Andyjr1515

Yes - gold star smiley face A Sei Flamboyant

Ah...might be. It's a fancy one anyway Beautiful job.

The original truss rod is one of these - a substantial aluminium three-sided box with the rod in the middle: So this, actually glued in the equally substantial slot in the neck... : ...will indeed stop the neck from twisting. Trouble is, this design can be highly troublesome. The original, as well as breaking its way through the back of the neck, was doing this too - can you see how the nut is pushing its way into the u-shape, expanding it and almost certainly resulting in the fretboard splitting away from the neck: So what I have done so far, it add a strip of silk fabric epoxied in to strengthen the very thin bottom of the slot where the crack has been mended (thanks for the tip, @6feet7 !) : ...and then to keep the neck straighter (it had assumed a permanent bow) I've used rosewood strips as the trussrod packers (the strips are VERY strong in this direction) to help keep the neck straight: But that's not going to stop it twisting. So what I can do with the rock maple offcut packaging strip that G&W sent in @Matt P 's parcel, is cut a capping strip that will fit over the two rosewood strips and make a hardwood U surrounding the trussrod to give it the same twist resistance as the original U of aluminium from the old trussrod. But the difference is that the U is not integral to the trussrod operation, as it was in the original, and so each only has one job - the wooden hardwood U to stop the twist and the trussrod to stop the bow...

I will - just got to take a few photos first otherwise, as normal with my posts, nobody will have any idea what I'm going on about

So why might @Fishman be pleased that I've bought stuff from G&W for @Matt P 's project over in the 'Build Diaries'? It's because while I've been trying to make some decent progress on Matt's build, I've been long-term pondering on an issue. When passing across the Washburn with the cracked neck to me, @Fishman mentioned that 'the headstock also twists quite easily'. That's OK, I thought - the scarf joint is cracked so of course its twisting easily! Now let me add a couple of other observations to the puzzle of this bass: - I wonder why the truss rod had to be tightened so much to burst its way through the back of the neck? - I wonder why Washburn glued the trussrod into the neck slot? That's a first for me. - I wonder what effect having so little wood underneath the trussrod at the nut end has on the integrity of the neck? And the answer is - all together now : Because the neck simply isn't strong enough. There's not enough wood of sufficient strength to hold everything where it should be. And why do I think that? Well - the fretboard isn't on yet. But, even with the scarf joint fully mended, and rosewood stiffeners/packers in the old wide trussrod slot even my arthritic hands can twist the neck with surprising ease and with modest force on the headstock. And if my kn******d hands can do that, then a slightly unflat fretboard certainly will, and the naturally imbalanced string tensions when it's tuned up to pitch certainly will. And that's probably why Washburn glued the trussrod in... And so what had the piece of maple G&W used as a packer got to do with anything? Because I have another cunning plan

Yesterday an exciting package arrived from Portugal. It means I can steam ahead on the build next week : The 20" templates for my G&W radius jig; a template for the G&W fretcutting mitre jig (the last couple of shortscale boards I've done I marked the positions by hand, but I am increasingly asked about short and medium scale basses so it was worth getting the template); finally, a piece of maple strip put into the package to stop the template getting bent...and which will make @Fishman very happy! The other thing that @Matt P and I have been discussing is the neck to body transition. Of the various options, Matt's preference is a mix of this, below, his present 5-er (no pressure, then, MrAndyjr1515!!!!) : ...and this, a stock Bing photo that I can't remember who the builder/maker is so apologies and thanks if it's you!: So basically, a continuation of the neck thickness until it meets the body at the lower horn cutout, and probably a continuation of the neck profile curve along that length, as with the bottom photo, rather than flattening off from the neck spline to the upper body as in the top photo. Should be a good week I will also be ordering the SimS 5-string Superquad during next week, so everything is starting to get pretty serious

Lovely job. Interesting concept exceptionally well executed

Looks great - very individual How does it sit when playing? I'm guessing that it is very comfortable Any chance of a shot of the body more face on to avoid the lens distortion? I stand on the dining table for some of my shots. MrsAndyjr1515 is always delighted, as you can imagine

Lovely job

The radius templates from G&W in Portugal are due later today and this morning is an important stage in the build - it is where is starts looking like a bass It's too early to cut the taper, but while I still have a flat profile to act as a datum on my bandsaw, it is the ideal time to cut the side profile of the neck: The pencilled line is where the heel will be on the treble side; the cut is where the heel is on the bass side - and we have a few choices how we handle this. I'll find out from @Matt P offline what he prefers before outlining what it will be like. Then I looked at the options for the orientation of the back oak wings which are cut from one piece and so grain-match either side of the neck: And concluded this would work best: So back to the bandsaw, and making allowance for the c2mm purpleheart separation strips cut them out a few mm oversize: And so, as I said at the beginning...it's starting to look like a bass

I like the sound of this, @Merton Will be watching with great interest. And somehow, I'd missed @MattW 's build. It's lovely

That's gorgeous!

