Andyjr1515

They are indeed very smart

Ah - should have read that first

Yes - some good pointers here. One of the YouTube clips I looked at broached the spline - and similar, I think, to how @Norris did his. Plenty of time - I'll experiment

Putting crazy thoughts of knobs to one side, today - being drizzly and miserable - is tweaking and set up day The first and most important is getting the neck profile to just how I like it. Many other builders think I am completely bonkers, but I do this 'live' with the guitar fully strung up, ready to play. It's simple and it's quick - in fact I've done this in the past while the new owner of one of my builds has been sitting there having a cup of coffee! Basically, I : Put a large plastic bag around the guitar body Hold it cello style, but back to front - ie with the back of the guitar facing the audience and the headstock digging into my chest Take my trusted and humble cabinet scraper Scrape it gently to shape, using full sweeps heel to volute, feeling for any facets left by uneven cuts Check progress frequently by popping it back to playing position and playing a few of my regular riffs Once happy, double check for lumps or facets Sand Slurry-and-buff with Tru-oil or Osmo Here it is at the early scraper stage: Whole process takes less than an hour - plus a bit of resting period (for Osmo) for the slurry and buffed finish to harden. And so I now have a neck I'm REALLY happy with and can play comfortably - even with my arthritic hands. Basically, I've taken it from 'C' to very soft 'V'. That takes some of the haunches away and makes it easier to wrap my thumb around (it is an electric, after all, so lazy playing is de rigueur ) while not losing the depth, more comfortable with the barre chords. Next is tidying up some of the squiffy ferrules, put some slightly longer pickup screws (gold ones) in, sort the nut height and do a basic set up of relief, action and intonation.

Great - thanks for that I'm going to have a go. The brass knobs currently on the volumes and planned for the tone - although OK looks-wise - add about 3oz. When I'm trying to get closer to 5.5lbs rather than 6, those oz make a difference. It really does need a lathe but I am well impressed with @Norris 's results on a drill press. I will, however, try for grub-screw inserts if possible with my rudimentary equipment (and that, of course, will add some weight). In for a penny and in for a pound - I'm going to see if I can get a MoP swift on the top too. Yes - I know. Madness

And how did you fix them to the shaft?

I'm VERY pleased with it, Mick

Hmmm...that's a thought. Never thought of using the pillar drill....

OK - I'll do the finished pics once I've done a full polish and got a proper tone knob - and straightened up and glued the loose ferrules! And it still has to be set up, etc.. But, visually, it's pretty much done. Where did that pesky heel go???? Not set up at all, but I have to say it plays pretty well straight off the bench. The neck feels nice, but it is more Fender 'C' than my preferred soft 'V' - I will fettle this over the weekend to suit my playing style (I always do the last shaping once the strings are on and I can really feel how it plays. It balances nicely on the strap - but is a little heavier than I was aiming for. Pre the extra fettling and using heavy solid brass knobs (I'm on the lookout for some nice wooden ones), I'm coming in at over 5 3/4lbs, which is 3-4oz heavier than planned. Not bad, though...

It's come up nicely, @Jimothey

Sorted the bridge and ferrule drill holes (it's thru-body stringing) and, after trying both in a mock-up, settled on black pickup rings with gold screws rather than the other way round. I'm doing all of the jobs that might dint the soft finish before a final flattening and the last couple of gloss coats on the body. This is how it's starting to look. Pretty sure, by the way, that the slightly skew look of the pickups is the wide angle lens and not the actual fitting - although, with me, anything is possible :

It's looking good @Jimothey . Neat job with filling those cavities.

