Andyjr1515

Couldn't find one. The flattest radius from the people who seem to have the widest range (G&W) only go up to 20" and this is 23.5". So I've taken my 20" blocks (I have an extra wide one, perfect for sanding the wider 5 and 6 string fretboards) and flattened the radius a touch on both of them with a few strips of masking tape, progressively overlaid towards the centre. According to my calipers it's as close as makes no difference. As I said earlier, it seems an odd radius for Yamaha to pick - 500mm /20" would have been perfectly fine to play. I would defy any player to notice the difference.

Like a lot of these kinds of thing, it takes a lot of trial and error until you find out what works for you. For me, the trick of clamping a radius block on after hammering in made all the difference to the ease and quality of the seating. Once you've gone through the learning curve, and got the one or two tools or jigs that make the difference, it isn't difficult - just a bit tedious in that you have to do it 21 times or so!

And onto the fretting of @Sibob 's neck. One of the wiser investments in recent years has been a pair of proper fret tang-cutting pliers: There are many ways of fretting, but what works for me is: Cut the tangs and length Check the slot clearance and depth Lightly triangular file the top of the slot Run a small bead of titebond along the tang Hammer one side, then the other side, then the middle Wipe off the squeezeout Clamp a radius block over the newly hammered fret Move to next fret You get into a routine, but it's still a bit of a tedious job, so time for a coffee with 12 done and 9 to go: What was nice about the way the frets came out is that the tang-slot filling, done when the neck was made, survived on all frets, so one less job Once the frets are all in, they will be left overnight for the glue to fully harden and then the ends clipped and the bevels filed. Then it is just a case of levelling, re-crowning where necessary and polishing up. Finally, the fretboard will be polished back up, the nut lowered and refitted (remember, the nut fretboard end is now 0.7mm lower than it used to be) and then it should be able to go back to Si.

Looks good from over here

Bridge glued and holes taper-reamered. I double checked that it hadn't moved at all and, happily, it's still where it's supposed to be Next job fitting the pickups and then the back can go on (I know - you're supposed to do it the other way round...)

As @Christine says, for any own design, it is pretty essential to draw it out - preferably full-size - to check the geometry, work out the cable runs, etc and make sure, for example, that top chambers and cutaways don't clash with back chambers and cutaways ;) Hand sketch is often all it needs. Ref the blank thickness - as always, there are a few ways of tackling this. In broad terms, then yes, @owen - the more dramatic the curve, then the more the overall depth of the body becomes. So if you were carving out of solid, for a given thickness of body, then it would need to be deeper by the difference in these two distances: There are some disadvantages in carving from solid - mainly relating to the difficulty in getting the control wire and pickup wire channels in the right place and also the cost of thicker pieces of timber - but it is entirely feasible. If you are carving this kind of depth, by the way, then you probably will need to hog out the concave with something other than micro-planes ;) If multi-piece blanks are OK for you, then one option is to have two blanks - either of the same timber or of differing timbers: Or, to reduce the amount of hogging out and resulting waste of wood, you could use a depth equivalent of through-neck wings at the back (and clearly, triangular section wings would be even more efficient): In my lightweight builds, I use a variation of this and go for a through neck and take that concept one stage further by using more standard through-neck wings, but deeper than the neck (which is shown in blue here): So to conclude, there are many ways of skinning the cat (although they all feel much the same to the cat...)

By the way, I once did run into the radius issue with inlays. This SG-ish electric 6-string I built for our band's bassist (yes, I know) had that problem...which is why at the upper frets, the trapezoid frets become square frets - the spiky curved bits simply sanded away!:

Not at all a stupid question. It was one of those calculated risks. I could see that the inlays were Mother of Pearl which usually starts off as blanks of between 1.5 to 2 mm. I was going to take off maximum 0.7mm either end so it was then about how much had already been sanded away when the neck was originally finished. And whether the original blank had been closer to 1.5mm or 2mm! Where you can get caught out is that for a wide inlay, a fretboard radius can quickly lose you that thickness. But this has a very flat radius (quoted as 23 5/8" which is a very un-Far East measurement). So as I was sanding, I just kept my eye on the 1st fret inlay and the upper fret ones. You can generally see if they are getting thin because they start going bluish quite a way before you break through. These were fine

