Andyjr1515

Ah - correction...not 33"

In normal times, David Dyke offers a c.£10 fret cutting service with options for a number of scale lengths on blanks bought from them - although I suspect that this service is suspended until Covid lockdown is lifted...

Back to your original question, @Dazed - I think it depends what it is you are wanting to do. Primarily, is the desire to have a shorter physical neck or to have the relative ease of playing a 32" scale rather than a 34"? Starting with the easy (second) one of the two, then a capo on the 1st fret and detune the strings a semitone gets you to a 32.1" scale, near as makes no difference. And, actually, can transform the feel and playability of a long scale bass. Changing the physical length of a neck-through would be challenging on many fronts, almost all in the category of high risk of failure, quite (to very) difficult and ultimately not worth the trip. Changing the physical length and scale of a bolt-on is more feasible

Not sure yet. I'm sure that will be one of many ponderings

Yes - @Fishman requested a flat board rather than the 14(?)" of the original.

Thanks, @TrevorR . That means a great deal - much appreciated

Attaboy!

You've never heard me play, clearly We'll try to persuade @Fishman to do a sound clip when Boris allows us to pass it across. There's not much point from here - I only have an electric guitar amp and that will never do this justice

And...the finished shots

Fascinating. Great info - thanks. Well, last couple of jobs before final reassembly are done, including the strap buttons. For both buttons, but especially the one on the top horn, nowadays I always inset them - it's neater and much more secure. I just use a forstner to give me the rebate and then use the centre hole from the forstner to drill the pilot hole for the screw. And yes - this IS in the centre of the horn Then a drop of stain soaked in to the cut edges and they can be fitted: Final assembly to do - and then just the finished photos

You know what they say about "The further they rise, the faster they will drop"... Well, hot on the heels of @Matt P 's build is another project that may well have to be called "Andyjr1515's Nemesis"! Good job that Matt's will be done before Andyjr1515 is a broken man (well, more broken than he already is).

Well, one has to fill the remaining lockdown with something Besides, MrsAndyjr1515 is always so much happier when I'm out of the way down the cellar.

No - definitely going to have a head

I'm still on with the final settling down and tweaking of the fretless and the Wal save but I have another live project on the drawing board - a single cut shortscale (30") for our very own @Matt P I get the impression that this has been gestating in Matt's mind for some time and, to be honest, Matt has done a lot of the hard work - which is great - that is, designing the concept and broad shape in the first place. This is my rough cobble together of Matt's sketches ( there should be round bits where my rubbish Inkscape attempt has given me sharp corners) with a broadly scale neck (albeit this shows a 4 string width rather than the correct 5 string width). This will have a headstock - this is just a quick full-scale view mainly of the body length and positioning for me to check out one of the critical design criteria...that is must fit into this: ..which is a 6-string electric Fender Jaguar guitar case. It will be a - through necked - single 5-string SimS Super-Quaded - Hipshot bridge and tunered - Ebony fretboarded - Mahogany backed - Laminated necked - top to back demarcated - sucked lozenged carved - 7lbs beauty - with this top: And I'm VERY excited

