Andyjr1515

While I have done a number of trussrod replacements, generally they are with basses where the conversation of 'But there is always a risk...it might end in a broken fretboard or visible joint marks on the re-glue and finish' has been had and acknowledged and it's worth the gamble. A Thumb NT is a completely different kettle of fish! But I am very flattered, @Matt P Thanks @Manton Customs as mentioned by @verb sounds a good option to me...so, calling @Manton Customs

I clamped the above and second wing down on a sheet of toughened glass (a glass chopping board from Dunelm) before applying the sash clamps to glue the second wing to ensure that total surface is flat. There will be quite a bit of carving on the back: There is one area I might have to revisit. I have fitted quite a thick demarcation layer of purpleheart to the top - it is strips of fretboard inner splices - and this was, again, bonded on glass, holding it flat while it dried. But, even though purpleheart is tough stuff - much tougher than walnut, there is, at the moment, a significant warp. When the edges are in place: This is where the top currently sits at the neck joint...and that's supposed to be completely flush with the top of the neck! What I will do, it give it a medium soaking and clamp it flat overnight and see if it holds flatness. If not, I think I will need to remove the purpleheart from the walnut, add it to the oak and then add the walnut at the very end. There are, therefore a few options so it's fixable, but I'm surprised the purpleheart allowed or caused such a severe warp - it is one of those woods that generally 'ain't going nowhere!'.

Well, there's only so much pondering and prevaricating a bass can take. Time to get the glue and clamps out:

Three hours, still in tune... (the bass, not me)

Well, you'd certainly be able to hear those from Essex

An hour and still no ominous cracking noises

Now, I know the phrase, 'he spoke too soon' very well, but nevertheless... ... Certainly, 'So far, so good!' I find the same with any acoustic guitar or bass - you sense the enormity of the string tension much more than with a solid body. And so those last few semitones to bring it to pitch... But it's there. And so far it's lasted at least 20 minutes. And, while I've not plugged it in yet, it plays and sounds GREAT Just one buzzy fret position out of 87, which will be easily filed fixed. No fret levelling or re-crowning to do And so - assuming it holds itself under tension for the rest of the day it should be just a case of tidying it up. I'm probably not going to completely re-finish the neck - I think it's stained and getting the heel and headstock to match would be a bit of a nightmare on a glued in neck. So, while that remains the fall-back position, I'm going to start off trying an 'as invisible as possible given the limitations of materials and the bloke using them' mend for the fretboard join and either the same, or even a 'if you can't hide it, then flaunt it' jobbee for the scarf joint mend. But all of that will have to wait a bit because, with some more bits on the way, a certain single-cut beckons

Good to hear...and I bet it is!

Glueing the fretboard on is quite difficult. The challenge is clamping evenly when the back caul along the straight part of the neck can, by definition, be only a thin strip teetering on the spine of the neck, and then the part over the body being able to be clamped without crushing the hollow body. With a standard acoustic, you can pop a clamp inside the sound-hole for the upper frets, but this doesn't have a proper soundhole. But, at the end of the day, it's still a case of just swamping it with clamps and radius blocks to try to give maximum even pressure on the board itself: ...and I think this is OK. Not perfect, but probably better than I expected: It looks pretty flat and twist free, but before I spend any time on refinishing and re-levelling/crowning the frets, I'm going to see if the basic break mend cuts the mustard. So tomorrow, when I know the fretboard glue is fully cured, I'm going to string it up, bring it up to pitch and see what happens

Outstanding. Finished as good as it started

Ah - but we're aiming for between 7 and 7 1/2 Should be possible.

With the tried and tested luthier formula of: Assembled components - weight of taper removal and profile carving of neck + 5-string Superquad + 5th tuner - difference between borrowed tuners and hipshot superlites + difference between borrowed rosewood fretboard and ebony one + residual weight of finish after full evaporation and cooling - weight of plate - flour left on kitchen scales = projected weight of finished bass... ...I reckon that I need to lose around 1lb 8oz of weight from this point, in addition to the wood removed by tapering and profiling the neck already in the formula. Not impossible and will give me the excuse for the bit of styling at the back. I'll be doing a bit more drawing to make sure that my chambering from the top of the wings doesn't meet the carving at the back of the wings in a "France meets UK in middle of channel tunnel construction" kind of a way.

