Andyjr1515

The neck profile carve is now finished and ready for final sanding. But wait a minute? What's happened to the overhang?? Don't panic - I've temporarily (and intentionally) removed it. The reason is that because presently there is no neck or body to support it, the 22nd fret pushes the gap and curves the overhang towards the body. And when you are fitting the heel...or when you are attaching the plate that will be fitted under the overhang to fill the gap, the chances are that either the neck heel fit in the pocket will be compromised because the overhang is fouling the body, or that the strain on the overhang will snap it off in an uncontrolled manner. Better to take it off in advance and stay in control. So the neck will be: - temp fitted to the trial body and the heel adjusted (if necessary) to give the right adjustment at the bridge - the fill in plate under the overhang will be fitted to the neck - the overhang will fitted to the plate - the fret will be re-fitted to the overhang What could possibly go wrong? So next job is the heel. My donor body is, theoretically, identical in the key dimensions as @fleabag's and I have the dimensions of the bridge and the all-critical saddle height ranges. To check the present theoretical action height of fret line to the saddle position, I fit the neck firmly in the pocket and lay a carbon rod along the top of the frets. I've popped the loose overhang piece on also to see how thick an underplate I am likely to need: At the saddle position, this is currently just under 11mm. Hmmm...might be about right even without the use of the optional spacer available on the 3D. I'll get @fleabag to do some calliper double checks on the physical bridge but in the meantime move onto the headstock plate. Oh - and the Fiebings dye has arrived - I'll also be doing some trials on the maple off-cut

The towel-rub sanding next. Two handed side to side. That's getting pretty close. Probably a bit more off the haunches near the heel but the rest of it looks OK: And the clamps did their stuff - a completely gap-free join for the fretboard (phew ) :

Lovely job! That oak fretboard with the blocks looks an absolute treat

And so, probably 2/3rds there and ready to go to the final shaping stage - towel-rub sanding Here it is so far: Before: After:

Working on the builders adage of "it's easy enough to remove wood but it's f******g (******=lippin ) difficult to put it back!" the hand carving of a neck is very much a case of creeping up to the final shape. So pretty early on I move off the spokeshave onto a medium razor plane blade, which I use two-handed like a pullshave: ...and quite quickly to the even subtler card scraper. Note that a card scraper is designed to act as a plane. You know you are doing it right when you get proper shavings and not dust: So I reckon this is heading towards half-way there: At the thin end, it's getting pretty close to the planned circular arc: But further down the neck, it gets progressively flat-topped: These are the 'haunches' that still have to be removed. And it is these haunches that makes a neck feel chunky much more than the actual depth of a neck: So still a decent amount of timber to be removed sliver by sliver - but, all being well, the basic carve should be finished before the end of the day

Working on the builders adage of "it's easy enough to remove wood but it's f*******g (*******=lippin ) difficult to put it back!" the hand carving of a neck is very much a case of creeping up to the final shape. So pretty early on I move off the spokeshave onto a medium razor plane blade, which I use two-handed like a pullshave: ...and quite quickly to the even subtler card scraper. Note that a card scraper is designed to act as a plane. You know you are doing it right when you get proper shavings and not dust: So I reckon this is heading towards half-way there: At the thin end, it's getting pretty close to the planned circular arc: But further down the neck, it gets progressively flat-topped: These are the 'haunches' that still have to be removed. And it is these haunches that makes a neck feel chunky much more than the actual depth of a neck: So still a decent amount of timber to be removed sliver by sliver - but, all being well, the basic carve should be finished before the end of the day

Next jobs will be the neck carve and headstock plate. Neck profile will be a pretty much standard 'C' shape. I will rough it out with some templates and then fine-tune it by feel - plenty of air-bass coming up For the headstock plate, I'm going to do an inset/flush truss rod cover in the same ilk as my recent ebony 6-string electric build, where the cover is fine-saw cut from the blank itself. It creates a really neat and clean looking solution: And this morning, we have shavings! Most builders will tell you that the most satisfying part of a guitar or bass build is carving the neck. Trouble is, it's usually over the quickest too! I use a variety of tools. First, I take the corners off the volute with a block plane: And that lets the spokeshave, that comes next, to take full-length sweeps from heel to headstock to rough out the shape. The spine is pencil marked as all of the carving will be up to this point to preserve the planned neck depth: And that gets a rough oversize shape ready for the micro plane that will take less material away at a time and allow me to guard against going too far at any one stroke - which is easy to do with a spokeshave...this is after less than 15 minutes spokeshaving! :

What neck?

