Andyjr1515

This is looking very tasty Ref the headstock veneer - if I get time tomorrow I'll do a quick A-Z of how I iron on veneer rather than clamp. Great thing is that it gives pretty much instant results and you can see what you're doing. I did a live demo of the technique at the Midlands Bass Bash.

Saw this one in the flesh this afternoon. It is so, so, so well built it's crazy. And it's lightweight! Top drawer on both counts

Hi, Christine I've used that bridge in a couple of my own builds so if you hit any stumbling blocks, just give a shout. This is one of them:

...and reading back, I've just remembered that you have rods in anyway. The bit I'm not sure - now I am also remembering that your neck has that intriguing twist in it - is what purpose the truss rod has anyway? I can't see how, if tightened, the rod would give a meaningful relief (that is, in which plane would it creating the relief??). If I'm right, then the stiffer the neck the better - in which case the thicker fretboard and carbon rods will help and not hinder. It's just a guess though. I might be completely misunderstanding the design...

I think that depends on the stiffness of the fretboard, not the thickness (although these can be related) because the truss rod acts on the whole neck. Does the fretboard bend at all? Also, think carbon rod stiffened necks - one holy grail seems to be building necks that do not bend. I think the only issue might be that, in order to maintain the planned thickness of the whole neck, the truss rod slot will need to be 2-3mm deeper in the neck itself - and that might be getting the bottom of that slot very close to the bottom of the neck, particularly at the nut end. You could, of course, rout a shallow slot in the back of the fretboard.

I wouldn't have thought the thickness of the fretboard itself would be a problem. Worth looking at the angles and how high the bridge and pickups will need to sit but other than that not sure there would be an issue with the thickness itself. What's everyone else think?

Yes - I would also happily take the dust for a bit of that space I would like to take a photo of mine, but I can't move away far enough from the walls to focus the camera Looking forward to seeing the builds progress

Just a mini-hijack continuing on @Jimothey 's excellent explanation of the sellotape trick. I'm doing a partscaster for @Harryburke14 and he wanted something quirky on the headstock to do either with his name or associated the Peaky Blinders. I thought - ideal opportunity to try out the technique. Still got to varnish on top but even without - FANTASTIC! So, so, so much better than my previous method. Many thanks for sharing the tip @Jimothey and back to your excellent mod job @BrunoBass

OK - that's caught my eye! Can you tell us more?

This, to my eye, looks all beautifully toned in like a posh hotel reception. Yours, on the other hand, just looks cool and badass

Me too. It all depends on what else is going on. Add a Fender type maple headstock and you end up with a mishmash of tones. What you have here is a statement provided by the scratchplate, emphasised by the white - including the headstock. I wouldn't touch a thing. It looks splendid

OK - this post may make the 'routing the block inlay chambers' explanation above a bit more understandable. First I glued some locating blocks to ensure that a ply worksurface could be securely located on the press-drill bed: Then drilled and inserted the locating pin: When in use, the router bit will be lined up to this pin: So now imagine that the fretboard blank has been double-side taped on top of the metal template here: So the drill spindle is lowered into the fretboard, and then the template/fretboard assembly is moved around the pin, cutting the block-shaped outline. With the outline routed, I will use the Dremel precision router base and a larger router bit to clear the inside of the rectangle. So just got to find a way of fixing the drill in the lowered position (it is spring loaded and no lock mechanism). I might just rig up a rubber band or similar to keep the drilling handle fully down. BUT first, I will have to cut the frets. Although this is a G&W template, intended to be used in the G&W mitre box, you can't do both operations with the template stuck to the fretboard in the same position! The locating pin in the mitre-box for slotting the frets is offset - and the rectangles on this template are not offset. So, the sequence to avoid scrapping a few fretboards is, I reckon: Stick the fretboard to the template Slot the fretboard Unstick the fretboard from the template Restick the fretboard to the template taking huge care that the fret index points on the template line up exactly with the fretslots and that the fretboard is absolutely square with the template. Bearing in mind that the template is underneath and the cut fretslots are on top, this is going to take significant care - especially as it is lining up and then fixing onto two-sided tape. Rout the rectangles On the other hand, if the blocks had been offset to the fret cutting index notches to match the offset on their mitre box, it would have been a doddle. I like G&W product range and quality, but they really haven't thought this through...

