Andyjr1515

[quote name='Joebethell' timestamp='1432220072' post='2779348'] Looking very very nice. Could go for one like this myself. [/quote] Commissions always welcome...

The next challenge was the jack. Tom and I had already agreed that there wouldn't be any room for potentiometers, so the pickup (EMG 40HZ) would be wired directly to Tom's preferred locking Neutrik jack. The trouble was, that a jack was about twice as long as the body was deep! The only option would be to fix the Neutrik on a platform. I had some cocobolo left over so started with a spade drill to create the chamber for the neutrik to fit in: Once I'd drilled right through, I hand-carved a simple pyramid platform (tried a tear-drop shape too but that didn't look quite right and so this was the preferred one) I also cut the cocobolo fretboard to width so I could test out for sure that the bridge height - and thus the pickup height (of which more later) - was going to work. I also drew on the cocobolo a little feature stolen off the recent Cort Curbow project, the nice curved carve at the end of the fretboard, for Tom to consider: As always, thanks for your encouraging feedback and patience! Andy

Thanks for the kind comments, folks Decent bit of progress today - done the outside shape routing and cut the amazaque ready for straightening and laminating the neck. I flattened the top of the joined bubinga: Then stuck the routing template on with heavy duty double-sided tape: I use a top-bearing trimmer first: which gives me this below (note where the router tipped a little as I ran out of base-stability at the horn!): ...then the body is flipped over and a bottom bearing trimmer used, which now follows the line of the first rout: One outline-profiled body: I also cut some generously width'd lengths from a large piece of amazaque, mirror-orientated to minimise warping: Once I've glued the two pieces either side of the wenge centre-splice, I'll then plane the whole neck to size. As always, thanks for looking! Andy

[quote name='allighatt0r' timestamp='1432194837' post='2778982'] Amazing! I'm glad you managed to put some of that spare veneer to good use ;-) This is such a cool build, and finally explains why you've been keeping it under wraps all this time! [/quote] Yes - nice to have a bit of extra Thunder in the build

The roughed out neck could at last be glued to the body! It had a couple more clamps than this, but to be honest, it was such a good fit, that it just needed holding in position rather than forcing together. Because of the cocobolo gluing issue, this was again epoxy...in most 'normal' builds it would generally be Titebond I would use. Once in place and epoxy set, I got the chisels out to start the final carves down to the body level: It was now not going to fall to pieces and was actually starting to look like a bass!

Yup - the colour's got my vote

[quote name='PlungerModerno' timestamp='1431969753' post='2776767'] Nice work, and nice documentation of the process. I still have no idea what's up with that neck heel though! Should be plenty strong as long as the screw's don't line up with air! (seeing the reverse of the original neck heel - that won't be an issue!) [/quote] I agree, PlungerModerno - can't see any logic to it. Then again, on the original, can't see any logic to the extra wide counterbore below either : The bushes are 12mm OD and 10mm ID, the spindles are 10mm right down to the mating surface, so why have the extra counterbore??? Who knows... With the string positions being in different places and the head being a slightly different shape, I checked the string runs. The original positions put the strings a tiny bit closer together than I would have liked, so I moved the positions 5mm further up to take advantage of the rising and falling curves of the headstock sides to gain another couple of mm of separation: Like always, then checked, double checked and triple checked before I started drilling. For tuner holes, I now ALWAYS use a stepped drill - much easier to control, much easier to keep perpendicular and much less likely to 'burst' the headstock than conventional drills. Does anyone else use these? Then job done Just got to do the final sand, final stain then varnish and this can be shipped back to Paul Andy

[quote name='cheddatom' timestamp='1432118446' post='2778269'] yes, tell us more! [/quote] I will when I've finished dusting and polishing the patio...

Hi Rumple. That's a REALLY nice pick guard. With tortoiseshell, it has to be good to look right...this looks perfect!

