Andyjr1515

I spent most of yesterday evening with @eude 's body on my lap (eat your heart out, russian hackers) - that carve is SO tactile! And I came to a conclusion, that I have since slept on - and which this morning I am still pretty sure is right: I'm not going to mess at all with the external shape. Not even the thickness (which is an impressive 40mm). Because to slim it down would make the curves change which then changes the look and feel. So it's basically rout 10mm off the top, heavily chamber inside to relieve the weight, fit new top and carve as original. But I think I may have had a flash of inspiration ref the multi-hole neck heel issue. Going to draw it out and, if it works on paper, I shall reveal all later (russian hackers, please note)

As always, I learnt the technique from someone else and then just passed on the same technique to @honza992 I seem to remember the original guy did a video and quite a detailed description - I'll see if I can find it.

My goodness, John - that is flipping GORGEOUS!!!! Wow. Just Wow...

OK - well the first job, in my view, on a job like this is to draw it out full scale - and preferably with the bridge and nut you are intending to use in hand - to check out the geometry. And so far so good: The bridge saddles might be a teeny bit closer to the pickup than the original (we're talking only 3mm or 4mm closer) but so far everything checks out at the planned 31.5" scale. Notable, because it is an area that @eude is convinced he mucked up, the neck pocket appears to be spot-on. Having said that, it's actually probably all going to be routed off anyway, but hopefully will lay to rest a good many years of self-doubt. In the meantime, a bl**dy great big box (bass case big!) has arrived from ACG which has delighted, as you can imagine, MrsAndyjr1515. Next job for completeness is drawing the headstock (and opening the box)

And here are the finished pics As always, thank you all for your encouragement along the way - always greatly appreciated!

There are so many wows in that shot, of which the Katalox is only one of them!

No fear. There can only be one #001

It is indeed. And it's very heavy...

Anyway - back to the project OK - the objectives are: To end up with a 31.5" lined-fretless bass, 6-string B to C with the same pickup, controls and hardware as the original incarnation, except a change to the bridge, which will be a Warwick 2-piece. In fact, this specific one, bought at ridiculously good value from Warwick themselves : It will have a 54mm nut and the neck will be a mahogany / walnut 3-piece We will have a figured ebony board, flat profile. Specifically this one: @eude is getting a lovely piece of katalox top wood sent to me by Alan at ACG The headstock will be in the style of Carl Thomson's 6-er We will lose some weight along the way It needs to be finished and delivered before a certain special date in December So the main steps are going to be: Build a neck Slot the fretboard at 31.5" and fill with light veneer Rout the top 10-15mm off the body Chamber to save weight Cut, fit and carve top Cut new neck pocket Fit neck (prob recessed machine bolts) Tidy up old neck fixing area Build headstock Finish Set up I'm sure I've forgotten something but that's the broad plan. First proper job - tomorrow, hopefully - is to draw it out full-size and decide the best area of fretboard to use, then start marking out the fret line positions ready to cut the slots Andy

Yes - I confess. The thread title and opener all came out of my strange imagination. @eude was, in fact, very flattering and polite in his enquiry. Worked a treat Of course, that might be part of his dastardly plan! Just sayin'

Ooohh - I've got some great jiggering coming up. A new home-made jig I've not used before and has been just waiting for this very project!

Hi I'm pleased that I've pretty much finished my dreadnought acoustic because the next two to three months are going to be busy! I limit myself to one full build and one major mod at any one time. That way, the timescales that I can estimate are unlikely to be exceeded and I generally don't put someone's neck on someone else's body! @eude 's VI is the major mod I've just started (ditto the build thread) and running alongside that is a full build I had just started when @eude contacted me with the thumbs up. This full build is a second Swift Lite bass, similar to @Len_derby 's one finished a couple of months ago. Indeed - the request came about from the 'Bass of the Week' win of @Len_derby's bass featured in the "No Treble" e-zine. The added challenge of this one is that it is to be shipped to Hawaii! Although @Len_derby 's bass contained no CITES Appendix timbers, there seems to be confusion in some US and UK customs operations (and some associated scare stories) to make me believe that I need to be particularly careful that this does NOT contain any such woods and that I can prove that in a way that would satisfy a well-meaning but ill-informed customs official who might think, "Bass Guitar - impound" or even worse - and just my paranoia because I'm sure this would never happen - one who might think, "Hmmm - bass guitar, impound ...and keep" Anyway, generally a repeat of @Len_derby 's lightweight bass: ...but PJ configuration and a slightly different front end. This is going to be the revised shape: It's just the front horns that are different and, of course, the P pickup at the neck. I'll keep you posted! Andy

A couple of unplugged soundclips. Just noodling stuff: https://soundcloud.com/andy-rogers-6/sets/ajr-dreadnought-acoustic-soundclips Probably best listened to on headphones Andy

I must add that, apart from the unintended chasm in the top, it's a very nicely carved, sanded and finished piece of timber. Clearly, Mr Jones was a good mentor @eude I'm really looking forward to this project @eude has sorted what sounds to be a lovely piece of top wood that should be arriving today or tomorrow. The neck wood and fretboard woods are here, as is the bridge and also the other pieces that @eude sent. I'll outline my thoughts of the plan of action shortly, folks

In reality, probably not so much other than maybe veneers bubbling but water based stains will tend to run, etc, and certainly the grain rise is spectacular (although that is sanded down). It is probably in my imagination but, gosh, it is VERY wet.

To be honest, I would probably only use it for an acoustic top and that is simply to avoid the slight discoloration on the spruce of my favoured prep method which is slurry and wiping tru oil. For an acoustic, figuring features look fine (bearsfoot, etc) but shade differences tend to detract, certainly in my own view. The egg white does seem to reduce this kind of shading (although I'm sure other products do) but is very wet when applied and that can cause other issues because of that.

