Andyjr1515

Rather than do the documentary-makers favourite ploy of artificially creating drama with the 'and all was going well....and then they hit a serious problem!' yawn approach, let's just say: It worked The snakewood was fine There were, however, a couple of builder and user errors in the live trial. As a precaution, I worked out that with the thickness of the snakewood I would be able to try two or even three passes, so I deliberately started on the thickish side rather than trying for finished thickness first go. Good job I did! First I tried routing lengthways and indexing at each pass. Very easy VERY quick But unexpected groove steps at the edge of two of three of the passes (didn't take a photo!! ) Wasn't sure why that was happening. Second go, I changed to routing the radius and indexing manually each pass along the length. Took a bit longer but still very easy But.... "Hmmm...that's odd" : Perfect at the sides but digging in in the middle?? Then realised that the two unexpected results were linked:- Basically, the two radius templates are probably not quite identical. One of them is higher in the portion at the top of the radius. Result - the carriage will therefore tip and so the router bit is now angled and hence it digs in along one edge. It's easily fixed and was acually less serious than it looked - 10 mins with the sanding block gave me this: The second issue was pure rooky operator error. Once I got into the joy of each of the 100 passes of 'zip, index, zip' I forgot. I forgot that this, of course, is still a satanic router! And instead of slowing my cut feed right down at the far end (which normally I would do) - I just zapped past the finish mark at the same speed as the previous 100 passes. And *PING* ...the very last cut of the very last edge pinged off a 15cm sliver of snakewood off the side. Luckily , this was an un-slotted fingerboard and so this became the nut end. Could have been a disaster and I should have known better! But, with a couple of tweaks of the jig itself on the radius templates and some self-flagellation for being an idiot, I declared the rig a success! And a couple of days later, this was what the fretboard blank looked like - whereas, before, I would have still been sanding! :

So - before subjecting my beautiful and eye-wateringly expensive piece of snakewood to the devilish and destructive router bit - I thought I'd better try it out on some scrap maple. It seemed to work! And the radius did, indeed, seem to be correct One challenge was that I would need a decent selection of flat spacer lengths to raise the blank to pretty much the exact height...because lowering or raising the router bit will, of course, change the radius. The other thing noted was that the visibility was pretty limited. I used one of the spare Bosch palm router holders that comes with the kit - it's the one that nobody uses that can hold the router at an angle (does ANYONE use that one?????) and maybe the standard base would give a bit more visibility. Anyway - it worked So...onto the eyewateringly expensive snakewood!

@BigRedX & @Jimothey - thread started on the radiussing rig here

The idea of LedBelliBass's original design was to allow both routing each radius strip then index along the length AND alternatively routing along the length of the fretboard, indexing round the curve at each pass. Because I wasn't sure what would be easiest, I decided to allow the same. My base was an old IKEA box shelf. Dead-flat, quite light to handle, just the right width (by pure fluke) and melamine covered so actually quite slippy. All it needed, therefore, was a couple of pine strips glued along the length at the same distance apart as the bottom carrier: I also guessed that if I was doing the multile lengthways passes, I would need to index it relatively securely - so I just drilled a hole in the bottom carrier and, indexing the top carriage by 1/4 of a router bit's width at a time, drilled through to the top carriage to use an old drill (not the breakable cocktail stick shown in the photo!) to hold it in position: Those of you much cleverer than me will have worked out that these holes will only work with one radius template pair. Correct - I will drill another peg hole and indexing holes, above or below, for each different radius I use. Next post I'll let you know how the prototyping went...

I mentioned this jig in my 'Piccolo gains two strings' thread and a couple of you were interested in a bit more detail. I have come to the conclusion that life is too short to hand sand fretboards. Challenges include: It's bloody hard work Even with all of the precautions, tips and tricks employed, it is still too easy to end up with a board that is either thinner one side than the other or uneven or dipping at one end or another The Alembic-esque 6 string electric recently completed nearly did for it and me! A brittle figured ebony bond. Took my time (did it over 3 days!), used chalk to ensure evenness, used a guide rail for the radius block, regular checks. And it STILL ended up a mm slimmer on the treble side than the bass!!! And it absolutely killed my increasingly arthritic hands. So I shamelessly stole and modified a design I'd seen a photo on Google Images by LedBelliBass, originally posted on the HomemadeTools.net website. This is the finished article in use: Basically, the router is bolted to a ball-bearing fitted tray, which itself sits on a simple carrier - which has radius templates either side. Here's the router tray: As you can see, the radius templates are detachable, making it easy to fit alternative templates with alternative radii on. For those with good eyesite, the template fitted is 11" radius but - because the router bit is going to be an inch lower than this - it will actually rout a 10" radius on the fretboard. Similarly, the second set you see on the right of the picture is radiussed at 13" to produce a 12" fretboard curve. Now - on LedBelliBass's original, the bottom carriage also ran on ball bearings, to to me, that seems to be too free moving...and I hate routers to be too free moving! Next post, I'll show the simple rig I used for the lengthways movement

Yup - these were (almost literally) out of this world

Frets are in and body carve pretty much there. Current weight stands at 4lbs 10oz Next job is neck carve...

