Jabba_the_gut

Always a fiddly job with potential to go very wrong - making the bridge!! I've made a few piezo bridges for other basses before and learnt a few lessons along the way about how best to use the router (one of the bridges got smashed to bits when the router snagged it). I think this bridge was a little trickier as it is smaller but also the slot for the piezo element is 8mm wide, so patience was required. I also only have one piece of ebony that matches the fretboard so really needed to get this right first time. Firstly, I made a simple jig to cut a slot for the piezo. Nothing more complicated that a board with a large hole in the middle to hold the work piece, and some straight pieces of wood around the edge to act as a guide. I used an 8mm router bit in my Triton router. It really makes a difference with the Triton router as it has a depth adjuster dial on the top allowing small depth of cut changes. By doing this a few times I cut a neat slot in the ebony exactly the right size. I then drilled and countersunk two holes where it will be mounted on the bass. Next I made a template from 8mm MDF for the shape of the bridge. This template will be screwed on to of the ebony and cut to shape with a short template cutter a little bit at a time so it doesn't snag. I then reversed the template and ebony so the ebony was on top and used another router bit to round the edges. Then a bit of sanding with progressively finer paper and a quick wipe over with some oil. The Shadow piezo element fits snuggly in the bridge - I'm really pleased how this has turned out.

I believe Andy used one of the Osmo oils for Micks bass - I think he mentioned which one in the build thread. Got a feeling it was the 3044 one. I also seem to recall that there was some form of whitener in it which might not be what you want if you have any darker woods in your build. Best speak to Andy around this one.

[quote name='honza992' timestamp='1504549755' post='3365628'] Are you sticking with the EDAG stringing you have in the mock up? [/quote] Absolutely. I like the idea of alternative tuning.....honest....!!!! I'd completely forgotten about that. I'd stuck the strings down then noticed but it was fine for what I was doing in terms of checking the position of the string silk. Doh!

So that's where it's at currently. Work is now going to interrupt again until next weekend when hopefully, I'll get the chance to have a go at the bridge.

I've cut the neck pocket. Again, nearly another fault - luckily I spotted it before it caused a problem. I have one template cutter (a cheap one) and I think the shaft is marginally smaller than it is supposed to be. After using it for a little while, it starts to creep cutting deeper and deeper....that cutter is now in the bin. I used one of my other Trend cutters and no such problem with that. The neck was a little tight but nothing a little sanding wouldn't sort. Not the best photo, but this is what the overall bass looks like at the moment. This photo gives a better idea of the wood colours.

I've also made a neck pocket template using MDF (8mm thick I think) to suit the new neck shape - quite pleased how these have fitted together.

I cut the neck roughly to shape with a bandsaw (I have the tiniest bandsaw and it is starting to shows signs of not quite being up to the job - I think the rubber on the wheels is wearing as sometimes the blade slips a little; it is probably time to start considering something a little newer and a bit more substantial. Dear Father Christmas....). I finished shaping the outline using my template and a router with a template cutter. This proved to be a bit of a pain - the route snatched as I crossed the grain and took a chunk off the headstock. This has glued back together very well; I've tried cutting a test piece using a slightly different method to make sure I don't do this again!! But that's how we learn - trial and error (nearly a quite expensive error!). I've gone for a different shaped headstock to my previous basses and am looking at adding a different logo - I quite like the look of this so far.

I've made a new neck template to suit, slotted a piece of ebony for the fretboard and fitted a truss rod. I used the fret calculator tool on the StewMac site to work out the fret positions. I cut the ebony roughly to shape before slotting as I wanted to keep a small piece to make a matching bridge from. There was enough to allow me one attempt at making the bridge - that will come later. For slotting the fretboard, it really is a case of measure, measure again, measure again, make sure then cut - it is all to easy to make a little mistake in the measurement that would cause real problems!! You can see a printout of the StewMac measurements that was well used.

It's been a little while since I last posted but I have got a few things done - wish this work malarkey would stop getting in the way of this project!! I've settled on this being 32" scale so I purchased a set of La Bella Black Nylon Tape wound strings. I wanted the strings in hand before I started cutting anything or finalising the templates as I wanted to be sure where the silk would be to ensure that the bridge and nut would be in the right place. The reason for wanting to check this is that this design has slightly different lengths from where the string is anchored to the nut. I could have relied on the details on the La Bella website but I much prefer to have the parts in front of me so I can see how it goes together. After sizing up the strings, the design has ended up at 800mm scale, so just slightly shy of 32".

I like that!

Absolutely. This printer complained about 'incorrect print head fitted' even though it was the one that has always been there! With a new print head costing as much as a new printer and no guarantee it wouldn't happen again, not much choice but to bin it. Utterly wrong.

[quote name='SpondonBassed' timestamp='1502215208' post='3350061'] I hope I'll have enough room on BC for the remainder of the photos of this build. I've had to delete all of my previous images. [/quote] Try using something like Imgur for your pictures - you just include the link in your post and you can add as many pictures as you like!!

