Jabba_the_gut

I got an old multigym from a friend a while back for my son but he didn't use it so I converted parts of it into a handy stand for drying guitar bodies or necks once a finish was applied. The body has now had a sealing coat and a couple of coats of satin lacquer applied by rattle cans. The finish has turned out quite nicely - helps when the weather is dry and warm.

Very, very nice!

Fret tangs trimmed and frets installed. I bought a small arbor press a few years back and got a mate at an engineering firm to modify it so a fret press caul would fit. It really makes the job so much easier and is a vast improvement over a drill in a drill stand. I've still got the zero fret to do but I need a slightly taller piece of fret wire which I'm wait to arrive. Next task will be to continue with the body.

I’d generally sand to 320 or 500 before looking at a finish. Don’t know if that is right or wrong but it works for me! The first coat can sometimes look a bit rough as it will highlight any places where you haven’t followed the grain when sanding or where you haven’t got rid of the deeper scratches from the previous, thought grade of sandpaper. Looking forward to seeing more pics of this. How are you getting on with the scratch plate?

I did some further sanding to the neck as the profile didn't feel quite 'right' whatever that may be. I probably only shaved a mm (ish) off part of the back of the neck but that made it feel quite different. It always amazes me that you can make small adjustments and it can completely change the feel as the profile changes. I decided in the end to radius this fretboard to 12" (I'll still try a flat board but I'll do that on the other neck). I always use chalk marks on the fretboard so I can get an idea of how much needs sanding - when all the chalk is gone the job is done! I've cut the frets to length. They are ready to have the tangs nipped so they won't show when fitted. That's the next job.

Nice mod. Those Delano hybrid pickups are really nice - wiring is a bit more complicated than usual. I presume you are going to wire it the standard way i.e. humbucker is active, jazz pickups are passive, or do you have other plans? Cheers

Probably a good idea as it is a nice looking project. There's quite a bit of interest of short scale/uke type basses, I'm sure others would also be very interested. It's also nice to see wood getting recycled and the use of native woods like beech. Just a shame it looks like a Rik...!!😉 Cheers

I know what you mean. 9' x 9' is a decent enough size to start with but it soon goes when you add things like a band saw, router table, hand tools, storage etc. I am looking forward to getting this place sorted but it taking much longer than I hoped - the garage is still full of boxes to sort since we moved. Too much rubbish and time for a skip I think!! Look forward to the Uke build diary! Cheers

Luxury....

Maybe have a look at a Bronco bass bridge - think the spacing on those if 17mm and it should look about right for this. Cheers

I still need to get the garage sorted into a decent workshop. At the moment, this is the only bit of work surface I have to work on. This is a fold down thing that the previous owners of this house made and so far it has worked well for me, so much so I'll look at doing something like this but a bit more solid when I finally get to sort the garage out!!

Neck shaping is now mostly done. I'll make a few measurements to ensure the thickness is correct down the entire length of the neck and make sure it feels right. I'm leaning towards rounding the fretboard on this neck and trying a flat board on the other neck. I also need to sort a logo out for this headstock - I'm thinking the using one is too large for this so I'll look at options for making it smaller. I'm tempted to use mother of pearl of similar by way of a change!

Hi Richard, I've got literally 10 mins if you would like me to join to test this. Cheers

One tip I picked up from someone for when you want to stick stuff together with tape to stop it sliding but to make it easy to separate later and leave minimal gunk is this. Stick masking tape to each of the two surfaces you want to hold together then put the double sided tape in between them. Works a treat for slotting fretboard or holding templates down whilst you use a router. Look forward to the next steps of your build. Cheers

Cheers for the comments. I'm hoping this headed version works well - we'll see!! I've finished veneering the front and back of the headstock and I'm pleased I decided to do it - I'm really pleased how it has turned out. Next job will be lots of shaping and sanding on both the body and the neck.

Reverse of the headstock veneered - now to do the front which will be a little trickier as not to get glue in the truss rod. As I posted before, I'm not doing this in the correct order as I decided to do this a little later down the build process than you would normally plan!! Glad I've done it though as I think it looks quite nice so far.

Completely in the wrong order of doing things but I actually think a spalted veneer headstock would look quite nice...that's the next task then!!!

And the last job to be done before I start with lots of sanding on the body was to make a control cavity cover. Again, I made a template for this and used an offcut of spalted beech to make a cover.

Next job - use the template to cut the pickup pocket (after carefully measuring to make sure it was central and square). And check again before cutting...

Next task was to make a template for a Musicman style pickup. I've got one template but it was just a little too tight fitting. First thing was to mark out a piece of mdf with the key dimensions Once that was done holes were drilled for the mounting lugs and a few others for cutting out it out using a coping saw. After that I used some pieces off wood pinned to the board ready to use the router to neatly trim the template with a bearing cutter. And the finished template

Titebond original.

Cut the excess off the necks then tidies up using my neck templates and a router. The scarf joints have turned out okay. Now time to start shaping the necks. I'm going to leave one or both of the board flat - will save a job with a radius block but I'm also interested in how a flat board feels.

Both of these necks are going to have a zero fret so I needed to work out where the end of the board would be and the nut. I trialled a fret slot position on an ebony offcut to make sure the force of inserting the fret didn't chip any of the wood. Next task was to glue the fretboards to the necks. And plenty of clamps! I always use a couple of tacks to stop the fretboard sliding when the clamps are applied especially when the fretboard I slotted first and needs to align with a specific point on the neck. One of the tacks is just visible near the heel in the section that will be cut off.

Very nice!

And slots cut.