Andyjr1515

While we are on the subject, visitors leave tomorrow which means I can get my beautiful but exceptionally noisy planer-thicknesser out and skim the rough cut faces of the Paulownia and see what kind of hardness we are actually dealing with. I will also bandsaw the external body shape at its present full thickness to see how much wood I am going to have to 'lose'

Final gloss coat done on neck and back of headstock - this will now be left to harden fully before polishing - and flattened gloss coats finished on headstock front prior to @funkle's decal being applied, followed by a couple of final sealing coats. Over the next couple of days I'll add the side and top dots and then finally do the fretlevelling, etc.. Should be ready to ship off to @funkle the week after this one coming,

With @funkle's neck drying from another coat of varnish and the family visitors off on a half-day train ride ( ) I've found 10 minutes to weigh the bits that Jack has sent to me. The first is this lovely Fishman Fluence Soapbar: And, of course, the neck itself: So that's neck, tuners, soapbar, pots (included with the Fluence), string retainer sitting at 3lbs 3oz Target is 6lbs 8ozs so let's assume 1lb for the bridge (there is an advantage to having a decent weight of bridge for balance, especially as it is right at the very back of the body. This is an item that we might be able to beg or borrow a few ounces if the target weight starts looking overly challenging), that leaves 2lbs 5oz for the body, strings, paint, screws, straplocks and knobs. This is going to be...what's the word...interesting

Big topic and too many aspects to be able to cover single-finger typing on my tablet (baby grandson is asleep in the room with the desktop!) But, a few initial thoughts to be considered or discarded as you wish - the Fender type one piece, single rod truss rod in curved slot routed from the back and covered with a shaped 'skunk stripe' packer is 1000% the most difficult way of doing it - flat topped neck blank with parallel truss rod slot and modern two way rod with separate radiussed and/or fret slotted fretboard is the easiest - if the timber is decent quality and the correct cut, then for normal to short scale, one piece neck blanks should be OK - two piece, with the second piece flipped so that the end grain 'mirrors' will be more resistant to warping and is a useful thing to do for 5-string and above or for very long scale necks - functionally, multiples above two-piece are usually for reasons other than strength (such as avoidance of a trussrod rout cut as @3below illustrates above, for aesthetic reasons or to play with stiffness/hardness sonic tweaks)

That looks splendid!

Looking OK from here

Looking good

What is really clever when you see some of the other videos that Mikey has with some clearer close ups, is the frets don't retract - which would leave gaps either side and create a fretted effect even when in fretless mode - they seem to rotate and a flat section of 'fretwire' fully fills the gap. Mechanically, real blue-sky stuff.

Well, it's the little things in life... (roughly translated to, "Simple things please simple minds" ) Remember the discussion about splitting the centre section or not? Well maybe I can see now why Wal prefer to split-and-flip on theirs. To a humble hobby-builder, this is very pleasing. I'll probably start doing this as a norm:

Re-do of the stains on the neck has gone OK and thinned wipe-coats of varnish now being applied. These things always photograph differently under different light conditions so here are a variety:

Even Wals are often shimmed. The only difference is that they are full pocket shims and glued onto the neck so they look like they've been carved from solid. As said above, the critical thing is getting the correct neck angle and a fraction of a degree can make all the difference. That said, it is the principle of shims that I have no issue with - but good contact between the neck and the pocket is critical and so what the shim is made of, the area it covers, the accuracy of the shim angle are things that do matter a lot...and that pic at the top isn't a good shim

Do you happen to know if your strings are the 750T set (50; 65; 85; 105) or the 760T (60;70;94;115)? If they are the 750T's, then try tuning the A & D up 2 semitones. Does it cure the balance? Tuning up two semitones is going to be roughly equivalent to the tension difference of the two sets and if it sorts the volume issue then it would probably be worth the expense of buying the higher tension set.

Hmmm...flattered, but to be honest, to do this right, this is probably a step (or many more) beyond my own skills. The challenge is that it probably needs breaking off fully again and the epoxy residue picked out of the grain - tite-bond (which is generally the right thing to use) really needs wood to wood to work properly. I think it needs a pro-Fender tech to do it justice.

