Andyjr1515

Great job & nicely documented Love the Brooks-1 and the Acoustic Fretless above too...

Can't add anything to @Christine 's excellent explanation. To make sure the scraper is completely square when honing the edges, I picked this tip up from somewhere - a simple jig. Just a vertical slot in a piece of wood: It's slightly springy so acts like a dolly peg. I pop the scraper in and use is as a pair of vertical hands while I run the edge over the diamond stones I probably use scrapers more than any other single tool-type in my workshop.

I particularly like the second one but, to be honest, they both look good.

Hi The Psilos uses an acoustic type single bone saddle and has an under saddle element. There are a number of UK-available brands but of all of them, in my view, one of the better ones, Artec, is one of the cheapest. But I guess that you, @mcnach , are talking of an electric bass bridge fitted with piezo elements? Graphtec are probably the market leaders - they do retro fit piezo saddles for a P & J type bridges and also some Hipshot type bridges. Even for these if you are looking for affordable and OK rather than top end, I would probably look at an Artec preamp rather than the pricier but good John East ones or the even pricier Graphtec ones.

If it's new, I wouldn't mess about with it at all - I'd just take a photo and send it with an email to Sandberg. Nothing in the ilk of trussrod adjustment or similar is going to produce what you have described.

Lovely job, Jez

For headstock plates I use Titebond. For actual veneers (0.6mm) I use the Evostick (green bottle) PVA wood glue ironed on.

There are two issues that sometimes make it difficult to pin down exactly what is going to produce the required result. First is that any residue at all of previous coatings will generally prevent the stain from soaking in properly. The way I generally check is that I sand it thoroughly, dust off the sandings and then wipe over with a moist (not dripping wet) cloth. Raw wood will immediately darken. If there are light patches and not just because the grain direction changes, it is usually that residue still there. The second is that black is a very difficult stain! And that is because you can't have shades of black. Black that isn't black just isn't black. And stains absorb more on end grain and often not much at all with the grain. So if it was green, you end up with green and lighter green. But 'lighter black'? So I'm not sure absorbing stains are the best thing - I think it needs to be more a coating product than an absorbing product. As stated above, Fiebings Leather Dye is worth a try - I think that is a bit of a cross between both.

It's an option and most builders would have no problem doing this - but I am personally rubbish at lining up such things Some builders actually rig up a false bridge and string up, then use a bone sliver to intonate on the strung up guitar to set where the saddle should be (a bit like a jazz guitarist would intonate with a floating bridge). But again, for me there are more possibilities to introduce errors than emininate them The secondary reason for the rig is that for Matt, the distance of the two E strings from the fretboard edges is critical - so the lining up of the string runs is as important that the position of the bridge. But...that lack of squareness might bug him. If so, there are a number of things I will be looking at: - first is double check that I got my jig right! - look at simply squaring up the external faces of the present bridge - get an unslotted bridge, slot it, check it's OK and then use the jig as originally planned - cut a perfect slot in a blank of wood, then cut the bridge from around it Of the above, squaring up the external faces is probably the most straightforward. All of this sort of thing is why this is such a great hobby. I've said before that building an acoustic is "a series of compromises held together by hope" Watch this space - more than enough opportunities for me to c**k it up yet!

I think they tend to be a bit random. This is a good bridge from a good supplier and is supposed to be to a Martin spec but I agree, it is more off line than I think I would normally expect. It's something that doesn't bother me - jazz bridges and many other floating bridges are usually skewed so it's something I don't generally notice. I will be checking with Matt, who I'm making this for. If it bothers him, I'll get an unslotted bridge. Mind you, they can be a pig to slot accurately which can give you the worst of all worlds...

It's a stunning piece of wood...

It's an acoustic - so it needs yet another jig made Fitting the bridge. Always an area needing accuracy - but particularly with an acoustic where, basically, once it's on it's on. Intonation adjustment is limited to the 1mm difference you can make filing the bone saddle angled towards the back or towards the front. So it has to be right. I use the Stewmac fret calculator app to give me the nut to saddle distances for top E and bottom E, but a steel rule isn't really accurate enough to measure the distances AND get the sideways positioning right. So last night, while watching the box, I made this from some maple binding strip: This is eminently possible to get the measurements right with a long steel rule. Then, the bottom cross-member hooks over the nut end of the fretboard and the top cross member fits into the bridge saddle-slot: I line the jig up to give an even distance between the fretboard edges bass and treble... ...and the bridge should now be in exactly the right position. Fingers crossed

Masterly.

