Andyjr1515

Clearly it varies, but I would say similar prices to you for decent quality woods. For this recent build with amboyna top, maple/purpleheart/mahogany neck, Macassar fretboard, wenge veneer, it was around £400 for the raw timber. And that was using some free-gifted oak for the back wings: Looking at my recent bass builds, the raw timber costs vary between around £350 to £450 I've picked up some decent cheaper timbers for the rear wings in the past - reclaimed mahogany rejected by a flooring company, oak from an old mantlepiece, etc, but I don't risk unknown sources for neck timber and decent bookmatched (or bookmatchable) woods for a top are eye-wateringly expensive pretty much wherever you get them. Occasionally you see a bargain but not often... So, as I say, pretty similar to your estimate...

All packed up and ready to go

With @eude 's bass now sorted and in time for his special date, I can turn my attention fully back to this - and today, I finished the carve! So, plenty, plenty of sanding to look forward to but here's how it's looking. The ash back wings and poplar top are pretty representative of the final colour but the neck and fretboard will be stained amber, per the new owner's request. I will put the stain on after the final sanding stages.

Well, this is all ready to ship. In the final set-up, I realised I'd still got one or two high-spots in an area of the fretboard so re-levelled and polished up. With my style of playing, it plays fine at a much lower action than I would normally set my own basses with some nice 'mwah-ing' going on. So tomorrow I will be making sure that the bass is secure and supported in the Hiscox case Ewan sent me and get it all ready for shipping first thing Monday. So before that, the final shots:

No - I'm afraid not if it's a standard 'modern' 2 way. It's usually welded to the rod...

OK. If it's a modern one that has an allen key, then yes - there is no loose nut and nothing should come undone if you loosen it (counter clockwise) and keep turning until you feel resistance again - which is the rod now bending the other way. Turn it 1/4 of a turn from when you feel the resistance and check if the relief gap is now smaller. If so, then carry on, 1/4 turn each time, checking as you go until the relief gap is where you want it. If, on the other hand, the relief still gets bigger when turning it counter clockwise, then stop and get a tech to have a look...

It's looking very good

Oh...and yes - I'm pretty sure Gretsch are 'normal' righty-tighty...

Ah - maybe not if it's a Gretsch. As @warwickhunt says above - I think Gretsch have a standard nut on a threaded rod - in which case it isn't going to be double acting. You actually can't do any harm because it would just screw back on, but it probably isn't going to solve your problem. But therefore I don't understand why tightening it is increasing the relief. How are you measuring the relief?

OK - try it the other way. If it is a normal modern rod, you will reach a 'loose' mid point. This is where the rod is now straight so there's no pressure on the nut. Keep turning and it will start tightening again, but this time the rod will be bending in the opposite direction. What bass / neck is it?

They're custom strings @eude gets from Newtone. I'll check the packet in the morning.

↑↑↑↑ this

LOVE the back carve, by the way

Good video, @Marcoelwray . Sounds great! What I like particularly about the video is that you get a much better view of the totality and interaction of the shapes and features than in just still photos. I like the bass as a whole but there are some features I particularly like. You mentioned it is light - have you weighed it yet?

Heel transition starting to get there...

Neck carve is almost there. This is the excellent bit of the build because, like on @eude 's 6-stringer, you get to be able to play plenty of air-guitar! I get the basic shape using the profile templates taken from the future owner's favourite playing bass, but then go very much by feel. Still a bit of tweaking, but the basic shape is almost there: Certainly it's close enough for me to be able to feel my way into the heel carve. Here, there's still lots more carving to do to get to a smooth transition as you approach the body and good access to the top frets but the basic shape is starting to emerge: The carving is starting to create some really nice grain patterns too I won't have time to finish the carve today, but should be within maybe a couple of days. In the meantime, I'm doing a bit of experimenting with some offcuts of the top wood with different combinations of final coatings, including an interesting variation of the Osmo range - 1101...a very much thinner version of their 'gloss' that might actually come out as an alternative to using their thicker 3032 Satin Polyx. A helpful tip from Gillett Guitars Andy

All the voids are now filled and I've given it a sealing coat of tru-oil to see what it will look like when the finish has been applied. Don't panic about the squiffy bridge - it's just plonked there for me to see which bit of the figuring is covered. The bridge will be set into the top - as I did with @Len_derby 's - so that the bridgeplate sits flush with the top rather than being perched on top of it. The future owner has asked me to tint the fretboard and neck amber which I will do once the carving is complete and the frets have been levelled and polished. Next job is completing the carve on the neck, sides and back and then starting the finish-sanding.

