Andyjr1515

Yes - great transfers. Good colours, ultra thin and very reasonably priced

And to the carve. Again, in the background there is a fair bit of backwards and forwards PM'ing between me and @Matt P as the carve creeps up towards final. I don't know if other builders are the same, but the final carve contour emerges during the process. I would say, 'the wood talks to you' except most folks would assume I'd been on the whacky baccy. We'd got to this stage: But the walnut was singing like a siren at me. MrsAndyjr1515 helpfully tied me to a mast and threw buckets of salt water over me, but it was no good (other than she, hurtfully, seemed to enjoy the process) - I had to leap into the stormy waves and answer the call. Well, what I actually had to do was PM Matt. What about following the skewed oval... (top tip: school chalk should be handy at every builder's workbench) : ...and do this: Now, personally, I think that looks flippin' gorgeous AND it means I won't get a reminder from @TheGreek to do exactly that because, almost certainly, he will have been ahead of me - he has an eye for such things and I hope that he takes some pride in the fact that I do, sometimes, take notice

Gosh, that's gorgeous!

This is looking very good. Very rapid progress and accurate looking components. It's going to be another splendid build

Another discussion @Matt P have had is the best position for the Super Quad. I 'borrowed' this very useful photo off a Google Search (and many thanks to whoever originally posted it ) The actual distances, of course, have no relevance, but the proportion of the saddle to mid point of the pickups to the full scale does, to an extent. We've plumbed for the standard 'P' position which should sit in a decent vibration point pretty much all the way up the fret positions. Happily, that's also pretty much bang on where Matt's 'it looks right here' original sketch had it So it will be here: And THAT means I could then forstner, chisel and rout out the chamber for the pickup. Note the additional rout for the connector block to sit: And THAT means that tomorrow I can start the top and edges carve tomorrow and - if the day goes to plan - glue on the fretboard too

Close to Uttoxeter. 20 something miles from Cannock, @Sarah5string - easy run.

Top drawer. Beautiful

Ah - a Stanley 71 Router Plane ... now that's my kind of router

Lovely job. Spot on

Softly, softly catchee monkey... Creeping up on the back carve. I've checked once again all of the carve vs chamber depths and am fairly certain I'm safe from any unexpected breakthoughs Rough carve not quite finished but probably one more session will do it ready for scraping - and by then, the Superquad will be here and I can start on the top . As I predicted, the carve has morphed and I've added some extra modest waist carves which I think will suit the look :

Excellent

With the Superquad on its way, it's time to start the back carve. While there is a broad plan, this will 'morph' as the carve happens. First, I carved the back of the lower cutout, extending the sweep of the heel cutaway. Then I started scooping bulk out to take some more weight out and also provide a bit of 'too many biscuits' relief . It won't be a @TheGreek 'contact lens' symmetry at the back - I am preserving the depth of the control chamber until I can be sure the SimS multi-wire loom will fit without the need for a screwed back plate - but that same vibe. So out comes my beloved Veritas Pullshave : The pullshave is designed to scoop the shape of wooden chair seats...so after a hard gig, @Matt P will be able to flip the bass upside down on top a tripod and sit on it! Because I have actual chambers and potential chambers and fixing screws to accommodate, I'm doing this a bit at a time, with plenty of pauses, measurements and ponderings. This is where it's at so far: That would probably already sort the effect of too many custard creams - but I'll be aiming for a full jaffa cake depth When that's done, I'll then go back to the heel and reshape that. And by the time that's done, the SuperQuad will be here and I can start thinking about the top carve

And done. Hardly an invisible mend, but silky smooth to the touch, structurally sound and sounds great!

It's an exquisite bit of craftsmanship...

The other way, if the builder is working off a thicker blank is to take a thin slice off - over a few mm, the grain pattern wouldn't be that different - and that would then mean that the gap could be quite a bit tighter than mine. But it does mean having an industrial size and quality of band-saw.

That is a stunning bass....

For the scarfe repair, we've decided to flaunt it! So the fill is epoxy mixed with ebony dust: @Fishman is going for playability rather than aesthetics and wants to go for a sanded neck silky feel rather than the flattering effect of a couple of coats of gloss (a little bit of gloss hides lots of things ). So the objective is a smooth-to-touch-and-no-sticky feel. This is relatively easy to achieve because the old Washburn finish is, of course, rock hard and you do not start exposing uncured nitro as you sand through the outer skin (unlike some other makes where is can still be like it years later mentioning no names but Gibson please note! ). The challenge will be more about getting the transition at the headstock and heel looking OK. After a scrape-flush of the epoxy, a progression of fine wet and dry, followed by progressively finer scotchbright has got me here so far: Playability-wise, objective already met - it feels great! But just to finish off I want to get the heel and headstock transitions looking intentional and bring out the colour of the original out a touch more. You see better what I mean in this shot here: So I will spend a bit of time tomorrow continuing the same treatment up to a masked line at the heel and headstock joint, and also run through a number of grades of micro-web which will bring the depth of colour of the neck itself out without loosing the satin feel.