It's been a while! One of the great things about doing threads is that, when family stuff gets in the way of building, you can look back and see where you'd got to And so, of the bridge-at-an-angle issue, I went for the easy option and just squared up the outer lines of the bridge, leaving the correct saddle slant as per my little jig. I triple-checked the measurements, re-fitted the saddle angle jig and then drilled two 4.5mm holes through the top E and bottom E pegholes to position the bridge: Those who follow my builds know that I tend to go off-piste from time to time against the 'conventional' methods. This is one of those times. Generally, you would put the back on and apply the finish before attaching the bridge, but I want to leave the back off for the moment. To attach it, first thing I did was put the 4.5mm drills in from the back, to use the shanks as my locators: Then put some masking tape on and scored round the bridge and removed the tape from area that was going to be glued. Then scraped and sanded back to fresh wood for that area: Then applied the titebond glue and used my long-reach clamp and a small home-made jig designed to be able to apply clamping pressure to the two wings of the bridge: Finally, while the glue was still wet but with the bridge firmly clamped in position, removed the two locating peg drill bits with a pair of pliers: And that means that tomorrow, the electrics should be able to be fitted and the back glued on!

You know me - I LOVE challenging the conventional way of doing things. And I LOVE the idea of a huge piece of wood belting round on a large wood lathe being crafted by a skilled carver. And I AM intrigued with what could be done with that concept. But I don't think it's the right option for a first bass build. And I think @Christine is right, I'm pretty sure the geometry would be completely wrong for a bass. And I don't fancy shaking hands with a prosthetic arm next time we meet at the Midlands Bass Bash (however good prosthetic arms are nowadays)

When taking frets out, a bit of heat helps And then an essential item - proper fret removal pincers. They are flat ground and the edges are sharp so go under the fret and lift without damaging the fretboard: You basically nibble down the length of the fret and let the pincers do the lifting. Doesn't take long before they are all out: Then is the turn of the long levelling beam: I use a 2m piece of aluminium box section with emery cloth stuck with two-sided tape. My GP would be delighted...Andyjr1515 is at last getting off his fat a*s and doing some hard physical exercise! Hand sanding even a 1mm bow is bloody hard work! I use the old school chalk trick to see how it's progressing and making sure I am sanding the nut end and the heel end at a similar rate (because the heel is twice as wide as the nut, it is VERY easy to end up under sanding the heel end and over sanding the nut end): After a couple of hours (yes - really. If this was ebony, it would be a couple of days!), we have it flat and re-radiused: Here is the 'before' against the straight-edge, laid from nut to heel. The gap you can see is from the nut at the right to around the 7th fret at the left: And this is the 'after' - which is what it should be like, ie, no gap: Next job will be re-fretting. Probably tomorrow if I've got enough fretwire in my bits box...

Ref @Sibob 's woes on his trussrod maxing out, after a few PM discussions, he's sent it my way. I've just added it to this thread if anyone is interested

While I'm waiting for the knobs to arrive for Tom's Squier, I've kicked off the initial work for another small job - this time for @Sibob Those of you who follow the Yamaha BB thread will know that he's had a problem with the neck on his BB415. Some kind soul suggested that I might be able to do something with it and so he sent the neck to me a week or so ago. Basically, @Sibob couldn't get enough adjustment on the trussrod to achieve a decent flatness of neck. I love Yamahas, but I'm not keen on the trussrods they tend to use. The love comes from the fact that ALL of their instruments are just, well, right. I play a Yamaha sax - and that is as good as every Yamaha guitar and bass I've ever played. Just look at the carve on this neck: It is as smooth as silk and it feels great! But - the trussrods are single acting and have a relatively small adjustment range. So they rely on the neck being flat with the trussrod loosened and no strings, then the adjustment is enough to counteract the bow resulting from the string tension. So - full loosened, it should be flat This is the centre section against my flat beam of Sibob's - fully loosened and no strings: I checked with some feeler gauges: It's bowed to a gap of 0.7mm. So, yes - the trussrod can be tightened to make it flat...just. But then add the strings and it bows some more and there is no adjustment left in the rod to counteract it. In cases where there is a relatively small amount of extra movement you can sometimes sort it by adding a washer under the trussrod adjuster, or by levelling the frets. But with frets at 1.3mm high and a gap of 0.7mm to flatten, there wouldn't be any fret to speak of left either end once it had been sanded flat. So the action is: Remove the frets Flatten the fretboard itself Refret Level and recrown So that's what I'll be doing over the coming week or so

