Andyjr1515

My two were a touch further back but I'm pretty sure it was simply the sizes available: Let's put it this way, if it was me building it, I would be perfectly happy putting it where you plan to. The truss rod shouldn't be glued in at all (if that's what you meant) - they need to be free to bend and flex. You can, if you like, add a capping strip - but to be honest that's to keep the glue out of the slot more than anything else. The second one above has a piece of acoustic guitar binding as a cap and this was glued with a bead of cyano wick'd into the gap. Trouble is, capping means a deeper slot so nowadays I don't cap it at all - I slot it for the truss rod square bar to sit flush with the join and pop a strip of masking tape over the slot to stop the fretboard fixing glue from getting into the channel or truss-rod threads:

For what it's worth, I'm pretty sure that's where I would put it. Let me have a look where I put it on the two single cuts I built. I should have the photos...

Ref the taper - yup - perfectly good way of doing it.

Ah - OK, no problem Anyone got a view about the truss rod on a single cut, builder folks? My view is that the end of a truss rod only wants to be an inch or so into the bit that can't move (ie where the body first meets the neck). Trouble is, on a single cut, that can be a long way down the neck (viewed from the body)! On the other hand, putting the rod into a place that can't bend is, at best, pointless and, at worst, a potential unwanted stress point. Or have I got that wrong?

I'm still unsure about that neck/body positioning @Jimothey . When you put the tapered fretboard on, won't the neck show? I've got to nip out, but I'll try and photoshop what I mean when I get back

Starting to get there. And no break-through into the chambers! And why is the grain pattern so different on the two halves? It's the same timber but simply that the carved side is flipped between the two pieces. There was what looked to be a void on the smaller side that I couldn't afford to risk breaking into at this point of the carve (sometimes these voids appear from nothing in the middle of a solid piece of wood!). It was safer to flip it over and have that area a no carve zone than risk what would look like a flaw in the finished back.

Quite a bit of the bulk is now removed. The lower bout will be slimmed (to maintain the radius as it is shorter) and there is now quite a bit of more subtle carving to be done to get the curve even and smooth. I will be shortly moving to cabinet scraper for the rest of the back carve. You can see how much wood has gone, though, already: And maybe you can see why I took the template of the chambers: The chambers are as deep as the ash is thick where it meets the neck, so too shallow a carve and I could break through the back. Knowing exactly where those chambers come to is therefore essential. I will be aiming at 3mm from breakthrough at their thinnest. I won't be carving the top until the pickup routs have been done, but this is a decent time to start checking the weight. This is most of the weight componentry, less the pickups and pots, still with a lot of wood to take off - especially the neck carve with a lot of heavy maple to remove. Yes - MrsAndyjr1515 was out: So just under 6 1/2lbs. The pickups, truss rod, and electrics will add around 3/4lb, but I should lose most of that with the further wood removal. Target for finished bass will be 6 1/2lbs or less. Ref neck dive control, there are a number of things in play: The bridge is well back The strap button is in the 'goldilocks' zone I'm fitting these really nice lightweight Schallers: Final update, Neil has chosen the pickups. A couple of Nordstrands, passive, master vol, master tone, blend. Great choice!

Really interestd in this. Great stuff, @jebroad

Wow - this is a whole new level of excellence! Great wood choices.

Last time I went for a 'well person's checkup' at the local surgery, the GP told me that for the health of my heart, I should do "1/2hour of intensive effort at least once a week that you enjoy and that makes you hot and sweaty" and then gave me a big wink. How the Dickens did he know I have a Veritas Pullshave??? Sure enough, 1/2 hour later, I'm hot, sweaty and pleasantly fulfilled: What a doctor! What great advice!

Fretboard not glued yet - quite a bit to do before that happens - but starting to properly look like a bass!

That looks a good joint!

Blast! Well, based on it feeling like the fretboard has taken longer than the body so far, I'd better just remake the body and persuade Neil that learning to be ambidextrous is a real life-skill!

Well, it was a lot of work - but on a scale of 1 to 10, how satisfying was that?

And to the next scary bit - cutting and gluing the ebony blocks. The process was straightforward but needed to be quite accurate. Not only does the ebony have to be cut spot on, but because of the radius, it needs to be certain that the middle is proud of the fretboard but the sides set into the fretboard so, when attacking it with the radius block to smooth them flush, I don't sand into fresh air. Here's 6 done and 4 to go: And here's all 10 in place: I'm going to leave it on the template until I've sanded them flush - in the event that any or them are flawed, it then would be a simple job to rout out the ebony with the index pin still in the right place and re-do. In the meantime, I popped across to Neil's and took some profile and depth measurements from his favourite playing neck: Every bass has its own feel, but making the new one to similar profile and measurements should make it have a comforting familiarity when Neil gets to play it

To my shame, I don't possess a bass amp and practice on my 4W Guitar amp. It's fine.

I like the pioneering spirit!

That's right. I used to use brown parcel paper too. Nowadays, I use the micromesh as @Norris suggests above.

I'd missed this...interesting. Have you seen that used before?

Anyway - using router guide bushes and bearing cutters to take the ash excess off about 2mm at a time, some noise and lots of dust later, we have a basic body shape You can see here how much scooping's going to go on in the next stages! And that's to get it to 30mm max. I might go even slimmer if I think it's going to balance OK...

I could call it the 'I can't be certain I didn't subconciously steal this shape off @Norris hole' Whether I put any finish on the veneer depends if any finish drips through said hole when I'm slurrying the top

So a couple of hours have gone past since I did the above and I've come back to it and I can't think of anything I've missed. And so, having popped a couple of locating screws in in the pickup positions, it's being glued as I type. And you all know the mantra. This time it's in the key of F#: "You can NEVER have too many clamps!!!"

Final two things before closing the top. First - a tip I learnt on my veneering jobs - is take a paper template of the chambers. Especially as this will be carved to within an inch of its life, knowing where the chambers are is pretty crucial. All I do is make an indentation on some standard photocopying paper, including some positioning datum marks: The second thing I do is WAIT! Once it's glued, it's permanent. So I need to walk away from it for an hour or so, then come back fresh-minded and recheck: has EVERYTHING that needs doing before that top goes on been done?

Just a touch more sanding on the top with a large flat block to ensure good flatness and the top's then ready to be glued on. As you see, I've added the veneer in the f-hole chamber: It certainly gives the illusion of a deeper chamber than it actually is:

Having worked out the carve shape - and therefore the thickness of the body at various points in the cross-section - I was able to rout the main chambers and cable routes. Control chamber-wise, we are going for a Master Vol/Master Tone/Blend option, with the pots following the curve of the lower bout. Theoretically, I could rout deeper at the areas further from the neck but the swampash is so light it really won't make a difference. The rout in the top is more for aesthetics than weight. Bear in mind that the top will be curved and so this will slim quite a bit, it will eventually give the illusion of being a semi, when it's actually basically a solid: Before popping the top on, I will line the f-hole chamber with some redwood veneer to further give the illusion of depth.