That is flipping gorgeous! 🙂

Yes - that's it! One of the Youtube clips here of it in action:

Well, now you know just how wrong you can be! Weirdly, I think someone a few years ago did try to do that. I'll try and mentally scan my memory synapses to try to remember where I saw that...won't take long - not many synapses left to scan

Slowly but surely the decks are being cleared of family commitments, other small projects, near-death experiences, battles with the useless AA (the motoring one, not the drinking one ), searches for suitably sized paulownia timber (many thanks to the folks here for the leads and @Cosmicrain in particular) and 'life in general'...and I reckon I'll be starting to move forward properly on this in the coming weeks. As everyone will have forgotten by now the background, last year @Happy Jack asked me if I could: - narrow the neck on his Mike Lull 5-string and - build him a fretless neck that he could interchange easily and without the need for adjustment of saddles, etc.. This was the result with the narrowed neck: And less than 1/2hour later, with the fretless neck: Trouble is...what if you want to play fretted and fretless in the middle of a gig? So the plan is to leave the narrower Lull neck on the Lull, and build a body for the fretless neck. But, while we are at it, also see just how lightweight-yet-practical we can make it. I've tweaked the initial design a touch - mainly to get the lower waist another inch forward for better balance when playing seated and to try to get the aesthetics working a bit better. The top horn is still well forward to achieve the same thing on the strap: The paulownia from Mike @Cosmicrain should be with me in the next couple of days, I know which pickup @Happy Jack wants to fit, the fretless neck arrived from Jack yesterday and so, pretty soon, I will know how big a challenge getting towards a playable 6.5lbs is going to be!

Maybe the other driver was a Basschatter Probably predicted the error (or any of the others I have done and am likely to do in the future) and thought, 'I'll stop this nonsense!!!' ** **or maybe he just fell asleep at the wheel....

Plus a tonne of ebony in the boot to even out the contest You see, folks - it's true that the more experienced builders don't so much make fewer errors than newcomers to building guitars and basses...it's more that they simply get better at hiding them (or distracting the audience!)

Yes, thanks - MrsAndyjr1515 and I were very, very lucky. I said to the traffic cop (and I am prone to exaggeration), "A second's difference and I think that would have been curtains!" His reply was, "Hmmm...I reckon it was a lot closer than that..." Of course, I now blame the 110mph closing-speed near-headon collision with a 2+tonne battering ram and resulting 270 degree pirouette into the trees for getting the colour completely wrong on @funkle's bass neck ...and for forgetting to put the dishwasher on ...and for not getting the lawns cut before it rained ...and

Good that the topic has moved back to the pre-amp...because while the solution for that has been drifting into clear sight, the colour of the neck has been drifting the other way Spirit stains, popular as they are and even heavily thinned, are (for me) a bit of a crude club - especially if you are trying to get a particular look. And the extra coats of stain and varnish have been moving everything too far away from the original plan. So @funkle and I have agreed that I am going to sand it back (that doesn't take long on a neck) and start the staining and finishing again. And I've decided I am going to go back to my preferred medium - ink. I have some of the colours already here but have ordered a few more colours to see if we can get closer to the particular tone that @funkle has in mind. Should have the inks in the next couple of days and so I will move my attentions to levelling and recrowning the frets and sorting the top and side dots

I tend to use David Dyke because I know that the quality is going to be tip top - but it can be very, very expensive. The best cut for a one-piece is always said to be quarter sawn @Smanth and, as @3below says, there are a lot of opportunities around in terms of old furniture, timber-yard offcuts, etc.. @Jabba_the_gut uses quite a bit of reclaimed stuff in his builds - Jez?

Excellent! I'll PM you shortly. Quality-wise the timber I've got from Fyne is good, but the pieces are narrow and that does mean more joints. Even though this body is due to be solid-painted, that is not ideal. I can always use the pieces I've already bought for other stuff

I wouldn't have spotted it either. The thing is so darn short, it looks right

Afraid not...I'm designing a lightweight body to fit to an existing 5-string neck