OK My take on it, then. There are other tools that could be used to speed the process up or reduce the effort a bit, but - for 'reasonable' timbers such as mahogany, Sapele, poplar, walnut, etc - you could comfortably carve this type of shape in a body blank in an afternoon: ...using nothing more than these: The 4 steel things are Micro-plane blades. I have a flat one and a curved one in Coarse and in Fine. You can buy them at Axminster. The gloves are because, for this kind of carve, I find that it is MUCH easier NOT to use the handle that these micro-planes are supposed to fit into. Instead I hold them each end with stout gloves (because each of those teeth are razor sharp) and draw them, following the grain, down the length of the blank. The black thing is simply a former (cut out of an old exercise book cover - cardboard would be just as good) with the outer and inner radii so I know whether I am getting close and even. You will find the convex curve p**s easy with most medium woods. The concave takes a bit more effort if you are using these tools only. Then, to remove lumps, bumps and micro-plane marks, I would use cabinet scrapers (also wearing stout gloves!): Again, Axminster sell them but you should be able to get a set of 4 for less than a tenner in B&Q / Homebase / etc. Don't worry about sharpening them - they will come with the vital edge burr from new and that will last sharp enough for at least one body. Just recycle when you're done You would generally use the rectangular ones for the convex and the 'gooseneck' one for the concave. Again, you hold each side and draw it across the wood at a slight angle, down the length of the body (we can guide you when you get to that bit). The tiny burr at the edges acts like a mini plane and scrapes away the lumps and bumps. The good thing about using the basics above is that it all happens a teeny bit at a time. Treat it as a work-out. The trouble with the myriad of other ways of removing bulk quickly is that it is very, very easy to take - at best - chunks out you may not want to take out or - at worst - chunks out of yourself you definitely won't want to take out So that's my recommendation. However - don't start hacking wood until we've all had a chance to point out some of the geometry stuff and practicality stuff (like the depth of the electrical components!). There are some particular things to consider with double carves that are not covered in most (any?) YouTube tutorials, etc. This is exciting!!!!!

I'm pretty sure it was just a handy humbucker from Tom's bits box Sounds great!

