Andyjr1515

[quote name='samhay' timestamp='1490863679' post='3268553'] Could you not alternatively fix the bridge to the neck side of the cavity (by flipping upside down from the above orientation)? I would imagine this would make it stronger... [/quote] Yes you could, but that would make accessing the screw holes to fix it in very tricky without either having a line of access holes in the back part of the fretboard or having the string exit slot much wider. Attaching the ball ends to the tuner pullers would also be a bit more awkward as you would be doing it blind. I'm actually happy that the fixing will be as strong as any standard bridge fixing. I am presently working on tweaking the angle so that the strings have a straight pull on the tuners, though, and trying to get that bridge position back a bit. That means either exposing the tuners from the front view a touch, or increasing the angle the tuners are coming out of the back. As I said earlier, a bass is basically a set of compromises held together by determination and hope!

[quote name='BassApprentice' timestamp='1490859787' post='3268499'] [url="http://www.pagelli.com/e-guitars-innovations.html"]http://www.pagelli.c...nnovations.html[/url] Third from the bottom Very classy looking bass that Golden Fretless [/quote] Yes indeed - it was one of the photos Mick sent to me when he was describing the full-length fretboard concept. It's something else isn't it!

[quote name='anzoid' timestamp='1490815543' post='3268322'] Thanks Andy. Will procure me some super glue, remove the nut and have a go at it this weekend (unless life intervenes... always a risk)... Pictures will be posted and you can all laugh at how cack-handed I am when it comes to DIY [/quote] Don't forget the masking tape - superglue can stain wood quite markedly

...oh, and take the nut off first so there's nothing stopping the fretboard from clamping down back onto the neck.

Scarf joints are actually done because it makes the joint much stronger and less likely to break at the headstock joint than a single piece. This is because the grain direction with an angled headstock. The best example is the Gibson range of electrics, which don't feature scarf joints but do have an angled headstock....which is one of the reasons there aren't many old Les Pauls or SG s around. The crack is not overly serious but does need sorting - you don't want it to continue parting as the bass gets played more and maybe is now stored in different conditions than in the past. You will find wood glue very difficult to get properly into the crack. Others will probably advise but personally, I would mask closely along the joint line to protect the wood and varnish and then use thin superglue which will "wick" into the crack. Then I would immediately tighten pre-prepared clamps until it was certain to have cured (usually within minutes but leave it longer just to be sure). As I say, others will advise too but that's how I would do my own. By the way, before I did that, I would make sure the truss rod was working OK - because to replace the truss rod usually needs the fingerboard being removed...which is difficult if it's been superglued even over a short length.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1490803442' post='3268203'] You should also have a look at the Pagelli Golden Bass, which is one of the very first basses that I saw which had the full-length fingerboard (and tuners at the back of the body IIRC). There aren't any images on the Pagelli site right now, but a quick Google should reveal some... [/quote] Will do - thanks

[quote name='TheGreek' timestamp='1490708420' post='3267233'] Am I being too demanding by asking for something like this??? Or has Andy 's previous work left me believing he can do anything.... Maybe he should have titled this thread "Great Expectations".. [/quote] Do you know...what I love about the full-custom builds, as well as the sheer adrenaline rush of spending months on something that might end up as barbecue wood, is this kind of thing. Generally my approach is practical. That is, it [i]has[/i] to work and it [i]has [/i]to be workable. On the other hand - a bit like my wife when we are trying to sort a new kitchen layout - often the people I'm building for are completely unshackled by such trivia Just like my wife might say - "well I want a large wide passageway THERE!" - pointing to the one wall that absolutely holds the whole of the rest of the house up. And then a strange process happens. Once I've exhausted myself with all the reasons why the bloody passageway CAN'T be wide and CAN'T be there, I let just a chink of the impracticality to creep into my thinking and, often come up with a solution that DOES have a wide passageway, and it IS there, but, now I come to think about it, doing it this way and adding this and changing that will actually make the building stronger and the whole kitchen job easier. The result is often MUCH better than it would have been without being faced with the wholly impossible Which a very long way of saying that, actually, Mick's idea above is a pretty good one. I am going to use the steinberger-style tuner block that Mick sent me, and below you can see it can be secured. But the string angles are a bit compromised, which I always try to avoid: But I can't tilt the tuner mechanism and more because the (retaining wall) bass body is in the way. So what if I knock the (retaining wall) body out of the way? Like this: You know....that might just work.....

[quote name='solo4652' timestamp='1490702230' post='3267154'] Hello Andy. Thank you for that. I now only play short scale (30") basses, so the HB isn't going to work for me. [/quote] No probs at all

Hi I've got a Harley Benton fitted with D'Addario black nylons and if sounds great acoustically or plugged in. Drop me a pm....I never get round to playing it and to be honest it's a bit in the way. We might be talking about 'for the cost of the strings and gig bag' territory. I'm near Belper above Derby so easy reach to or from Stockport. Andy

Hey folks... ...it's only gone and won[url="http://www.notreble.com/buzz/2017/03/27/bass-of-the-week-ajr-guitarmods-piccolo-bass/"] [i]No Trebles[/i] 's "Bass of the Week"[/url]. That's twice now . Wonder if we can get Mick's new build in as the hat trick?