We're on the same page. I too like 34" scale basses but prefer them to either sit well to my right (ref the strap position) or with the bridge well back and therefore the nut that much closer to my hand

Forgive me for teaching granny to suck eggs Yes - as long as the bridge is on solid flat wood then yes - it can be right back to the edge. However, just be aware that the playing position of your hand will be in a different place to some other basses. I personally like a rearward bridge because it reduces the 'apparent' scale length - which with my short arms is a great advantage! The Cort Curbow I played for a bit (I was putting a replacement body on it) felt like a short scale but sounded like a long scale (which, of course, it was)

Or...if that's what you've already done and that is where the bridge is calculated to have to be (based on the penned pocket position), then yes....the bridge can be as far back as the body will support it. Have a peep at how far back the Cort Curbow bridge is placed

If you already have a neck pocket, then you know where the 12th fret is going to be, depending on the scale length of the neck you're going to use. Double that distance and that's where the bridge HAS GOT to be placed. It's mathematical. I don't fix the bridge until the neck is fully fitted and then use a long steel rule to make sure I can place it very accurately. I personally put the bridge at the scale length of the g saddle, moved fully forward, and then make sure there's at least 3mm rearward movement of the other three saddles for intonation. Does that make any sense?

Possibly. Certainly it's the same principle. What I do is pop a strap on the back button, sling it over my shoulder and literally hold the other end of the strap, supporting the bass at the various position options (being careful not to drop it!) and decide the best one to go for. It won't be exact, but will give you a decent idea of how the bass is going to sit on the strap. For my own, I sometimes actually try them in two or three positions for real - at worst you have a couple of extra 2.5mm holes in the heel/horn but you also have a d****d well balancing bass @W1_Pro 's custom, a beautiful bass that had sat in its case for many, many years unplayed started out with the button here (actually pretty standard ES335 position): And, through a mirror, you see how it hangs and note it is UTTERLY unplayable. This is my longest reach! : So I moved the button to here: And this was the result (same camera angle etc,etc): In this particular case, just putting the button on the end of the heel actually wouldn't have worked so well - but it just depends. Hence the advice to try the 'half attached strap approach' above. Did I think this would help? Yes Did I think that we could get a bass that had been unplayable for over 20 years, fully playable in 10 minutes? No - I was as gobsmacked as Stuart ( @W1_Pro ) And here's the proof that there is no camera trickery. Here it is fixed: ...and just hanging on the strap: So in summary...the strap position can make a BIG, BIG difference. And therefore I would have thought at least one of those two positions - mine above or yours from your website search - would allow you to go 34" on the Tele

I'm pretty sure the neck pocket (assuming it is made to Fender/Squier dims) is the same regardless of the scale lengths. You may well have balance issues with a 34" scale - just look how far forward the bridge is. Simple check is to work out which fret the top horn button will line up with. For a long scale, anything higher than the 13th fret is going to be in amber territory and looking at where this button is, I reckon it would be more like the 15th fret or higher...definitely into red territory. There is more choice nowadays of lightweight tuners, so that is one option - but even those will struggle if the button is so far back. An alternative is to put a button on the 'wrong' side of the heel - this is my gigging 6-string electric: I know it looks odd, but it balances perfectly even though it lines up with the 17th fret. And look at the where the 'normal' button is - lined up at the recommended 13th fret. And they both balance (in horizontal terms) the same What it does do, though, is change the sit of the guitar (or bass) in two ways: It swings the whole instrument to the player's right. This brings the nut closer to your fretting hand - making it feel like a short scale from a comfort point of view It makes the instrument sit a bit more upright from the vertical point of view (generally you see the fretboard edge on - side dots are useful!) This is why I now do this for all of my own guitars and basses - it means that when fretting, your wrist is much less twisted round...and if you have creeping arthritis in your hands, this make a BIG difference....but it's a more comfortable position for many players If you are interested in this as a possible solution for going full scale on the tele, shout and I'll post the 'before and after' shots on @W1_Pro 's custom semi Andy

Second coat looking good:

