Jabba_the_gut

Out of interest, what hardware are you looking to use? There doesn’t seem to be too much headless hardware out there. A lot of four string builds use the ‘Overlord of music’ units. These can be a bit hit or miss quality wise but that is why they are cheap!! But they don’t do a five string. Nova headless units are really nicely made - I was going to use one on a build but each tuner slides on the baseplate to set intonation and things not lining up messes with my OCD!!! They are mid price units and are available in five string. Then it starts to get a bit pricey as you look at Hipshot units or ABM single tuners. All very nice quality but that is reflected in the price. The headpiece for these alone was about £70 last time I looked!! Just curious really to what you were thinking. Cheers

It’s so true - you have been warned!!

Watching with interest! I’ve been accumulating parts for a similar build - I got some Delano Xtender pickups a while ago that I plan on building around. Agree with the others regarding Newtone strings. Really looking forward to seeing your design evolve. Cheers

I'd be interested in this dependent on location.

I've been trying to make some knobs for this bass - it's taken a little while to work out how to do it when I don't own a lathe. I've also made quite a few as I've been trying different things: I will post some picture of the process later but for now here's some different designs. I'm thinking of the one on the right with the marker but without the veneers as I think they are a bit fussy. I'm also waiting for my planer blades to come back from the sharpeners so I can get on with the second body. Cheers

Lovely build again!

Yep, I settled on M5 on my builds.

I have tried bleaching in the past but not too keen on it. When I tried it on a sample of sycamore previously it left a bit of a stain that looked worse than what I was trying to remove! I don't think it would do much to this particular blemish. If I want to remove this one I would remove it with a Dremel and infill it with an offcut of maple. Cheers

Had an enjoyable couple of day where I've been able to get on with the neck carve. I always like this bit as the block of wood turns into something very tactile. Out with the Shinto rasp and start the shaping: This neck is a little more tricky as it is being fitted to an existing body so sanding the contours to match the body takes a bit of patience as to avoid removing any of the finish: After a fair bit of time with a mini rasp and some sandpaper I got to something I'm happy with. Only shame is there is a a small mark in the maple but that's what you can get with a natural material. Now it is starting to look really nice! Still got quite a few jobs to do - quite a few of these are decorative and I've still got to work out how to do them!! But that the enjoyment of making stuff - always something new to learn. Cheers

First task is to make very obvious chalk marks on the fretboard to show where the dots will go. This is to prevent holes being drilled in the wrong place for the side dots (guess who got that wrong in the past when not paying enough attention....) One of my favourite tools is this - makes finding the centre line for side dots so easy. I then use an engineers square and a white pen to mark the side line for drilling. I drill the side holes on all my necks using a piece of right angled aluminium with a hole in it as a template. Once all the holes were drilled, I glued in some Luminlay, cut flush and tidied it up. Then turned out the lights to see how it looks. I've also fitted a small piece of the offcut from the neck rods into the back of the fretboard where the thumb rest is just to add a little more strength. With that done I'm now onto shaping the neck and radiusing the fretboard. Cheers

The neck is starting to look more like it now!! I cut it roughly to size then trimmed on the router table. This is a little more difficult to do than a Fender type neck due to the angled headstock. Just takes a little more thinking about. This one is even more fiddly as it has a finger rest built into the fretboard, just needs a little patience and a bit of swapping of router bits to complete. A smidge of sanding later and it fits really nicely into the neck pocket: The headstock has also been drilled to accept the Gotoh tuners. This was done using a Forstner bit to get a really neat cut and finish - the head was clamped to an offcut of wood to ensure there was no tear-out when the bit cut through to the other side. And the fifth hole? Just decoration as I have done on my previous basses. Next task will be to fit the Luminlay side dots whilst the fretboard is still square after which I'll start the neck carve and radiusing the fretboard. Cheers

That is an idea that I have been toying with but not on this build. I have tried a couple of samples of lighting both clear and frosted type plastics. Luminlay do sheets of luminous plastic sheet so I was thinking at one point of using this for fretlines.... Luminous sheet

The fretboard is not stuck to the neck and I've had a go at making an aluminium nut to match.

Not on this one - the fret lines are firmly secured. There are a few holes in each to ensure the adhesive really locks them in place.

It won’t be a problem, I’m making the bass for Prince Andrew.

Probably getting ahead of myself but decided to make the truss rod covers from ebony and aluminium.

And the last few of the aluminium marks to be glued in place - I started getting into the swing of cutting and fitting them by this point!! It has taken a reasonable time but I'm hoping the effect will be worth it in the end. They do look a little messy at this stage but a bit of sanding and trimming and they'll look fine. A rough sanding of the board prior to final trimming of the neck and it's starting to look quite nice. After a quick bit of tidying of the edges with a router the board is ready for gluing to the neck.

I have been thinking about that and before I fit the board to the neck, I'm going to flatten the lines when it is cooler then put the board out in the sun and see what happens! I'm hoping that as the lines aren't that big that any expansion will be minimal. I will post how it goes!

Yep, but it does look nice and totally worth it!!

Finished cutting the side slots so time to cut the pieces of aluminium for the fretlines. I have to cut each piece to suit the slot to wrap around the spine of the fretboard (if that makes sense!!) It is going to be a slow process to get this done .. I only managed to get 5 line installed this evening - but they do look nice!!

There is a loft space above my garage so when I sorted the workshop I put a reasonable sized loft hatch in. It's really handy when it drops down... And, with the door open today with it being so sunny, I had a visitor

I've made a new template, cut the fretboard roughly to size and started cutting the side slots. The fretboard extension for a thumb rest is starting to take shape.

A lunchtime finish from work and lovely weather! I've made a start on the fretboard for the fretless bass. Someone must have done this before but I haven't seen it which means either it hasn't been done much or it's a bad idea for reasons I haven't found out (yet)!! After chatting with Frank a while back the idea of using aluminium for the lines on the fretboard came up. I tried it on a sample of ebony and it looks lovely!! There is something about how it catches the light that makes it really standout. So that's the plan for this fretless build - full length wraparound aluminium lines. Just figuring out how to that on a full board and the order in which to fit them!! In the meantime, I've slotted the fretboard and cut the required strips of aluminium. I'm really looking forward to seeing how this turns out. Cheers

Big pause between posts - been busy sorting lots of non-bass related stuff!! One main thing I've been doing is sorting my garage. I moved house a couple of years ago to a place with the luxury of some garage space I can use for a workshop. It gets cold in there, there's weren't enough sockets and it was full of boxes of stuff that needed sorting. So after lots of work I now have a warm and tidy area to work in and lots of space to move the bigger tools like my planer thicknesser around. I also converted an old Workmate into a stand for my router table and that has worked out a treat. There's still a couple of jobs to do, such as painting the walls and sorting a some tool boards, but this is where I am at: I've now got the semi hollow bass back on the bench and off we go again!! And I'm excited as it been a while and I have a few ideas that I'm going to try on this. Cheers