Andyjr1515

Well, the neck seems to have taken ages... ...but definitely on the home straight. This last couple of days has been the fret levelling, re-crowning and polishing. For levelling - after adjusting the truss rod so that we are starting off with a straight neck - I start with my length of aluminium bar with emery cloth stuck to it: The filings (seen here above as grey patches) are the guide to whether all frets are being touched by the beam, and thus all fret tops are level with each other. But, of course, now all the frets have flat tops to a greater or lesser extent. So then you need to re-crown them and polish them. This is what I use: I use the little Chris Alsop diamond crowning file, first to round the ends and the rough crown along the length. Then I wrap emery grades, then finer and finer grades of micro-mesh round the crowning file to round any remaining flat points and to progressively take out the scratches. I use 240/400/800 emery, followed by 3200/4000/6000/8000/12000 grit micro-mesh. I find it easier to do one fret at a time and walk the couple of strips of masking tape up the board as I go. Here is 1 done and 19 to go : And all done: So that just leaves the filling of the fretboard side slots, cutting the nut and fitting the tuners. All being well, that will be all complete by the end of tomorrow

For routing out the control chamber, I first marked the position of the controls and pickup chamber so that I don't inadvertently break through into it using the old 'fingernail mark on a bit of paper' technique: Then worked out where the chamber at the back needed to go: I tweaked it a little to give more clearance from the back cutout (remembering that there will be a rebate for the hatch a few mm bigger than the hole) then same method, starting with the Forstner bit. Note the use of the thickness gauge to make sure I don't get too enthusiastic: My electric router has quite a wide base which, as the back is curved, gives some problems. So I had my first go with the larger of the hand routers that Veritas do and which I bought a while ago: And, for the three components, this is down to the correct depth. I could take a bit more out, but that ledge might be a good place to create a captive battery chamber, so I'll come back to this: I can now judge if I need this full depth for the Fluence electrics and, if not, I may have an opportunity to scoop out a little more of the depth At the moment, albeit with a hatch to add back in, it's just a touch over 2lbs 6oz

The arrangement of controls is going to be like this (the knobs themselves are just from my bits box at the moment). The rearward is the stacked EQ, the forward is the volume and the toggle switch in the middle is the Fluence configuration switch: Cutting out the control chamber on a carved body takes a little more care - it is less predictable and controllable as to how close you are to a break-through - and so I part-drill the pot and switch holes before I start taking wood from the back: That way, once I hit the holes from the back, I know I'm 20mm or so from the top and can see from thereon how close I am getting to the 6mm or so thickness I need to end up at. Estimating how much sawdust came out of those holes, I reckon I'm down to 2lbs 8 5/16ozs ...and falling, of course

Mind you, topical if you add 'ket' into the middle of the last banner...

Mind you, Richard - you've seen some of my other threads...there's never anything resembling normality in there!

You are quite right! 2lbs 8 3/4oz ... and falling

Other than the heel, which I will shape once I have the screw holes drilled, I think the basic carve is done: I can feel a happy weekend of sanding coming on! Oh Joy

And so...probably around 50% through the final carve stage, which is mainly about rounding the sides and other sharp edge areas and scooping out some of the waist areas at the back. 2lbs 9 oz and falling. I will be routing a standard magnet-held-cover control chamber that will take out a decent amount more wood and should start getting close to my target weight. Pretty soon I will fit the drill holes in the neck pocket that will allow me to temporarily fit the neck and do a bit of air-bassing to see if there are any sticky out bits at the back that need shaving off. Oh - and the paint has arrived

And once the pullshave work is done, it's down to the humble gooseneck scraper: And then the sander, just to sand down to the bottom level of any tearouts, etc, so that I know where I'm starting from with the final carve. After that initial sanding it's looking like this: The heel chamber is still at least an inch too long - that extra length has given me a decent area to use when securing with bench dogs and clamps for those initial carving steps. Soon that will be cut to length but, first, a quick check to see if everything is still in the right place: Next steps are to decide on the rounding of the sides and whether I can do something clever with the control chamber. Body above is 2lbs 11oz...and still dropping

Almost there in terms of the rough thickness-carve: Weight down to 2lbs 14oz and falling

