Andyjr1515

That's looking like a very special bit of wood . This one will be well worth the wait for - don't rush it Andy

Luminlay fretmarkers installed: By the way, Mick - don't panic. That's the garden chair it was on and not the lower horn!

[quote name='TheGreek' timestamp='1497529802' post='3318891'] Unfortunately nobody's checked to see if I'm cack-handed... [/quote] Oh, but I did...I did

[quote name='Daz39' timestamp='1497525623' post='3318847'] How many times did you check you hadn't made it left-handed? [/quote] Constantly! Then had to check that Mick wasn't....

[quote name='RichardH' timestamp='1497453284' post='3318303'] Love the way the dark neck stringer laminate shows through on the bottom of the headstock. [/quote] Thanks, Richard Still loads and loads to do, but I like it when I get to the 'final list of tasks' stage. 17 items on it, two of which I've been able to cross off yesterday evening. The 'most careful' one of the day was drilling the string exit holes in the fretboard. Not easy! Because the angles and exit points are pretty critical, the pilot holes (drilled from the top) had to be in EXACTLY the right place. Not at all easy when there is almost nothing you can get a ruler against. It was back to schoolboy geometry to work out exactly where I needed to drill, and then exactly the angle to twist to to end up with a hole that was in the right place and at the right angle for both the saddle and the tuner positions. It was another one of this 'check 14 times and drill once' jobs . It paid off, though. These are in the right place and are at the right angle:

Starting to get there. Still quite a bit of final shaping to do but this is starting to get to the vibe we are looking at. Other than the top 'horn', the shape is a pretty close copy of the body shape: It's curved, radiused and rounded on the top: It's definitely stripy on the back: It will end up a little more curvy at the back, but this again is the basic vibe: And the truss rod cover, cut out of the headstock plate itself, will be retained by a single neo-magnet:

[quote name='Bass_Guardian' timestamp='1497450500' post='3318282'] [/quote]

The next day or so will be the 'creeping up on' the headstock. The concept is that is should pretty much reflect the shape of the body. Here it is with the initial rounding of the top (which has already been radiused) and then I will do a subtle concave curve at the back ending with fully-rounded edges. There's lots of sand a bit, step back a bit and think a bit going on on the basis that you can always take away but you can't add stuff back on!

I'm BACK Progress should continue tomorrow onwards

[quote name='Twincam' timestamp='1497179014' post='3316293'] Easy test is too place your finger down hard on the e string behind the nut, between the nut and the machine head. [/quote] I agree with Twincam with this as a first check. 6 string electrics suffer from something like this quite a lot - makes it sound like a sitar - and is usually that the nut has been cut parallel to the fretboard rather than with a slight downward angle (the break angle the others talk about) and the string vibrates along the length of the nut slot itself. If it is that, probably best to get a tech to correct it. Will only take a tech a couple of minutes but, unless youve done it before, wrongly done can leave you needing a new nut. Personally I've not had issues even if the slot is cut a touch too wide as long as that angle is right.

[quote name='bonzodog' timestamp='1497183513' post='3316342'] May give nail polish a go then. Might be just me but I get annoyed spending £600 on a guitar that i cant play after a few weeks because of something so simple to get right. [/quote] No - take it back to guitarguitar. They should be able to pop a new saddle on there and then. This is a basic and shouldn't happen - it actually renders the item not fit for purpose and is a manufacturing flaw covered by standard warranty and sale of goods rights. But you don't need to be at all narky with them - these things happen. Just explain what happened and ask them politely and with a smile to fix it.

As EBS_freak says, it looks like a rattle can finish. If so, it is entirely possible that the original finish is still there underneath and may have been simply oversprayed rather than sanded first. If you are definitely unhappy with the blue (with a white scratchplate it could look quite striking) it might be worth using a small dab of thinners on the back to see what's underneath... If it looks interesting then you could simply remove the blue as a first step.

I like that very much, Ian. The figuring on the wood is amazing. Excellent transition to the back wood at the forearm relief area. What thickness of demarcation veneer do you use between the back and top?

Properly caught up with this one now I'm back in range of an internet signal There are some really innovative features on this build - love it!

...OK. Definitely the last shots for a short while. The headstock will be radiused to match the fretboard and body and will be rounded along the edges, but this is the basic outline shape of the headstock we have firmed up on: The shape reflects the main shape of the body (you weren't so far off the mark, Simon! ) and is made from the same sycamore but has a symmetrical inset of maple to reflect the fretboard. This itself reflects the shape of the truss rod cover that has been cut out of the plate and will be fixed with a magnet: Once it has been radiused and edges curved over, it should compliment the body nicely....at least that's the hope

Oh...shhh....listen.....is that the sound of MrsAndyjr1515 gnashing her teeth?

