Andyjr1515

Got on well today. MrsAndyjr1515's sister has come to stay for a few days and they have been out all day, no doubt comparing their poor choices of spouses, so I've cracked on pretty much undisturbed all day! For flat faces, once I've run over the face with a plane, I use the chalk/engineers blue trick. I put some school chalk on my dead-flat chisel sharpening diamond stone: Then put it on the face and just move it a couple of mm, leaving me the chalky high spots: Which I then scrape off the chalk and a smidgen of wood underneath the chalk with cabinet scrapers: ..and repeat until the chalk smudge is all over the face. Ditto for the block. Then I added a dowel as a belt-n-braces support: ...and put in a corresponding hole in the block. Then added a generous coating of titebond and clamped: I'll leave that clamped overnight and then should be able to carve the corrected horn end tomorrow That's enough for one day

And the donor has donated! And why that particular piece? It's a tip I learnt from somewhere (maybe even here) to not only look for a piece where the grain spacing is similar and in line, but also - if you are then going to carve it - where the cross section grain pattern is similar. Here is the piece I've chosen: See how the grain spacing is similar, but also similar annular ring direction and spacing so when the carve cuts across all of that, the basic grain pattern should at least look credible. It does appear, also, to be very similar colour and density of wood - useful to avoid any finish darkening or lightening the tip differentially to the rest of the body. Next job will test my skills - getting two totally flat surfaces at the joining faces!

It would probably contravene some EU Directive to put paint over that beautiful wood And if it doesn't, then it should!

Well, it's taken most of the morning, but this doesn't look bad at all, does it And @TheGreek 's concern whether the main cracks were fixed OK? : Looks pretty good to me. Like in the "if you didn't know where the cracks were, you wouldn't know where the cracks were" sense of the words... Good job, Mick. Stripping this all down to the wood also confirms that there is nothing structural that is of any concern. Next job is probably butchering the donor body for a bit of wood with the right grain pattern to fit and carve at the end of the lower horn . But first I'm going to have a cup of tea and a sandwich Andy

OK Had a close look at the components that @TheGreek sent to me to assess whether there were likely to be any nasties in there. And, overall, it's pretty good news. Other than I haven't yet checked whether the truss rod adjusts OK, here are the key points in the assessment: This is the body I'm going to be working on: Mick has already done some gluing and clamping on the main cracks at the lower horn side of the neck pocket and that looks pretty structurally sound now: You can see on this shot also the residue of whatever impossibly tough bottom poly coat makers like Ibanez - and clearly from this, SGC also - put on their bodies. It's tough to get off, but it will come off The loose horn tip is actually missing 3mm or so and so I will probably fit and carve a new horn end altogether. I will probably use wood from the donor body Mick also sent: That is also missing its original tip shape, but the timber is likely be the same species so I will cut an oversize piece of wood with the right grain direction, fit it and then carve it to the correct Nanyo shape. What about the mismatch you ask? Well - as I spotted on the donor - the tip always was different. You can see on both the donor one and the recipient one below the join line which would have continued across the horn tip - and is probably what failed with whatever major drop the bass received that broke the other joints. You can see also in this shot the extra few mm missing on the horn: The active electrics will come from the donor body also: I'm certain these are all originals, based on the corrosion on the pot spindles, etc (see front view at the top) but - certainly from tap tests on the two pickup covers - it all works fine, including no obvious crackling from any of the pots...which is, frankly, remarkable. The neck pocket is a beautiful fit. Fender....please note! : Structurally, the pocket looks completely sound where it matters. The damage was to the side of the pocket, and not the main strength-bearing zones. You can see in this shot some more poly undercover in the relief carve: There are other splits which I will secure by wicking very thin CA glue into the gaps, such as this one. The objective is basically to stop it spreading: So far, in summary I cannot see anything at all that would make getting this to full playable condition and it looking decent to boot! I will be spending much of the rest of the day sanding the body down to fresh wood and then re-assess.