I squared up the neck assembly with a jack plane and then put it through the thicknesser to slim it down to 62mm width (the width of the neck at the point the furthest end meets the body). I also thinned down the swamp ash back pieces to the 40mm outlined in the drawing above. Note that the steel fret/blocks template also arrived today! Giving the outline a decent amount of wiggle room, I marked the sides out ready for cutting: ...and duly cut them: The bridge and lightweight tuners, both in black, are on order. For the bridge, I've ordered a Schaller 2000. I'm pretty sure it's one of those on @Chris Sharman 's gorgeous 5 string Shuker that I was lucky to temporarily get my mitts on last week. I was very impressed with the design and quality of the bridge I can't cut the neck side profile until I've worked out the neck angle, and I always get hold physically of the bridge before I work that out (I draw the neck joint position and angle full size, including the saddle lowest and highest setting points) so won't be doing that yet. Instead, I'll turn my attention to the fretboard. I've got just the piece of maple for that As always, thanks for looking!

Three beautiful pieces of timber came through this morning from David Dyke - glued up and clamped in my meaty bench clamps and their metal friends, two pieces of maple with a centre walnut splice: Next job will be to thickness the swamp ash back timber. This needs to allow for the concave curve of the back and so, even though the bass body, including the top, will be sub 30mm, the back blanks alone will need to start off at 40mm: In the meantime, the fretboard fretslot and block inlay template is due today so I suppose I'd better get on and work out just how I'm going to use it!

It's here

Yes - there's a recent thread somewhereabouts where I briefly describe the tru- oil slurry and buff approach. Very quick, very easy, very cheap, very repeatable if you mess it up and leaves a wonderful, silky smooth, frictionless finish that nevertheless still feels like wood. Let me know if you can't find it and I'll have a search

Hi Following on from @Phil Starr 's post, I'm one of the regular forum modder / builders he refers to and certainly my personal view is that for a 'standard' 2k finish there would be no perceptable sound difference (assuming the finisher put the pickups back at exactly the same heights as before). There would, however, be a change in the value - modding guitars and basses almost always result in a drop of value even when the mods are clearly improvements. I say that not to put you off doing it, but it needs to be a keeper to warrant making the change. Hope this helps.

Sorry for my tardy reply...been a busy week! Thanks for the suggestions but I've probably confused everyone (no change there ). I will be setting in the ebony blocks a bit like doing the fretboard inlays, so they will be 2-3mm deep rectangular chambers routed into a 7mm fretboard. The fretboard blank is fixed onto the steel template and an index pin is used in the mitre box to move the fretboard/template assembly into position for slotting the frets. The same template assembly is used for guiding the 1mm router bit for the block rectangles. This time, another index pin projects a couple of mm proud of the work surface, and a router jig of some sort needs to be fixed with the bit in line with the pin. The bit is lowered into the top of the fretboard, and then the fretboard assembly is moved around the fixed bit, with the index pin acting as the guide against the sides of the template (it will be easier to explain with a photo once I've solved it! ) The challenge is rigging a fixed mini router position capable of being lowered accurately into the fretboard top. I think I've worked out how I'm going to do it. My Proxxon mini drill press is accurate enough to take a 1mm router bit. The spindle speed is a bit slow, but it's only the outline I need to rout accurately. So I think I can rig an elastic band to hold the spindle depth handle in place once its been lowered sufficiently. When the template has arrived, I'll test on a piece of scrap wood and take a photo!

If its a fixed neck, I'm not sure how you would get all the way to the neck with any router arrangement unless I've misunderstood something. One option - because the type of jig you show is actually a very good design - might be to rout on the jig as far as it will go close to the neck, and finish the last inch with sharp chisels? And yes - warm welcome.

Fascinating build. Enthralling!

No probs, Mick. Pleased we got it all sorted and it was good to see it again. Thanks also to @Len_Derby and @Chris Sharman for letting me use their respective bass rigs to check it was all working OK

But you know the answer...you're going to have to build two

Hmmmm...I see the quandary That Oak burr is quite something!

Certainly did come out OK Looks like this will too

There are some good functional features and, to my eye, some very pleasing lines