Andyjr1515

Wow - that's a lot of laminations on the top one!

Ah - OK. I'd remembered that your original spec was through neck but I think you're right to leave that to a bit further down the line - they bring a whole mountain range of new learning curves! I've double checked but, as I had suspected, all the necks I've got in my box of bits are 6-string electrics. While the thoughts to pass on the bass as-is is admirable, just a few musings: Many, if not most, modern low cost basses are perfectly playable and so there is always the opportunity for finding another one of equal value for the club You need a decent, playable neck to be happy with the extra time, cost and effort of building a custom body to fit it. If this feels good to play, use this one for your build and sell the body on ebay. If the neck is 'well, OK I suppose', then find another one and, if it's better, use that and donate the bass to the club. Well - that's what I'd do, anyway. I work on the basis that most budget bolt-on basses and guitars are essentially 'bitsa' builds using standard components anyway so the fact that that neck and that body happen to be assembled in this particular bass is just happen-chance. Which is why I've got a load of random necks and bodies hanging around

Ooooo....that looks nice

Most of them are 6-string electrics, I'm afraid - but does include a flame-maple/flame maple one of those, as it happens...;)

Glad this is back on the active status But I'm a bit confused...if you are going for a through neck, how are you planning to use a bolt-on as the donor? I ask partly because, since moving to almost 100% neck-through designs, I've got a number of past bolt-on necks in my over-full bits box! It would be jolly nice to find a use for some of them

We used to use Tewkesbury Saw for tools and CNC router bits, etc, for all our Cheltenham and Tewkesbury plants. Pity I'd left the area before I discovered working with wood!! Good supplier, though. That is a very impressively clean cut for what are pretty standard tools and bits, especially with so few passes - I had ten or so in my mind. I've never tried using a template to cut out a neck blank like this but I'm tempted to try, seeing this.

On the sample I've actually got this back to front, but I think this will be just right for the demarcation line: I tried doubling up and also doing a redwood/ebony/redwood and redwood/maple/redwood sandwich but the former one didn't add anything and the latter two looked a bit tacky - a bit 'trying too hard'. So next jobs are adding the redwood veneer onto the (bottom of the) top and routing the chambers and cable routings on the back. With luck, this will be all done and the top glued on before the end of the weekend.

Good progress, Jez. The neck rout on that blank looks exceptionally neat. How many passes did it take and what router / bit size did you use?

That's no surprise to me - the only time I've seen a chisel that worn before was in the days that my father used to use his long-suffering Draper 1/2" to straighten up brickwork prior to plastering...

Thanks! Trust all is well with you and yours

Lovely. The build qualty of ACGs I've seen in real life is superative.

Yes, me too. Deepening the cutout for the fret access changed the proportions and just needs balancing up a bit. There are some flat spots in some of the curves too which will be smoothed out before it gets glued on.

With the demarcation veneer installed, next job was to flip the neck upside down and glue the oversize back swamp-ash wings flush with the neck slot: I do all of this a tad unconventionally. Once the chambers and cable runs have been routed out, the top will be glued on the flat area like this and then used as the routing template for the back. Note the pencil line showing possible shortening of the lower horn to get the curves looking more in proportion. Clearly, I will decide on this before gluing on the top : When I flip it over, you can see how far I will be scooping the back wings - ie down to the neck in the middle, eventually producing a concave curve:

Neck blank cut: The demarcation veneer I will be using on this one for the top/back, the back/neck and neck/fretboard is Redwood (and it is indeed red wood!). It will darken slightly with the finish but should tone nicely with the brownish hue of the poplar figuring. Here are the veneers being glued to the back joins: It's a while before the top gets glued on - in the meantime I'll try a couple of samples with just this veneer as the main back/top, or triple it up with two redwood veneers and a contrasting one (probably ebony to link with the hardware) in the middle. Might look a little fussy when the top carve cuts through, but you never know unless you try it!

