rubis

Looks like Kenny's aren't doing the PF20t any more now either, too late 😢

Right.....how time flies! I haven't been entirely idle for the past couple of months, but I haven't been as busy with this as I had hoped to have been. I have been experimenting with a router jig to get that troublesome veneer fingerboard radius, and got part of the way there. I have used some parts from 3D printers I got the12mm bar for the bearings to slide along, as it needs to be quite long to fit a bass neck onto, and have been trying to make a holder for my laminate trimmer (for lightness, so it doesn't bow in the middle while travelling lengthways. I'm pretty sure it will work (eventually!) but there is a lot more trial and error than I had thought. I had envisaged a device which would allow the trimmer to travel side to side on a curved holder, as others had done, which would give the required radius, and hoped to have been able to have it reversible so that it would do concave and convex, but that might be a bit ambitious! I haven't abandoned the idea, but I have put it to one side for now and taken the easy/sensible option of ordering an aftermarket neck from Musikraft. I have heard good things about their necks and they seem to be the only ones to offer the period correct veneer board, the price is reasonable too. The only problem, of course was getting a rosewood fingerboard as there are problems exporting it, so I had to make one compromise. They offer a great service where you can spec pretty much anything you like, so I went on their site and was able to order a neck which will exactly meet my needs. These are the options I have gone for Options: ORIENTATION: Right for Right Handed Players HEAD SHAPE: J/P Style HEEL SHAPE: Rounded J/P Style NUMBER OF FRETS: 20 Fret (Standard) NUT WIDTH: 1-3/4 P Style (44.45mm) HEEL WIDTH: 2.4375 (61.91mm) Vintage Fender TUNER HOLE SIZE: 2 Step 11/16 X 9/16 Vintage Fender TRUSS ROD TYPE: Single Acting Adjust at the Heel FB RADIUS: 7-1/4 NUT SLOT STYLE: 1/8 Standard Fender Style SHAFT WOOD: Rock Maple FINGER BOARD STYLE: Veneer Vintage Fender (20 Fret Only) Will Come With 50/50 Side Dots + $80 FINGER BOARD WOOD: Brazilian Walnut - Reclaimed Lumber from The Coney Island Boardwalk TOP DOTS & INLAY: Imitation Clay BINDING: None SIDE DOTS: Imitation Clay 2mm FRET WIRE SIZE: 6230 Vintage Small FB EDGES: Semi Rolled Standard BACK PROFILE: Fat C 1.0 X 1.0 FINISH: Raw (No Warranty) MOUNTING HOLES: Do Not Drill Mounting Holes All vintage spec and with the fattest neck possible, exactly as I would have hoped to have built it myself. This way will also mean I will not have the headache of fretwork and fettling to get it acceptable. The fingerboard material is a little unusual....."FINGER BOARD WOOD: Brazilian Walnut - Reclaimed Lumber from The Coney Island Boardwalk"...……..sounds quite cool coming from the Coney Island Boardwalk but from what I can gather, it's a very similar colour, and I had intended to try using brown dye to darken the fingerboard for a more aged look anyway (apparently brown leather dye works well). The build time is 6 to 8 weeks, which is perfect, as it's going to be my birthday present. Hopefully it may arrive early enough to get it finished in time for St Patricks Day, when I can wet it's head with a Guinness or two! Here are a couple of pics I found of a relic'd Musikraft Jazz neck which gives a pretty good idea of what they do

Hi I was hoping for a bit of advice from anyone with experience of Nordstrand pickups I am in the process of building a 5 string bass and have a p-bass pickup (the alnico NP5, I think), I want to add a bridge pickup and will be using with an onboard OBP1 preamp. I have a 4 string Blingray with a Nordstrand MM style pickup and love it, so I know that which ever I go for, its going to be nice, but the problem is which bridge pickup would pair with the p style the best.? If it helps, it will be used for home recording, so hum-cancelling would be an advantage. The body isn't yet made, so routing isn't an issue, and I would like a thick sounding pickup which could hold its own against the p bass pickup (I seem to remember reading somewhere that with pj style basses, the bridge j pickup could sometimes sound a bit weedy in comparison to the p humbucker) Any thoughts or advice on a soapbar or j style would be gratefully accepted Merry Christmas everyone

A very Merry Christmas to you Marvin, lovely to see that neck put to good use Merry Christmas to everyone else too

Madness with the Fratelli’s at Plymouth Fratelli’s were very good, but Madness smashed it, they are always a real tonic That Bedders is bloody good at his job!

