Andyjr1515

No - just tried that too. Same result. I guess that Rocklite is made up of shorter fibres and therefore at a certain radius they just pop out. The only standard thickness wood binding I've been able to get round corners that kind of tightness was rosewood for this rebody of a Peavey EVH. And this was after trying a number of other woods including maple (I was surprised that maple didn't do the trick): Your thought of laminating thinner pieces might work...

Close - but probably no cigar, @honza992 Part of my problem was actually that my bending iron doesn't have a radius small enough. As such, I ended up heating and squeezing...and, of course the grain eventually objected: Next, I tried bending it over a soldering iron. Again, tricky and - although it was heading for a VERY tight radius, it eventually split out: In actual fact, you'd get away with this with an application of CA or black epoxy and then sanding. The above one is actually quite a bit tighter than a LP horn so I tried easing it over a wider area - it almost got it, but still started to part grain. It's the top right in this photo: I think that if you had a bending iron the right radius, you might just about do it - but there's no guarantee. Also, ironing around a carved former, still done wet and dousing regularly, might support the grain better and enough, but again it's just a supposition... In all cases, by the way, my bending iron was set on hot and I gave each area I was bending a healthy dousing with my water spray before and during the attempts. In comparison to the above, doing the two binding strips for the back of the acoustic was a doddle

Hi! I'm not sure...but it did bend very easily. Tell you what - I've got a Les Paul. If I get a moment tomorrow, I'll try it to see if I can get that lower horn shape

Thanks, folks And so to the bit of a build I enjoy the most. The neck carve This is my neck carve kit: ...and of the above, the humble card scraper is the one I use the most. I had previously taken some profile measurements of Matt's favourite guitar and transferred those onto a plasticard template for the 1st, 7th and 10th frets. I had also taken neck depth measurements and had thicknessed the neck to those dimensions. I scribbled a pencil line down the spine of the neck to make sure I didn't cut into that depth at all. For shaping necks I prefer to hold the guitar or bass a bit like a back-to-front cello and draw the cutting tools up from the heel towards the nut. First to use was the spokeshave (strictly a two handed job but I was holding the cameral here) I use the templates to guide how close I'm getting : Once I've taken the corners off, I quite quickly move to the card scraper (again, two-handed): Getting there... And quite quickly it's at the sanding to final fit stage:

As I said in the earlier thread, resetting the neck angle (which was putting the predicted action a bit high) once the fretboard has been fitted is fiddly in the extreme. It's when you realise just how rock-hard rock maple is! But, although it has taken me all day - early morning until late afternoon - have finally got there. I still have the side -to- side in the right place (it was before, but it is too easy to get it out of alignment once you start tweaking): And - at long last, the beam is sitting where it should be - just at the level of the top of the bridge: And time for a quick mock up:

Second side of the top binding done - again ironed on: While I was doing a swift inlay on one of @wwcringe 's basses yesterday, I did a couple for the headstock of this while I had all the tools out and set up. Standard stuff: Glued with z-poxy mixed with wood shavings: And tidied up with a sanding block: Next thread is today's task. Taken me pretty much all day...resetting the neck angle.

Not weird and probably would look fine. What fretboard wood are you using?

Yes - exactly that! Well found Must get one. You never know what shortages there will be once our jokers have finished with Brexit

It's an old heat shrink iron from my r/c planes days. I must see if you can still get them because this will give up the ghost at some stage! Standard irons are fine for veneering but a bit unwieldy for binding. Hmmm...travel iron might be a thought. If you do have a go, shout before you start and I'll check through whether there are any tips or tricks I've missed above

The Rocklite Ebanol bindings were pretty easy to bend over the bending iron - much, much easier than real ebony! So same MO as the purfling: Only difference is that each couple of inches takes a minute of two rather than 30 seconds. It is essential that both layers of glue melt together and the extra thickness and width of the binding takes more heat. Also, they take longer to cool and re-solidify the glue...more like 30-45 secs. Again, though, this is a fully repeatable process. So for a gap like this - while you are doing it or after you've finished - it can be simply reheated, then pressed in place and held to cool with the gap closed: As a matter of fact, that is what I do. First time round I concentrate on getting the sides attached and the shape held, seating the binding but not worrying too much about small gaps, and then I go round the whole thing a second time, this time reheating JUST to seat it properly - because either side is still solidly glued, there is no danger of each couple of inches pulling out of shape. And after a satisfyingly short period of time, I've got the first half of the top done :

Very nice routing finish.

