Andyjr1515

Indeed! The reason it could be useful here is to add a bit of perceived bass to counteract the higher pitch of the v small scale guitar.

That said, it's also just another place to get a small arm stuck!

Well, not overly sure just how thin to make stuff, but at least this is now ringing out with sub-harmonics and definite bass /treble tap notes from the upper and lower halves respectively. Then the linings were relieved where the main cross braces will go that will lock the main strength-critical braces to the sides: Quick check fit, looking for gaps: And the old adage that you can never have too many clamps And tidied up: Next jobs will be fitting a bridge plate, doing the first rough-fit of the neck angle and pondering on whether to add a side sound hole or not

There's a huge amount of detail here but, in the last third of the video, he actually goes from the un tweaked top's starting point to where the sound he is after is getting close. I would be pleased to achieve the sound that he starts with, let alone where he finishes! The basic theory is that you want the top to ring at the critical frequency somewhere on the top for every note that is going to be played up the fretboard. So he listens for the 'drum' pitch and associated sub-harmonics for every note and, if one is missing, takes off a miniscule amount off the appropriate brace until he can hear it.

Much of the position of the notches is 'Mr Martin put them there in 1920 whatsit and it was good enough for him and so it is good enough for me' To be honest, there are certain positions and proportions, especially of the nodes, that many of the 'respected' plans share and it is said that even 5mm difference in their position will make an audible difference. But there are actually a myriad of alternatives that will produce an acceptable result. And this is where tap tuning comes in. I'll try and find the Bourgeois video where their main man demonstrates what he does - and you can see and hear the difference. I can tell when I get it right, but getting it right is usually more by accident than design. I generally start by creating nodes and tapers in the 'conventional' places and then chisel away blindly and stop when it sounds OK or starts sounding (even) worse

After a few days child-minding the said special little people, I'm back in the cellar For the bracing, I am using my home-made 25 foot radius dish although, for this build, will dispense with the Go-bar deck - I should be able to get away with just clamps and cauls. The bracing pattern is going to be pretty basic X-bracing with the standard-recommended tightly vertically-grained spruce. I've taken a bit of a guess at how much to scale them down. I started with the X-brace with gluing the cruciform and then sanding the bottom curve on the radius dish: This was glued to the top with a long caul keeping the curved brace bottoms pressed against the radius dish while the glue cured : After that was set, it was time to add the other braces and sound bars. All of the braces will be chiselled to create the nodes, etc, once it has dried overnight: And here it is ready for tomorrow's chisel and tap-tuning work :

Looks good. Sounds great!

Modding is a great way of getting to understand how everything functions, what needs to be right and what you can take major liberties with to turn it into something more unique (and there's a lot of that!). It's where I and a lot of fellow builders started - and continue to do.

You are most kind, @Frank Blank. Normally, I'd jump at it but I'm afraid I'm too strapped for time in the coming months. There are a lot of good builders on this forum, though, so I'm sure someone will throw their hat into the ring

I really, really like this build. It started off well and just got better and better

All of the above. The action height will be also directly linked to your intonation issues - the higher your action, the more you are bending the strings (albeit vertically) and so the sharper they will sound. Lowering the action will reduce this effect.

Well I reckon it should be 1001. Oh, there we go

Splendid job

Well, after this...nor will mine

And bringing it up to the present state of play... To balance the purple of the headstock and fretboard, I added a slice of purpleheart to a cut block of ebony and carved the beginnings of the bridge. I also cut the fretboard end to where it will meet the soundhole: Next, I turned my attention to the decoration around the soundhole. Although you have to be a bit canny to maintain the accuracy, I actually find the Dremel radius accessory reasonable for this job: I used a 1mm bit to cut a circle at the centre and wrapped some 1mm b/w/b purfling into it after running a teeny bead of glue onto the bottom edge. After scraping the excess purfling off, I drilled an offset radius tool spike-hole that will be used to put in a second, larger offsett ring (you can just see the pencil check marking offset and outside the installed ring): And then another radius tool spike-hole in between those two to be able to cut - using a 3mm bit - a mid radius to create an offset channel for some curved abelone that, all being well, would fit in between the two other rings. It worked!! And finally, the radius tool spike back to the original hole, but at a slightly smaller radius to now cut right through and create the sound hole : And that's how far I've got so far. It's dinky, isn't it!!!! @Frank Blank might recognise the LAG next to it :

