Andyjr1515

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

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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...

One of the challenging things about a through neck is that you can't fettle a neck pocket to correct any build, er-hum, 'vagaries'. So neck angle for bridge height has to be pretty spot on as does the sideways straightness to make sure that the strings all line up with the fretboard and the pickup poles. This is particularly important for a P pickup because any misalignment is very obvious. As such, if is a case of 'check ten times, cut once. On a PJ, I always start with the P and then double check the J position once those chambers have been cut. Also, as described in more detail in the Len_Derby thread, I just don't trust router templates. Instead I: Drill a hole for each pickup corner, 1mm greater dia than the actual corner radius Forstner a hole for each lug - again using a bit 1mm greater dia than the lug Forstner out the bulk Clean up the top edges with some careful chisel work Check the fit against one of the pickup covers Clean up the sides and chamber bottom with a short bearing-guided trimmer router bit - which is now captive and therefore can't go on a holiday through the nicely carved top! The result is this: Which is then double checked with the two covers: And then checked against each of the string positions: You can see on the pencil marked position of the J pickup where I've moved it across 1mm from the original position...which is exactly why I do it this way round and always use the actual bridge and the actual pickup covers and some strings in the nut position. It's a bit old fashioned, maybe, but it is less often now that I end up saying 'Well, it was right when I measured it against the drawing in the first place!'

Every little helps - another tick off the To Do list. Magnets on the truss rod cover: I know it's tempting fate but, from a build point of view rather than the additional wait time for the finish to fully harden (probably a further week), this should be finished this week

Looks very good

Don't go giving @eude ideas!!!!

Ah yes - I've used their metal ones. Good, at any price for those! Superb quality. I'll try some of the wood ones - hadn't realised they did wood ones too. Thanks for the tip-off and link!

On this one it will be the nice and heavy chrome ones that @eude had on his original build. They go well with the chrome bridge and tuners. Ref wooden knobs, I've actually started making my own...I was fed up searching for decent ones. Which ones have you found?

When the finishing is being done, the threads end up being a bit like watching paint dry... But heck - I've drilled three holes too!!! Got to be worth a picture:

Another couple of jobs off the tick list. With the body dry enough to handle but not dry enough for the next coat, I shielded the control chamber and fitted the magnets. I'll be adding a small fingernail scoop into the rear body edge for easy access to open it. Note the original scratchplate screw holes in the rebate that are now hidden under the new cover Right - that's enough for one day. Besides, MrsAndyjr1515 is pressuring me for a gin and tonic. Maybe I'll mention the cushion once she's had a few sips

Absolutely! Black Friday Week on Saturday Deal - free colour coordinating cushion with every heavily modded 20 year old project! Haven't told MrsAndyjr1515 yet, but I'm sure she'll be fully supportive

Second slurry and wipe for the body and first for the neck and headstock: Piling this and all of the hardware on the scales, it's going to end up just over 8lbs and should balance nicely Not too many items left on the to do list, to be honest... Andy