OK - ref the neck, small beginnings...but beginnings nevertheless. A brief opportunity has been provided by the long set epoxy I used on @fleabag's neck build having its proper time to cure For the Wal-ish one, we have the maple, we have the mahogany and, with great thanks to @Fishman, we have a genuine Wal rosewood fretboard @funkle measured the mahogany laminates on the Wal he has been using in this project at 4.71mm thick. I don't have a sander-thicknesser, which is what the proper builders would use, but the makita planer-thicknesser is actually pretty accurate And that blank is wide enough to be cut in two to ensure absolute match: And so there we go. Started

Still quite a bit to do before this can go courier-ing back to chez @fleabag , but it's starting to look like a bass neck. And it still lines up! (Not that I'm stunned and amazed, you understand...) But I'll let it be for the rest of the day so that the epoxy has fully cured before any physical work is exerted on it. But seems a shame to lose a free day now all the tools are out. So what can I possibly do? Hmmm...there's that Wal-ish neck of @funkle's waiting in the wings. Hmmm...I think I can feel a flurry of sawdust coming on

With semi-circular cut done at the fretboard end, time to glue on the fretboard. First was a check on the fretboard position do end up with a dead straight neck in relation to the body: Then I drilled through into the neck for the fretboard dot holes that I had left un-dotted and double-checked that the cocktail sticks were in the right place with a further straightness check. And before anyone panics, no - that pencil line in the photo isn't the centre line : Next was to insert some cut lengths of cocktail stick, leaving the hole on the fretboard face clear for the remaining dots to be inserted: Trussrod inserted and masked off, time to make a mess - rubber gloves on and old-fashioned slow set araldite mixed with a decent amount of ebony sandings dust and spread evenly on both sides: And finally - you can never have too many clamps! : And that will remain clamped until this time tomorrow

And glued with ebony-dust-mixed-in-epoxy and sanded: Tomorrow I will be cutting the semi-circle at the overhang and then I think I've run out of excuses not to fit the board onto the neck

Whall...(hic)...thish ish wot I dun djust (hic) Reddy for gloo...gluw.......shtiking

@fleabag sent me a stick of Hosco white side dot material for the dots on top of the fretboard - running along the line of the E string. A bit like Luminlay, you drill with an accurate brad point, spot of CA glue on the end of the stick and firmly press it in, finally cutting it off with a razor saw and then flush with a sharp chisel: And the missing ones? Ah - that'll be my cunning plan. Fretboards 'float' on the glue during clamping - and on this, it is going to have to be smack on accurate and so I will be pinning using some good old cocktail sticks...which happen to be 2mm diameter...the same as the hosco stick and respective holes. And so I have drilled the 1st, 9th and 21st through and will position it on the neck dry, get it absolutely right, drill through into the neck, remove, glue the cocktail sticks in, add the epoxy, position and clamp But first, I'm going to put a swift in at the 12th

I've just PM'd @fleabag Originally, the plan was for this to be sprayed black - and I have neither the skills or equipment to do a spray job. But, assuming that something like Fiebings is actually black enough and even enough on this particular wood - and I have an offcut I can test some on - then stain and poly varnish is fine. So that's the plan. And if the trials on the offcut are not great, at least we know

Generally it would be a nonsense to try to sort a neck heel without the actual body to fit it to - but @fleabag's intended body has a 'standard' Fender type pocket and he has sent me some double-check accurate measurements he was able to do with his vernier. And I have 'for this kind of purpose' a paulownia Fender-ish body in my bits pile! In fact, some folks who were at one of the Midlands Bassbash might recognise it as the one that I did a 'live' veneer application demonstration on Also, @fleabag won't fit the bridge until he has the neck and so can do the micro-adjustments with the bridge positioning once the neck has been fitted. The test-bed body also has a Fender-type socket and the dimensions match: So paper template and the all important centre-line drawn: And that let me plane, scrape and sand the heel to size and shape. There's a lot of fettling involved to ensure a good fit and a neck that is straight to the centreline of the body: And a good double check - the fretboard is at finished taper and, of course, that heel is now also at finished taper...so when the fretboard is in the right place, the fretboard and heel sides should be completely flush. And...... So I just have to cut the curve at the end of the fretboard overhang and the fretboard can be epoxied. After which, we move to the neck carve