That's very tidy

I have recently got myself a new 'winter project' to fiddle about with on those dark evenings while the current Mrs Rubis watches "I'm a celebrity" etc I've always fancied a 12 string for a bit of jingly jangly Johnny Marr action, and I spotted those Gear 4 Music kits online, which seem to get quite good reviews for the low cost involved, perfect for tinkering with! The problem is, they look to be maple fingerboards, and I prefer rosewood, but I did see an assembled one (they have the rosewood board) which was advertised as B stock or returned goods with £20 knocked off, so for the very reasonable price of £79 I snapped it up. It arrived very promptly, all nicely double boxed and still with the cellophane on the scratchplate, the allen keys, strap, leads gig bag and even the plectrums were all still in there. No signs of damage at all...………..better than a Black Friday bargain! Excellent service from Gear4Music, I might add. I must say that for the money, the quality is very good indeed, the body is ash (European I should imagine) but it's not heavy, the neck is nice and chunky, which I prefer, the fretting is all good and the neck joint is better than on a very expensive Strat I once owned Obviously it's not perfect, at this price I would be foolish to think it would be, but I was happy to note that all the little things which would need fettling are the ones I was expecting to find, having read reviews of them before buying, mostly set up and minor cosmetic things, such as (oddly) one of the string ferrules doesn't match the other 5 on the back! As I said at the start, this is just a little winter project, to see if I could make something decent playing and looking out of a cheap online bargain bucket. My intention is to turn it into something which looks more like this...……. ……....continuing with my love of Fenders' pastel colours, I will be respraying it in Surf Green nitro, with a matching headstock and amber neck tint. At the moment the finish is all clear, a thick poly on the body and a very anaemic looking satin on the neck, and although the finish quality is excellent, I want it to look more retro. So that's the plan, I shall try to sort out any little issues I find on the way, although having had it for a couple of weeks, I must say there is nothing wrong with these guitars as they come, and if the other stuff is like this I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them....check out the double necked Tele Jangle on Wayne !

Oooh this is good

That’s a lovely colour

I made a Wenge and Ash Blingray It’s a stunning wood, the neck is lovely and rock solid, but what you’ve read is correct, the dust and slinters are nasty A Wenge body might be heavy too, so be mindful of that, but once done, it’s easy to keep tidy looking and feeling nice with a bit of wire wool https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/188653-wenge-chambered-blingray-build/?tab=comments#comment-1827521

I think something like the jig in this build thread from the TDPRI forum might be the solution to my neck build conundrum http://www.tdpri.com/threads/mojotrons-former-build-challenge-thread.263775/page-6 This is another quite interesting thread on building veneer necks, albeit with a CNC machine in this thread http://www.tdpri.com/threads/cnc-broadcaster-build-and-then-some.112695/page-7

Thanks Bridgehouse, this is the sequence I was thinking too First step would be to radius the neck blank, at 7.25" convex, then the underneath of the fingerboard at 7.25" concave, then glue it on - it would help with clamping that the bottom of the neck blank and the top of the fingerboard would still at that stage be flat. Then finally route the top radius as per any other (normal neck build) Sounds easy when you write it down

Gawd me 'ead's spinning now 😣 I must admit I assumed (I know you should never do that!) that the radius was 7.25" and the topside and bottomside were parallel, I will have to look more closely at this, and if I go down the DIY route (and knowing how stubborn I am, I probably will) then maybe some sort of compromise or easiest route might be in order! Thanks again gents, I love all this, it's the internet at its best

