Andyjr1515

Good excuse to get out into the surprise sunshine Carve is starting to get there. You can see here that my chamfer isn't quite deep enough yet - you can see the very edge of the glue-line/step-line there!: In terms of the overall shape, still a bit to do but I think this is starting to look right:

More like this - which is I reckon closer to how @fleabag drew it in concept anyway

Trying it on the body, I reckon this is visually too long. I'll take 10mm off each side by softening the radius: There's plenty of meat there to take off and still have large enough blocks for the height adjustment screws: Carve-wise - I think this is actually just about there for most of the body. Just got to finalise how to treat the chamfer on the lower-horn cutaway. Anyways, I'll consult @fleabag to what he reckons

While I ponder on the next stages of the body carve, I made the final version of the pickup cover. I'll send this off to Armstrongs early this coming week: I have to say, making a thin-walled box like this was quite satisfying...

Great job!

That looks splendid!

Is that figuring in the fretboard? Nice, whatever...

You see. Not so painful was it? Sounds pretty stupendous to me. Nice playing, too

Excellent Thanks for posting - even if it is a silent and still movie It looks good!

OK - that's enough for one day. It's a sleep on it and have a look in the morning - especially what best to do with the lower horn and cutaway and the curve of the top horn. Oh - and check with @fleabag that this was what he broadly had in mind Adding a bit of dampness gives a clue to the final depth of colour:

And the body carve starts. This will be a 'carve a bit, stand back, consider, carve a bit more' and will come together little by little. As a start off, @fleabag wants me to see if we can achieve a bevelled edge - a bit like an SG - so that's where I'm starting and see how it looks as the carve develops

Happily for @fleabag's health, this one would be the project AFTER his

Me too

This is interesting. I might have just the project for it!

OK - just to take everyone's mind off the f*****g headstock ( ), I knocked up a quick prototype of the pickup cover the Armstrong custom pickup is going to be built into: The real one will be all purpleheart. It took me a while to understand what Aaron Armstrong and @fleabag had in mind (I'm a bit dense at times) but basically, in the same way as a pickup is often expoxied or waxed into a metal of plastic housing, the pickup innards will be epoxied into this. There will be height adjusting screws in the two end pieces so it should act like a typical soapbar. What I am pleased with is that the purpleheart sliced readily down to 1.5mm for the top and sides and the box seems reassuringly rigid I'll make the final version over the next few days and get it over to Armstrong Pickups for them to build the pickup into it.

Yup - best without

More seriously, this is one of those make it up as I go along see how the flow at each stage points to the direction of the next stage In normal circumstances, the top would be the same size and then the carve or chamfer at the sides would cut into - or not - the middle lamination. In this case - at this stage, I have a top whose width is determined by the width of the walnut and a back pitched at the maximum width of a Fender Jazz / Precision so that we know it's going to fit in a standard bass case. Now I have it all lined up for the neck and the body, I can re-look at how best to do the cut-though of the layer cake and - in discussion with @fleabag - whether it will look best as a curve or chamfer. If you assume an SG-type chamfer, which is @fleabag 's preference, then I think the overlap for the back rear bout on the treble side is actually too wide and, if so, I will slim it down a touch - otherwise the chamfer would need to be far too shallow. That's what I like about these kinds of builds - they are a bit of an evolution of design.

Yes - me too

Last thing to do before gluing the top on is routing the cable channel between the pickup area and the control chamber And then it's a case of gluing the top on. CONFESS!! CONFESS YOU MOTELEY-MINDED NUT-HOOK! That's its punishment for not responding compliantly to the earlier stern talking-to...

Whose 5 string system have you gone for, Jez? Same one? I saw how pricey Steinberger systems are and wow...price of a small maisonette!

Anyway, I got bored with the discussion, so I've glued it back on. And in real life, it looks spot on So just wait until tomorrow when no doubt I'll mess something up, then everyone can talk about that instead

Well, I managed to knock some small nails through the string ball ends into the stump. Seems to be holding. Just got to find a way of tightening them at the other end. I've cut a few bits off the Schaller...haven't worked out what I'm going to put in their place, but I'm sure I'll think of something!

OK. Done

And to the second - and most important - neck socket carve. First, I had to line up the top and know that it wouldn't move around and that I would be able to replicate that position when I glued it finally to the back. I lined up everything from the top and from the back and put a couple of woodscrews in places that will be under the bridge and in the pickup chamber. I will use the same screws to stop the top sliding around on the wood glue when I come to glue it: This is broadly the shape: Started with chisels to hog it out: Then moved onto goose-neck scraper and files: And finally 'crept up on it' with sandpaper wrapped round a circular stick. I have to just do some fine-sanding so it sits fully seated and in place by itself, but it's pretty much there: And - admittedly to my surprise - it looks like the back stripe might even line up with the skunk stripe of the neck! Still a lot to do - but starting to look like a bass!