Before starting with the heel fettle, I made a start with the top binding. It will have an inner feature line of black/white/black purfling and then some Rocklite ebanol outer binding. I have to say, I HATE routing for binding. With a spheroidal top, it's really tricky - especially as you are working with 0.25mm tolerances. I use a Stewmac Dremel attachment, but I wouldn't recommend it - there are just too many times where tiny adjustments in angle or tilt of the Dremel (difficult to avoid with it being top-heavy) you can gouge up to mm too deep! But, so far, I haven't found anything affordable as an alternative Anyway - after HUGE amounts of care and re-runs and tidying up with a very sharp chisel, it is as good as it's going to get. And some of it is OK - The next bit - gluing the purfling and binding - I also used to hate. I tried all the traditional methods, from fibreglass reinforced tape to bicycle inner tubes, to ripped sheets and tourniquets. And - with everything now completely hidden, you could never see how well it was positioned and clamped. I never took all that stuff off the next day to find a tight-fitting, in-place binding... So I had a brain wave - and, honestly folks, I think I'm the only person in the world who does it this way - why not IRON it on like I iron on veneer????? And that's what I've done the last two builds and I can't see any reason not to do this for all of my future builds. For those who haven't seen my veneering threads, basically I use decent quality PVA wood glue, paint both surfaces with it, let it dry and then iron it on. The heat of the iron melts the PVA between the two parts, the two parts float a touch so can be positioned precisely, you hold it there10 seconds or so for the glue to re-solidify and that's it! You get instant confirmation that the joint is good or not and - if it isn't, it is fully repeatable...you just heat it up again and it re-floats, you re-position it and let it cool and it's fixed. This is my kit. You can just a well use a household iron...I just use the smaller one for ease of use: You can see at the bottom of the photo the length of purfling with the PVA drying (takes about 15 minutes). I've already painted the slot with the same glue. Then I just iron it on: I do about an inch at a time, hold it in place for 10 secs and then move on to the next inch. To do the full top, using two purfling strips, took about 20 minutes. Bit of sanding showed me this: And even now - if I saw a gap I didn't notice (there wasn't one), I could have just repeated the iron at that point and fixed it. The outer binding will need pre-bending - but I will be ironing that on too: I'm sure there are lots of reasons why this is a really bum method - but it certainly works for me...

There's a lot of fitting and fettling with an acoustic. With the fretboard now glued on and the neck bolts & inserts in place, it was time to check the neck alignment and angle again. The fit of the heel is pretty good - and any adjustment is much more fiddly now the fretboard so fingers crossed Bummer! The straight edge is supposed to be in line with the top of the bridge. Oh well, a few hours fettling, then

Like this, @Si600

Yes - exactly that. I'll take a photo when I get a moment...

It's certainly a very pretty bass. Difficult to know what kind of value because they clearly don't come up for sale often. Also, as always, price is what the market will bear. From what I can gather, it's the V216 model and it was made in the mid to late 60's for Vox by the Italian makers Crucianelli. There some info on these two sites http://www.vintageguitarandbass.com/vox/bass/Escort.php http://www.voxshowroom.com/equipment/guitars.html Older Vox semi acoustic basses in excellent condition selling in the States seem to be advertised in the $1000 to $2000 range. However, a serious issue such as a twisted neck would bring that down to $00's and not $000's. I can't find any recent sales in UK but there maybe some if you spend a few hours on Google.

The overnight job was gluing the fretboard to the neck. I use radius sanding blocks as my cauls - you can put a huge amount of clamping force on them and they apply the pressure to the sides as well as the middle. Ready for neck carve The neck is bolted on with stainless machine screws and some decent threaded inserts. Once It is all set up, I may well be gluing the tenon too - bolts alone work well, but I do find that the heel blocks can relax a touch over time and therefore can have a tendency to slacken off a touch. Easy to re-tighten but not ideal. In that the neck should never have to come off, I've come to the conclusion that using the bolts to ease getting all of the angles and fit right - and then glue and bolt - might be the best of both worlds. I did do a dovetail once. But my GP told me that I must never do that again because the emergency services are just too stretched to cope with another self-inflicted heart attack... Here are the inserts: Got a few household things to do over the next day or two but the next big jobs are the binding on the top and the neck carve.

Yes - I think imperfection is probably the term MrsAndyjr1515 would also use. Early in our marriage, I wrote her a short love poem: "Completely, was I floored When she struck me with the sword Of how completely, I was flawed...."

I most humbly apologise Maybe would it help for me to disclose that, because this was a reused neck blank, and because I started making the acoustic before deciding to give it to Matt, and when I started making it, I was aiming for a 42mm nut and the neck blank JUST fit, but then when I talked to Matt, he plays a 43mm nut to get a 37mm string spacing and so, actually, the fretboard overhangs the neck in places by almost 1mm each side and I am banking on the radius of the neck carve being tight enough in those places for the fretboard edges to be angled enough for the fretboard to merge into the neck and if it doesn't I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do and that worries me a bit and when things worry me a bit I start writing impossibly long sentences that make most readers give up half way through and, now I think about it, MrsAndyjr1515 muttered about doing much the same during what she describes as the tortuous forty years we've been together and that she regards THAT as the true meaning of a long sentence.

I know there are cheaper alternatives, but I love Luminlay. It is SO easy to fit. I do recommend use of a good quality bradpoint drill (I use the Fisch ones from Axminster) but it's basically: Measure and mark the centre with a sharp centre punch Drill 3mm or so depth Check the stick goes in OK Pop a drop of CA on the end Push it into the hole Cut flush with a razor saw Sand the edge Less than an hour in total and here we are: Final job is filling the tang slots and it's ready to fit to the neck

Frets are in. Next step is to add some blue Luminlay dots on the side before gluing it to the neck. But still time for a quick mockup

It's looking very good indeed. I feel a workshop visit coming on

There are many parts of an acoustic build where it is better to take things slowly than rush. None more so than fitting the neck. And it's getting there - although is still a way off. One important task is to relieve the joint area of as much wood as you can while retaining the main contact areas: This lowers by a touch the insanity brought on by hours of 'flossing' a rock maple and ebony jointing surface: And it's getting there, although a number of hours left to do. The joint is starting to get close to the required gapless joint all round... And the vertical angle is close to OK with the straight edge just touching the top of the saddle-less bridge... ...but the side-to-side is still off: The challenge is correcting this without making the other two factors worse Perfect job to do while watching the Grand Prix this afternoon

I hope, but I never expect

A rolled up old bath sheet towel to be accurate