mattharris75

You can get a very shiny finish with tru oil if you're willing to apply a number of coats, and use micro mesh sanding papers on it. This neck was finished with about 20 coats of tru oil (lightly buffed between every 2 coats with 0000 wire wool wet with naptha), and dry sanded up to 12000 grit with micro mesh papers.

I'd been thinking about different ways to make the inside of my open headstock template perfectly straight. Because of how the tuners are oriented in this setup I needed each side to have a perfect 16mm of thickness, consistent across their length. I had thought about trying to jig it up to run it on the router table, but ultimately I came up with a very easy solution. I rigged up a fence on my spindle sander and simple ran it through there until it was to the exact thickness. Worked great, and such an easy solution. Sometimes it's easy to forget the wide variety of uses a tool can have. I also got all the neck dimensions laid out on both of the neck blanks. I'll be cutting the truss rod and CF rod channels this week and should have some time the following week to get the neck profiles bandsawed and routed.

The pickguard really complements the flow of the inlay. Works with the body shape too. Very nice!

I assume the faulty tape measure is faulty within the first inch, which is where most of them seem to be. If that's the case, just get in the habit of starting all your measurements an inch or two down the tape. That's what I do when I have to measure something relatively accurately with a tape. I prefer to use a good engineer/architect triangle or ruler when possible.

The rosewood pickguard is a really classy and sophisticated contrast to the simple white paint job. Really nice looking guitar! Looks like the kind of guitar I'd pick up first thing if I walked into a music store and it was hanging on the wall.

Wow, the bridge is really looking great. I can't wait to see the whole thing finished. This has got to be one of my favorite builds in a long time. Great work. I can't imagine trying to play this behemoth, but I'm definitely fascinated by it.

More pictures of wood. The second neck blank is finished. Light mahogany/black wood fiber/limba/black wood fiber/light mahogany. Not quite as lovely as the other blank at the moment, but the mahogany pores will be filled with black epoxy in the finishing stages to really make it pop. Also, the wenge top for the second bass is glued and planed. This piece is going to make a great top!

Thanks guys. Black Labb, yes, I considered using the mini pots. In fact, I purchased one to get measurements off of. My initial idea was to use a mini pot for volume and two slider pots for the tone controls for each pickup. The mini pot isn't really the problem, the two slider pots side by side are a full inch across. Once I put the top and back plates in there, and enough beef on the top of the bass to reinforce the top and make it look right, it just gets too thick. I could have gone with 3 mini pots instead, and if I ever go back and decide to do a hidden control scheme that's probably what i'll have to do. But doing it that way takes away a lot of the novelty for me, and that was a big part of the attraction of it. Plus, I really like a highly contoured look for this body design, and the hidden controls would really limit me in contouring the back. I may end up turning some redwood burl knobs to make the front controls blend in a bit better with the top of the bass.

It doesn't seem to unusual for people to do small bodied/small scaled instruments for kids. I say go for it. Thegarehanman did a small scale guitar for a client not too long ago, and i'm sure that he can answer any questions about potential pitfalls and whatnot for you. If you search for the thread on here you should be able to find it, also check out his website for images. Garehan Guitars

Have you read Melvyn Hiscock's book yet? It sounds like you need to read something that takes you through the whole process with a reasonable amount of detail. This will answer a lot of your questions, and when it doesn't answer them it will give you the knowledge to ask better and more specific questions.

Got the neck blank finished for the first bass. I decided not to use the limba, but used some red-ish mahogany instead to better match the color of the redwood top. So, the neck is mahogany/black wood fiber/padauk/black wood fiber/mahogany. I'm really happy with how the colors all work together. It looks beautiful to me. I'll be gluing up the second neck blank this week, which will be a whiter mahogany with black wood fiber as well, and black limba in the middle of the neck. I also got the wenge top for the second bass cut to width and planed. And I glued up and cut down the spalted maple back of bass number 1. I just need to figure out how I'm going to plane/sand it to thickness. Anybody with a thickness sander mind doing it for me? I'm going to have the same issue with the redwood burl top once I get it glued up, so I need to figure something out.

As long as you like it, that's what matters. And, I'm with you on the design of it. I think the colors and textures really work with the shape. And I really like the black pickguard on there as well. The whole thing works for me. In fact I like it a lot more than I thought I would thanks to the finish and pickguard. I would definitely own a guitar that looked like that!

Sounds good. I'd like to hear the solo a little louder in the mix. What is your recording setup?

Looks great! Very cool and quirky design. And I love the black grainfilled ash finish.

Go to home depot and buy a set of screw extractors. It's a piece of cake with those.

Yes, I believe that is the case. I've also heard that it is not designed to bond two surfaces together, but I don't know if there is any truth to that. I'm no chemical engineer. It worked well for me. Wez mentioned the West Systems stuff. I've heard good things about that as well, except that it is a bit more difficult to mix correctly than the Z-poxy. It's more stoichiometrically sensitive.

That Axminster link is not the finishing resin though, you don't want to get the regular epoxy. That ALS Hobbies link looks good. I was just mentioning Axminster because I knew they sold Zap products, so I figured the finishing resin had to be available somewhere in the UK.

'Z-poxy finishing resin' is typically what is favored for grain filling. I Know Axminster sells other type of Z-poxy online, so i'm sure it's available somewhere in the UK. Some hobby shops carry it. I don't know if LMI ships internationally, but that's where I bought mine.

I'm seriously considering abandoning one of my big design ideas on this bass, the hidden controls. I still think it would be a cool feature, but I think the overall bass is going to end up being too thick for my liking, and I also won't be able to do much contouring on the back, which will keep me from getting the organic appearance that I'd really like. The overall depth of the design as it stands is 63mm. I layered all the wood together to get an idea of how this would look, and I'm thinking it's simply going to be too bulky. I know it's difficult to tell without everything being cut to shape, but this will also be a very narrow bass, which will accentuate the thickness of it. I'm going to have to go with my gut here. I would love to keep this design element, but I think the smart decision for having a playable and aesthetically pleasing bass is to do away with it.

Good luck with the crack. I really love the look of the black dyed ash! I think it could make it stand out even more to use black epoxy to grainfill the ash. I may have to try that on one of my current bass builds! What type/brand of dye did you use?

Questions answered. We've only got 1 decent wood store within an hour of my house and so far no luck on blocks of wenge long enough to be used as a guitar top. Oh well. Guess i'll keep looking! Thanks Jon.

Wow! Very striking, I love it! The fretboard with the inlay and the binding has a ton of visual impact, and it all contrasts very well with the body. Really impressive design and wood choices. Where did you get your wenge? I'm looking for some for a top for one of the two basses i'm working on.

Personally, I love Myka's headstocks. Very sleek, and they would look good on pretty much any body design.

Thanks Jon. I'm thinking it will be comfortable as well. It's very long and lean. The body is about 18.5" long, and only 11" at its widest point. It is going to be fairly thick though. Well, the one with hidden controls will be, in order to accomodate that set-up.

This project has expanded into building two basses simultaneously. The first bass will be as described here, and the second bass will have a wenge top, but will have front mounted controls, rather than hidden controls on the side, and consequently will be able to have a belly cut as well. I've got both body blanks joined, glued, and planed. I also got the body and headstock templates rough cut. I'll clean them up on the spindle sander over the next week or so.