Watching with interest

Not at all a silly question. I put the peak itself a touch behind the nut (ie to the headstock side). The reason is so that a player does not have the peak in the way of their supporting thumb when playing chords at the nut end. But the neck is aleady rising towards the peak at the apex of the headstock angle (ie, under the nut) and therefore I still get the extra thickness and associated strength increase at that weak spot. I'm sure other builders have other strategies...

Bit of final sanding to do, but the neck is pretty much done: This shot is particularly for the member who "does like a nice volute". I hope it meets his approval

Yes - but the size of the core is only one of many factors. The cross section shape of the core (some are round, some hexagonal); the metal they are made of; the thickness and cross section of the windings; the metal they, too, are made of. All of those factors (and more) will affect the tension you need to apply for it to vibrate at a particular frequency and, therefore, at a specific musical pitch.

Beautiful job

It's a perfectly reasonable question. My layman's answer is this. For each given musical note, a string has to vibrate at a specific frequency. Regardless of what the string is made of, the tighter it is, the faster those vibrations are and the slacker it is, the more the string flaps about at a lower frequency. So you can get a rubber band to vibrate at the same frequency (and therefore musical pitch) as a piece of string, or as a piece of wire. The material used, and the size within each material will affect how much you need to stretch them to get the same note. So you will have to stretch a thick rubber band differently to a thin rubber band to get the same note. And - for the same size - you will need to stretch a silicone rubber band differently to an india rubber rubber band for the same note. Guitar and bass strings are just the same. It's not just the size that is different, but the metals they use, and the windings they have around them and event the shape of the windings. And everyone of those differences will affect how much you have to stretch (tension) the string to vibrate at the desired frequency. So if a maker has a combination of metals and windings they are happy with for strength and durability and feel and corrosion resistance and wear resistance and makes ALL of their strings with the same materials, then the only thing that will affect how much you need to stretch the string is going to be thickness. Hence the grades of strings. And - to have compatibility of nut slots, playing feel, etc, most makers have dropped into a convention of the broad size ranges they offer. But if, say, D'Addario, want to make their strings at the same thicknesses as Ernie Ball...but they want to use different metals, with different windings, etc., then the amount they will need to be stretched to produce each frequency, will be different to the Ernie Balls. Somewhere around there is a database of all of the strings from all of the manufacturers with the string tension for a fixed note - they vary CONSIDERABLY across manufacturers and across types of strings from the same manufacturer. Final point. For a given string, how you set up the bass (with one exception) WILL NOT affect the tension at all. You will still have to stretch the string the same amount whether you fit the string on a bass or between two vices! (The exception is an extreme - if your bridge lets you wind back your saddles to the extent where you actually change the scale length, then yes, technically, it will affect the tension). But the opposite is certainly true - the tension of the strings WILL affect the setup. The tension higher or lower will pull on the neck more or less meaning that the trussrod will need loosening or tightening to compensate. Hope the above makes some sort of sense. I'm sure there are more accurate scientific factors I've missed or misunderstood...

Yup - and going to have to again after Brexit!

I'm seeing Matt on Tuesday to give him a 'first fitting' of the neck profile and to firm up the amplification. Then I will be able to put the back on Clearly, until that's on, I can't do the bottom binding and finish off the tailstock, so the walnut and two vertical binding strips here are loose. but gives a decent idea of where I'm heading. The walnut centre-piece matches the rosette and headstock plate: The walnut isn't actually bookmatched - that's a pencil line you can see in the photo - but I was able to find some very symmetrical figuring in the sheet offcut.

Yup - looks fine to me

Excellent tip - and excellent scarf joint! I've never made a success of any scarf joint, let alone a fancy one like this! Top marks

That is absolutely splendid!

Hi, John It is as received...2mm Ref the Peavey - it's just tru-oil slurry and buffed. Tru-oil was just made for walnut, I reckon....