Final set up and tweaking always takes longer than you think but my target is that by the end of this weekend, this can go safely in the 'finished instruments' cupboard waiting for when Covid allows @Fishman and I to do the hand over. Most of the past few days has been related to one of @Fishman 's ideal that we can achieve a very low action. First step was to sort the shim to be able to keep the saddles nice and low. I got some 1/64" ply and sanded the required angle by attaching it to a piece of thicker, flat ply and sanding it over a piece of glass (old glass shelves and similar are great things to have around for using as the base for sharpening plane blades, etc and for this kind of job. You can see how the sanding has gone through a number of layers of the ply: This got me to the point that the saddles flat at the bottom put the strings onto the frets and the maximum I should have to lift the saddles will be c. 3mm And that has got me close. I have a very playable action at 1.7mm to 1.5mm (I would normally set for starters with a bass at around 2.6mm to 2.2mm) but if I dig in hard, do get a bit of buzz at the lower strings. So I have set my challenge to try to get to 1.5mm to 1.3mm (we are talking gap of the bottom E & the top G measured from the bottom of the string to the top of the 12th fret - with the string fretted at the 1st to eliminate nut effect) with no buzz. Which is lower than I would even set a 6-string electric... I checked the relief. The neck is actually dead flat - so, while there is no back bow, there is also no measurable relief. And this is a single-action rod so I can't introduce relief by screwing it anticlockwise. And the neck is as stiff as a board. But I could do with a gnat's whisker of relief (although we are talking 'just perceptible' )... So the answer is to take the neck off, tighten the truss rod a teeny bit and then level off the hump in the middle of the fretboard. It looks more than it is - we are generally talking tenths of a mm: So the theory is that when I take the tension back off the truss rod, I have a neck that now has a smidgen of relief in it. I will know when I reassemble, but while it's off I'll take the opportunity to finish off all of the other stuff on the 'still to do' list.

It's all absolutely beautiful. Excellent build

Looks nice!

A few of the ones I've fixed up for @wwcringe have been wired up direct to the jack - no capacitors or resistors, just hard wired. They have all sounded superb...

Wow! I love that. The contrast in colours in the body coordinates with the contrasts in neck colours beautifully. Great result @HazBeen.

Yes - I think for flat surfaces, then the washer tip is a great one. With the curve there, the main thing was to make sure that the insert wasn't protruding at all and so I found it easier to use the second insert as it wouldn't matter if it was inserted just a touch deeper than the neck surface.

Thanks folks! Yes - I'm really pleased. And yes, let's shed any pretence of false modesty, it's my 5th Kert, of this parish, started it all off by submitting the Camphor Single Cut I built for him. I'm sure that No Treble must think I have some small industrial unit somewhere churning these things out...let's hope they don't ever do a "Builder's Workshop" feature "And as we go down the stone steps to the dark small cellar space, taking up most of the available space pushed up against the wall is a single, small workbench. When asked whether this was all there was, Rogers replied that it was, in the words of Monty Python, 'LUXURY!' compared to the rickety Workmate sited at the bottom of the pond using nought but the brick he used to use!" Anyway, must rush - I have to stop strangers in the street to shout to them over the masked social distance to 'cop a look at the No Treble website.'

Well blow me! I had submitted it, but hadn't heard anything Well how cool is that Well chuffed

That body is going to look fabulous once all of the shaping is done and the finish put on - NA Walnut is a beautiful wood

The new Wal string tree came with standard small wood screws. I always think that, assuming they are fitted properly, set screws and inserts are better. They don't really do the large-threaded inserts in such small size, but the type you see on the right - I think more designed for metal - work fine as long as the drill hole is accurate: I've experimented with inserting them into much softer woods than the maple neck and then trying to lever out the screw and it holds fast. Now, I used to think that the slot went in the top - I assumed this was a screwdriver slot. It emphatically doesn't and isn't That's the bit that cuts the thread and I'm pretty sure that it was a wise sage on this forum that put me straight! So for insertion, you use a screw and nuts, or in my case, a screw and another insert, to 'lock-nut' with the one you are inserting. This is what I've done with the one on the left in the photo above. This keeps it all straight and inserting is a breeze. In this shot, the insert I'm fitting is almost fully in and you can see the 'driver' insert and set screw locked into it and driving it round and in. Like a locknut, a quick reverse direction of the screwdriver and the screw and driver just loosen to come apart: I've positioned the new string tree in the best place for the strings rather than exactly where the old one was but - unless you look really really closely, it pretty much covers the marks and holes from the original: And this is at full pitch with, so far, no embarrassing 'ping' sound of the string tree flying off like a rock from a medieval trebuchet!

I am even more speechless than I was before!