Well, received it all in the post this afternoon - two bodies, one neck, a full roll of veneer AND a fairly heavyweight gig bag...all in an IMPOSSIBLY small parcel. @TheGreek maybe struggling a bit with the Nanyo save but he sure is no slouch when it comes to packing things well! It all looks good, certainly in terms of no unexpected surprises so far. I will have a closer look and a deep ponder over the weekend on the best way to go about it and then probably start on it early next week

Well done! Looks good

That would work fine. Basically stacked pots are just individual pots on top of each other rather than next to each other. Same with your other options in terms of if you can do it with individual pots, then you can do it with an equally configured stacked pot. The things to look out for are: Are the pot values available in stacked form OK for your needs Is the control chamber deep enough for the stack Are the two spindle sizes the right size for available stacked knobs

Looks good, Jez. You've probably said before but do you put a round plug in the middle of your logo?

The first side dried pretty quickly so I bent the second side. No splits! Minor miracle!!

It's Saturday morning - and Saturday is when the bending is going to start So first thing is clamping the bending iron securely to the bench: And let the bend begin: The bending experience was the best yet (although there's still time for me to c**k it up!), probably for a few reasons: I think Black Limba is one of the more forgiving woods for bending I got this properly thin enough. I reckon - although it doesn't want to be any thinner IMHO than 1.8mm - it needs to be thinner than 2mm to bend the sides comfortably. These sides are pretty consistently 1.9mm The supplier's instructions that came with the bending iron - whose dial goes to 6 and then High - says, basically, "Don't go above 3 or 4 or you will burn the elements out". My experience is that "if you don't go above 4 then it really, really, really ain't going to bend!". Forgive me for a little cynicism, but I suspect the supplier is muddling repair-claim exposure with fit-for-purpose objectives This is the fourth acoustic I've tried - I'm beginning to get a feel of how hard to press to avoid splits or cracks And, in well less than an hour: I will leave this side clamped until fully dry before I release the clamps. It probably won't hold all of its form, but should only require some small re-bending work to do so Probably will bend the other side tomorrow. Andy

For reasons related to geometry, the taper between the front and back depths of the two sides are not linear. You rarely see examples of the shape the sides need to be, but this is a good illustration, with all due acknowledgements to Georgia Luthier Supplies: This is how it will sit in the mould - with the bottom, flat face actually the guitar top: And the two sides cut to approximate shape - they will be sanded to the final shape in the radius dish when I get to that bit: So, all being well. the bending starts in the morning Listen out for the cracking noises...

Thicknessed the back and sides down to just under 2mm and straightened up the back join lines before gluing and clamping: Here it is ready to be cleaned up once the glue has fully set. The shape outline, by the way, is the suppliers - mine will have straight shoulders and be just a touch wider at the lower bout: Next job is to find my side-bending mould and draw up the side shapes before cutting them to shape and starting the bending. It would be nice to be able to start bending this weekend

And the back and sides set has arrived from Germany. Black Limba - beautifully presented and reasonable delivery by Schroter Edelholz. Not expensive either The outside faces are good enough to use directly, so just a case of bringing the thickness down from the supplied 3.5mm to the finish thickness which can all be done from the back faces (out of sight! ) Should be able to start that this weekend

Yes - this ^ I have the strap button acoustic style - at the bottom of the heel. So the strap pulls the whole bass upright and eliminates the need to twist your wrist

When I talk about upright, I'm not talking about the angle of the neck against horizontal (although that can also help) I'm talking about the angle of the body profile against vertical. I'll draw a picture as soon as I can get to the desktop

Hi - this is an important point. As both a bass builder and an erosive arthritis sufferer, I've done quite a lot of experimenting and have repositioned the strap button points on ALL of my own basses and guitars. This is to bring the bodies more upright. As @3below says, normal front horn buttons pull the top of the bass body in towards you - making your wrist have to work in a very unnatural twisted position. It has made the difference between me once considering giving up both guitar and bass versus, now, being able to play comfortably and normally. My instruments are away being video'd at the moment, but I'll see if I have some stock photos tl show what I have done.