[quote name='honza992' timestamp='1502133998' post='3349541'] Wow, so many great things in this build. Love the beech. Is it soft by the way, like spalted maple is? For some reason in the the photos it looks hard. (Why do my comments also end up sounding like double entendres? They're not supposed to be, honest) I'm just about to build a piezo bass with an artec and a Cafe Walter pre amp, so really interested to see how yours ends up. I've never heard of Shadow, and didn't know of the existence of that John East MPM01 either, so this is already worth the price of entry. Do you mind if I ask a question? I see that you are gluing the top onto the two halves separately. I think I've mostly seen people do it the other way round, ie glue the top together, glue the two halves of the bottom together, then stick the top on the bottom. I've sheepishly copied this method without really thinking about it. Why do you do it the other way? Does it make jointing the two edges easier? [/quote] Hi Honza, I know - too many opportunities to make this sound like a script for a Carry On film!! The beech is pretty hard with the exception of the bit where the neck pocket will be which a fair bit softer. I've aligned the top in that way purely so all the soft wood will be cut away. There's a couple reasons why I put the tops on the two halves first, then join them (I do the same if I am making a solid body bass with a top on it). On this bass, there is a spine running down the centre of the body. By putting the top on each half at a time I can make sure I'm clamping all of the surfaces where the back joins the front - if I joined the two top halves then joined to the back, I would have any clamps that could reach the middle of the bass to ensure it was properly clamped. And because I nearly always use veneers between the front and back, I want to make sure any excess glue is pushed out from the centre of the wood so doesn't create a bulge when adding the other layers. Probably a number of other ways of doing this but this is just the route I took. Also, I have quite a few clamps but not enough to go all the way round an entire bass in one go!! The reason for the two g-clamps on the previous photo is to do with aligning from front to back. As I use the veneer layers, I want to ensure they align when I join the two halves - they wouldn't need to be far out to look very wrong. The John East MPM-01 has two inputs and can be used to mix a magnetic and piezo pickup. I might still keep it for another project for that reason, or swap it out of this at a later date. I keep looking at your build diary too - there are loads of builds ongoing on here at the moment!!

I've managed to get a couple of other jobs done today but unfortunately work will now rudely interrupt this until the weekend. I've roughly cut the body to size with my bandsaw. My saw is a tiny Kinzo machine which really is only just capable of cutting wood of this thickness - generally it is best for wood up to about 25mm. I would love to get something a little bigger in the near future but it does work and it only cost £20 off eBay and has worked well enough for the past few years doing this so I can't grumble at all. This should look quite nice - there are a few interesting areas of grain showing already. I've also made a 'JR' logo for the headstock using a bit of left over spalted beech with a dark veener edge. Should look nice on a maple headstock. Next task is to make a new neck template, neck pocket template and bridge template. Hopefully I'll get time next weekend.

Two side are now glued together and clamped. The two G clamps are used to prevent any movement front to back. I use three sash clamps on opposing sides to ensure the pressure is a bit more balanced to keep the two sides stay square. If they were all on one side they could potentially just apply pressure that may cause the joint to move while setting or push the joint up a bit. That's the thinking anyway!!

I'm using an ebony fretboard for the other build that I had prepped previously. Each side dot on it is an individual LED. Works well but an absolute pain to solder as each LED is something like 0.8mm x 1.6mm. I haven't tried using fibre optics yet, but might give that a go another time.

Drum sander? Luxury. Jealous? No.....😢

The printer has gone but I have three full sets of unused cartridges (black, yellow, cyan, magenta and large black) types CLI-521 and PGI-520 and a few odd and sods. They're not genuine Canon but worked fine until the printer threw its toys out of its pram. Any interest before they get binned?

Indeed, I am JR. I'm looking at putting this design on the fretboard of the bass with the magnetic pickup along with red LED side markers - chucking everything at this one! I've got to choose three different coloured woods that I think will match the rest of that build - early days on that one. I've got a couple of pieces I'm happy with but need one more of a suitable colour and grain.

Some scribbles... [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/cdr9dEy.jpg[/IMG]

I got the lower half glued on Monday but have been away with work for a few days so have not been able to do any more since. Roll on tomorrow when I can get back and get on with it! The only good thing about being away is that I have had time to do some scribbles of the headstock, bridge and some inlay work I'm looking to do on this and the other bass I'm making of the same design but with a magnetic pickup. I'm trying to do a few different things (for me) on this build such as it being semi hollow, the inlay work and how the strings are retained. I'd like to get this done for the SE Bash but that could be tight as unfortunately work looks like it might interfere....

Bit of faff to get this done - a part on my drill stand snapped whilst using the Forstner bits to remove most of the excess wood prior to routing. I ended up using the router to remove most of the wood in the end so many shallow cuts were needed to ensure the router bit didn't bite and decide to take chunks out (a lesson learnt a while ago). So, both halves have now been routed, and any holes drilled to run cables. Time to glue the tops to the backs, once they have set the two halves can then be joined. I'm really enjoying this build so far, there is even something satisfying in just holding the unglued parts together and getting a hollow sound when you tap it! Weird, I know....

The veneers are glued to the body so was time to do some routing. I didn't get as much time as I hoped today (rather good food festival in Gloucester and two hungry kids!!) but managed to route out one half of this. So this is the top and the corresponding back section ready to glue together. Hopefully get the other half done this weekend too. I've also cut the front of the bass - I'm quite pleased with how this is looking so far but still a long way to go......

First job has been to make some templates and started by thinning the top where the pockets will be. The top is 10mm thick so reducing this to about 5mm. I've also been gluing the veneers to the sales - you can't have enough clamps!!