Andyjr1515

Great!

[quote name='Bottle' timestamp='1471695735' post='3115116'] Bridge & MM Pickup sorted (many thanks Thunderbird) and neck with maple fretboard (Dannybuoy) Have a little question regarding placing the bridge. Obviously this will be a 34" scale bass (as the neck is already fretted for that scale length), so how does one determine the optimum position? Do you pick the midpoint of the saddle travel front to back or is there an offset position to account for string intonation? Cheers, Ian [/quote] Hi, Ian There is a frets and bridge calculator on the Stewmac site but it does assume you are using a standard Fender P-bass bridge How I do it is slightly different to what you say. If I have at least 4mm adjustment of the saddles, I wind the G saddle to the very front and place that at the scale length, knowing that it will wind back maybe 1mm but that the bass strings will be able to wind back at least 4mm (the bottom E is usually at least 3mm back from scale length - but can be more. However, the G saddle will never be in front of the scale length but often isn't much further back than that). If I have more limited saddle movement, then I would wind the G to the front and place it 1mm max back from scale length. Hope this helps and anyone who disagrees please do chip in!

[quote name='Bastav' timestamp='1471690405' post='3115053'] Youre working very fast! Looking good [/quote] Got a bit of a break after today so I've been trying to get ahead

The first back wing is now glued and I have checked the flatness in relation to the neck: From the back it looks almost identical (just as well, really!): Because the top is slightly unstable, it is critical that the top-surface of the back is [i]completely [/i]flat. That way, when I clamp the living daylights out of the top onto the back, I should be able to achieve a gap-free almost competent looking join (well - here's hoping ) Because of this, when I have come to glue the second back panel, I have flipped the bass over to make absolutely sure the final mating surface is going to becompletely flat. My workbench is flat and I have used a number of top clamps, holding both the neck assembly and the second back panel firmly to the workbench top. I've also heartily whacked all components with a heavy hide mallet to make sure they are fully in position. Then I have used the bench vice, a couple of sash clamps and some standard screw clamps to hold it tight and flat: Note the clingfilm to stop it all being comprehensively glued to the bench! With any luck, this finished surface should need no levelling prior to the top being clamped on (again, here's hoping!)

[quote name='Bastav' timestamp='1471678822' post='3114917'] Thanks andy, dont know that i would call my routing clean but this was certainly better than my last pickup routes! [/quote] Mmmm...but you should see mine at times!

Now that's what I call an individual design! I envy clean routing like your pickup chamber and fretboard end and, as for that carve...top drawer

Oooooo - flattery gets you everywhere. Definitely will be watching this one!

[quote name='owen' timestamp='1471632219' post='3114683'] I am aiming to take the fingerboard and nut off the DB, cut the fingerboard down and glue it onto the present fingerboard of the Uke. I will need a curved bridge so will cut that down and shape it so that it will sit in the slot that the present bridge sits in so that I can use the piezo. This will give me a small EUB. In theory. [/quote] Ah...OK - got it. Thanks

Love it!

That is a stunning stoptail...

...and I'm not sure I do understand what you are planning to do....or how.

The nut to body taper of the neck has been rough band-sawn, the mating surfaces of the neck and body sections have been squared up and the first half of the body is now glued and clamped: Note the wenge veneer between the two components. The wenge veneer glued to the back of the top will effectively surround the neck when viewed from the back. I did the same with FuNkShUi's single cut: In fact, other than the different colours of the body wood, it will look pretty much like this

If you've successfully stripped with a heat gun in the past, I would personally try that first. Unless it's a nitro finish (which I'm pretty sure it isn't) then as a modern finish it could be as hard as steel and be an absolute sod to sand - especially without ending up over-sanding, resulting in flats and rounded edges. By all means try sanding first, but don't be surprised if that turns out to be exceptionally difficult. As you say, with a heat gun, gently does it and careful not to scorch or dig in with the scraper.

Hi Stuart The attached has a rundown of the versions and the control options http://www.westoneguitars.net/basses/thunder/ From what I can gather, the knobs are Master Vol; Passive Tone; Active Tone and your toggle switches are In phase/Out of phase; Series humbucker/Parallel Humbucker; Active on/off. Based on that, it sounds like your guess is right, that the active circuit isn't working for some reason, so you have the responses from the passive controls but not from the active. I'm not familiar with Westone active circuits so I'm afraid that's where my input probably fizzles out!

Well......I will be watching with interest....

After lots of web research, I have gone for the DiMarzio DP120 Model One for the SG style bass I'm building at the moment. I understand that it was designed as a direct replacement for the Gibson EB neck mudbuckers and has very good user reviews. Not sure yet about the bridge.

