Andyjr1515

No Next!

Actually, just put the final touches on the Swift Lite 2 a moment ago so close but no cigar cup of tea!

I'm never shocked at how much I mess up. Disappointed, yes, but never surprised What's wrong with the headstock size? Have you checked the tuner positions and string runs? On the face of it it looks like you could get good straight runs. Have you ever seen an Ibanez SR without the tuners fitted...the headstocks look positively weird. But once the tuners are on it looks fine. If it is big enough for functional reasons, it looks fine to me personally on visuals...

Probably a bit of both I'm going to draw it full size over the next couple of days but I'm pretty sure the bottom of the neck pocket will end up at the level of the back wood. If so, the only thing I have to fillet is the top wood, starting from a rectangular 'neck pocket' shaped hole. If so, a bullnose router bit or similar isn't a bad idea to rough it out @Si600 , and remembering the apprentice school engineer blue fitting techniques- but using blackboard chalk instesd of blue and scrapers to fine finish it all off, @SpondonBassed .... So I might have to retitle to: "Andyjr1515, Si600 & Spondonbassed meet their Nemesis?"

Ah...but if it all fails, I have to buy @fleabag a new neck....

At the moment I'm not planning modding the neck. If I was, then yes, I think something on those lines My thought at the moment is to shape the body a little bit like @eude 's erstwhile Shuker and carve a cradle for the neck to slot into. Do I have proven skills to be able to do that? No - not yet Could this end badly? Please refer to the title

Well that's crazy! I literally bing'd 'single cut bass rear view' to find a picture to show people what I was talking about! The really wierd thing was that three of the other photos were of Kert's camphor single cut - one of my own builds

I'm sure I won't.....

Ah! Full acknowledgement, therefore, to ziegenfuss for a beautiful bass that we will use as our...er hum ... inspiration!

Thanks That was also a fun project. Mike had one of these: ….and he loved the sounds, but didn't like the look and wanted more like a Precision Lyte. We agreed that I'd try a totally reversible conversion - even the headstock - so, if he ever wanted to sell, he could revert to original. Here were the two together: The headstock is just a plate held on with 2 sided tape - you can see the green underneath in the logos And the walnut ( @scrumpymike 's mate Merv was a professional axeman/woodcutter all his life) worked beautifully: An hour's work and it would be back into a Rascal and ready for sale at no loss in value I certainly see what you mean about the controls and, for the life of me, can't remember why they are so close together. Maybe Andyjr1515 actually already met his Nemesis back then. Don't tell Mike, though, in case he hasn't noticed

So this is the neck @fleabag is sending me: And this (again, can't credit anyone because it's just a stock picture) kind of shape: But with a few tweaks, some aesthetic and some to fit front and back onto this piece of lovely English Walnut: ...cut down by @scrumpymike 's late great mate, Merv, and also used on Mike's Rascal conversion: And this is as far as I've got design-wise: Who said precise technical drawing was dead?

Hi All OK - while I've gained a bit of a reputation for being mad enough to take on stuff that any sane builder wouldn't touch in a million years - well, this one could indeed be my Nemesis There's a bit of well-founded and quite logical conventional wisdom that says that you can't use a stock P-bass type of bolt-on neck in a single cut bass re-body. Why not? Well, I can't find who's this beautiful example is, but here is a typical bolt-on single cut: And here is (actually, this is an electric 6-string) a typical big F type of neck carve: And the basic problem is that the neck carve carries on to about the 16th fret - and the neck tapers too But a single cut top horn extends down to around the 12th fret: And that means that the body needs to be carved to the same shape, but mirrored, so that it wraps around the neck between the 12th and 16th frets. And no one would be crazy enough to try that, would they? Hmmmm….. Well, after all, it is our very own @fleabag who's asking And, let's face it, what could POSSIBLY go wrong?

I'm interested in how your experiments go with the router jig. Never thought about the 3d printer stuff...sounds a good idea!

Interestingly, this has the button at the 16th fret - proportions based on the Warwick Thumb. Can't believe Thumbs ever have a neck dive tendency.

To be honest, it's more about physics than aesthetics or ergonomics The interesting thing is that it is a rule of thumb that is just as relevant for 6 string electrics as it is for basses... Of course the rules can be broken, but - in general terms - at 12th fret, the body can be pretty light and/or the headstock pretty heavy and it will still sit OK on the strap. At higher than the 13th fret, then you have to be aware of the relative weights of the two ends leading to corrective action such as light tuners, strap button positioning, weight addition to the body, even! One of my basses has fishing lead shot in a chamber under the bridge - and that has a tiny headstock, light tuners AND a very heavy solid bubinga body!...

Long top horns generally mean decent balancing on the strap. I always regard the button somewhere between 12th and 13th fret as being in the Goldilocks zone. As @eude says, a long bottom horn helps if playing over the knee.

Here's the quick soundclip of the blend set at Bridge / Mid / Neck recorded on a hand-held Zoom and played through a Yamaha Stagepas PA. Tone on max treble; PA EQ neutral Ignore the noisy fan on the PA and some domestic noises off!

