Andyjr1515

Mmmm - that's what MrsAndyjr1515 said too. I think we were talking about two different things, though

Hi All I haven't committed to get to this yet (LOVED last year's for anyone who is teetering on 'do I, don't I') because our eldest daughter is due to make me a grandad not long before - in Aberdeen! Depending on timing - shockingly, I am told that birth prediction dates take not a blind bit of notice of Bassbash schedules, although I'm a little disappointed that our son-in-law didn't think to check the calendar before he let his eye twinkle - we might be in Scotland. But if I can make it, I will make it Andy

Ah - yes....that was in the thread title (it's my age!) OK. My view, for what it's worth. If I had a set of cut inlays to start with (I didn't on @Len_derby 's build so I routed the chambers first and then cut inlays to fit), I would DEFINITELY use @Christine 's method on Page 5 of her excellent thread: The only difference I would personally make is that I would radius the board first because: I'm comfortable with the additional risk of using my precision router base on a curved surface (but it is an extra risk) My router radius rig can be a bit rough on the wood and I would be bothered about losing corners I would cut the fret slots first also, because the position of the blocks vs the slots is absolutely critical - and I always radius before I slot I would be able to see exactly how deep to rout - critical if the inlay is thin. Otherwise it is too easy to lose the sides of a wide inlay as you sand away the ends with the radius block! Illustrating that last point, on my SG build for Pete note that the trapezoidal inlays at the lower frets turn into blocks at the upper frets: That's not how they started! They are trapezoids where the ends have been sanded away!!! More than happy to cover the template approach in more detail than my Swift Lite thread if you want me to, but actually next time (I've been asked to build another one ), I'm going to actually simply use that template to get the right sizes to scribe and then cut my inlays first, and then I'm going to use @Christine 's approach (ie, scribe round the inlay on the fretboard; route the inside area; cut the border with a sharp chisel), albeit with the above differences in terms of doing it post-radius and slotting. Does that make any sense?

Shukers are wonderful basses. Worked on @Chris Sharman 's a little bit and it was so, so good.

That's my boy! I shall send you an application form for membership of the "Tell Me Again Why Basses Are So Heavy Association" also known by its handy acronym TMAWBASHA. While the annual subs are high, the benefits of being in such an exclusive society simply cannot be estimated. Trust me.

Yes - I'll run through it in a post tomorrow. Is your bass 34"? If so you are very welcome to borrow the template.

For this sort of thing I often use cocktail sticks. There are hardwood ones and bamboo ones - I've had success with both. Cut the very end of the tip off so you have a decent diameter into the bottom of the hole and cut it over length for the hole. Glue with a decent pva, forcing it into the hole with the flat of a screwdriver or similar. When the glue has dried, trim flush with a scalpel, chisel or razor. If you have a sharp pointed punch or bradawl or similar, then press a decent starter depression and then use a small drill (1.5mm or similar). The small ones don't wander as much as the larger drill bits. Then drill out with the larger drill, if you need larger, which will tend to follow the hole you've already drilled in the right place rather than wander off. Hope that makes sense...

For me it would be with pickguard. Oh my, that's SO good!

It's what a lot of folks seem to use and recommend for the job. Not used it myself but have seen impressive results from it.

Looking very good indeed. Great job(s)!

Excellent stuff, @honza992 Can't wait. If it turns out anywhere near the standard of your tele build (and I've seen that one close up, folks ) it will be a giant slayer!

Amazing - a veritable production line!

The bracing for the back is much simpler. The back provides the volume rather than tone and so the braces are just there for strength and to hold the 15' radius of the back - yes...another radius dish! First of all, sorted the radius for the braces to sit nicely in the dish in their respective positions: Then the bit I've always struggled with - carving the parabola shape. Most guides seem to indicate that you glue first and then carve, but I found that much more likely to end in damage. So this time, I decided to carve their shape first. But how? They have a radius bottom and are not easy to hold (which is probably why everyone says carve them afterwards! ). After a few abortive attempts with a dovetail cutter on the router table and an angled jig on the bandsaw, I came up with this: i.e., bung a plane in the vice, wear stout gloves and push/pull the brace wood across the blade. To my great surprise, it worked a treat! So out with the go-bar-deck, this time with the 15 foot radius dish and the braces are being glued as I type!