As economists say, price is all about what the market will bear. But in more practical terms, it is influenced by many, many factors. In basses, those certainly include style, performance, quality and - in my view for basses but NOT for guitars - uniqueness. And yours have oodles of all of those. It is also influenced by expectation of the price. I look at your basses and I immediately have €1200 - €2000 in my head. However, for a relatively unknown builder, I think to be heading towards the upper number, most customers would want a custom build. But I would say that's the sort of range you are in.

I have a Black Limba back and sides set on order and this week will order the top and fretboard wood The only further actual progress is cutting the rough shape for the headstock: ...bookmatch cutting some headstock and soundhole rosette plates from some remaining offcut of @scrumpymike 's mate's Mervin walnut: The rosette will be offset like the last one: And I will be putting both a headstock top plate and back plate on this one: Top: Back:

I know where you're coming from but, just to clarify: No - you don't steam it and no, the neck doesn't get hot. The fretboard does and the glue does. A new neck is admittedly more fun though...

OK - so why another Dreadnought Acoustic? Couple of reasons. A pro-player I know has been borrowing a number of my bass and guitar builds over the past 5-6 weeks to use in some videos he is recording. I'll post the links when they are done but he is planning to acknowledge me as the maker for...nothing at all! Based on that he has done a number of the demo videos for both Laney amps and Faith acoustic guitars, I class that as a bit of an honour! Secondly, and flattery gets folks everywhere with me , my dreadnought acoustic has caused a bit of a sensation: The tone had been remarked on before, but since then I changed to a mixed set of strings - 1st two are from a 10 gauge set and the other four are from an 11 gauge set. And WOW! Honestly, it sounds stunning. And he thinks so too! And so do his pupils! And he keeps on going on about how good it sounds. So...is it luck? Well, the original one I built for our band's vocalist is still going strong and sounds pretty close. So...hmmm...try for a hat-trick? And then I had a (admittedly) rare bright idea. A bottle of wine doesn't seem to do justice to half a dozen professional videos of my instruments being played. And he is primarily an acoustic player... So if I make this new one to his preferred spec (I know he prefers a slightly narrower neck)? And if it's as good mine, it's his. And if it's not quite, then mine above is his (I can reshape the neck easily enough) and the new one is mine. And "played by pro-players" wouldn't be a bad strap-line Sounds like a plan to me. What could possibly go wrong?

I agree with @Jimothey Reasonable chances of success. While it's not something I would do unless the alternative was a scrapper, given that the alternative is that this WILL be scrapped otherwise, then well worth a try. It is easier to get the right amount of heat if you defret it first - makes getting it hot enough with a household iron more likely to work. Then a kitchen palette knife. It takes a lot of heat and patience, but once you can get the knife in one end, as long as you don't try to rush, it should come off. Medium worst case is that you may need to replace the fretboard (even that is relatively unlikely) Worst worst case is that you are no worse off than at present. There are quite a few videos on YouTube. If you are taking the frets out, don't worry about the fancy Stewmac iron - that's overkill. Andy

Hi I've got a full build on the horizon but have been catching up on a few bits and pieces - some for other folk and some on my own guitars and basses. As part of that, one thing I do periodically, is remind myself what wood or unused components I have taking up space and which generally irritate MrsAndyjr1515. Although that is one of the few great pleasures left in life, actually I do need to clear some space for the next load of mess I have planned And I came across something I'd forgotten about - @TheGreek 's first Psilos neck Some of you might remember that originally the hidden magnetic pickup was going to be a standard humbucker. I did a mockup and it looked fine. Trouble was, because it was going to be inserted from the back, then it basically cut right through the neck core: Now, in reality - because there would be the fretboard at the other side - this isn't actually much different to what a deep pickup rout does to a through-neck in any case. But this shot was, admittedly, a bit stark! And Mick asked me if we could re-think. That's when the idea of custom individual coils came up...which is what we went for in the end: But that meant making another full length neck and left me with the shorter neck number 1. Look familiar? The reasoning for building another Dreadnought acoustic will be explained anon. But that's what I'm going to use the old Psilos neck blank for

Looks beautiful, @honza992 I would never have thought it was possible. Well done

Just caught up. In order: Wow! Beautiful! Blast! How disappointing! Excellent! Full marks to Warwick!