Hi Just one or two interesting projects some of you might be interested in that I have been fitting in around the present main build (the 'Psilos Phoenix' dreadnought acoustic documented elsewhere in the 'Build Diaries'). Two of them are for @wwcringe and are similar to a couple of small jobs I did for him last year. Tom, like myself, is a great fan of the present-day fantastic base quality of many entry-level brands. With a relatively small amount of tweaking, many of them can be turned into excellent pro-level instruments. Squier and Ibanez are high on this list! This time round, Tom asked me to tweak an Ibanez Talman TBM30 and his trusty Squier Deluxe V Jazz. I finished the Talman a few weeks ago (Tom sent me a Soho Radio 'live lounge' clip playing it with the fantastic singer/songwriter Nyah Grace ) and am on the finishing steps of the Squier V. In both cases, Tom wanted the necks stripping down to wood and 'slurry-and-buffed'. I used Danish Oil this time but using the same method as do for tru-oil. I had a couple of veneer offcuts left from @TheGreek 's recent veneering job and used them on this, adding a MoP swift for good measure. For the Talman, Tom wanted to swop the J-bridge p/up for a humbucker and then move the jazz to a new high neck position. These were the resulting amended routs: Ordinarily, I don't shield the pickup chambers - usually just the control chamber - but I noticed the original p/up chambers were indeed shielded and so I followed suit for the mods. I modded the electrics to Tom's requirements which, interestingly, is 100% rotary switches, and finished with a full setup. Here was how if finished up: And then onto the Squier. Same treatment for the neck, and the last offcuts of @TheGreek 's veneer used up: Tom sent me some Hipshot tuners to fit. Presumably, they are imperial sizes - certainly, Hipshot bushes tend to be just slightly smaller than Squier bushes. Little tip for what it's worth, I use maple veneer, bent round the chamber to produce a snug fit. Maple is hard, too, so won't crush: Again, Tom's preference is rotary switches. So the plan was 4 rotaries, including: 3 position pickup selection; series/parallel; tone on/off; signal/kill. I'm not bad with electrics, but transposition is always a challenge to me - so transposing the logic of DPDT switches to rotaries took some time sitting in the proverbial darkened room! I used a guitar humbucker diagram as the role model and worked my way through in pencil to convert it first to two bass pickups and then from vertical DPDT to multi-pole two way and three way rotaries: And here is the finished result: To my complete astonishment, it all works! Last job before the set-up was to cut a couple of sycamore covers from some offcut from @TheGreek 's Psilos bass (I think you should be charging at least one of us royalties, Mick ), add a few magnets and then slurry and buff those too: When I've done the set up for this, I've got another small job to start for one of our esteemed Basschat members - but more of that anon Andy

Hi, Owen When you say convex top and concave back - are you talking about this sort of thing? : If so, there are much easier ways of doing it than the thoughts above... There are a number of ways, but I'm more than happy to outline the easiest / safest of the various ways I've done it.

And it gets even more beautiful...

I keep looking at those feature lines on the neck and scarf...in fact, everywhere! This is going to be absolutely splendid.

They are here - half the price as Hipshots. https://www.axesrus.co.uk/1-x-Hipshot-Licensed-UltraLite-Bass-Machine-Head-p/20650kc.htm I have always had good service from Axesrus and would expect that the quality is likely to be pretty good. I've used their own brand guitar tuners for years.

Hi All Sorry for the radio silence over the past few days - we had a major family get together at the weekend that didn't return to normal until yesterday. It will depend, to an extent, on the body weight but yes, I agree with @honza992 about the strap button being level with the 12th/13th fret as being a 'sweet spot' for preventing neck dive. In general terms, at this position you can usually take some liberties with body weight relief, headstock shape, tuner choice, etc.. The further the button heads towards the 14th and 15th fret, then you have to start taking actions such as: Lightweight tuners (there are more good ones on the market nowadays at a more affordable price than the good but eye-wateringly expensive Hipshot ones) Smaller headstock Going 2 a side rather than 4 in line Limiting any major weight relief plans for the body (which, of course, you may not have) And this is why single cut basses look like they look. The 'beluga whale' results (accusations you often see on forums of single-cuts) aren't trendy/avant-garde design statements - they are the result of simple geometry and physics. And yes, putting the button at far side of the heel, acoustic guitar style, can help a bit - but won't be able to compensate for too poor a neck positioning or major imbalance of body and headstock weights. So, if it was me, I would be: Shifting the bridge back as far as I could (as @honza992 also suggests above). This also reduces the arm stretch when playing a 34" which tends to be more comfortable. Then, having worked out the new 12th - 16th fret positions, tweak the upper horn shape as much as I could towards the 13th fret without losing the desired overall shape If I was still some way away from the 12th/13th fret, I would then be considering 2-a-side tuners to reduce the leverage effect of the tuners and the longer headstock of the 4-in-line I would also be looking at the Schaller lightweight tuners or maybe the licenced Hipshot Lites from Axesrus Hope this helps

Yes ^ MrsAndyjr1515 got fed up hearing about such things years ago and so now we just don't speak. As I say, I love this hobby

I can probably give you some pointers too, @owen - the majority of my builds have been convex/concave

Excellent! Go for it

Another HB fan here. I swopped the phosphor bronze strings for the Ibanez black tapewounds and it transformed it! ChrisSharman did the same to his and it transformed his too!