Oh...and 24th fret access - even to the bottom B - is a breeze

Yes it does, @Jakester , yes it does. And it's glued and it's trimmed and the cut out carve is started and it's dampened and the bridge isn't straight and there's a drop of water on the fretboard... ...but it IS starting to look like a bass

While I'm still not decided whether there will be any further major carving at the back, it always pays to know where the hidden chambers are and how deep they are. I simply take a paper template to keep in the file: And write the respective depths of those chambers: I also pre-drilled the bridge earth wire holes in the top and the matching one in the back - it's a lot easier (and less scary) than once it's fully assembled. Then, after a final 'have I forgotten anything important' pause, the top is now gluing. And no, you can't have too many clamps Very soon and it really IS going to start looking like a bass

And today was chamber day Weight relief top left; shallow weight relief top horn due to cutaway the other side; battery slot in control chamber; access from the Superquad chamber to the control chamber for the SimS 140-wire (or that's what it feels like) wiring loom and connector; no weight relief at the lower horn because we are going to have a deep cutaway cutaway there (a particularly nice feature on @Matt P's design); no weight relief in the central area to maximise the stiffness and density between the neck and bridge (although, of course, there will be an enormous Superquad chamber in the middle. This little lot... ...now weighs around 7.3lbs, so, adding Superquad, pots, tuners but less wood still to be carved, I think we are on target for 7.5lbs maximum, with some remaining options up my sleeve if I'm wrong Time to ponder and take and record measurements so I don't inadvertently carve into the chambers once they are hidden...but we're almost ready to get that top on!

Yes - I generally start with 2000 wet and dry emery used wet and then move onto micromesh. It's great stuff and especially for fine finishing curved surfaces because it just follows the surface shape. Fully washable too! Great tip from @mybass if you've not tried it

So sides are done, transition smooth to the touch and ready for the final all over fine sand and a final couple of very light coats of gloss varnish which will restore the colour and should largely hide the repair: But before I do that, I have to fill that scarfe joint repair. And have the discussion of 'hide or flaunt' with @Fishman And spend most of the rest of today doing some important but exciting stuff on Matt P's build (Which is a long way of saying I'll be doing the scarfe joint repair tomorrow )

Actually, for the second time I passed it across a week or so ago but, once @Jus Lukin got it on his own rig there were a couple of things he noticed, notably that the D seemed a little muted and that there was a bit of a mains buzz in the P position. We did the basic checks by email (I always assume that it's a 'feature' I've inadvertently introduced into the build ) but the results were a bit puzzling and led to thinking it was maybe more something to do with pickups than the bridge seating, etc.. I suggested that I take it back, double check the stuff we'd already checked and give it the full once over. I still have a hypothesis to bounce off Martin Sims on one issue for future reference, but I think I've bottomed what and why stuff was happening and it's ready to go back to @Jus Lukin this coming weekend. The pickups are big and can, of course, tilt side to side and front to back. And the neck has an angle so the strings are angled relative to the top. But because the Superquads are large and made up of four separate coils, for each combination of pickup and configuration, the signal can be disproportionately impacted by the both the sideways tilt and front back tilt - and the best physical position of the pickup for one setting isn't necessarily ideal for another setting. So lots of fiddling about with the pickup height adjustment screws through headphones and a DAW waveform and I think I have 'the great British compromise' where it seems to work OK now for most settings. And the most sensitive coil to get right was the rearward P coil. And I think this is also related to the mains buzz in P setting. The most fascinating thing with Superquads to an electric guitarist - remember these are passive pickups - is that the single coil (split coil in electric guitarist lingo) setting is SILENT. Bung up the gain, bung up the treble, still silent. That is unprecedented in the guitar world, where split coiling a humbucker to single coil always brings a bit of buzz with it. So those two side-by-side coils must be humbucking. And for the humbucker position to be humbucking, the other two coils must be the other way round. And therefore, the two P coils must be the SAME way round - ie not humbucking. I think they are, in effect, offset single coils! That's the bit I just want to confirm with Martin. But there was something I could do that would help - I have added an earth to the off/on toggles to ensure that any pickup that is off is fully shorted out (probably should have done this to start with). Through my buzzy system it has reduced the solo P buzz considerably. Now, if you whop up the gain and the treble, then the one configuration that still is going to buzz a bit is the P...but then again if I'm right, it would. But in normal amp situations, even in my buzzy house, it doesn't seem to be as much a major issue.