I use a flat spokeshave to take the bulk off but then quite quickly move to micro-planes (pictured) and the humble cabinet scraper. I have done a neck entirely with a cabinet scraper in the past but you do tend to get sore fingers doing that! The two handled thing I think @TheGreek refers to is a pullshave. No good actually for necks, but great for carving out the concave backs of the Swift Lite builds and such like :

I can even imagine what @eude was thinking. I'll bet he was thinking : "OK clever clogs Andyjr1515. So you can build 6 string electrics and you can build dreadnought acoustics but they are - well - NOT BASSES! And, yes, admittedly you've made a bass or two and you've modded a few. BUT I BET YOU CAN'T SORT THIS ONE!!! Oh, and before you say you can, did you know it's a VI? Bet you've never done one of THOSE!" I'll let @eude fill in the background but the challenge is to take this body: And put a shortscale neck on it and a Warwick two-part bridge. "Oh...and did I mention the b****y big hole through the body?" "Oh - and the neck pocket might not be the right size for a VI neck but I'm sure a clever clogs like you will be able to sort THOSE trifling details!" So what could I do but accept the challenge! Besides, I've only got my reputation to lose. @eude has this rather nice bass carve to lose

Tried to finish this off. Almost but not quite. First popped the magnets onto the truss-rod cover: ...and hey presto: Then installed the Shadow Doubleplay electrics. It comprises a blendable under-saddle piezo: and a mini magnetic pickup at the end of the fretboard: I suspect that this is intended for a flatter fingerboard radius (prob 12" - I've build closer to an electric neck with 10" rad and locking tuners. Makes it easier for me to transfer from my electric to the acoustic) so I sunk it into the top to make sure it didn't foul the top and bottom E strings: As it turns out, I've overdone this and will, at some stage, take it off and pop a shim underneath. I then installed the preamp / blend unit that sits inside the soundhole (I'll photo it in the 'finished' shots) and the rear strap pin / jack socket. Before I put the strings back on, I cleaned up and oiled the fretboard. The frets - well, at the moment there is absolutely no buzz anywhere so I haven't even polished them! When I get a moment, I'll at least do that but there is no need for levelling and crowning By the way, before you go thinking I know what I'm doing, that is a first... And - other than the low nano-mag pickup being a bit quieter than the piezo - we have electric amplification. Lastly, now the strings are on, I do my usual 'sit it like a cello and scrape the neck to the final shape by feel, spinning it round and playing it then re-scraping until it feels like I want it. This is followed by a quick tru-oil slurry and buff and it's good to go within an hour. Am I the only one that does this? No matter how well you fit a neck to the profile templates, I don't think you can really tell if it's right until you play it. So that's what I do. And the most subtle tweaks can make all the difference! Remaining jobs: - Replace the nut with a slightly wider one (plays fine with the present one but it isn't quite wide enough - Raise the nano-mag pickup (ditto) - Side dots! It's a big b****r and there is no way you can see the top of the fretboard when you are playing it - Final polish in about a week's time - Take the arty farty photos

In that I struggle to reach the 1st fret on a 34" bass.... But that looks superb. What a refreshingly innovative build. Like @Jabba_the_gut says, can't wait to see video of it!

There's a lot going on in this post! Very precise stuff going on in the neck routing. I confess that my approach is much more haphazard than that The body shaping has transformed it. Looks great On earlier threads for the pickguard, I'm still not entirely sure how you got the flush mdf template reduced to the final size. I'll have to read it again. Also, how did you manage to route the actual pickguard without it melting? Like you mention, there's a lot of work involved with pickguards...

Oh yes. Much better Looks great

I'll do some as soon as the frets have been done and the set up completed. Hopefully sometime next week

Not quite as finished as it looks, but the only way of seeing if the bridge is in the right place is to string it up! And so that's what I've just done. And I'm very pleased with how it looks. And more to the point - even though not even the frets have been levelled and the saddle or nut aren't yet height adjusted - it sounds fantastic! I'm thrilled and surprised in equal measure! Oh, and yes - against all odds - the bridge is in the right place So still to do is: - Levelling/crowning frets - Cleaning up fretboard - Installing electrics - Setting up saddle and nut - Strap button on heel - Fine tuning neck profile and final slurry and buff - Final polish once varnish is fully cured But it's sufficiently there for me to start work on the next two projects - one full build and one major mod - and those are both basses. More about those in a couple of new threads soon

In between all the other stuff on the day's agenda, I managed to steal enough snatches of time to get all of the bridge stuff sorted up to and including gluing! A bit picture heavy, but this is how I went about it - First was to use the Stewmac fret calculator to determine the exact distances from the nut to the middle of the saddle slot for the top and bottom E. The masking tape will be used to prevent glue squeeze-out going onto the finished top, but is also useful for ensuring that the position doesn't inadvertently slip: Next is to score round the bridge with a scalpel into the finish: Then to scrape away the carefully applied finish from within the score line!: Then I double checked the position and drilled through the peg holes for the top and bottom E. The two pegs will be used in the initial clamping to prevent the bridge 'floating' out of position on the wet glue: Then I put more masking tape around the back (should have done this first and just scalpeled though it round the bridge!) and got out my bridge clamp and home-made bridge sides clamp: Then added the glue, and at first just used the metal clamp, positioning the bridge with a couple of string pegs through the bridge and into the two peg holes drilled in the top. Once I was sure the bridge was secure, I removed the two pegs and popped the home-made clamp to press the bridge sides firmly down: Then carefully wiped off the squeeze-out before removing the masking tape. This will be left clamped overnight to fully dry: The bridge is still accurately within the scraped area, but I won't know if everything is stuck where it should be until the morning! Here's hoping