Hi All I don't know how many of you remember Kert's (FuNkShUi) single cut getting the US-based[i] No Treble[/i] magazine's "Bass of the Week" last year? Anyway, the piccolo bass I recently finished (see build diaries) has won it again [url="http://www.notreble.com/buzz/2017/03/27/bass-of-the-week-ajr-guitarmods-piccolo-bass/"]The link to the emag article is here[/url] Ignore the typo which talks about a pair of SD Cool Rails - it only has one Well chuffed! Andy

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1490643379' post='3266753'] In which case it's well done for airing your dirty linen in public. What's this forum for if it's not to stop us making a plonker of ourselves? [/quote]

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1490623691' post='3266540'] I saw the beginnings of the thread about Andy's new spray booth but no more. I'm sure I'm not alone in jumping to the conclusion here that at least one person jumped in there and said there are factors in the construction which made the design illadvised? Isn't this a positive outcome? If it were not for that thread Andy could be scorched under a molten heap of plastic and chemicals or poisoned with interacting chemical forming gasses; whatever was the potential threat that he faced. I say, "well done Andy for posting. And well done to the other person for jumping in." Andys design for the booth was logical and a solution that was low cost and sensible; if you don't know better. There but for the grace of God go I. Thank you for this opportunity to learn. [/quote] Actually, Grangur, it's 'well done Andy twice.' I'm certain that someone would have tapped me on the shoulder before too long and said, 'Now then...is that really wise?' but actually I tapped myself on the shoulder before anyone else did. One of those '[b]What the hell am I doing[/b]???' moments.... Thanks for the comments though

You know the old phrase, "...and it was staring me in the face the whole time!" Or, put another way - "Now WHERE am I going to be able to find a bracket that has double locking and would fit the spacing of bass strings?" When Mick sent me the Steinberger look-alike tuner, he also sent me the above headstock bracket. The one designed for using normal strings rather than double ball-end. Which I confess I didn't notice until just..... So hacksaw off the semi-circular bracket, drill a fixing screw hole in the middle and either fix it on the top, routing the strings this way round, or (more likely) on the bottom, routing the strings the other way round. Either way - problem solved You're a genius, Mick Andy

Some useful thoughts and ideas above - thanks Something like the Ritter approach, or even clamping ferrules a bit like this (imagine a grub-screw rather than a screw-head and the ferrule sitting in a half-drilled hole from the back, with an allen key access hole in the side of the headstock) would be best for the reasons you state, eude - avoiding the need for double-ball strings: I'm assuming that Ritters are using some custom hardware. If anyone knows of any commercially available hardware like it, Mick and I would be very interested in hearing about it

While Mick has been looking at options for the headstock (we are both trying to avoid the abrupt stop of a conventional headless headstock which would look completely wrong on this shape), I have been trying to confirm the fixing and string routing at the other end. With a full length fretboard, I think we are in the realms of an acoustic-style bone saddle. Imagine the bridge in this picture was the fretboard, continuing forwards and backwards: Something like that. The added benefit is that is makes is a doddle to fit a conventional acoustic-style piezo element under the saddle Working on the fact that lower E strings don't really like bending more than 30 degrees, this fully dimensioned drawing probably confirms the closest I can get the saddle to the tail with the tuner mechanism fully hidden from the front view: Mechanically, I think this would work, although the tuner string retainer adjustment screws will need to be shortened to prevent the ball ends just pulling out under initial tensioning (due to the angled string pull) So far, so good

[quote name='samhay' timestamp='1490609209' post='3266299'] This looks to be interesting. >Hidden magnetic pickup >At the moment in that proposal, the pickup is deeper than the body... Are you planning on burying that pickup in/under the fingerboard, or have you given up on the hidden aspect? In either case, seeing as you are pushing the boat out, why not wind your own pickup to fit? [/quote] There are shallower pickups around than the one that Mick sent me (a nice MEC) so I'm sure I can sort an alternative if needs be. Having said that, my concept may well suck anyway, in which case a custom-wound may be the answer whatever. It's going to be a full length fretboard, so my plan was to fit the pickup from the back and set some iron slugs into the fretboard, either blind or exposed and sanded flush: The scale of this above is, of course wrong, with a standard J pickup being much wider than the fretboard. With a custom wind it would be possible to raise the fixed slugs into a slot in the back of the fretboard... I've been doing some experiments, winding my bubinga pickup right down into the body and then laying a piece of iron across the poles to see what it does to the volume and tone, and also winding out the pole pieces ridiculously high. The former works better than the latter but there's lots more experiments to do....

