Andyjr1515

That orange looks nice

I think @fleabag hopes it will be in his sticky mitts by then!

Sorry for the delay in my reply - one of those weekends! Yes - other than mine is red, I use a profile gauge just like this to take shapes of neck profiles and body shapes And yes, it will be an essential tool for your job. So actually great thinking, @fleabag Hoping that the purpleheart is going to arrive today!

The new owner said much the same thing . He thought I should submit it - but I think it's too much like @Len_derby 's and I think the No Treble Bass of the Week is all about different designs. Besides, they must be getting a bit fed up of me swamping their email inboxes with 'Please, please, please, please, please...' mails from me

It's got to Hawaii in one piece....and he loves it! Very pleased and very relieved in equal measure

@fleabag is right. It is when it's complete and you can feel the weight distribution. My guess, if an edge button is what's wanted would be roughly where the chalk mark is. But with the whole of the horn sweep beng in ghe 'goldilocks' zone, it will balance wherever. There is the option to put it a the back too, which pulls the bass a little more vertical.

That'll teach me to rush. Mind you, it has a subtle elegance don't you think? And a surefire cure for neckdive

OK - back to the subject Well, I'm pretty much ready to start cutting wood. I've found a decent piece of sapele for the back and the purpleheart is on order. That should be with me Monday/Tuesday and then I reckon I'm ready to go The pickup cover and control cover are just representative, but this is broadly how it'll look (without the chalk marks ) ((...and the peak won't be as sharp as that!))

OK - so far so good. It flew to Philadelphia; then flew to Louisville in Kentucky to get checked out by US Customs; and they've released it as OK to be forwarded to James in Hawaii!!!! It only stayed in the customs warehouse for 12 hours - which, considering the poor devils in US Customs haven't been paid for now well over a month now due to the big-heartedness of Mr Trump - ain't bad! James should get it by the end of Friday their time Only finger biting bit left is...is he going to like it...

It is indeed. Very unusual design too... Well done, Gillett Guitars

Well this is the exciting thing. @scrumpymike works with Gillett Guitars and, through him, I've been able to see some of the innards of these remarkable basses and guitars. I won't go through the finer features of the guitar design itself as it is truly unique and I'm sure Gillett want to keep ahead of the plagiarists as long as they can - it and the basses have a number of patented features which helps. But, I've had the chance to talk at length with their technical manager and - bearing in mind these are both CNC'd and hand-tooled and finished components...high precision stuff - he showed me the components. They were treated exactly the same as the mahogany components for the main production models. It was finish-fitted, sanded, sealed and final finished in exactly the same way. I saw some pieces close to and, if I hadn't been told, I wouldn't have known it wasn't solid wood... By the way...there may well be a full feature in one of the major mags on this material and this specific guitar in the coming months...

Blast! That's a b****r!

OK - I won't hijack my own thread, but it's this game-changing Gillett Contour 6 string Electric in Rocklite Sundari It's been doing the shows over the past couple of months - it's the first full 'top back and sides' use of Rocklite Sundari worldwide - and now it's in my sticky mitts The cutaways are natural walnut. The top back and sides are artificial - the Rocklite Sundari (which aims to be an alternative to Rosewood, now highly regulated and restricted in use and sale). Just look at that grain! I'll do a proper run through when I get a moment on the 'Other Instruments' bit and on Guitarchat but suffice to say I am VERY excited.

OK - something like this? There would be a purpleheart demarcation between the two.

I share your love of the carving stage. It always seems to be the shortest part of the whole process, though! This is a delightful carve, @Marcoelwray Top drawer

Entirely possible

Yes - quite...

It will probably be next week before I actually get to cutting wood on this. Once you start cutting wood then decisions have been made and opportunities for changing - or correcting - those decisions are limited. The real challenge is that the neck fillet carve has to be the final one. No opportunity for adjustment of neck angle - because of the fill-in carve - so it has to be right first time. Also - there are other things to check with custom builds. Such as 'will it fit in a standard case?' So I do a lot of musings and ponderings and checkings...there are a lot of -ings in an average custom build! This is one of the reasons I keep an old P body. It's a good double check and, for this one, it gives me a decent guide how much wider we can go with the Sapele back if we want to: So I have at least 15mm each side of the widest part of the rear bout. What I will do next is draw the back template in Inkscape and have a go at simulating what the revised concept could look like. But that will have to wait - I'm just off to meet @scrumpymike who is going to pass across to me something VERY exciting (and this time for ME! )

Ah...that assumes that I'm clever enough not to have a gap in the first place! Ref the specific point, if I base it on my experiment with the guitar neck, the actual distance from the end of the flat heel to where the top horn will come to is not very long. Bear in mind that the relief at the centre of a properly adjusted neck is miniscule, then the movement for an inch just past the heel will be a small fraction of miniscule. Almost certainly smaller than my building tolerances capability Or put more simply...I think that's the least of my problems....

Clearly, it depends on the density of the wood, but just as a guide, the degree of chambering I did on Harry's bass reduced the overall playing weight from 10.5lbs to 9lbs.

Absolutely.

Now that's dedication! Well, I reckon your instincts about the Sapele back are right, @fleabag The extra width we can get on that rear bout will balance up the look beautifully. Nice neck, by the way

Ooooooh….I'd forgotten that you are veneering it! Oh absolutely. Do you remember Harry's Harley Benton bass? It is surprising JUST how much chambering you need to do, but this made a big, big difference to the playability.

Like this - The top rhs one is mine - the others came with the guitar And it hides this: Which took remarkably little weight out, but did it change it from 'unplayable' to 'only just playable'

Another thing I've done in the past with overly heavy solid bodies is rout a chamber in the back with a 'false' control chamber cover...