For anyone who is bemused or interested by the above topic, [url="http://www.tundraman.com/Guitars/NeckAngle/"]Tundra Man has an excellent article here[/url] This is an illustration from that article: ...so when you are designing a guitar or bass, you establish:[list] [*]Where the top is [*]Where the bridge will sit [*]How high the bridge saddles are above the top and what adjustability there is [*]Where the top of the fretboard and frets will be [*]Where the nut will be [*]What angle of neck allows you to achieve the desired action height of the strings above the frets at, say the 22nd fret and allow a reasonable adjustment of the saddle height either way. Generally, where there is a reasonable upward adjustment of the bridge, I set the neck angle so that the strings are just above the 22nd fret with the bridge at its lowest position and then just wind up the bridge / saddles to the desired action height. [/list]

[quote name='PlungerModerno' timestamp='1471474255' post='3113379'] Cool. I'd say having a neck angle relative to the body will change the feel of playing the bass - making it hang slightly closer with the same shaped body, from what I've felt holding LP style guitars with the angle and some pretty flat backs (like an SG?). I'd say it's not a major part of the recipie - not as big a deal as bridge placement, and body carve for how a bass will feel when finished. [/quote] I think they do feel slightly different. But to me, it is more the height of the strings above the body wood than the neck itself that feels different. In terms of 6string electrics, the tuneomatic guitars (high bridge) tend to have to have neck angles built in (SG and LP both do) and the lower fixed or trem style bridge guitars, like the strat and tele, Ibanez, etc, tend to have zero neck angle. Whatever, the need or not for a neck angle is entirely to do with the geometry - and is the result of the placement of everything else - rather than a design requirement in its own right. It's fascinating stuff from a builders point of view

Excellent news, Bottle Axesrus are also pretty good for hardware, etc http://www.axesrus.co.uk/ Can't wait to see the progress! Andy

[quote name='scojack' timestamp='1471471459' post='3113355'] Andy why no neck angle like the others? [/quote] It's simply the bridge. The Gibson three pointer is as flat as a pancake. That, with a relatively thick fretboard blank I've got means that the action can get to zero without an angle.

[quote name='PlungerModerno' timestamp='1471462536' post='3113272'] Coming along very rapidly. In a good way! How much do plan on whittling down that neck & headstock? Most nut widths I've seen on SG's seem to be 1.5" - 1.625" - If you're going for the full size gibson/epiphone like headstock e.g. Looking at them they seem to look a little odd with the skinnier 1.5" nut width and full size headstock. But looking at the this pic of a long scale SG taken from [url="http://www.flyguitars.com/gibson/bass/2000gibsonSGZ.php"]here[/url] it also seems to be easy to get a "chunky" looking nut with what I imagine is a downsized headstock and wideish nut (at least 1.625"). Asthetics aside it's down to what the customer wants. [/quote] Yes - it's something I need to check with Pete. Personally, I would go for the slimmer one and slim down the headstock accordingly (it's planned to be more an 'in the style of' than a copy )but Pete may have a preference.

[quote name='3below' timestamp='1471461815' post='3113263'] With your 'one piece' necks, do you 'cut' in neck angle, angle the body wings or have a parallel body-neck alignment? From your builds I am starting to see some advantages of through neck construction, it seems much simpler than tenon joint or routing for bolt on neck. Am I missing something? [/quote] Personally, I find this much simpler than a bolt on or glued in neck. This particular one needs no neck angle so the notch is parallel. All of the others I've done have needed an angle but all you do is block up the tail end of the neck in the router jig by the appropriate amount. I've got a photo somewhere of a similar neck to the above but with an angled notch. When I'm back on the desktop, I'll track it down and post it

Managed to get the neck cut in one plane before domestic duties stopped play The nut to body taper will have to wait until tomorrow

Having now got the neck width slimmed down to finished size, I put the beam into my router jig to cut out the body notch: So I now have the basic components: Once the neck has been rough-sawn to shape and everything is tidied up, the wings will be glued - which will be straightforward because the neck here is now the same thickness as the body wings: Then the control routes and weight relief chambers will be routed into the thru neck/body halves. Then the fancy top will be glued and extremely firmly clamped, with the top being in line with the top of the neck, allowing the fretboard to hide the join: I like this bit where, at last, it starts looking like a bass!

[quote name='3below' timestamp='1471431092' post='3112977'] Planer-thicknesser is one of the best tools I have ever purchased, should have done it years ago. I have just re-discovered planer 'snipe' with 4' x 8" x 2" mahogany I am starting with. Roller in and out feed has helped but it is time I cut it into the two slabs for jointing. [/quote] Yes - a planer thicknesser would absolutely be the ideal...just never had the room (and still don't). I can but dream