Andyjr1515

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

One of the things I have learned over the builds is to always physically draw the side view in full scale: I don't do it in huge detail, but to absolutely confirm:[list] [*]Body depth [*]Bridge height [*]Pickup height [*]Fretboard and fret height [*]...leading to Neck angle and [*]Headstock angle [/list] This one has come out as a bit of a pleasant surprise....no neck angle required! What's more, I can [i]just [/i]get my minimum comfortable headstock angle (I use 9 degrees as a personal OK minimum) with a single fully thicknessed neck beam: That will make the thickessing and routing of the through neck SO much easier (and it's a first on any of my builds). Here's the thicknessed neck: The reason that all of this helps so much is that I am going to do this a more conventional way than normal -[list] [*]I normally attach the back to the top, slot the channel for the neck, then set the neck into the complete body assembly. This generally sends decent builders into a state of apoplexy [*]But the above relies on the top being flat and stable. The figured mahogany on this build is moving all over the place and I need a stable flat base to clamp it onto when it's gluing [*]So I am going to glue the squared-up back wings onto the thicknessed and slimmed neck, rout the weight-relief and cable routing chambers, then glue the top onto that flat and prepared surface. [/list] Next jobs are to use the thicknesser again to slim down the neck blank, then band-saw the neck profile ready for the wings to be glued on The thicknesser, by the way, was my one 'big' spend when I started doing full builds and I'm pleased I made that decision. There was nothing in the reviews and specs that gave any indication of how fine an increment the Makita 2012NB could maintain. Well, I'm sure it varies but here I thicknessed down 1mm per pass until I was sub 1mm away, and then eased it down to final thickness +/- 0.1mm !!!! It is, of course, just a thicknesser so you don't get over the problem of 'banana in, banana out', but generally I can find a way of creating a decent datum to work from.

It's going to be another corker I love the arm relief cut through to the back wood. You probably said earlier, but what veneer have you used for demarcation?

[quote name='Bastav' timestamp='1471171527' post='3110934'] says the guy who routed out a control cavity cover from this thing [/quote] That's why I know it's scary!!

Wow, that's some careful and scary routing on the neck heel!

[quote name='BassBus' timestamp='1471100305' post='3110545'] Sorry I'm at it again. The orientation of the top is just right this time Andy. It's one of the little characters from the film 'batteries not included' and she's much happier than the horned Devil was. [/quote] Well, I confess that of all the things I could see in the figuring, that wasn't one of them

Top is now cut and the sides sanded (top not yet finish sanded): The wenge demarcation veneer can be seen at the bottom here. I'm hoping the end grain pattern of the mahogany bodes well for when I cut the chamfer! : The neck has been sanded with my large levelling beam (although to be honest, it didn't need it - two superb quarter grain and beautifully planed mahogany neck splices supplied by David Dyke! Thanks, David ) and the walnut centre splice glued, offset by 11mm to form the channel for the truss rod: ...and with that clamped and set, the second outer splice glued and clamped: It's not often I've made such a lot of progress in one morning - the provision of a small workspace and proper workbench hasn't half made a difference!

[quote name='paulnb57' timestamp='1471020091' post='3110074'] Great stuff Andy! Another awesome build! [/quote] Thanks, Paul

Hi, folks. Yup - the second one is my favourite. I like the fluidity of it in the playing position: And, ref the earlier discussions, when it's on its stand, you will see the flames licking round his horns :

Well, cutting wood at last With my slightly unconventional approach, I finish shape the top - first by band saw and then with hand tools - and then use that as the routing template to finish rout the above back wings. Many other builders do it the other way round, finish routing the top using the back as the guide for the bearing flush trimmer bits. However, I always fear the points of horns of the figured top going 'ping' as the router bit goes round. Later this evening I will rough cut the top - once the wenge demarcation veneer glue has hardened enough... Horrible stuff, wenge...great results, though

Excellent progress, Bastav I was working with wenge veneer today. Hate the bloody stuff but I can't get away from that it does produce an excellent result!

[quote name='6v6' timestamp='1470997810' post='3109854'] For me it's the first one, I really like the way the figuring looks on the lower bouts of the body. One question for you - what sort of router bit do you use with the thicknessing jig? I've tried a similar thing with large-ish straight bits and got fairly poor results, e.g not that smooth because the edges of each pass are visible so need post-routing sanding to fully flatten (to be fair, it could also be that my jig isn't quite rigid enough). [/quote] Yes - it does that with mine too. But it is usually just the grain pushed one way a bit like the stripes on a lawn so doesn't affect the dimensional accuracy. As you say, a quick sand will usually sort it. You can see the stripes here: I just use a straight-forward 1/2" (or metric equivalent). This one was a bit blunt, to be honest...I'd only got one that was long enough and that has been knocking around for some time The key seems to be to apply small increments of depth and no more than 1/2 of the bit's diameter travel on each pass.

Well, the top gluing seems pretty sound and the panels - at the moment - are staying largely flat. For those who haven't used figured woods before and intend to, there's an important tip related to the fact that the best of the bookmatching is usually along the join....which is where most of the hardware goes. Added to that, there are features that, again, can often be covered or routed out by hardware or pickups. So the tip is to ALWAYS pop a mask over the wood, dampened to see the grain, and place on some hardware paper templates or the actual bits if you've got them. Here, the fretboard and bridge pickup are not intended for this bass - but they are in approx the right places. I haven't put any sample knobs on, but can envisage where they will be, including the big settings plate of the varitone. I have a choice - this way round: ...or this way round I think I know my own preference. Which one grabs you?