mattharris75

Thanks J. Pierce! More progress on the wenge bass, it should be caught up with the redwood burl bass by next weekend. Fretboard radiused to 16" and sanded to 2000 grit: Logo disk inlayed and filled with black epoxy, and tuner holes drilled: J bass pickup cavity routed:

Well, that's what we'd do. Note that a LP is mahogany and is often painted. I've seen walnut guitars from major manufacturers that were painted. Even some folks here don't care about non-figured woods. I'm only suggesting that if it's going to be painted... that the wood choice is for tone rather than looks... what's the issue with using thinner, less expensive pieces? I have the feeling that we immediately run to 8/4 pieces out of habit rather than necessity. I totally agree with you. And when I wrote my post, I was actually thinking about Mahogany being a major exception. Although can still be quite nice to look at.

I don't think there's any problem with doing that, however when you are talking about more expensive woods you're generally talking about more attractive woods. And quite often these types of woods are finished clear rather than a solid color. This is probably the biggest reason that people don't tend to do do that. Now, that said, my first guitar build was 5 pieces of walnut that I got from my father-in-law for free. 2 piece, non-bookmatched top, and 3 piece back. And it turned out great!

Very cool build! I was thinking about trying something like this. I've got an old MIM tele neck and hardware sitting around begging for a body.

Extended Range Guitar, Extended Range Bass

Thanks Chris! Here's more progress on Bass #2. Side dots installed, headstock shaping completed, and neck pocket cut. Will be working on the fretboard radius and fretting the neck over the neck week or so. Trying to get this one caught up to Bass #1. I've discovered that dark wood tops can be tricky see your pencil lines on, thus the blue tape. Also, the join is so good on the top, I can only see the center line on the wood at the very tail end of the body. Good problem to have, I guess.

I think all factory blades are most likely crap. Sears screwed up and sent me the fence carrier instead of the fence, so after getting the run around they are finally sending me the correct piece. It may be another week or so before I get it. I'll post results after that.

3 months...But I am averaging more like a year and a half.

The gap will be covered by a pickup anyway, so ultimately it doesn't matter. I just figured since I knew someone who does really nice work that had used the poly glue in this application, I might as well use it to fill up this gap.

Since I seem to be catching flack for my earlier post, here is one of the joints in question. There is nothing inferior about it. It fits tightly and the bass can be handled by the neck and manipulated in any direction with no movement. A bass builder on another site, whose work I respect, uses Titebond poly for his neck joints. The only gap in this neck joint can be seen at the end of the tenon where there is about a 3/32" gap between the end of the tenon and the neck pocket route.

I guess you don't eat anything BBQ'ed, since that is carcinogenic too I drink Coke Zero, made with Splenda, so no NutraSweet, but if there was no splenda I will still take the diet, rather than the extra spare tire on my waist. Coke Zero isn't actually made with Splenda, it's sweetened with aspartame as well as Ace K. But it's what I drink as well. I think there was and maybe still is a version of coke with splenda, but I'm not sure how successful it's been. The difference in it and diet coke is that diet coke was patterned after the taste of 'new coke' back in the 80's, whereas Coke Zero's taste is patterned after coke classic.

To borrow a reference from another site..."That combination of woods is going to really provide you with some phenomenal mid-hump."

Thanks Al. Figure I might as well show the fretted neck, since I forgot to post it before.

I believe Woodenspoke's point is, why complicate things? Stick with tried and true methods. I've always used Titebond I for everything, but I plan on using Titebond Polyurethane glue for setting the necks of my current builds due to the superior gap filling capability of poly glues.

Not yet, I'm waiting on the new rip fence to come in. The original was damaged when it arrived. Once I get it, I'll put it on and finish calibrating everything and give it a go.

Avenger, your latest pickguard design is the first one that I have thought actually fits this body shape. The others seemed too derivative of it, or playing off the body shape too much. This one both compliments the shape, while bringing something new to whole deal, it makes the sum greater than the parts, so to speak. Nicely done, I say go with it.

Picked up enough wood for 3 mini guitars the other day, this is my favorite piece. It will be turned into a mini guitar body under a 4A maple top as well as a couple of neck stringers. Pau Ferro:

More work done. Fretboard sanded to 1500 grit, and the fret tangs were cut and ground smooth then pressed in. No pictures of that. Once I got that done I went ahead and carved the neck, which is one of the more rewarding parts of the build. These pics show the neck profile as well as the 'volute' area, which is kind of unique because of the headstock configuration on this bass.

I've done a walnut/padauk/black veneer combo and I like it a lot. So, I think that color combo can work, and I personally prefer the look of the walnut bodied mockup on the right. But both look nice.

My first effort was a 17" scale, which is identical to a tenor ukulele. I don't see why one should necessarily have intonation problems at a shorter scale when there are a wide variety of stringed instruments of that scale length or shorter.

I built a 2/3 scale 4 string guitar this past summer, which I really enjoyed building, and have decided to make another for my future child. I learned quite a bit on the first build, but have been pondering a few questions that perhaps someone has a concrete answer to or maybe this can spark a discussion. First off, with regards to fingerboard radius; How does a tighter or flatter radius effect a person with small hands (child)? Is there a ground rule for this, or does anyone have opinions based on experience? Also, string spacing. It seems to me that narrow string spacing at the nut would be best for small hands, while having standard string spacing at the bridge would make for easier picking for those of less developed coordination. Does this seem reasonable? What production guitars have the narrowest string spacing at the nut? You mostly just see standard Fender and Gibson info floating around as far as this goes. Does anyone else have anything that might be of obvious concern when designing a small guitar?

I purchased it on saturday. I have assembled it, and it's a very high quality of construction for the price. I still have to calibrate everything and will be buying a new blade. The widest stock I have on hand is 5.5" currently, but I'll let you know how it performs after I get it rolling.

Thanks ScottyD, that means a lot to me. Especially since I've probably voted for you for GOTM at least half a dozen times. I think we have similar aesthetic tastes. Since I'm updating this thread I'll post the latest progress. I routed out a recess in the back plate, near the neck. It was mostly for aesthetics but also as a recessed area to put ones palm while playing in the upper register. After routing I attempted to carve with riffler rasps and sand the bevel on the edge of this area. Unfortunately the spalted maple did not cooperate. It ended up looking quite poor in one area. I've flooded the area with epoxy finishing resin attempting to fill it in so that I can re-carve the epoxy and make it smooth. I have no idea if this will work. If worse comes to worse, I will have to route off the back plate. If I do I will probably replace it with flamed redwood. I did finish the side dots, which are brass tube filled with black epoxy. They look pretty good. I've got my frets cut and just need to cut off the tangs and grind the bottoms smooth before fretting, then I'll get to carving the neck. It's been a busy weekend, and I haven't gotten much accomplished on this bass, since I just bought and assembled my new 12" craftsman bandsaw today.

I see what you're saying with regards to size, Rick. However, this saw has a 7" resaw capacity. I have no doubt I will eventually need another saw, but until I get into serious resawing of large stock, I think this size will do fine. And I imagine that, at the rate I work, that is quite a long way into the future. Buying a slightly smaller saw now seems to fit my current and near-future needs, as well as my budget.

I'm not averse to ordering blades online. It seems you can find nearly anything online if you know where to look. I don't know if I've ever heard of a company that supplied a good blade from the factory. Thanks for the link to the blade discussion! That certainly simplifies things.