[quote name='Dave Vader' timestamp='1432109817' post='2778136'] I am impressed that you are hoovering your patio as you go along, Mrs Vader would love me to do the same when I am breaking guitars in the garden. Awesome job by the way [/quote] Yes - clearly MrsAndyjr1515 is significantly more frightening than MrsVader. She certainly scares the life out of me...

Tom wanted a trussrod and also carbon rods for stability of the neck. As we were talking of the possibility of asymmetrical neck profile and also the extremes of temperature and humidity the bass is likely to be exposed to (it will be hopefully shortly going on tour in Africa!) it seemed a very good idea. My preference is to go for the simple rod and strip truss rods - less to go wrong. I routinely test them before fitting. The only thing that could fail is the weld, so I pop them in a slot, clamp them in a workbench and stress them way beyond normal usage. The other thing I try to do is to make them removable! I really don't understand why the main manufacturers don't do the same. With this particular design, the back of the truss rod does not widen as in some others: So to install - before applying the top cap, I simply overlap a strip of plumbers ptfe tape which does three things:[list] [*]keeps the glue off the rod [*]stops any rattles [*]eases the ability to slide the rod out in the future if needed [/list] To remove the rod, it then just needs a decent pair of needle-nosed pliers, grabbing the adjuster between the allen key hole and the o.d., sharp tug and out it should slide. Take new rod, wrap ptfe tape round and slide back in. Because the headstock has a facing plate on, this would need to slotted a little to allow the rod to pass and you might therefore need a longer truss rod cover after the operation - but nothing compared with the hassle of the alternative of removing the fretboard! Anyway, back to the build. A process of check, double check, double check the double check went on to determine a number of factors, sliding the body forwards and backwards on the neck and placing the actual bridge and a spare representative pickup in various positions Once the neck is in and glued, that's the end of it if anything is wrong. The checks were to determine:[list] [*]The correct position for the neck, bridge and pickup. Tom wanted a 34.5" scale, fretless and, to prevent neck dive as much as possible, I wanted the bridge to be as far back as possible, to be able to shorten the neck as much as possible. The combination of not much body mass and long scale made that quite an important factor [*]Whether the neck needed a dogleg slot to raise it at all. Once the bridge position lengthways was determined, I knew which bit of the wavy top the bridge was going to fit. This allowed me, placing the fretboard onto the neck, to place a straight-edge along the board to the bridge to see if the neck needed lowering or raising in its slot. [*]Whether the neck needed angling or not. [/list] A bit of luck was on my side here. No angle was needed and - if I'd got it right - once the body had been flattened to give the bridge a firm base, the fretboard height would be OK without the need to step or deepen the neck in the body area. The slots for the carbon rods were routed and the neck could now be rough shaped ready for gluing: It now could be glued in and the whole thing stabilised and less likely to form the basis of an unusual combination of smokes on the BBQ Andy

[quote name='owen' timestamp='1432067996' post='2777912'] I am loving this. I would love to have these skills. [/quote] It's more making it up as I go along actually, Owen Each step of this build has been preceded by a week or so just looking and thinking 'how on earth am I going to do this?!?' Often, the answer became easy simply by the elimination of all the other options!

This is a build of superlative quality. Inspirational.

Looking forward to seeing this!

So why the two cocobolo strips running along the body either side of the neck? Pretty much everything related to this build has had to start with finding a solution to a functional necessity and then working the practicality and aesthetics around that. The bridge (using one of Tom's old Ibanez's as a donor) is wider than the neck and, as such, the two outer screws would have gone into the body wood, rather than the neck wood. The cocobolo strips would mean that the bridge could be fully secured in sound, stable and predictably behaving wood. On the other side, though was another problem: The neck pocket carve - although most of which would be routed away depth-wise - was actually wider than both a neck and the extra cocobolo strip: Here, the area would need to be turned into a 'feature' with a piece of cocobolo carved and set into the space. That could wait, though. I needed to get the neck position firmed up - lengthwise and height-wise - so that I could get it glued in and the whole assembly stabilised as soon as possible... Thanks for your continued interest and patience! Andy

