Andyjr1515

No - he's far too busy trying to help Doncaster Rovers hold onto their position in the League

Looks nice stuff Today was a bit of experimenting. Because we are leaving a full overhang on the neck, there wasn't a lot of offcut - just the two ends I used to screw the board to the radiussing jig. Happily, I'd already radiused one of the ends when I was checking out how well the double sided tape worked. So I tried my conventional fretting technique. Started with a light file of the slot edges with a triangular needle file: Then, after detanging the ends, ran a teeny bead of titebond along the tangs followed by a whack both sides and a whack in the middle with my fretting hammer: The glue squeeze-out doubles as an indicator of whether the fret is fully seated. If not, it is a few more whacks! Then I clamp a radius block on while I (usually) move on to the next slot: Looks OK to me...

Yes - it does. And here you can play some tunes (if you excuse the pun). You can take a stiff timber species for the mains and bendier splices or vice-versa. You can add a touch of warmth or a touch of grit. Mind you, judging the best combinations takes a hefty dose of guesswork... But there's a maker I seem to remember who market this with loads of choices of mixes of timber for necks on their custom top line (is it Warwick? Can't remember. Someone here will know).

Yes - and the Pro 1 (?) had that flat wide one (which, given the above, was an 'unusual' choice) , although that seems to have been also relatively quickly dropped. You can see the plate in the thread I have just posted above of @Fishman's Wal save/rebuild a couple of years back.

Hmmm...I've just thought of someone who might still have a genuine Wal fretboard that he may not have a use for Long shot, but I'll contact him

The area of cross section isn't the key factor when it comes to stiffness. It is the depth. The neck works a bit like a steel 'I' beam - the deeper it is, the less it's going to bend As the construction of a standard neck and fretboard at normal neck depths is plenty strong enough to counteract the tension of the strings, then this means you have a huge amount of leeway of how much wood you take off the 'haunches' either side of the spine. This affects the feel (the 'chunkiness' ) and the weight...but not the stiffness. Stiffness for a timber neck will be predominately affected by: the total neck depth; the neck and fretboard timber species; the trussrod and slot; any stiffening inclusion, such as carbon 'rods' (the most effective being actually not rods but solid or hollow rectangles where, again, the depth, not the width, is the critical factor)

That's what I use

Excellent news!

Well, part of this is right. @fleabag did send me the gen and so I am aware.

That joy is yet to come. And much too soon, I suspect

In the end, I agreed a compromise with the Defibrillator Team. They agreed to standby ready as long as they could do that watching Sky Sports in our front room. Bargain!

Splendid! Newtone Strings will make any length you want

And so - how is Richlite going to behave in fret cutting compared with ebony: - Well, it's tough stuff. I reckon I might need a new tenon saw when I've done all 22 frets plus zero slots - It is very hard work...even in my prime, I don't think I could slot one in a single session. Then again, I would say the same for ebony. - But ebony grabs the blade, and early on. Richlite still grabs the blade, but much later on. Nevertheless - you can see the workbench. It is VERY heavy. And the jig is screwed to it. And the bench has moved an inch away from the wall after a dozen frets - Nice clean slots, though and no chipping! And so, 15 slots done, 8 to go: Time for another break. Besides, the local village Defibrillation Team have told me either to get rid of the smart watch or give up woodworking.

And onto fret cutting. And here we have the same issue. I use the G&W fretting mitre block. The blank sticks to a metal notched template...you guessed it...with industrial quality double sided tape. Usually, I would use one inch strip at either end and one in the middle. Here I have two lengths of it all the way down the board. And I can still easily move the board from side to side! So I am going to use the tape simply to stop the board from creeping forwards and backwards and, to stop it moving with the saw cuts, I've cut some wooden wedges that I can fit in the gap between the board and the jig sides and remove them and replace them for each fret progression, and use a sturdy bench clamp to ensure that the board cannot move, however much pull is on the saw:

OK - 20 minutes before the next nap. So...yes. Maple neck with a Richlite fretboard. First time I've used this material so should be (is already) interesting. The project started with a bag of bits from @fleabag, including the Richlite blank, truss rod, nut blank and a set of EVO gold frets. First job, after clarifying the spec (which we repeat a few times a day on account of my age - "Have you switched the kettle off? Have you switched the kettle off?? I SAID HAVE YOU SWITCHED THE KETTLE OFF!!!???" - was to be radiusing the board to the requested 20" (I checked a few times). And here was the first challenge. I use an industrial-quality double-sided tape when I'm routing to hold the blank to the jig. This stuff would hold insulation tiles onto the Space Shuttle very happily...but not Richlite... I then tried the old trick of two sides of masking tape held with CA glue...nah! In the end - I had to SCREW it to the jig! Hmmm...this is going to be fun I use the excellent G&W jig. The Richlite routed, well...just like ebony. 10 minutes or so of final sanding with a radius block to remove the router lines. It sands like, well...just like ebony : And it was done. And it looks, well...just like ebony. Except, of course, you can no longer get jet-black ebony due to sustainability measures : Next job, still ongoing, was cutting the fret slots. But I see it's already Horlicks time.

Hmm...what? Who? Gosh it's early. And what are you all doing in my bathroom? What time? 8:46?? Gosh it's late. Must be time for a nap...

Great video and fascinating. I need to listen to it a few times with headphones on, but through my Bose, your bass in the series settings seems very close to some of your settings on the Wal...

Me too - transforms it

If you do use this method, the key is a VERY sharp chisel and, using a mallet or light hammer, removing the 'waves' a teeny bit at a time from the peak to the base.

Here's an extract from the build of @Jus Lukin's headless with three Sims Superquads. As I say above, the use of the router at the end is optional - you can use the Forstner to the full depth of the pickup and leave the 'spike holes' there...no one's going to see them. This one has just 4 corners for each pickup, but it is just the same principle for, say, a lugged Jazz pickup - you just use appropriate diameter drills for the corners and lug ends. I use this method for all of my pickup chambers - I flipping detest routers! The pickup chambers. I use the same method - which is basically mark out, hog out, chisel out and then use a captive bearing router bit to tidy it up and reach the final depth. With pickup chambers, the first thing I do is check the radius of the corners and use a bradpoint 1mm larger (to allow for the 0.5mm clearance all round) and drill the corners: Then I hog out as close to the marked line as I can with as large a Forstner as I can: Then I chisel 10mm or so down, right up to the outline: Finally, I use a flush bearing router bit, that will be fully captive, to deepen the chamber to final depth:

In terms of pickup routs, I don't use a router except for tidying up the lower part of the sides and bottom of the chamber...and that is unseen and optional. I use a forstner bit and sharp chisel. I can post an extract from one of my build threads if that helps.

I think the BB option is a great one to test out your thoughts about the impact of the neck construction on the sound you are trying to emulate.

Lovely job

Yes - I reckon so. I suspect that would add a great deal to the vibe. The black clashes, to my eye, with the brown hue of the new finish. I missed your earlier post and had a bit of a double take on this (especially as you were doing more than one build originally). This is the one that used to be red? And/or the packing case one?

The thread is here: