Andyjr1515

Been a more productive day than of late... Neck positioning checked, heel marked and cut out, ready for the 'wrap around' carve at the front: And to allay any fears @fleabag may have:

Oak is, of course, as heavy as lead and blunts tools like they are made of putty...but it's a wonderful, wonderful wood - and that is SUCH a nice example...

I decided that if the back wasn't going to respond to a stern talking to, it was likely to put two fingers up to a mere handplane. So I got the big router out. No more Mr Nice Guy! Last year I took the time building a simple router sled that I could use for things that were too wide for my thicknesser. So out it came: It doesn't matter about the back - a slight curve actually will enhance it - but I had to take the hump off the top. Took about 3mm off the peak to get the relevant area flat. While the rig was set up, I decided to flatten the joining face of the walnut too. This one was just a 0.25mm skim: And we are left with a good close fit which will now clamp properly and without internal stresses and strains. Even dry fit there's no gap: So next job is to rout the pickup to control chamber cable routing, and then dry fit - held in position with a couple of wood dowels in the bridge and pickup positions so that I can start the carve of the the neck access with the ability to take the top off to use scroll saws, etc. before I glue it and do post-glue the 'final fitting'. During the gluing of the top, the same dowels will be used to ensure the positioning is held. Andy

Yes - I made a bass neck from Ovangkol. Made me feel queasy...

OK - after spraying the underside of the back with water, to simulate and counteract what the glue will have tried to do when it was originally clamped, it has spent all night heavily clamped to a completely flat surface. This morning, took the clamps off and it sprung back to exactly the same radius as if nothing had happened. Clearly, it has been influenced by the modern approach of 'I am what I am! This is my shape and I'm proud of it!' So I'll be flattening it off with a Stanley plane.

Oh...and it smells like poo. 'Better in than out', to amend an oft heard phrase in lifts and aircraft cabins.

Thanks! And I know what you mean - but I'm actually not convinced it is a great wood for a top. Purpleheart is one of the set of species whose colours naturally alter with time, exposure to uv light, exposure to air, etc.. The process is admittedly slow, but is almost always accelerated with full exposure to daylight. In the case of purpleheart, the purple tends to deepen over time, but will eventually start moving towards dark brown. For what will become a feature stripe, that process is very slow and would not be a noticeable problem. Ditto the plates - because they are contrasting to the top, they will always show the purple tinge, even if that is less intense over the years. But a full top...hmm, not so sure. Wonder if anyone here has a purpleheart-topped bass or guitar to prove me wrong

Well vicious clamping is what's going on at the moment. I've given it a stern talking to as well

A slight delay for a good reason I'll come back to... But the next step on the task list was to check that my calcs of top thickness and bridge height and neck angle were right. Simulating the scale-length position of the bridge on an offcut of the walnut, I positioned the neck in its pocket and put a straight edge across between the nut and the saddles: That bit was spot on. The slight delay? Well, in spite of the back sapele /purpleheart having been glued clamped on the flat until fully dry, and kept is a cool dry cellar ever since...it's developed a curve. A curve that, had I been planning a Swift-lite like scooped back, I would have been quite proud of! I've clamped it again but now need to leave it a day or two to see where it's going to settle. The curve at the back is fine but it leaves a hump at the top - which would need to be flattened before I glued the walnut. And I don't want to do that if it's then going to return to its original shape!. Still, it won't stop me from starting to chamber the back and routing the cable routes, etc so shouldn't delay anything.

Fascinating! I really had no idea that Padauk did this. I look forward to seeing your further trials, especially ref 'fixing' either the grey or the orange, use of uv light, etc..

Oh - and very wise to drop the three point bridge...design engineering at its worst

Ooooo - that looks nice. The figuring will also really burst through when the finish goes on

It'll be like @scrumpymike 's Same wood from same log from the same tree that his late old mate, Merv, chopped down as his final felling after a lifetime of tree axing.

And the top wood is jointed and cut out: Not lined up accurately but lots to do before contemplating gluing it in place. First check tomorrow is double checking the neck angle. I will place the bridge on a piece of scrap walnut and clamp the neck to its Sapele seating and quadruple check that the action height is correct for the height range of the bridge

Wow! That's a lot of wood. Looks nice, too.

One of the best sounding guitars I ever owned, an Epiphone Junior LP, turned out to be plywood when I modded it. Plywood can sometimes be on the heavy side but sonically there is nothing wrong with it at all.

There is a point near the end of every build where I start disliking my own builds. First string play I am usually ready to chuck them in the bin. But I know now that it's me and not the instrument. Once it's properly set up (and that usually takes me a couple of days), so far, I've always been happy with them.

It looks and sounds top class, @Marcoelwray . There's nothing I don't like about it. Are you beginning to love it a bit more?

I agree with that entirely. It's a stunning looking bass from any aspect

Probably Kert's single cut, Pete's piccolo bass and maybe my bits-lying-around-doing-nothing-so-I-may-as-well 6 string dreadnought?

Those preamps and wire harnesses take up a lot of real estate! I often struggle to get everything under the cover. Worst I came across was the Schaller 'Flagship'. Wonderful bit of kit - but this was AFTER I had to re-wire a number of the looms: This was the original switch hardrubber grommeted 'just plug in' cable before I took a Stanley knife to it. Do you know of any control chamber that could accommodate this???:

Flattery will, of course, get you everywhere....

In case anyone was wondering about the fit with my cavalier placing of the loose neck into the pocket for the previous photo , this is how it will clamp:

Was the problem evident immediately?

I reckon this is probably the best placement on the walnut planks: The 'whirlpools' are both there, there's a 'V' at the tail and this rippling: ...looks WONDERFUL when it's been sanded and finish is applied. So today's job is cutting it to size and preparing the joint and then gluing the two halves together