Andyjr1515

More of my builds have been done on a Workmate on the back patio than on my more recently acquired cellar workbench. You do tend to get quite skilled at following weather forecasts . And likewise, not a word to MrsAndyjr1515

Looks good from here

You know me. There's nothing I like better than boring a room full of folks to sleep. Hmmm....if I marketed myself as a 'snooze meditation healing' guru, I could make a fortune

No physical cutting yet, but there has been a gathering of materials and a number of question/answers with @Matt P to pin down the remaining questions on the spec. And I think we are pretty much there - at least enough to start ordering stuff and cutting and joining some of the pieces One of the first things I do in my slightly unconventional way of building neck throughs is join and cut the top - I actually use the top as my template...and no, you won't see that in the text books and so it probably sits in the don't do this at home territory And to do this, I needed to know which orientation of the four available @Matt P preferred. And we're going for this one: The light line in the middle is just an edge and won't appear once I've jointed it properly. This is dampened to show the depth and tone of colour but the finish will make the figuring pop out beautifully! Clearly the 5-string fretboard will be wider than @Fishman 's borrowed Wal one here, but this is broadly where the book-matching will be hidden by board, bridge and pickup. And that's going to be a SimS 5-er Super-Quad It's going to have an oak back...and don't panic!! I know oak is heavy but it's oak from the same plank as this, which was the lightest guitar I've ever built And it will have a 'sucked lozenge' carve at the extremes, similar to this same build: It's going to be a 7-piece laminated neck of maple, walnut and purpleheart and a bound ebony board with demarcation stripes So in short - it's going to be flippin' beautiful

Personally, I'm a fan of seeing laminates on the top

Yes - @Jabba_the_gut is right

You are absolutely right, Jez... Great thought! It would make it 33.036", that is, less than a mm longer.

The binding looks good, Jez.

^ This If you are a bit nervous, then just assemble and adjust that saddle without the spring at all (the spring is only there to keep the adjuster screw tight against the body while the lock screw is loose and you are adjusting the position - once the lock screw is tight, then the spring doesn't do anything). The Babicz has an immense amount of adjustment with the three tapped holes for the locking screw and so it is unlikely that it can't get far enough back. However, the spring has to be long enough for the furthest forward position. As such, long springs can have a tendency to fully compress before the full range of rear adjustment can be reached...hence, sometimes, you need to snip the spring.

This is a VERY nice design and build

I think it will be fine

I've just drawn this out full-size and cut a reverse paper template so that I can bounce off @Matt P the choices he has in terms of orientation of the grain I'll post a photo in the morning of how the top will look in terms of the body shape and bridge/pickup positions. And NO - I'm not going to show you all the choices...there's only one guy's opinion that matters here

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