Another one of @Jabba_the_gut 's is my nomination: Made mostly from 'bits of timber found in a skip', if I remember correctly and unbelievably well crafted. This was the one bass I REALLY wanted to take home at the SE Basschat Bash. In fact, if Jez hadn't been looking....

Yes, @Jimothey I'll do a separate thread if anyone's interested. At the moment, I've done templates for 10" and 12" radius, but it would be easy enough to add more.

You're all too kind but some would say that my secret is merely having just the right balance between drugs and drink.

So - this morning saw me checking the flatness of the neck top and chiselling out the top where the fretboard will sit in: Then, remember the mantra - YOU CAN NEVER HAVE TOO MANY CLAMPS : And that got me to here: And this @Jabba_the_gut , if it's of any interest, is how the binding worked out. Don't know why I didn't think of it before! :

Well, now Mike's Rascal is finished, this is the next one to get out of the way. Bringing it up to date with the stuff I've been able to do in spells that Mike's was waiting for drying time or bits to arrive, I made myself a fretboard radiusing jig to save myself going completely mad (I hate radiusing fretboards!!!!) I modified a design I saw on a Google images search: After a bit of tweaking, it worked well Then the fret-slotting: I've decided I like bound fretboards, so added a couple of strips of acoustic guitar binding with a b/w/b maple feature line: I have to say (special note here to @Jabba_the_gut ) this was, for me, MUCH easier than trying to get a flat multi-layer veneer all the way up the fretboard! Then came the swifts - note the swift-shaped rub marks from the Dremel precision router base : Which got me the fretboard ready to fit: And that gets me up to date up to this morning - I'll add the photos of this morning's progress shortly

OK - it's all packed up and ready to put Mike out of his very patient misery Here's some finished shots before it went back into its case. First of all - a 'before and after' : Then some standard shots - probably the same ones you've seen before but with a dark background : ...and yes, Mike, it fits! :

And...with the magnets fixed to both hatches: It's finished It's too dull and dark to take the final arty-farty shots - I'll do that in the morning

Not at all bland to my eye. Both options would work well IMHO...

Excellent!

Here's a full shot, by the way. The colours have really toned down what originally looked like a large headstock. I really like the look of this - you need to join the Fender Custom team, @scrumpymike

Bit of cable tidying to do but - WE HAVE SOUND!!!! Just the hatches and final set up left to do

No - it will be fine. Feels quite light on the strap, although there is not a huge amount of reduced weight... There is still lots of spaghetti sticking out of the back, but the front view won't change from this other than the lipsticks height balanced during the set up: Looks nice, doesn't it Just the pickup wires to resolder to the switch, the magnets to put onto the hatches and then the final set-up.

Yes - second version has pulled it all together. Looking good Will be watching with great interest to how this continues to develop

Pickups are in and strap buttons fitted. It balances very well on the strap:) If I can squeeze a couple of hours iin between all the other seasonal duties tomorrow...this might get finished!

That is flippin' gorgeous

I've heard of reaching into one's feminine side but I see you're reaching into your 'My Little Pony' side Yes - it was a decent objective for both Mike and I to work against but I suspect it will never quite become a Rascal again

In the brief respite between two sets of relatives taking time and attention over Christmas and New Year, I managed to fit the machine-screw inserts that arrived on Christmas Eve (I'm sure Santa had something to do with it ) So this is reversible for the original Fender screws to go back in the original screwholes if fitted back to the original Rascal body, the easiest option was to simply reposition the anchor points for the machine-screws so 'this body=machine screws, original body=Fender screws': And in action on the new body, using stainless steel allen-socketed screws: So this is where we are with a fully-fitted neck: And from the back it looks like this - note the darker stain for the hatches Mike asked for: So, from memory, that leaves: Tidy up of hatch recess fit Fit magnetic catches to hatches Fit pickups and pots Fit strap buttons Set up

Ooooooooh...Dakota red and Cream. We'd be into little red corvette territory....sounds perfect