and decided 1. I really should have done the inner first. 2. ***, let's free hand this thing, it'll be covered with shielding anyways right? It turned out good, I actually filed it a little more after this pick to clean up the edges and it looks good!

Inner route for control cavity

The one thing I can't stress enough for anyone trying a first build is to get used to a router. It's an incredible tool that could screw your whole project in one small slip.......patience though rules the day!

Then it's on to making my control cavity cover fit, and hopefully have the grain match.........It worked out well! I basically cut to within an 1/8" and filled/sanded from there.

Control Cover

Then I sanded, sanded, and sanded some more, and for the first time put some alcohol on it to see how it's coming. At the very beginning of this build I had to make a decision about how to face the body wings. There's a lighter colored area on one section that I could have cut out. I left it because I wanted the front grain to flow a certain way. Well it doesn't bother me at all being on the back.

Back with alcohol mist for viewing pleasure

The front looks good with the grain flowing the way it does. At least I think.......

That is probably the nicest neck I've seen in a long time! I really like the wood choices!

Looking awesome! Did you tap the frets in with the claw hammer?

I have to admit this is gonna be a beauty. Im really digging the neck with the curly maple. Im a sucker for flamed woods in the neck, dont know why......Great job bud!

No I didn't use that hammer. I initially thought I would, but it was too light and the small size made it actually dent the frets. I just need to keep my bench clear is all . I've made mistakes along the way for sure, and this is a learning process times ten, but in the end I think this thing should play!