Well, I think I'm on the home straight for this one. The finishing proper has started. Having used tru-oil slurry-and-wipe as my general grain and void filler, I've then lightly sanded that and now applied a very thin wipe-coat of Osmo Polyx 3011 Gloss, just using my usual choice of dirt-cheap microfibre cloth: I will let this dry overnight before applying the second coat. One of the reasons for me being patient (and it's a strain!) is that, while I've have great success with the Osmo satin and also their whitening 'RAW' version, I have had an issue the one time I tried their gloss. On the second coat it wrinkled and orange-peeled. Now, to be honest, I have no patience with finishes that are super sensitive - it's why I keep away from many of the more traditional guitar finishing products. Life's too short. Having said that, I'm pretty sure my problem with the Osmo gloss was that I simply applied the second coat too soon. The satin and matt versions were not at all reactive. It would be nice to get a modern very low VOC gloss that actually works and can be wiped on....hence the patience

I'm sure a spacer plate is the way to go. Schaller provide them on some of their bridges as standard - so the principle is utterly sound. Do you remember this same problem with @W1_Pro's beautiful Mockingbird? In the end, I had to fit 3 (!) spacers to get the bridge high enough: Anything that is hard and cut to the right size will do. It will be in compression only so, providing is isn't crushable it will work and if it is hard wood or plastic it will tranfer the vibrations just fine. Maybe some cuts from an ebony headstock plate or similar? You could prove it out with some plywood first to see how thick it needs to be....

Before I start routing out the bottom of the control chamber, I like to drill at least a couple of the pot holes just to give myself a second check of thickness in addition to the rather splendid Crimson caliper measure. The only concessions so far on electrics ref the very thin body is going to a barrel jack and a switchcraft angled toggle three-way. The chamber will be plenty deep enough for the pots and the mini toggles. Both the 3-way and the barrel are on order so I won't drill all the holes until I have them here, but at its most basic, this is what I'll have (conventional 3-way in the photo): Almost certainly, I will add a second volume pot to go: vol; vol; master tone; split neck; split bridge. Looking at this and the specs of the parts on order, it should all fit fine I was happy to drill the holes for the first two pots to give me that extra reference point for thickness before getting out a bearing-bitted router out to deepen the chamber: This leaves me with 3mm at its thinnest and 5mm at its thickest. I could go a touch thinner for most of the area, but I shouldn't need to - so won't until and unless I do need to. And that brings the finished body weight - including the hatch - to just a touch over 4lbs

For 6-string electrics, having splittable humbuckers is becoming 'almost standard'. The reason I'm doing it on this one is: It's dead simple to wire It can be useful on a 6-string electric because of how much treble is lost when running through a PA (even with a DI box). Generally when I'm practicing through a guitar amp, I would have full humbucker, but usually on a gig (we run everything through the PA) I would tend to use both pickups together, with the neck at full humbucker and the bridge split (and sometimes the other way round). That way I find I can retain the breadth of tone without sacrificing volume. The buckers split on their own (with the exception of P-Rails on the P-90 setting) generally tend to be too weedy and not in a good 'proper' single-coil way.... I don't really have an informed opinion with a bass but would expect the benefits to more limited.

So next challenge is fitting in the electrics. Or should I say 'getting electrics to fit'! I have quite deliberately started with the depth I wanted and then moved on to how I am going to get everything to fit rather than starting with the 'conventional' switches and plugs and then moving on to how slim I can get to Yes - madness, I know. In terms of jack, I know that I'll be looking at a Switchcraft mono barrel jack. Even the Switchcraft ones aren't foolproof but there are loads of electrics and acoustics out there fitted with them - and this is for my own use - so I'll just make sure I've always got a spare guitar if I get round to gigging this one. In terms of pots, they will fit (standard ones will - push pull won't). The three way might have to be a mini - but I'll check first the dimensions of the rightangled Switchcraft right angled ones - they might fit. I will be splitting the humbuckers but will probably use mini toggles

Hi, John The camphor-laurel is pleasant smelling when sanded - I suppose hence the 'camphor' bit of its name (true camphor has a very strong and relatively pleasant smell). I agree - amazaque (which I think is the same as ovangkol?) smells rank. In this particular build, it is the small amount of purpleheart that stinks the most - it is as equally dire as amazaque! The swift inlays are just standard white mother of pearl. Abalone can be quite brilliantly coloured but I prefer the more staid MoP look generally.