Andyjr1515

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.

And that'll be the trussrod and nordstrand pickups, then

That's looking really smart

I put a teeny bead of titebond along the tang, then hammer in the fret and then clamp a radius block on until the titebond has gripped: Here's the board now with frets trimmed and chamfered:

Like a crazy person, I didn't take a photo - but basically I hammer them in then clamp a radius block onto the freshly installed fret onto the flat workbench. I'll have to mock-up a photo to explain

And we have frets! Ready to trim and bevel once the glue's fully dried. Then a demarcation veneer and then glue it on the neck

Looks good and I'm sure covers all the basics. A lot more sophisticated than my first one....

Well it certainly says that! Interestingly it doesn't on one of their other articles on the same subject where it stresses the importance of keeping glue away from the slot. Anyway, unless someone can prove to me it's a good idea, I'm personally not allowing epoxy anywhere near the rod slot on installation.

Great option. @donslow - do bear in mind how heavy a solid mahogany body of this size is going to be, though.

Can you post the link? Not at all sure what this refers to. Was that in relation to fixed carbon or aluminium reinforcing rods? Those would be generally glued in but adjustable rods are just the opposite - you don't want glue anywhere near them!

A close fit is preferable so it doesn't rattle and so the bend is exactly where you intend it...in the middle. Ref rattle some people pop a couple of spots of flexible sealant in, but my logic is that,as soon as there is any tension on the rod at all, there's nothing able to rattle anyway. I use a 6mm router bit going 9mm deep for the ones I use. A touch too deep is no problem, but make sure that the fretboard isn't being lifted up by any high spots on the rod top. You may need to open out either end a touch with a chisel - on some types, the end screw blocks are a touch wider. For the wood on wood fretboard joint (and any wood on wood jointing) I would strongly recommend Titebond Original. Not only does it do the job, but in the event that you ever needed to remove the fretboard, then it is possible, using heat and technique, to do so, and without damaging the fretboard. With epoxy or other similar glues, it would be a 'router off' job