Yes - the whole thing has a real trad look about it. Looks great.

I have a bit of thinking and drawing to do on @Matt P 's singlecut before I do anything daft like cut or glue wood - working out control chamber size and position, weight relief chambering, back shape - so just to make sure that my hands don't seize up, a bit more progress on this. AHAH! I bet you thought I'd forgotten So, delving back in the memory, it was all about a potentially twisty neck. And out comes one of those tools that I rarely use but boy are they useful when you do. My mini hand router: What I am doing is levelling the tops of the rosewood packing/strengthening strips, flush with the top of the truss rod: Then I cut the free-bit-of-packing-waste rock maple to size: Then ran a thread of Titebond along the tops of them both and 'you can never have too many clamps': And finally, planed the strip flush with the top of the neck: And the neck is SO much more resistant to twisting So when I get another natural break from the single-cut, it'll be a refit of the fretboard - once I've worked out the best way to clamp it...

Lovely job

There are some notes I can't hit on my sax. The sax can, but I can't. So I play the ones I can and then just hum the ones I can't Could be a solution... And on a serious note - it depends on the neck. If there's a generous overhang after the 20th (ie, a fret to fret distance plus around 5mm, then yes it's possible. On a scale 0 to 10 of chances of wrecking a decent bass, around 3 for a bolt on and about 8 for a set neck . Could be cheaper to hum but not as exciting...

My goodness - it's a complete showstopper!

Well, the bit of 'slightly more conventional than I normally do' that I'm going to venture into, is the sequence. I think most builders go - neck blank; add side wings; fit top I tend to go - neckblank; fit top; add wings. And for this one, I'm going to do wings then top. So I will start here: Then sort the cable access and weight relief chambers, then flatten it all off, and then, once that's all done, glue on the top. I know...shocking. And why do it this perfectly logical and well tried way rather than the white knuckle ride of an Andyjr1515 'will it work or not' sequence? Well, because one of the targets is to keep within 7-7.5lbs. And there are a few unknowns still in terms of the weight: - It's a 5-er with a lot of maple in the neck blank - The 5er Superquad is MAHOOSIVE!!! - The back is oak - The bridge is high-ish mass But, weight permitting, I'd like to do something a little bit special at the back and so I may, or may not, want to add more, or different shaped, or differently positioned internal weight relief as I go along. And getting that right is a LOT easier if the wings are already on but where the internal faces are still fully accessible. But don't worry, there'll still be plenty of white-knuckle-on-the-very-edge-of-disaster moments to come that I'm sure will keep everyone interested

Not actually as scary as it looks...but this is why we do the 'check 14 times, cut once!' mantra And so this is how the neck blank will sit, except of course eventually the back will be profiled all the way to the heel and the side wings will be carved a bit like a bowl arena. Or, if I a*se it up, a bowel arena I've got some final bits to do on the blank before I go to the next major step, but that major step is usually, for me, gluing the top to the neck. Yes - I do everything pretty much the other way round to most sensible folks. But, hey, I might surprise everyone and do it the more conventional way

A lot of pencil sketching, measuring and pondering to make sure I don't end up cutting into fresh air before I get the neck blank onto the bandsaw again to extend the neck thickness into the body transition Fingers crossed

Dimensions or proportions, @Jimothey ? Proportions look about right to me. Dimensions...no idea. On my screen, it looks a bit small with a scale length of around 53mm Looks nice, whatever

And all slotted:

And fret slotting started:

"...and he is doing a roaring trade in home-made Swan Vestas"

Best not raise the topic of matches again. As I've said before, it isn't as much marvelling at the fantastic aquaducts the Romans built that are still standing...it's remembering the thousands that fell down while they were trying.