To my relief, the timber held up well to the routing. You can see here JUST how close I would need to get to the top...no choice or there simply wouldn’t be enough thickness for the maple and its much needed strength. The fall-back position here, it it was to finally give up and break its back, was going to have to be a visible neck top and African timber wings (and hopefully not detachable in the style of Paul h!) The rout was finished, the body was still in one piece, the measurements were checked and spot on. I then heard a tiny *click*. Now - those of you who do luthiering – or any type of woodwork – will know that unexpected *click*s are not good. My *click* was accompanied by the African timber-language version of a *sigh*. The kind of *sigh* one might let out when, having worn trousers that were too tight all day for a formal occasion, you finally can loosen the belt in the evening and undo the top button. This was the result of the *click* and the stimulus for the *sigh*: B****r! But after all that thought and effort – and the fact that, against all the odds, the bulk of the top was for the moment was actually holding good – I didn't want to immediately revert to plan B of body and wings. That could always be done later if the situation was not recoverable. There was no time to take photos, because I could not be at all sure that the crack was not going to keep going. It was time for some quick logic and some quick action. The logic was:[list] [*]Visually most of this area will be cut away anyway to fit the fretboard over [*]Strengthwise – once the neck was glued - then there would be nowhere for anything to go and all would be stable [/list] BUT[list] [*]It would be sometime before I could actually glue the neck. This build has no room whatsoever for ‘normal’ tweaks and adjustment of heights and angles – the neck could only be glued once all of the other datum points had been established – neck position, bridge position, neck angle, fretboard height, etc, etc [/list] I had to stitch it together therefore, long enough for all of that to be done (maybe weeks). It had to be something thin also enough not to get in the way of the routed slot. 1/64” ply would have been best, but I didn't have any handy. What I did have was some veneer left over from Bryan’s Thunder Jet bass job! I mixed some quick setting epoxy, popped some into the crack and laid the veneer, cross grain, over the whole area. After all that, was the neck (including some additional cocobolo side strips which I will explain later) going to still fit? Yes Phew! ...and isn't that better than a visible through neck and wings? ...admittedly the neck's a bit chunky, but I'm sure Tom will get used to it...

The Luminlay arrived this afternoon. It's very easy to install. After drilling the 3mm holes, it s a dab of superglue on the end of the luminlay rod and then a firm push to the bottom of the drilled hole: Then a bit of masking tape to protect the neck and a razor saw: A quick sand gives you this for daytime playing: ...and after a 2-3 second blast of the little UV torch per dot, you have this for when it's a bit dark for us old gits: This one's blue, but you can get green also... Just got the tuner holes, final sand, final stain and then satin varnish finish left to do Andy

Nothing to show for it, but I have the amazaque for the main parts of neck here and some inner splices and ebony fingerboard on the way. For the inner splice (I'll use one central one) I've ordered both mahogany and wenge - I'll see what they're like when they arrive and decide which to use. I might also put a couple of strips either side of the neck where it goes through the body - I'll see when I get that far I've got other projects on the go, but should be able to make (slow but) steady progress at the same time (in the absence of a proper workshop, I spend as much time getting stuff out and putting it away as I do acually using it, so I can take advantage when I have got some appropriate equipment out to piggy-back and do bits on this as I go along). When I next get the router out I'll whistle round the template for the finished outline

Lovely - wonderful choices of timbers and immaculately built! Andy

[quote name='paul h' timestamp='1431939596' post='2776298'] Fascinating stuff. Can't wait to see it finished! (Personally I would have planed the back and used it as a top. Just sayin') [/quote] Hi Paul Yes - as outlined above, that was one of the options considered but, as someone once said about our band's playing, "Andy, what I like about watching your band is that you're all always on the very edge of disaster...very exciting!" And I think we were only playing Kum By Ya! I think maybe some of that has rubbed off on my guitar and bass building