[quote name='Chris2112' timestamp='1496366844' post='3310880'] . Badly finished glossy necks become tacky under play, which gets worse the long you play as the finish picks up sweat. Les Pauls are dreadful for this. [/quote] ^This In my own experience I've found Fender glossy necks generally OK and Gibson generally sh*te. I ended up selling an otherwise beautiful Les Paul because I just couldn't cope with the drag (and I'm a rhythm player, not a shredder) - and I tried all the normal wire wool stuff, etc.. Then when you google it you find statements from Les Paul enthusiasts cheerfully saying that with regular wire wooling to keep exposing the lower levels then you will find that it fully cures hard and drag free after, well, certainly after a year or so if not earlier! But occasionally, you do come across a bad one... I may have made the last bit up, but that's the gist of it

I'm going to be off air for just over a week from the end of tomorrow so this may have to keep everyone who's following the thread going for a bit. But the good news is that things are usually getting a bit closer once I start cutting swifts...

[quote name='deksawyer' timestamp='1496318085' post='3310437'] On the subject of the neck carve on a single cut, my old ACG had this. Not sure if yours is similar. The build is looking impressive though. [/quote] Nice bass The debate is whether the part of the neck from the centre line to the upper horn body join (to the left in this photo) is flat or profiled downwards slightly...it's crazy but it's almost impossible to see in most photos This is a great photo though - it looks flat to me based on the carve you see just forward of the top horn...

Hi, Twincam Thanks for the kind words I did look at the roller pots and sliders, but they both have as many disadvantages as advantages. The roller pots especially.... Time will tell, but I think it's going to be pretty easy to adjust, even on the fly (although do we bass players tend to adjust on the fly much?). When you sit the bass in the playing position, you are presented with two knobs that are actually orientated like roller knobs. The main thing will be to make sure that the jack socket is at the very bottom of the chamber to give a decent gap from the two knobs. The bigger challenge is going to get the cover sorted...but that would be the case whatever

[quote name='TheGreek' timestamp='1496261123' post='3310076'] Over 24 hours and no new post from Andy....abducted by Aliens?? Secret Agent for the FBI?? All I know is his services are much in demand [/quote] Abducted by Mrs Andyjr1515 for a few household tasks, actually But I have done a bit more this evening

As Trueno says, use a soldering iron and hold it on the stub until it's decently hot. It will expand with the heat and largen the hole slightly. Then let it fully cool. The screw will now be smaller the the hole. Grab the stub with some small needle nosed pliers and it should screw out fairly easily. This is the standard guitar and bass tech's method. If that fails, if it was mine I would leave it be. I certainly wouldn't use a screw extractor - much too much damage to the wood itself.

[quote name='Mottlefeeder' timestamp='1496139267' post='3308998'] I've only recently found this thread, so apologies for revisiting an earlier part of the design. I'm using the same bridge and nut arrangement on a headless bass kit, and I have a problem with it - where the string is bent at 90 degrees to be clamped, you need to ensure that there is no outer winding on the E string, otherwise it breaks when you bend it. On the headless bass kit, the strings just happen to be have the correct length of overwinding, but when I tried to upgrade, I ended up unwinding overwindings to get the string to fit - flatwould strings are not an option. Inevitably, manufacturers do not specify ball-end to end-of-overwinding lengths, so you may find that your design limits the choice of string you can use. A string clamp that will cope with the full string diameter would be more versatile. David [/quote] Hi David Yes - it's far from a perfect design. Then again, the full set is probably no more than the cost of a Steinberger spare knob! I have the advantage of using it at 90 degrees to the norm so it goes into the holes first and then the clamps second. As such the angle of bend doesn't need to be quite as acute. If I was using it conventionally, I would be tempted to use a double ball head end.

[quote name='Matt P' timestamp='1496086044' post='3308693'] i'd go a little further than that, Andy is a genius with very exacting standards. Andy, feel free not to say but what is/was your profession? your working methods hint at something technical with complex methodologies. Matt [/quote] Flattery will, of course, get you anywhere you like, Matt Ref career (now gratefully retired) nothing so exciting. It was logistics and manufacturing management in various forms and various places. Now admittedly I did qualify as a Mechanical Engineer...but I was RUBBISH! Never, never, never walk over a bridge that I have designed....

A lot of the design elements have come as an evolution - verified and developed further with each build - from Tom's (wwcringe) African Build. What I like about the 'scoop from the back' and the 'as long as the neck is straight and strong, you can do pretty much whatever with the body' approach is two things: 1. The neck transition to the body can be so much slimmer than for a standard body: And 2. The Weight. This approach is MUCH more effective at taking weight out than chambering. The complete body and trussrod is now 5lb 12oz. I think we are in the territory of the finished large-bodied single cut bass being 7lbs ...