One of the differences between @Len_derby 's build and this new one is that @Len_derby opted to leave the poplar burl voids as voids (by preference if I built one myself I would also opt for this) as it leaves the top looking very natural. On the other hand, coast-line Hawaii, which is where this build is headed, is quite different in terms of salt (really!) dust and major humidity swings. As such, the client - who has run a successful carpentry business for many years (no pressure there, then) - is understanderbly a bit wary of ANY voids, whether they have had a finish applied or not and has opted for the voids to be filled on his own. The voids in this wood are generally in the centre of darkening wood and so I am filling them with z-epoxy mixed with a generous amount of dark sandings. I collect sanding dust of all of the main timbers I use and the one that I judged to be the most appropriate is some cocobolo dust from the infamous 'Tom's African Build' build. When wettened with epoxy, it has a very dark reddish brown hue which is pretty close in tone to the dark areas of the burl. I've done this before and at first it always looks shockingly bad - but trust me, it will look fine in the end Here's the first application: An hour later it was set enough to sand back down to the wood and I then applied epoxy, overfilled, to the areas where the original application had sunk into the void and below the top surface level. Here it is with those overfills: I will sand these down later this afternoon and see where it leaves us - hopefully at a stage where I can start doing the final rough sanding for the body and neck. So yes - it looks a bit stark at this stage but don't worry...it's going to look great, honest

Great skills and knowledge on show here. Excellent result, too

And it's pretty much finished... @eude is probably going to change the electrics so we opted to just put the old electrics back in. The jack is actually fine, but both pots are shot. I'll order some replacements anyway to fit while the finish is hardening. But, other than the final tweaks on the setup and a final buff up in a few days time, its finished. I've obviously gone heavy on the tru-oil because it's ended up at 8 3/4 lbs rather than the 8 1/2 I was projecting but it sits BEAUTIFULLY on the strap. Even my slippy cheap nylon strap - it rests level and will sit and stay at almost any angle you care to play. It actually feels lighter on the strap than it actually is, presumably for the same reason. The fretboard is just polished - progressive from around 2000 grit paper to 12000 micro-web. The figuring shows up great in real life. I'll probably take a few more fancier shots when the lighting is right, but here it is in the meantime:

OK 'third fitting' completed - strings off, neck off, nut off, bit more scraping, full length and 3-fret rock checking, found a couple of high spots, scraped, resanded, checked, nut back on, neck back on, strings back on And it plays great So that leaves a few tidy up jobs - there's a rough edge at one of the neck join areas, as I said above, two of the side dots need replacing and this time in the right place lining up with the others , fretboard edges need softening, fretboard needs sanding progressively to 12000 micro-web polishing level (no treatment), final slurry and buff, fit the p/up and electrics and straplocks. In fact, there aren't many areas there where I can completely c**k it up so, you never know... By the end of the weekend it should be finished just resting a week to let the oil fully harden before shipping to @eude I hope he likes it once he's got it.

I suppose if this was a fancy made-to-measure suit, this is the '2nd fitting' stage I'm working on the fretboard now that the neck and fretboard will have settled down and everything is OK to do a trial setup. There was a slight back bow on the unstrung neck, leaving the lower frets a bit low and a little unevenness along the fretboard so I've been gently flattening it with light work with a cabinet scraper and levelling beams. Almost there with the fretboard. It's now fine all the way from the 3rd fret to the top on a fairly low action on all strings but there's still just a bit of buzz on the 1st and 2nd fret positions so I've just got a touch more fettling to do. Also noticed two of my side dots are just a touch out of alignment - I'll redo those once the messing about with the fretboard is finished Andy

Well, of course they do tapewounds in all sorts of colours.... But the double string set sounds a GREAT idea...

Interesting video. As you say, you need a bity more control over the piezo side. However, when you added the slight amount of piezo volume to the neck pickup only, it added an enhancement to the sound that was quite different to the non-piezo sounds and was quite pleasant. The other thing, in my own experience with piezos on basses (although I've never used the graphtech system for a bass), is that the string type makes a HUGE difference. I had an acoustic that came with round wounds and it had that same ultra-hi fi metallic sound generally and high frequency incidental sounds from everytime you touched the strings - a bit like yours when you demoed with the full piezo volume. I swopped for black nylon tapewounds - and WHAT a difference. It's probably no coincidence that the Gillett Contour basses - which sound absolutely wonderful and combine electric and piezo pickups - also use nylon tapewounds.

These short days. I emerged from the cellar after doing the Jazz rout and it's dark! Ignore the artificial light but that's both pickups routed. That might be the last scariest bit. Pleasingly, there's no daylight showing through the back ...although that might be because it's night now...