OK - the experiment worked. Basically, I took two more slices off the offcut, cut away the tight grained bit and then book-matched. There was less than 1/2mm excess to fit the shape of the cover onto! But this looks more like it's meant to be there: Again, even when adding finishing just one side, no warping at all - but Hawaii is a long way if there are problems the other end so I will be adding a backing plate with grain at 90 degrees to eliminate the possibility of there being an issue. So final set-up and tweaking ongoing before it gets shipped Andy

Not at all worried about standard plastic covers, to be honest, @honza992. BUT I have a bookmatched ash cover gluing at this very moment, such is the crazed world of Andyjr1515 guitar and bass building! Did anyone ever tell you what a mighty fine bass that one of your looks....

I've seen those - they are cool. No - James is on the other side of the scale and prefers more traditional looks (hence the amber stains on the neck and body, etc.) My crazy idea is linked to another consideration - with the Hawaiian climate, is a solid thin wooden cover going to warp? So - what if I DO do a bookmatched cover with a better grain orientation and then pop a plate on the back with grain at 90 degrees to prevent any warping and to help hold the very thin bookmatch together... It'll only take an hour to try it out...I'll have a go in the morning

Yeah - crazy. I had a number of offcuts big enough but with the grain direction 90 degrees out. This was the only one and - because it was the offcut from the waist - it already had a curve there so, other than doing a book-matched two piece, there was no option. Hmmm... and that's given me an idea...

OK - although there is one variation I'm putting in, explained below, its as finished as makes no difference. It's now got a set of heavy gauge NYXL's (James' request) which, so far, hasn't snapped the neck! They are pretty mighty, though at 55-110. They even added 2oz to my weight check with my set-up medium string set!! But, wow, they sound good. I've recorded a tiny bit just to show the bridge, middle, neck on the blender and played through my mini PA (don't have a bass rig, I'm afraid) which I will post shortly. In the meantime, here are a few finished shots with the arty farty black background. Forgive the self-indulgence, folks : The variation I'm toying with is a request by James to see what a matching control cover rather than a contrasting one would look like. In both cases - because they are made from the few offcuts of the top or back timbers that are big enough, I'm not able to choose matching grains. This is what a control cover from an Ash offcut looks like: It's a pity the offcut wasn't big enough even to have it the other way round but it wasn't In real life, the contrasting one actually looks better because it is clearly matched to the top wood but it's no problem either way - I'll send both and James can fit whichever he prefers. They have magnetic catches so it only takes around 2 seconds to swop them. With the (literally) heavy-gauge strings, it's final playing weight is an ounce over 6 3/4 lbs. A few ounces heavier than @Len_derby 's Jazz p/up version, but still not bad for a long-scale PJ I'll see if the sound clip has come out anything like OK and, if so, will post shortly As always, many thanks for the very encouraging feedback along the way Andy

Yes - I agree ^ this I'm making an assumption that there are no pins and under the bridge is just a smooth top like this (ignore that this one has two control panels!): And your bridge is something like this? : It takes a bit of getting your head round the concept but basically you can both move the little fretlets up and down the slots on the bridge BUT you can also move the bridge itself by just sliding it up, down - straight or diagonally. Now - it is admittedly a bit trial and error, but it is very unlikely that there isn't a combination of fretlet positions AND bridge position that wouldn't get you to an intonation on each string that is pretty much spot on. There are a number of ways of getting there. This is just one: Personally, I would start with the positions of the fretlets like this above - one in each slot diagonally with the G closest to the nut. I would intonate the G by sliding the G side of the bridge towards or away from the tailstock Once intonated, I would pop a little bit of masking tape on the body to mark where this position is Then, keeping the G side of the bridge in the place I'd just put it, I would then move the E side of the bridge backwards or forwards until the E intonates I would mark that too with a bit of masking tape I would then check the intonation of the middle two strings and move the fretlets of those to intonate them, leaving the bridge itself at whatever angle it ended up with over the first 4 steps Generally the middle two strings will intonate with fretlets in one of those four slots But if they don't - that is, if the intonation range of the middle two strings is too coarse, I would: Move the fretlet of the E string up one slot Re-intonate the E as above, keeping the G side of the bridge where it originally was, next to it's bit of masking tape Now see if the middle two strings will intonate with the choice of slots for the fretlets As I say, it's a bit trial and error, but remember you only really have to do this once! Once it is spot on, personally I would commit sacrilege and pop a tiny sharpie dot either side of the bridge so I could always find that position again! Different kinds of bridges really aren't an option on a violin bass - it is designed to have this curved, sliding bridge and almost all other bridge designs are either flat bottomed or wrong height and, worse, mean drilling holes in the very thin, curved top of the bass (and probably wouldn't work anyway). Incidentally, Jazz guitars often have this kind of sliding bridge (and they don't even have the adjustable fretlets) as do, of course, violins, cello's and those types of instruments. Hope this helps!

..and we have sound....

On the final knockings (hopefully!) Just weighed it. Full playing weight 6lbs 11oz. I estimated to James 6 3/4lbs so I'm 1oz inside that. Result!