Andyjr1515

As I found out in my journey of mods and builds, it's just a few extra steps up from the skills you've already gained. And neck carving is also one of the most satisfying part of a build If you want to lower the learning curve just a touch, buy a preslotted fretboard blank. David Dyke only charges £10 to slot the blanks he sells.

Superb

OK - I'm confused Just to clarify: I think your Tokai needs a 3.5mm metric fine thread grubscrew A Fender USA grubscrew will not fit because the threads on USA Fenders are imperial, not metric So if you get a 3.5mm metric fine thread grubscrew off ebay, it should fit your Tokai. A Fender USA grubscrew may be the same diameter but it won't fit on your Tokai because it will be the wrong thread pitch. Are we both saying the same thing?

Just weighed it - that neck carving has taken off a lot of weight. We might be looking below 6 1/2lbs finished weight …

Lot of carving still to do, but the neck is sized and roughed out:

Carve's done for the body ready for final sand. As usual, I give the wood a quick coat of tru-oil to show up any filing or sanding marks and any glue spills, etc.. It is also useful for keeping the body relatively clean while I move onto the next bit - carving the neck. The finish will be enhanced, but this is fairly representative of the colour shades that will be on the final product: Nice bit of quilting when it catches the light: This will be enhanced further when the final finish is applied. And for good measure, the back: ...and front-on: Next job - the neck carve

Fascinating thread - the one above and this one you are doing here, @jebroad Continuing to watch with great interest!

Wow ... that's some inlay!

The bottom bout is the one I'm still tweaking to balance out both the visuals and the practicalities, Mick. By ghe way, notice some ancestral familiarities to the psilos on that second shot?

The basic carve of the body is almost done. Just got to take a bit of thickness off the back of the lower bout and then I'll move to the neck. I'll finish sand it all at the same time. From the view above, it looks pretty conventional. But this gives a hint that it's not quite... :

I'll call it a day now and come back to it tomorrow to decide about the edges. But you probably get the idea of where it's generally heading: With loads of wood still to remove - especially the heavy maple from the neck carve - and with all remaining hardware piled onto the scales, it's sitting at below 7lbs at the moment, so below 6 3/4lbs should be well within reach for the finished bass. As always, thanks for looking

Those who have seen my other builds will know that I creep up on the final shape generally when I'm doing the body carve. While I have a general idea of what the final shape is going to be, I tweak it as I'm going along and do multiple checks ref the depth of carve and where the chambers are. This is after the first pass. Plenty more to go:

And the fretboard is on! So tomorrow is officially designated top carve day

First of all HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NEIL! With the proper Nordstrands arrived, I could move forward today on this. For cutting pickup chambers, I've found a way that works for me. Although many will do it quite differently with equally good results, briefly, this is what I do. I draw round the covers and centre point the critical radii: I use a bradpoint and forstner to drill those points to full depth: I then use a forstner to hog out the rest to 5mm shallower than final depth: Having at last learned how to sharpen and use a chisel (trust me - it's worth learning), I chisel to finished shape: Then rout to finished depth using a short trimmer bit. You can see here where I've broken into the cable channels: And - to my great relief, first try, no trimming or sanding: This means that the fretboard can now go on: Which means that tomorrow, I can start carving the top

This is looking excellent

That is beautiful, @Sibob

Fender US will be imperial, I'm pretty sure (at least, I think most american guitars are) I would be surprised if a Tokai would be anything but metric.

I think it will be a 3.5mm metric fine. The minimum allowed external dia of a 3.5 mm is 3.354, which seems to be within your measurement. Anyone else agree?

Well, they've been flying all the way from South Africa and only just arrived...I suspect they are kn******d

Hmmm - interesting... Anyway, I'm promised they are on the way so I've been doing the final fretboard pre-glue jobs so that I don't lose time while I'm waiting. Truss rod installed and demarcation veneer applied: The smaller luminlay dots for the over-body dots (the main dots will be the larger ones) which are best done before the fretboard is on - because, trust me, these particular ones are a beggar to do when the fretboard is already fitted: And - as you may have noticed, I've decided in the end to do a 24th fret block. It looked a bit bare at the dusty end without. This looks better to my eye: I'm hoping the replacement pickups will arrive tomorrow so I can rout the chambers then get the fretboard on

They are not worth holding onto from the look of them Anyway, I'll send them back in the morning. There might be some anxious soul at this very moment saying, "Where on earth did I put those bits????"

They're also absolutely not Nordstrands! It's obviously a box of the old bits they've taken out of someone's bass when they replaced them with some decent parts I've had profuse apologies from Bass Direct...

Very quick response from Bass Direct who have put a replacement in the post immediately. They pass the test - great service

Hmmm...opened the slightly tatty Nordstrand box, sent admittedly very promptly by Bass Direct, and this was what was in there : I don't know whose or what they are but they are old and tatty and dirty and certainly not brand new Nordstrand NJ4s It's a bit disappointing - cutting the chambers is on the time critical path and, with Jazz pickups, I NEVER cut chambers before I have the physical items in my hand. "Standardisation" and "Jazz pickup chamber shapes" are not compatible concepts! I've emailed Bass Direct immediately. As I always used to view such things in my professional life, mistakes do happen - and when they do, it's the reaction time and accuracy to put it right that I judge organisations on. I'm hoping that Bass Direct come up to the mark...

If I was building this for someone else, I would fix it - except I would use 2mm binding strip, just trimming the two sides enough to eliminate the gouge. But the chances of c*****g up the trims either side is actually quite high. So if this was for my own use, I would leave it as it is. The fretboard covers the gouge from the front view, the curve of the neck carve take almost all of it away and you are left with a shallow d scoop up to the bottom edge of the fretboard - which is pretty to easy to fill.