First of all - 'Yeah! You CAN do that' I agree - given a specific and identical set of woods, dimensions, shape and electical componentry, then there is less scope for building in a little bit of extra sonic excellence on a solid body. Loads of scope in terms of feel and finish, but less so in terms of actual sound. There is, of course, always scope for tailoring those factors to an individuals needs and taste. With acoustics, every piece of wood all has it own physical characteristics. The experts in this field not only choose specific pieces of wood ( which the good mass producers also do) but then are able to tweak things to make that piece of wood do the best that it's physically capable of doing. And the difference that can make is quite large, as you can hear in the back end of the video. Bear in mind that his top was starting where my top has finished. So the guy in that video would be able to absolutely transform the way my own build is going to sound. And conversely, an amateur like me is capable of actually making it sound worse than when it started. The mass producers of acoustics therefore are looking to consistent woods, machined to a high standard to produce predictable and replicatable tones. Having said that, surely it can't be far away that someone directly links a vibration spectrum analiser to a cnc router to mechanise the present realm of the craftsman?

And second attempt. Prior to scraping, mind, so there's still plenty of time for me to c**k it up again

And another one for the Andyjr1515 bloopers DVD. It was looking so good: ...until I overdid the still-a-little-damp strip with the scraper: So - having routed it all out again, a second strip is currently being glued. I'll leave it to properly dry this time!

Excellent! Great job

OK - a bit more info for anyone who might want to build an acoustic. Why all this fuss about the kerfing strip joint line? Well - for a start, remember that the top is spheroidal. Therefore, the kerfed strip surface isn't going to be square to the sides - it's going to be at a slight upward angle from the edge of the guitar sides. Wouldn't just sanding it flat be OK? Well - no. Remember that this will have binding fitted. And therefore after gluing the top or back, this much (dashed blue line) is going to be routed away! So it is just as important that the inner surface of the kerfed strip is flush with the (curved) top edge as the edge. In fact, arguably, more so. What you are after, as well as a closed joint at the outside, is for the inside to be also tight like this: Note, by the way, that the structural braces on the right - the X brace and the front cross brace - go through the kerfed strip to the inside edge of the sides and form part of the structural integrity of the sound box. The tone bar braces peter out at or before the join. The other tip is to not glue the top until you've done the same fit job on the back - otherwise it's impossible to see if you've got a decent internal fit! And so with the top now fitting internally and externally: ...it's time to tidy up and brace the back (this will be a 15 foot spheroidal radius) before I go through the fitting process - which is actually more complicated because the depth of the sound box slims as it approaches the neck joint. But while I've got a flat piece of joined back wood to work with, I need to put in the decorative strip hiding the join line. I use a Dremel and precision router base. Normal stuff - always try out the set up with some scrap: ...and next job is doing the full length rout on the back and gluing in the strip.

Well - I really don't know what I'm doing. Actually - I half know what I'm doing but I have no idea at all in terms of how far I can safely go! I've gone through cycles of pleasing tap tone, varied tap tone, mono-harmonic tap tone to this, which is back to a number of distinctly differently pitched notes, each with resonant harmonics. Maybe I could go much further...but I don't know, so I'm stopping here: I'll leave it overnight and see what I think tomorrow - then finalise the preparation of the kerfed join line ready to glue the top to the sides. Which will, of course, change the tap tone anyway. Told you it was black magic!

Never could get things straight

Now you're just rubbing it in!

Really? REALLY? That would be a great shame...

Wow! Not much else to say, really. But I'll say it again. Wow!

That looks a nice router table My first foray into router tables has opened my eyes to the actual benefit of using a router other than for turning decent basses into matchsticks and BBQ fuel! Those bridges look good enough to eat.

And tap tuning has begun Rather than me trying to explain how it works and what you do, this is one of the best explanations I've seen. For those who REALLY want to know why and how - at quite a detailed scientific level - watch the whole thing. For those who want to see - and hear - exactly what he does and what difference it makes to the sound, start at 30' in. Anyway - he knows what he is doing and he does this for 8 guitars a week. I don't and this is my 3rd acoustic But it's started and it's made a difference. Mine doesn't sound like his, though Here's where I started: And this is after slimming the struts to rough arch shapes (It's OK - it will be eventually sanded properly): And since then, I've done a reasonable amount of tap tuning. It's having the under-bridge plate glued at the moment - when that's set, I'll take a shot so you can see where and how I've tweaked the braces.