I ordered a tenor ukulele mould from Radius Dish UK - superb product but did take a long time to arrive: I also ordered a sitka spruce bookmatched pair, which I planed and scraped down to a touch under 3mm and joined: And also found in my small wood collection a full mahogany back and sides set - I have NO idea when and what I bought that for...but it would do nicely. Again, planed and scraped the sides down, this time to around 2mm and then out came the bending hot pipe. First a good dousing with water: Then on with the leather work gloves. With a bending iron, a hot pipe and a lot of patience plus plenty of spritzing is the key: One half nearly done: And now both! Once that was fully dry (overnight) I could cut the sides flush at either end and cut a mahogany tail block and neck block to glue them up: Then, having found the rubber-banded clothes pegs in a long-forgotten drawer, applied the kerfed (slotted) linings: And then that's the sides done ready for radius sanding :

As the purpleheart gets exposed to the light it will pinken markedly. Originally, I was going to put a plain ebony headstock plate over the mahogany...but maybe a bit of purpleheart there too? Got me thinking and experimenting. Hmmm...and was there room for a swift in there too? : Then add some dots and frets to the fretboard - this might work: Then back to the neck. No trussrod needed but, as it is a mahogany neck, maybe a little extra stiffness would not go amiss - so I slotted the top for a couple of hollow carbon-fibre beams: With that sorted, I could bandsaw the neck and start shaping that. Before shaping the heel, I added an extension to its length. The fretboard is just laid on top - it won't be glued on until the neck angle is fully sorted (a long time yet!): Did a bit more carving to start sorting the neck profile and, in the same way that you can't have too many clamps, you can never have too many swifts! You can tell the age of my iphone by the colour aberrations of its camera!! Starting to look like an acoustic guitar neck

Wow! Newborn or not, it's a big b****r!!

Looks good. I like those features at the back.

For the fretboard, I had found an offcut of some purpleheart that I used for neck splices in the past. I sliced a length off on the bandsaw and radiussed it with a radius block: Then used a 24.75" (I think it was) scale in my fretting mitre jig starting at the 5th fret to give me the 17" scale: Next I added some sawn strips of purpleheart to act as binding, curved to radius and taper using my little block plane:

I've found quite a bit of stuff for it in my various bits-boxes and rubbish bits-piles. Including - and I have NO idea why I have a set of these - some classical guitar tuners!: I found a mahogany offcut from one of my bass builds. Would the tuners fit? Wow - clearly this was meant to be : So, after cutting a headstock angle, out came my little Proxxon pillar drill: Back to the band saw to cut the rear face of the headstock, then back to the pillar drill and scroll saw to drill/saw the slots: Well - that went better than I thought it would!

Yes - I know, it's a guitar. But it's for a good cause - it's for my two grandchildren for them to pick up and try if and when they are able to or want to, or use as a cricket bat or wall hanging if they don't. And you never know - if they get hooked, they may well turn into bass players when they grow up I'm going tenor-uke size, but definitely a 6 string guitar. Nothing against uke's but this way - if they do take a liking to it - they can progress to larger guitars without having to re-learn all of the chord patterns and tuning. So spec is going to be : 17" scale Ball-end nylons tenor uke body size Sitka Spruce top Mahogany back and sides Mahogany neck Purpleheart fretboard 'Standard' X-brace And, broadly, it is going to look like this: I'm about halfway through - I'll do a few quick posts and then stuff will slow down to actual progress rate (that is, pedestrian! )

Hmmm...not sure. My first thought was 'wide range in the bridge??' Shades of mudbucker came to mind. And, compared with your other basses that may still be the case. But this video is actually quite interesting (SUPER irritating, but actually quite interesting): Skip to 8:12 and then direct to 9.02 for his demo of DI neck to bridge ('direct to' so as to miss all of the changes in tone position and introducing an amp emulator which just confuses everything). Then to his comments at 14.32. He is clearly unimpressed with the neck pickup so maybe it is a fairly objective review, but is clearly quite impressed with the bridge pickup. Now, regardless of the above, my guess is that it is always going to sound a bit like a mudbucker - but, before you shell out cash on it, try this: - try raising bridge pickup - and if you have enough gap, then raise the back of the bridge pickup more than the front of it..say 3-4mm at the back and 2mm at the front (and so tilting the pickup higher at the bridge side than the neck side) - if this helps but still a bit muddy, then raise the 4 poles on the bridge pickup a couple of mm above the casing - from the photo it looks like they are all screwed down below the casing If this doesn't get you there, then I reckon different pickup for at least the bridge is probably on the cards as a split coil, in my opinion, will not get you there. If you try the above, then let us know if it makes a difference.

They look beautiful!