Andyjr1515

If the strap button is in line with somewhere in the12th - 13th fret area, there probably won't be a problem. Also there are more lightweight tuners on the market nowadays. To be honest, it is a secondary issue if a bass is just too darned heavy to play comfortably. As a matter of fact, how heavy is it?

Yes to both questions is the simple answer. Ref the headstock, then yes, wood can be added back - all the structural stuff must presumably be there (otherwise it would have fallen apart already) so it is more about the practical challenges. It would involve thicknessing a suitable piece of wood, creating a clean and matching join, without affecting anything structurally important and then hiding or flaunting the visuals. And yes - there are a number of ways of taking weight out of a body: As @bazzbass says, you can remove material under pickguards if they are fitted You can create a false control chamber at the back You can reshape the body If the pickups and hardware are not too deep, you can plane some thickness off the back - this can take a lot of weight out There are challenges for all the above and sometimes unexpected consequences (such as lightening the body then realising you bass has developed neck dive!) and the more you want to hide the evidence, the more of a challenge it is. But it can be done.

Final bit of tidying up before gluing the top on, but that's enough for one day. The top is basically ready to fit. The dark centre line, by the way, will disappear at the final sanding which won't be done until the back is on and the binding too.

Well, this is probably as far as I dare go: It will be a little while before I glue the top on so might have a further tweak but, as I said earlier, I don't really know how far to go - or where - so it's probably best leave it hereabouts. There is a great video here - the first 30 minutes is theory but skip to 31:29 and he demos tapping it at his starting point and then progressively as he mods the braces: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ei5-DkVTrEE The slightly sobering thing is that I finish, soundwise, basically where he starts! But, I think this is probably pretty much where my previous build was when I halted further tweaking so, hopefully, it will sound the same when it's finished...which was, after all, the purpose of the exercise. The only bit that completely escapes me (and did on the last build) is the flex on the bass side he talks about. I've seen other folks wobble it like an Australian whatever-it's-called showing how flexible it is. I do the same thing and it's as stiff as the proverbial board! Anyway, I'll pick it up in an hour or so and give a tap and, if it's as good as I'm going to get it, then get on with the exiting bit - gluing the top to the sides

Usually when things happen to me that are 'mostly invisible' I have learnt to leave them alone. Mostly invisible to you means definitely invisible to most people....

That is indeed a splendid finish

And most of the rest of the braces are on:

And most of the rest:

And out comes the Go-bar rig again, but this time with the 25 foot radius dish. Lots of careful marking out of the bracing positions and then the all-important X-braces are glued in place first, with the radiused bottoms pressing the top into its spherical shape: It maybe one of those urban myths, but that little hardwood stiffener across the X brace joint is said to make a significant difference to the tone... There's a clip somewhere with a demo of without one and then with one subsequently fitted which is fascinating. I'll try and find it.

Looks normal to me. The amplitude of the vibration of the lower strings is much greater than the higher strings and so the nut slots need to be proportionately higher to prevent buzzing on the first fret when playing on the open strings.

Interesting external copper strip connecting the bridge and cavity.

Very classy

Normal stuff with installing the swift - jewellers saw: Dremel with precision router base: Epoxy mixed with wood dust: The slightly ragged edges and black dots round the purfling will disappear with the final sanding, but this is broadly what it will look like:

Back to the acoustic. The purfling round the rosette is done. I will be inlaying a swift into the rosette over the next few days - this is just a paper template - and also scraping and sanding the purfling flush. Went a bit mad on the purfling this time

Yup - global warming... (actually, not so far off the truth - I reckon this year the number of swifts is 2/3rds lower than pretty much every of the past 35 years. Bit of a concern...) In terms of the one swift, I've replicated what Tom had on a couple of Ibanez's I did some work on a few years ago. Just picked up another one for the same treatment so, fear not, there will be plenty of swifts around at his place By the way, @TheGreek - recognise the headstock veneer?

Next is fitting the rosette to the top. To avoid measuring errors, I used the original cutout as a template for the Dremel radius cutter holes: Then, with lots of double checking, replicating the cuts - remembering to allow where applicable for the width of the cutter: I checked the fit of the two outer rings and then did a further series of cuts to hog out the middle bit and cleaned up with a chisel: Then glued and clamped: When that's dry, I will scrape level and then add some purfling strips. But first, I have to meet @wwcringe at Derby station to pass back a very nice Talman he asked me to soup up and tart up a bit

For the last dreadnought I did, I did an offset rosette which I wanted to try again. This was the last one: This time, I took a note of the measurements! You never know - there maybe a next time! I'd got three plates I could use, so cut out the shape and tried them to see which figuring worked best: Then out with the Dremel. This is about the only job I do with this accessory but by golly it's useful! Then it's a case of measuring correctly and remembering which hole you are supposed to be pivoting around! With luck, you end up with this: Which gives me the rosette. Of course - I've got to rout the same shape in the expensive top wood next...hmmm and that needs to be accurate!

This is a bit of a background job but I've made a little more progress. The top will be dished to a 25 foot radius - so I use a 25' radius dish as a former. The top struts, including the all-important X-brace, are cut out in profile and then the bottoms radiused to match their positions in the dish: Again, I will leave these flat-topped until they have been glued to the top, holding that in its 25' radius shape. Meanwhile, the AAA spruce top (lovely bit of wood from David Dyke) has been thicknessed down to 3.25mm and then is being glued between a trio of sash clamps, with the joint being held flat by a couple of flat cauls placed and clamped either side of the joint: When it is fully set, I will use a cabinet scraper to even the joint and to bring the final thickness of the whole sheet down to 3mm. The back, meanwhile, has had its centre cross-grain maple reinforcement added and is holding the 15 foot spherical radius nicely and is now ready for the final shaping of the struts: One thing on the back that has developed is a split along one of the grain lines. I've checked the sides (same wood) and they are OK, so I'll probably stitch it for good measure and just slurry-fill it when I do the finishing. Structurally, it can't go anywhere because of the bracing and the back doesn't really contribute to the tone of an acoustic so I don't think it will affect the performance. The alternative would be to scrap the back AND sides (they always come matched from the same piece of wood) and that would be a bit too OCD

Only just picked up on this. One other factor to check carefully, @Soledad , based on your original assertion that you didn't want any mods, are the pickup sizes and lug positioning. There is - as many of us here have found to our bafflement and frustration - no such thing as a standard size for Jazz pickups. Even Fenders own vary. And many pickup suppliers do not provide the dimensions - especially Fender. The key dimensions you HAVE to check against the stock pickups in the bass you have / get is length, width and distance of lug screw centres from the centre of each pickup. It's a bit of a pain...but nowhere near the pain of getting a set of replacement pickups expecting them to drop in and finding they don't

Oh wow! It's no consolation, but it is VERY rare for that to happen just with tensioning up. On the positive side, that is a very clean break. If you want to post the neck to me, more than happy to see if I can fix it...

Nice save....could have been awkward.

Yes - great job & good result!

Yes - anything that is carrying a signal that touches ground inadvertently will lose that signal.

I like that

Yes - I agree with that.