Andyjr1515

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

@fleabag sent me some impressively detailed dimensions and shape for the 2-a-side headstock. This look about right, @fleabag ? Next job will be putting a new blade on the band saw (rock maple is tough stuff!) and cutting this out, including a few mm 'just in case' oversize for the neck length itself. The neck is going to be the length of a standard Fender (23 57/64 inches from zero fret to end of heel...don't you just love 'em) and shaped to fit a standard Fender pocket but there will be a substantial overhang of fretboard

That is so, so, good. Mine still keeps me down in the small, damp cellar. Probably more than I deserve, though...

This is the blank on my router table, with the 6mm bit sticking up from underneath. I've just done a 1mm cut here to make absolutely sure this is going to be in the right place before I deepen it to 9mm. The datum side, which I planed square first, is, in this photo, on the LHS and will butt up to the router table fence on the right: The yellow pusher is an essential piece of kit when you are dealing with something as potentially dangerous as a router table: Raising the bit 3-4mm per pass, the slot was now 9mm. And - with the slot widened and deepened for the trussrod adjuster - the first step is done Just as an aside, for anyone interested or anyone thinking of trying a neck build for the first time: on this type of truss rod, the adjuster has a surround. Functionally that is great because, apart from anything else, it keeps the fretboard fixing glue out of the truss-rod threads. That will be particularly helpful on this neck where the richlite fretboard is going to need to be glued with epoxy resin. But that surround adds a quite a bit of extra depth needed in the slot at this point. This will be fine with the rock maple I'm using here (and they are good adjusters) but, for mahogany necks, I tend to use a type with a more basic but slimmer adjuster (the maths is: neck depth at nut, say 21mm minus 6mm fretboard minus 11.5mm trussrod slot depth at the adjuster on this type of rod = only 3.5mm of timber under the trussrod end that is actively pushing all its force against it at this point. And yes - truss rod ends sometimes do pop out to say hello on slim mahogany necks The volute helps, but that is more there to strengthen the neck where the headstock cranks down and tends to start thickening slightly behind where the trussrod end would make its grand entrance if it felt inclined. It doesn't happen often...and I've never seen it happen on a maple neck. But if you are venturing into the dark art of neck building for the first time, always double check by doing the maths

I always draw the headstock angles full size - as you are drawing it your mind is almost sub-consciously double checking everything, something that still feels different to me with CAD (then again, I am an old git). At 28mm, the blank is deep enough to be able to get a 6 degree angle for the headstock - plenty enough, given the raised position of the fretboard and nut slots for a decent break angle, of the strings over the nut The sequence of most things on this neck is going to be slightly different to most of my necks as the blank is full width so that everything, including the full headstock width, will be out of one piece of maple. I will double check my sequence over the afternoon, but the first thing I will probably do is cut the truss-rod slot while I have still have side of the blank as the datum for the router fence. Then (I think) the blank will go into my thicknessing rig jacked up at an angle to get the top face of the headstock ( the width is too great for me to be able to cut that on the band saw). Then I can cut the plan and side profile shape. I will sketch those phases out to see if there are any fatal flaws in the plan!

And we have wood! Oh - hang on...wait a minute...that means I have to get off my f*t a**e and actually do something now. Didn't think that one through!

The knobs on the front sheet on the site say 'in stock' but when you click each of the product, they are shown as 'Unavailable'

Down to my last stick...just enough for @fleabag's neck. Same problem. I've been in contact with the owner of Luminlay and the problem is that the direct flights,that cross Russia or Ukraine from Japan, have stopped. Makes you wonder what else from Japan will hit problems... Hopefully, they will find a way of shipping but, without a distributor network, it may well take the product from expensive to unaffordable. Hosco do glow dots but they don't have the black surrounds and currently are out of stock in many sources (possibly linked). Not great news, I'm afraid.

That looks lovely!

Ooooo.... UPS notification of a delivery Monday