[quote name='Andyjr1515' timestamp='1490543829' post='3265838'] Yes indeed, Bastav. On my bubinga you can probably see that I had also done that [/quote] This is one area where the skew helps - the effect will be more marked on this design...

[quote name='Bastav' timestamp='1490543603' post='3265832'] Another thing to think about if you want even more right-swing is positioning the bottom strap button further up towards the neck. [/quote] Yes indeed, Bastav. On my bubinga you can probably see that I had also done that

I will post the progress of the design as it progresses. There are and will be lots of messaging between Mick and me in the background as we develop or abandon thoughts and ideas. I will probably have to build a number of prototype rigs too to try things out. So you will see the design and development process, warts and all. Remember two things:[list] [*]The design and solutions will undoubtedly change during the process [*]Like all of my builds, I will simply say what I have done and why. If you are thinking of building stuff yourself, NEVER assume that I know what I am doing - but DO feel free to learn by my mistakes.... [/list] So, where would I usually start? Geometry and physics. A bass guitar is a series of compromises held together by determination and hope. Pretty much everything impacts on everything - usually making what you were trying to do impossible for practical or practicability reasons. For me, I start with the tailstock arrangement and thus the bridge position , because that will determine how far away the nut ends up being away from your grasp. The further forward the bridge, the longer the neck will be. Sounds obvious but you can easily and quickly end up with a bass that is physically unplayable. The other thing that fundamentally affects the apparent neck length is the balance on the strap. This early in the process you [i]have to [/i]have a decent idea how this is going to hang. If it swings to the player's right (assuming a RH bass), then neck will feel shorter. If it swings to the left, it can become unplayable because you simply can't reach the end of the neck. The above is where the challenges of this build start biting. We are going for a headless mechanism, fitted to the back and hidden from the front view. There is going to be some hacksaw work on Mick's donated tuner assembly, but this is where it will go: Note that due to the forward skew of the upper part of the tail, the tuner mechanism is a few cm further forward than it normally would be. Also this is going to be fitted at the back. So to get to the bridge with any decent string angles, there is going to be quite a distance for the angled strings to go to get to the top. This pushes the bridge even further forward, as you can see in the top (full-size) sketch below: I've written '11cm minimum' here but in reality, to hide the tuners, this is going to be at least 13cm from the centre-line which is itself 1.5" further forward than I would normally aim for. All things being equal, that would make this feel like a 35.5" scale bass!! But, then there's the hang. Here's my Bubinga fretless in comparison, with the bridge in the same position: Playing the Bubinga is pretty much me at full stretch so anything forward of this is a concern. And that great lump of material at the back of the design is going to throw it further to the left. But look where the horn meets the neck - a strap button (probably at the back) here would be much further forward than my bubinga. This would swing the bass back to the right. So...might be OK Another consequence of the forward bridge is the hidden magnetic pickup. Remember that the body will be slim and diminishing. The forward bridge position throws the pickup towards the narrowest and thinnest point: At the moment in that proposal, the pickup is deeper than the body... So that's what [i]I've[/i] been doing this Sunday

[quote name='Bastav' timestamp='1490533007' post='3265724'] now [i]that[/i] is quite the spec. lovely flame on that maple aswell, are you going to add some accent veneers or is it gonna be all maple/light woods? [/quote] The neck will be 5 piece rock maple with some thin accent lines either side of the central maple splice - other than that it will be all as white as we can make it, although clearly it will darken a touch when the finishing is on. That body wood is actually sycamore (related to maple), cut down, cut up and seasoned by a local contact and professional instrument maker. I was pleased to get hold of it because the offset with the bookmatch means that the blanks need to be significantly longer than those normally available. There's a dark spot you can just see that is a quirk in the grain - it is impossible to know until it's carved whether that will get bigger, stay the same or disappear. But, well...that's wood for you...

Oh...and here's the body wood for it:

Hi Other titles I considered was -"Mick throws down the gauntlet" or "It's the last straw the breaks the camels back" or "Here's another fine mess you've gotten us into" The most ambitious project so far....and some. It's for our very own Mick (aka TheGreek) This one is still in conceptual stages in many ways and - with so many technical challenges ahead - going to take some time. And - always a possibility - feasibly might not work. The excitement and anticipation of starting this project has been building rapidly like the internal pressure of eating too many baked beans The plan at the moment is:[list] [*]Contact lens cross-sectional profile: [/list] [list] [*]Ultra-modern skewed profile [/list] [list] [*]Full length fretboard (ie nut to tailstock) [*]Headless tuning mechanism (actual head / no head / part head still in design) [*]Hidden magnetic pickup [*]Possibly piezo in addition [*]Hidden controls [*]Natural, white wood throughout [/list] There - that's it. Pressure released. As they say..."better out than in"

Fantastic!

This just gets better and better. I can't believe the colours you've got out of natural wood!