Andyjr1515

Actually, I should point out - holding my head in shame, of course - that this is going to be a 6-string guitar and not a bass. Acoustic basses are too big both for my workshop and my abilities!

These are looking really good, Christine. What I love about a well applied clear coat is how it makes the underlying detail and form project out to the eye. Just look at those headstocks! And the quality of the top carves. It's a great looking spray job, but what that is illuminating is the quality of the build underneath. Top drawer stuff

Thanks! A mere king's ransom There is, of course, room to negotiate around which king and how badly we want him back - I'll pm you

Hmmm....I don't think so... It's actually a stretched version of this piccolo bass I designed and built for Pete, our band's bassist: Because of the longer neck, it meant the top horn needed extending but that's pretty much the shape. If Ric's have muscled in, they will be hearing from my solicitors!

Lightweight tuners, top horn in the Goldilocks zone near the 12/13 frets, bridge set well back reducing the projection of the neck, relatively small headstock, relatively heavy bridge

Well, with a nifty slip of a router, it could easily become a P. I'm sure @Len_derby wouldn't mind. He only had to wait three or four months for it, after all

Just found out that my recent build for @Len_derby (covered to sleep-inducing detail in the Build Diaries) has been awarded 'Bass Of The Week' in the excellent (not that I'm biased) US-based e-zine 'No Treble' I'm well chuffed - it's my fourth BOTW with them Here's the link: https://www.notreble.com/buzz/2018/08/06/bass-of-the-week-ajr-guitarmods-swift-lite-lightweight-bass/ I'm just off for a cold shower to deal with my nauseating smugness Andy

Just found out this has been voted 'Bass of the Week' in the excellent (well I would say that, wouldn't I) US e-zine 'No Treble' https://www.notreble.com/buzz/2018/08/06/bass-of-the-week-ajr-guitarmods-swift-lite-lightweight-bass/ Well chuffed. It's my fourth success with BOTW Andy Smug

I'll find at least one where I did

Ah...but I can turn nice wood and a budding instrument into BBQ fuel just as easily - and just as quickly!

That is a jolly impressive line-up

Sides trimmed and mahogany front and back blocks glued on: And the (unsanded) back also cut - leaving it oversize to allow both wiggle room and for the contraction when it is dished to its 15 foot radius: Much of the build will be done with the sides remaining in the mould: The top wood (sitka spruce) and bracing / kerfing wood is on order so not much more can be done on the body at the moment. While I'm waiting for the wood to arrive, I'll start on the neck and fretboard. Busy tomorrow but I should be able to make some progress on Wednesday

The bending irons are a sort of steam-bending to be honest. You comprehensively soak the wood first and then spray it frequently during bending. Some folks also use a flexi stainless steel sheet that keeps the steam in, although I find it easier without. The other common method is a fox-type bending rig with heating pads - common in the US but the equipment tends to be quite difficult to get hold of and expensive here. Also, it is a specific rig for each size of guitar. Fine if you are doing multiple builds of the same design, but a bit over the top for one offs For me, the bending irons work (as long as they are turned up hot enough) and don't take up a lot of space. With a workshop about the size of a public toilet cubicle, that's important to me

I think that would be hugely helpful. I've finally got to the stage of being able to sharpen planes and chisels successfully and repeatably, but it was a tortuous learning curve. I think there are a lot of folks around here, including me, that would find it very valuable to see a professional's approach

OK - we have a live project These need a touch more bending to take some of the stresses out, but I will let them fully dry, clamped to the formers and then do any extra bending at specific points where needed tomorrow. Minor rant. This bending iron isn't cheap and is pretty much the only one you can get: The heating scale goes from 'Low' through 1 - 6 to 'High' There is a slip of paper that comes with it that says something on the lines that you should never go higher than 4 as it will burn out the element. Well - I had forgotten but soon remembered when there was a lot of steam but then sounds of grain splitting and no magical 'relaxation' of the wood - you need to be on at least 5 for it actually to do its job. So what, I surmise, the makers/suppliers are saying is - 'we have underspecced the heating element and a lot of people have complained that their heating elements are burning out so don't try and claim warranty because if you have actually bent some wood then we know that you must have used it above 4 and so we won't cover the replacement element' Some very well respected suppliers sell these - and at a hefty price. Shoddy.

