mattharris75

More work done on this one. Got the scarf joint glued, the headstock sanded flush, and thicknessed the back of the headstock down to 10mm. After that I cut the channel for the graphite stiffening rod. I thicknessed a couple of 3mm thick flamed maple veneers out of the same wood as the top to use as the headstock veneer and backstrap (Picture 2). I plan on using a pipe bender to bend the end of the backstrap around the curve where the headstock meets the back of the neck. That will be my first attempt at heat bending, I'm looking forward to learning how to do it as I plan on building a mandolin as one of my next projects. Tonight I glued the fretboard to the neck (Picture 1). I used West Systems epoxy, which is a lot easier to work with than titebond, in my opinion. Using epoxy also allowed me to glue in the graphite stiffening rod at the same time. Once I get the fretboard lined up I drill a couple of guide holes in the areas that can be cut away. I've found that bamboo skewers that you get at the grocery store work great as alignment pins (picture 3).

Gloss. The Wenge topped bass will be a satin oil finish.

Got the whole body sanded to 220 on the redwood burl bass. This has been done to the neck since I re-shaped the heel a few weeks ago. I've decided I'm going to epoxy the neck in place. I'll be taking care of that when I get back from vacation next week. in these pics you can see the layout of the controls on the front and that the control cavity cover has been sanded flush on the back. Also, these are the best shots so far of showing off what the final appearance of the wood will look like, wet with naphtha and with decent sunlight on them.

I'm curious as to what it will cost in parts. Let us know what the total radio shack bill is, will you?

So when do we get to hear sound clips?

Got the control cavity cover roughed out. It's an extremely tight fit as of now, so I need to sand all the edges a bit to loosen it up. Also did a lot of little things, hole drilling and whatnot. I also re-worked the heel of the neck on the redwood bass (not pictured) to make it more closely match the one on the wenge bass. Getting close to finishing the woodwork on this one. Not too much more to go until I glue in the neck.

Thanks Xanthus. As far as the jack plate goes, I honestly can't say for certain. Based on the way I plan for the bass to hang I expect it to clear my body. These basses have nearly 3" of body behind the bridge to help account for the lack of an upper horn as far as balance is concerned, and I'll place the strap buttons in such a way as to promote that positioning as well. Once I get the necks glued in and the strap button holes drilled I'll give it a test run to see how the jack works out.

Thanks Wez. Hopefully I'll have a little time in the shop tomorrow to knock a little more out. I'm close to finally having the rough woodwork done on both of these.

In a stroke of mediocre intelligence I figured out how to solve my problem with the control cavity cover ledge. I created the template for the inside cut of the cavity and just used a rabbeting bit to create the ledge. Since the ledge is a uniform width all the way around I can just slide the original template forward until it aligns with the edge of the ledge, then use my smaller 3/8" pattern bit to create the remainder of the 3.5 mm deep cut. Sometimes I'm so average I amaze myself.

Not a lot of time in the shop lately with spring football practice in full swing. Progress on the redwood bass: Got the holes placed for the controls and got the control cavity routed as well as the cavity for the strat jack. One little issue I have to figure out, the front corner of the control cavity has too tight a radius for the rabbeting bit to fit in there and cut the ledge.

Nothing wrong with lager, per se. There are some phenomenal lager styles, most of them German in origin. Some of the US micro brew lagers are great as well (Often borrowing stylistically from those German styles). But yes, light lagers as a style are hardly worth being called beer. I just not really a fan of lager in general I prefer something a bit heavier, It is good with curry I'll admit that! Ever heard of a dopplebock? There are plenty of darker/heavier lager styles. I don't know that they are too popular in the UK. with Scottish styles such as the Wee Heavy it's no surprise that the folks there are fans of darker beers. I've enjoyed my trips there. Wish I could find a Calder's 80 in the states.

I was under the impression that a bandsaw's size is classified by the size of the wheels? The throat depth can be different depending on the type of frame even for a given classification of saw, as can the cutting height.

Nothing wrong with lager, per se. There are some phenomenal lager styles, most of them German in origin. Some of the US micro brew lagers are great as well (Often borrowing stylistically from those German styles). But yes, light lagers as a style are hardly worth being called beer.

This is just awesome. I love everything about this build. Great concept and execution. Can't wait to see it finished!

I say keep the cherry AND do the pinstripe. A black pinstripe on the cherry would look really cool, it would be an interesting contrast in styles.

It's looking really nice, but what kind of oil did you use that it's still tacky after this long? And why only 3 holes for securing the neck?

Thanks guys! Chops, interestingly enough, I'm thinking of making the pickguard slightly larger to follow the carving on both sides. Sorry. Edit: And yeah, there will be a standard tele style neck pickup.

I have been making progress on this build. I don't really have any pretty pictures to show, so I guess I'll show an ugly picture. I did the rough carve of the bevels on the bottom, and have worked to clean everything up with a scraper. However, I still have a long way to go with that. I went ahead and did 2 coats of black grainfiller because I was having trouble seeing the contours in the ash. This should help give me a visual representation of where I've worked, and let me see the lines a bit more clearly. The final look of the finish won't be quite so gray, as I will sand off the black grainfiller on the body, leaving the black only in the pores. I'll finish it with tru oil and steel wool for more of a matte finish with a slight ambering of the wood rather than the gray that it appears now. Anyway, as odd and unfinished as the picture appears, I figured I'd go ahead and post it as a visual sign of my progress, such as it is...

Took a break from working on the corvus build-off entry to finally get back to working on these basses a little bit. Got the neck for the wenge topped bass rough carved today. I need to go ahead and get the control cavity template finished and get those cut one weekend in the not too distant future. Now it's time to get back to carving on the corvus.

It's certainly not too late to change it. But I'm not going to. I like it as it is. I like the dichotomy of the whole deal. To me, it's a cool juxtaposition of styles, as the telecaster itself has become over the years, from a musical standpoint.

I'm guessing the more experienced finishers here would recommend using shellac rather than tru oil to seal off that area from stain.

Yeah, I was joking about not knowing what ash is. And the lighting is very poor in that room, the lamp in there has an antiqued amber sort of shade, which doesn't help. Plus, I adjusted the contrast a bit to help the carving show up a bit more clearly. It still looks like it did in the other pictures, in real life. Thanks for the tip on the curved scraper, Wez, I'll have to give that a go!

Dude...It uh, looks like ash. Which is what it is. You know, this stuff: Ash And it looks the same as it did in every other picture. And it's going to look very cool the way I plan on finishing it.

Getting more work done on this project. The carve on the top side of the body is roughed out, but I need to sharpen it up a little bit, maybe with a chizel or scraper. What would you guys use as a preferred method of sharpening up these carves?

Very cool, Doug! Neat to see the actual process.