I usually build through necks and always physically draw the key neck angle points full size, and always using the actual bridge intended to be fitted. I measure the bridge saddle at lowest and highest, mark the neck angle fulcrum, then the fretboard and fret height, the planned action height and set the neck angle to allow some wiggle room either way. As it happens, with the Schaller bridge and my thickness of fretboard and fret-height, the neck will be zero angle: Then I can cut the slot: Once the body demarcation veneer has been added, this will be spot on. Because the angle is zero, then I don't have to allow for the apex that normally the fretboard end has to be sunk into. You can see here above the pencil line on the maple of how thin the neck will be cut to. And finally the components in their respective positions: Tomorrow should see the backs prepared, the neck blank cut to basic plan and side-view profile and then the backs glued to the neck....

Back from Scotland and most of the pressing domestic chores are on track, so the priority for the next few weeks is this! Made a fair bit of progress this afternoon and there should be leap in progress tomorrow. Today was all about measuring, checking, re-measuring, checking and checking again before doing one of the crucial cuts - the slot in the neck for the top to slot into. This includes the crucial neck angle - hence the multiple checks. Also - because theoretically the bridge could go anywhere within a range, it was time to predict balance, playability, arm stretch. This is particularly important as Neil has a pesky shoulder issue at the moment - this design aims for sound, playability, lightness, balance and modest stretch. And as some of these aspects tend to be mutually exclusive.... These are some of the key positions - probably some final tweaking to do on body shape once all the functional positioning is sorted but the latter needs sorting first! Body-wise, this is going to be a very light bass. But it is nevertheless 34" maple-necked and so steps to avoid neck dive is something to always be aware of: Wherever this is a possibility, then it always helps for the top strap button (red line) to be in the 'goldilocks zone'. My usual rule of thumb is that the goldilocks zone is somewhere between the 12th and 14th frets (yellow lines). Bringing the bridge well back does two things: it reduces the playing stretch a touch; it brings the strap-button into the goldilocks zone. With the position of the strap on the button itself, I judge this will be in line with the 13.5 fret position - so even if the body ends up much lighter than the norm, it should still balance fine on the strap The next position consideration is the lower cutaway for access to the top frets. For no better reason than it is an option, Neil and I decided to go for the full 24 frets. I've deepened the cutaway a tad to provide complete access to the 22nd fret. For the 23rd and 24th, I'll wait until the top and back is on and shaped to see if this gives good enough access to the 23d and 24th and then Neil and I can discuss whether to deepen the cutaway anymore Depending on the cutaway depth, I'll give Neil the option of reshaping the lower horn. It's just aesthetics so no problem to do that or leave it and it can be left until quite late in the build. So before cutting the slot in the neck, I needed to calculate the neck angle. I'll post that process shortly

Me too. When you first see them they seem quite expensive for something so small - but they are truly quality bits of equipment and work so well.

OK . So, my brain slowly getting into gear....it's probably a maple neck and possibly ash or alder body or maybe something completely different

The neck wood will be the same that you see either side of that strip. The strip is just a cover over the channel to stop the fretboard glue filling the channel and gumming up the trussrod itself. Ref the body....yes - only one way of finding out

Re-read....I assumed you meant the neck but presumably you mean the body? In that case, not sure. Probably alder or ash, but not certain.

Great job. I think the necks are generally maple. The wood you see on the mating face under the fretboard will be the same as if you stripped the finish off the back.

Lovely job.

You lucky, lucky man. Great bass from a great builder

Hmmmm....and has anyone actually figured how they should dispose of replacement blades, single edged razor blades, etc, within domestic waste and recycling regs and guidelines?

Now there we have the quandry of modern life! Disposable blades would normally lead me towards a Swann Morton scalpel (which I generally use for most jobs). For this specific task though, the Stanley disposables have had the edge in my personal view (forgiving the pun). But you are right, of course, @Grangur - I'm sure other suitable and more sustainable products are available. If I find one, I'll change the thread.