OK - rapidly onto the go/no-go stage. Basically, if I split the sides when bending them, then the project is dead. So I'm going to do that early on. A few tips if anyone is thinking of tackling their first acoustic guitar (some of which will apply to acoustic basses too): There are lots of 'I didn't know that' factors There are lots of things that aren't as they seem Such as that a flat-top guitar is usually not flat. Almost all of them have a slight dish - typically 25 feet radius The backs are also not flat. These are usually dished to around 15 feet radius There are lots of pretty essential jigs you need to make. Body mould; radius dishes (25' & 15'); go-bar deck to mould backs and tops to their respective radii Martin made a bracing pattern in the 30's (?) that happened to work and 90+ % of acoustic guitars use this EXACT pattern I follow every single hint and tip that successful luthiers suggest. No rebellious-against-convention Rogers here! So - the sides. First, I found my dreadnought mould that I knocked together for Chris's build. I then put a card former in with the back and front dimensions marked in a straight line: OK - so that's easy. So just cut the blank with that straight taper, right? Wrong. Look at what a straight taper does seen from the front: Imagine the left side doing the same thing and you have a 'v' shaped back So the shape of the sides needs to be more like this: I will fine tune it with some sand paper on the radius dish (don't worry - I will explain if it gets that far!) But the next stage is cut the sides to that paper template: And soak them. Am I using MrsAndyjr1515's leftover bubble bath water? No - I am following a respected acoustic luthier's conviction that fabric softener make a big difference to the bendability of figured woods. I question not. I just follow. And on goes the bending iron: So in the next couple of hours, the project continues or ends. Wish me luck

It's entirely possible that's where I will end up too

OK, good news is that all components are usable, size-wise - even the macassar ebony fretboard offcut It also gives me a choice of two neck wood combinations - maple/walnut /maple or mahogany/ walnut / mahogany. I'm tempted to use the maple...harder to work but might add a touch of brightness for the fingerpicking side of things...

Yes - the mpm-02 piezo/magnetic mixer is teeny weeny and works well. The info sheet provided is, however, rubbish. Jez ( @Jabba_the_gut ) had the same issue and John sent him a much clearer hand drawn sketch which Jez copied to me for Mick's Psilos bass. Why John doesn't just add a pdf of that on his web site or with the product I don't know, bless him, but if you get one give Jez or me a shout and we'll send you one.

In the early stages, my approach on this will be a bit brutal. The storage of the back and side wood has been poor - there's been a bit of dishing and there's been a bit of what looks like water damage on one of the edges of the sides set that was there when I bought it. So basically, rather than hours of planing, scraping and sanding - only to find out that there is not enough usable area - it's doing what you should never do with figured woods - through the Makita thicknesser down from about 7mm to 2mm at 0.5mm a time. And I've sort of got away with it so far. I say sort of because at the last pass of the last back piece like an eejit, I sent the panel through the other way round - and got some pretty impressive tearout! The other side is perfect, despite being reduced through a very, very harsh process. The sides too: I've lost a couple of inches off the length of the sides due to the unavoidable snipe of this type of thicknesser but - and I will check later today - this should still give me adequate length for a dreadnought The water (?) damage on the sides is on the opposite side to the bookmatch join and should be well within the trim allowance of the sides. Again, I will check later today the usable dimensions. So, assuming that the dimensions are usable, the next proper job is going to be bending the sides. If they bend OK, we have a live project, if they don't I'll use up the wood for headstock plates/inlay fills, etc.. Whatever, this will be a background project as it's only for my own use so may take some time!

Actually, John, the one I showed you was my smaller OM size: This is great for what I built it for - fingerpicking styles - but the king of strumming acoustics is the bigger dreadnought model and the OM is noticeably more limited. This is my own (look how much the top has darkened!) next to my dreadnought build for Chris, our band's vocalist: The reason I never made a dreadnought for myself before is that they are great for strumming (which Chris mainly does) but usually not so good for fingerpicking (which I mainly do). But - probably by pure luck - Chris's dreadnought just as good for fingerpicking as my smaller OM. If I can replicate that, then I have the best of both worlds

I've got a (welcome) gap between commissioned full builds. I probably have a rebody of a Cort Curbow coming up (more of which later) but, in the scheme of things, that isn't a major undertaking on a par with a full build. So, as some of you know, one of the things I've been doing in the extra time is sorting out a better arrangement with routing - I've invested in a self-assembled foldaway router table and am currently building a thicknessing rig. But I've also been looking at the crazy amount of 'oooh that looks nice' wood that I've acquired over the past few years. In amongst it is this - some of which isn't faring well in my far-from-perfect wood storage: On the left is a sister set of back and sides lacewood and mahogany/walnut neck offcut from Chris's (our band's vocalist) dreadnought acoustic that I built him back in 2015: Next to that is another neck offcut - maple /walnut and lastly an offcut of Macassar ebony fretboard from my recent 6-string electric build. Well....that's most of the wood for another dreadnought - with a choice of neck to boot! And I've got a bit of time on my hands And I've got a few new things in the workshop that need testing out. And I've always wanted, and never had, a dreadnought. Hmmmm….it's tempting!

There are some interesting observations above. With the risk of everybody telling me I'm wrong - because I usually am - a couple of further views to my earlier post: In my experience, the mass of the bridge can make a perceptable change to the sound of a bass - both unplugged and amplified. Whether that change improves it, degrades it or is just different is entirely down to the individual listener's opinion and taste. Adding a modern high mass bridge to a genuine 50's holy grail P bass therefore will change the sound. Whether that is a good thing or not, though... Beauty, as they say, is in the eye of the beholder.

Me too .

Thanks, Neil I'll track down one of your gigs sometime soon and take a few live shots in between some enthusiastic heckling