@3below and I have exchanged a couple of PMs on the headstock plate (if anyone is interested, my view, for what it's worth, is copied below ) but I've just spotted the second question, about the binding at the back The answer ref the binding is 'probably possible'. There are few parts to the answer: - the binding for an acoustic is cut and glued when the body is fully built but before finishing and therefore yes - it is usually possible to cut a binding channel afterwards and fit a binding but - unless the neck is a removable one (and it might be) then the area around the heel is going to be a problem. If a bearing-bit'd router is used, then it is difficult to get to within a few inches of the neck either side. And hand chiselling is possible but takes VERY sharp chisels and a fair bit of skill to avoid it being either a dogs dinner or a cracked body. - If the neck is removeable then generally it is possible and the only extra challenge is redoing the finish for it not to look too much like an afterthought. My thoughts on the headstock - but I am no expert when it comes to transfers and similar - that I have PM'd to 3below were: "It's a bit out of my area, but I suspect the 'normal' fix would be sanding it all off, painting it black, adding a custom transfer and then adding a clear finish. I'm sure it would look OK, albeit a little bit 'new'. But to match the paint colour of the existing aged logo, hand paint and then build up the clear coat to blend in starts to get into the 'specialist' territory. It would be worth you emailing Steve Robinson of Manchester Guitar Tech website. I reckon if anyone has the skills, it would be him."

More than perfect, @fleabag Thanks

That's great @fleabag I can look up the spec (in fact, I may have one in my bits box) but if memory serves me correctly, I think they have broadly the same height range as the Fender standard and therefore shouldn't need any neck angle building in. Great stuff - no excuses for me not to make more progress

And at a band saw cut rate of around a minute an inch, done While I still have a flat surface at the top, I will do some indexing in the router jig to set the accurate depth of the spine, which - when I carve the profile - will be the datum. But before that, a few more pm discussions with @fleabag in terms of the bridge that is planned so that I know whether this needs to be a flat bottomed heel like a Fender or a neck-angle-built-in like most other basses. And then the fretboard can be epoxied on

Next big test of my modest bandsaw - cutting the side profile. This will be around 2mm oversize and will be then spoke-shaved down to final thickness

If you go onto Axesrus (whether or not you want to buy from them) for, say, the CTS pots, they have a tab marked 'Technical Specs' with a photo of the pots with the essential measurements. You need enough chamber depth (and remember the cover) for the bottom of the thread to the bottom of the pot to fit and enough thread depth (CTS do 3 different lengths) to allow a spring washer, plain washer and nut. If the thread is going to protrude around 3mm from the top, that should be enough for the plain washer and nut. Much less and you may have difficulty getting the nut on, much more and your knobs will sit slightly high (depending on the knobs). If you are planning any push/pull pots, and/or blend pots then these are much deeper - again, the Axesrus site has dimensions. I'm sure someone will come in on this. Just a point, though: the blue one has not had any black put on to exaggerate the quilt - it's just application of the blue stain, sand, reapply stain, etc - the stain absorbs progressively more into the end grain part of the figuring and so darkens. The red example has probably had black applied (same general process but the initial stain/sand uses black stain and then the final coats are the coloured stain) as you suggest. Depends what look you are after.

There will, of course, be a small premium - a serious consideration for a person on the breadline, but mere trifle to someone of your means - but whatever is sir's request is my command. This is our deluxe version of the (pat applied for) Capoboardfixcombo Mark2 . Consider it done and invoiced

And so out comes the plane! As a new convert to the magic of sharp-bladed planes, a proper set-up and a sturdy workbench, probably my favourite bit nowadays of guitar and bass builds And - aware that there seemed to be some scepticism of using an elastic band to attach the fretboard, I've come up with a GREAT idea. Why not double up fretboard attachment with a ready made capo!! Beats epoxy any day! Genius, I reckon. I wonder if I could patent the idea? And they do say that the true quality of timber can only be seen when you cut into it. This is a great piece of maple:

And the plan-view shape is cut. Although this is still oversize, you can see the planned overhang. The end of the fretboard will be cut into a curve before it is fitted. Lots of other stuff to do this afternoon but tomorrow I will have a go at getting the headstock top angle cut and planed. Then (I think) it will be the heel; then gluing the fretboard and then the side 2-D profile cut. After that, the neck profile itself. But, again, I'll have a think through that to make sure that there isn't a better sequence