Hi Andy thanks for your thoughts, most welcome from a man who knows about these things 🤔 I have scratch built necks in the past, but they have been slab board ones, where I did a 10" radius board with a sanding block. They came out quite well, which was one of the deciding factors in favour of starting this project, because getting the double curved fingerboard to mate up neatly with the radiused neck blank will undoubtedly be a challenge, but then I do like to push myself with each new build! The other thing in favour of making a router jig, and I think you will identify with this, is that I could use it again for future projects, which are already buzzing around in my mind (I fancy making a 60's spec, lightly relic'd, 12 string Tele 😋) I also have a couple of other builds in varying stages of completion, so I could use a jig to help with these and I have a vague plan to keep this hobby going into retirement (I don't play golf or go fishing!) so it wouldn't be something that would get used once I might be answering my own question here !! Thanks again for your kind offer of advice, I will try not to be too much of a pest, it's only wood after all

Wow, I wonder if the current Mrs Rubis would notice the cost of this going out of our account? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1972-FENDER-PRECISION-BASS-NECK-made-in-USA/123421457403?hash=item1cbc7dfbfb:g:UqcAAOSwHShbmEE9:rk:25:pf:0

Wow, thanks gents, praise indeed, that’s very kind of you The next step I suppose, which I’ve been putting off because it will be a challenge for a ‘garage enthusiast’ with very limited facilities, is making a neck with the proper curved veneer fingerboard rather than a slab board. I know you might be able to get one made by Musikraft but by the time you add import taxes to the purchase price it can get a bit silly I also thought of taking a neck and fingerboard blank along to a local firm with a CNC machine and have them do the radiusing work, but I’d prefer to do it myself if possible. The idea that occured to me lately was to make a router jig using those clever linear bearings and rails which are used on 3D printers for the lengthways movement https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2Pcs-8x300mm-Linear-Rail-Shaft-Optical-Axis-4x-Bearing-Blocks-3D-Printer-CNC/152600768642?hash=item2387b6f082:g:JiQAAOSw5T9aveVS and the some version of this kind of thing to give the sideways movement at the appropriate radius, and set to either a convex or concave radius to achieve the veneered fingerboard curve? https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=guitar+fingerboard+radiusing+jig&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-gb&client=safari#imgrc=FZMgdEXEOuBLwM: I hope that makes sense, it does in my head but that’s by no means always a good thing! As always I would love to hear any thoughts, suggestions, warnings or ideas for this thanks in advance again Harry

Next step was the hot and cold treatment. I used a heat gun and plumbers pipe freezing spray because the freezer is full of food and the wonderful long hot British summer seems to have ended. One fairly small area at a time seems to be the best way with this, and as in the article the cracks and crazing seem to emanate from the little dings and dents, moving off in a random pattern, which is how it would go naturally I should imagine? I used the recommended wood dye, but it seemed a bit too thick and dark for my liking, so I diluted it with white spirit and it went in the cracks nicely and is still quite visible.

Thanks Andy

I began the relic-ing process on the body by following this article from Guitar magazine, which was very clear, useful and pretty much tallied with all the other articles I had read or watched online. https://www.theguitarmagazine.com/diy/relic-nitro-finish/ It's easy to get a bit carried away when dropping keys onto the finish and picking bits off with a nail file and dentist's style pick, and the paint chips very easily. I didn't want it to look pristine, but I also didn't want it to look like Rory Gallagher's Strat! I tried to stick to areas which would naturally get worn, like the forearm contour, and places that always seem to chip and damage from the dozens of photo's I have looked at!

Ah, thanks everyone, this is making sense to me now! I've noticed Fender, Warmoth, Musicman and others offering roasted bodies and necks, and I'm prepared to accept that hallowed names such as these wouldn't waste research time and money on snake oil. I also think I've read somewhere in the past that you could 'loosen up' the soundboard of an acoustic guitar and improve it's sound by placing it on top of a speaker and subjecting it to the vibrations, I suppose this is the same concept of quickly introducing the kind of vibrations it would naturally be subjected to over hours of playing The only thing which makes me slightly sceptical of these kind of claims though, is that manufacturers never seem to back up these claims with some sort of definitive A/B test of treated and non treated products, which would clearly show us the benefits, which seem subtle to my cloth ears, and that often all I can find is the testimonial of someone who has paid (a lot of money) for an instrument or part of one, and would, quite understandably, like to think it was worth the cost and an improvement on a stock item

What is thermal and sonic treatment?

I most certainly will, thanks