And so to the back carve. This is basically what I will be scooping out: Normal thing with my builds: "most (sensible) builders do this sort of thing completely differently..." What most builders would do is hog out the bulk with a router - effectively cutting stepped contour lines - and then finish off with chisels, scrapers, etc. But I use one of these: It's a Veritas Pullshave. I think that it is designed to scoop out the seats for wooden chairs - but it's ideal for this kind of thing. Slow and hard work - but slow means plenty of time to think about the thicknesses and curves as you are going along, and putting my back into more hard work is what my GP and MrsAndyjr1515 generally urge, albeit for quite different reasons I'll do the carve over a couple of days - I'm actually designing some aspects of the build as I go along and it also means not pushing my luck with the arthritis. I start with lengthways removal, as above and then move onto cross-grain or angled to help form the shape evenly. The base of the pullshave is a compound curve and so I can create a curved carve in either direction: Today's workout has got me maybe a third to half the way there:

Excellent!

I'd be lost without this one. The standard 'short' bits are just too long for many of the chambers and operations we have in guitars and basses...especially if you have a strong aversion to templates (which I do! )

It's this one: From here: https://www.axminstertools.com/axcaliber-milling-cutter-with-top-bearing-952561?queryID=fbe6f27bc41ad8855bf0416d58540516

Hi @JPJ It's a diddy one from Axminster - I'll have a peep and see if I can find the actual one on their website

A further 20 minutes with my block plane and this is probably OK for rough shaping of the top at the moment: And so next is the initial scooping of the underside from where I will have a better idea of the final dimensions and weight. But before that, I'm going to have a ponder about some options relating to the control chamber that might influence the sequence in which I do the various steps

First step is to cut a plasticard template from the full size drawing I did: Then, with a few pencil marks to stop me going too far, too fast, out comes the plane to take away some of the bulk: While, as far as paulownia goes, this isn't overly soft, it planes pretty easily. Pretty soon, I get to here: Bit further to go, but time to move to the block plane so that I don't overdo it:

And no pressure applied anywhere? Just touching it? Hopefully some clever Basschatter can suggest why this would be and maybe even what could be done to make this the norm...

Same basic process for the pickup chamber as with the neck pocket. I generally aim for 1mm clearance around pickups to allow space not only for the up and down, but also - especially with soap bars - the ability to tilt the pickup a touch to balance the volumes of the bass strings and trebles. I start off by drilling the corners with a drill at 1mm greater radius than the corners of the pickups: Then a Forstner, to hog out the bulk Then take out the resulting 'waves' with a sharp chisel and mallet, creating a depth of 5mm or so dead on the original pencil line - this will then act as the datum for the top bearing bit on the hand router...and because it is already extended into the chamber, there is no possibility of it cutting beyond that chiselled line: And just continue deepening the cut until I have the depth for the full pickup and plug-in connectors: And so - unless I can think of any more excuses not to get on with it - the top carve can begin

Using the Fluence pickup positioning that Fishman used for Mike Inez's 'Moon Bass' special, puts the pickup here, scaled up for the 35" scale: And that looks about right to me - I haven't measured it, but I reckon the centre line is probably the same as a Stingray and, like the Stingray, should be able to allow the built in EQ sweep to achieve sufficient treble when needed without sacrificing pure bass 'thump'. So todays task is to cut that chamber and, time allowing, start the top carve.

Hmmm....that sounds important. What happens to the louder strings?

On a bolt on neck, the neck pocket is pretty much the datum for everything else. So, after one further check that I have the bridge in the correct potential position, the next step is cutting the neck pocket. The only router operation I trust is one that is totally captive with a bearing bit involved - and so I personally always start these types of chamber with a Forstner bit and some chisels. It's generally not the way other builders do it but it works for me: Then a trial fit of the chiselled outline: And, that all good, a top bearing router bit that uses my chiselled outline as the guide. This may be a mm or so higher than final depth - I'll check that once the bridge is fitted when I can again use the captive router bit. I will then also cut the pocket to length (the extra length at the moment gives me support for the router base if I need to use it any more): Next will be a similar process to create the pickup chamber, and then the carve can begin

Very nice. Some lovely details...

Indeed...we're on the final knockings

Nor me, to be honest