It's this: From Guitars and Woods (G&W) in Portugal. The basic set-up with one set of radii (to your choice) is a reasonable cost although the additional radius plates are quite expensive. The new Mk 4 with the bearings is better than this one which sticks a little, but this is still pretty good. Ends up quite expensive if you don't own one of the 3-4 types of palm router that it fits already, of course... You still need around 10 mins sanding with a block to take out the rout lines and you do get loads of ebony chips...but not the dust except for that last 10 mins.

It's only a bit more practice that separates us... @Matt P is going for 20" radius and - based on that hand radiusing ebony is a quick very slow way to insanity - I've ordered a couple of extra radius templates for their wonderful radius routing jig. In the meantime, I routed the slot for the trussrod: And, based on the fact that for all the 'nice-to-haves', the one 'must-be-able-to', is that it must be able to fit in the Hiscox case, a quick check: Phew! I will be pondering a while to make sure I haven't forgotten anything before I cut anything, but I'm pretty sure I can cut the side profile of the neck now...

That looks splendid @3below

Lovely!

Normal stuff - as I can't think of anyone else who builds like this, don't assume it's the way it should be done! I cut the notch in the neck blank using the router in a home-made thicknessing rig: So I end up with a rebate like this: Which, relatively shortly, will be glued to the top like this: ...and eventually will be covered by the fretboard like this: Time for a cup of tea, I reckon

Lots of 'measure 6 times, cut once' bits today Having worked out the best orientation for the neck blank, it was a case of: positioning the top; marking where the top will be sunk into the neck blank and thus where the rebate needs to be cut; establishing the bridge position on that top; measuring and marking where both the front edge and back edge of the nut is going to be. Next was measuring the headstock angle from the back edge of the nut: Then, after checking the measurements 5 more times...cutting it Mockup number 2, checking that I've got it right: And yes - it is in the right place, giving me a flat surface for the bottom of the nut when the time comes. Next job is routing (yes - I know. I mightily hate routers - but this is one job where they are darned hard to beat!) the rebate in the neck blank that the top will drop into, leaving it flush with the top of the neck. All going well, that will be this afternoon As always, thanks for looking, folks

Excellent! Well done @andyonbass

^ What he said x2

The purpleheart has been trimmed so the top is pretty much ready to fit - although there is a great deal to be done before that. These are the three dampened woods - walnut, purpleheart and oak: And here is the first of many mockups

Yes, although I will probably make that a mm or so thinner

Spent a happy morning making lots of noise with the Makita thicknesser. First was slimming and narrowing the through-neck blank to thickness and width for the next steps. After that was slimming down some purpleheart splices that will become the demarcation between the walnut top and the oak back wings. The main pieces of purpleheart were then cut, oversize, ready for gluing. The final couple of pieces of purpleheart will be cut when the rest are glued on so I don't end up with any cumulative dimension changes once they are all glued: And the gluing of those pieces is underway...what was that old adage about clamps...hmmm can't quite remember. It's on the tip of my tongue

I'm pretty sure it's a welded one. That said, I would give it 1/4 turn loosening first, just in case it's gummed up, and then tighten back up and carry on to the adjustment you are aiming for. Then you know it's free and working. Given that the photo shows a definite flat, you should be able to use the same modified key in the future.

It's out of the clamps and with a quick scrape to get the glue off, it's ready to go through the thicknesser in the morning once everything is at its full strength. This is the other side to the above photo - quite pleased that the sections, held flat against the bench clamp supporting tubes are lined up nicely...and it's actually square to the sides! : The other side is a bit of a dogs dinner at the moment (no - I'm not going to post the photo...think Pal with a bit of Winalot and a few spoons of last night's left-over gravy ), but with this side being flat, square and straight, a couple of passes through the thicknesser in the morning will get me the ready-to-use blank The purple of the purple heart will come out properly once the light has got to it and the finish is on (when you cut and scrape it, it actually starts off brown). Good job there's a lot of timber to be cut away from this - the blank is currently 7lbs 6oz...which is heavier than the final bass is going to be