It was about this time that I began to notice the cracks...or should I say how many more there were and how quickly they were growing. On closer inspection, they were everywhere, mainly coming radially down from the edges of the darker figuring. The main bulk of the body seemed quite rigid, but I realised that the sooner the neck slot was done and the neck at least in position, the less likely that the body would fall apart during the machining...bearing in mind, to end up with a decent neck depth, the slot would have to be routed to within millimetres of the (wavy) top. So the next challenge was exactly how to clamp it and how to rout it, with both the bottom and top faces being uneven. Luckily, sitting on its face the four or five high spots left it sitting relatively flat. I built a mini sliding rig for my fabulous little Bosch router and mocked up how this might work. The body would be held (vaguely) with double-sided tape, but the clamping would need to be done using packing slivers to fill the various odd shaped voids underneath so that all the clamping force would be vertical rather than distorting the body around its central spine as the body material was removed. This had to be avoided at all costs because it would, at best, create an angled slot (bad) or more likely, at worst, break the back of the body (very bad). It was also a bit distracting because, all this time, Mrs Andyjr1515 was stomping around the house looking for the full length mirror that she was SURE was in the spare bedroom last time she looked. Still, I had much more serious stuff to deal with out on the patio... I couldn't put it off any longer...fingers crossed...

[quote name='scojack' timestamp='1431902754' post='2776128'] Jings you like challenge Andy ! My first thought was cheeseboard.... [/quote]

[quote name='scojack' timestamp='1431903054' post='2776131'] Just lacquering it now, nearly there.. [/quote] Brilliant - can't wait Andy

So it was agreed. Through-neck, slotting the body and laying that over the neck, with everything else possible bolted to the neck. Even here there were some challenges:[list] [*]How deep would the pickup be? Including any wires, the body was possibly going to be only a few mm deeper than the pickup chamber... [*]...which would, of course, cut right through the neck wood, separating the bridge from the neck (the continuity, of which, was the whole point of the through-neck) [*]There would be no room for pots, so it was going to be straight from pickup to jack [*]From professional experience, Tom’s preference was to use a Neutrik jack socket...now where was THAT going to go? [/list] The drawing said, though, that if everything was accurate enough, there would be JUST enough strength left to hold the thing together, providing the African timber was strong enough in the right planes and directions...and more of that later... But, whatever the drawings indicated, everything relied on the neck so a start was made Tom and I had agreed maple / colobolo / maple would provide a nice contrast, with a colobolo fretboard and headplate. I cut a maple blank in two, oriented it for strength and twist resistance and flattened it with sandpaper double-sided taped to a long straight aluminium beam. The cocobolo inner splice was to be joined in the centre of the neck and also scarfe jointed at the headstock end with the maple cut straight-grained. The theory here was to gain a bit of head-break resistance (including a modest volute) without a visible scarfe in the maple. I sanded the cocobolo and did a trial fit of the mating surfaces, including the centre overlapping join of the cocobolo: I was chuffed with this as it is the first time I've tried 100% hand-tools for this job I talked about sanding the cocobolo...here came the next challenge. Cocobolo is an absolute pig to work with! It is very oily and clogs up sandpaper and tools with a glassy waxy residue very, very quickly. More concerning, given the strength fears with this build, is that cocobolo is also difficult to glue . Some internet recommendations include wiping with acetone and then use normal titebond or similar - my test pieces failed gloriously with this method. Alternatively, and with a general concensus of more certainty, was gluing with epoxy!!! The concern with this build was always going to be strength, so epoxy it was. Lots and lots of 'proper' clamps later... (Note to self: I really must build some sort of workshop! ) The cocobolo had already been scarfe-joined before sandwiching, so last task was to simply lop off the excess maple from the top of the headstock area: So now we had the makings of a neck...and no more excuses by Andyjr for procrastination... Thanks for looking Andy

[quote name='Rumple' timestamp='1431854246' post='2775499'] It's like gripping episodes of an unfolding TV drama! [/quote] You mean (looking at Paul S's post) like The Simpsons...