Andyjr1515

In pictures, @BassTool : Here's basically what I use: I position with the steel rule: then I use a sharp ended punch to mark the entry point for the bradpoint drill bit to avoid any wander: then drill a few mm deep - taking care not to 'wiggle' the drill: After a dry test fit - ideally it is a tight push fit - a drop of gel superglue on the end of the stick: Then it is pushed fully home and the excess glue wiped quickly away: Personally, I find the x-acto modellers razor saw the best to cut it off: Finally, I trim it flush with either a very sharp chisel or a single-edged razor. With an unfinished neck, I would just sand it flush as part of the final sanding but I don't want to accidentally catch the varnish on this Wal: 2 1/2 done, 8 1/2 to go! :

I like that a lot

Looking great from here

I forgot to photo this time round, but it's basically this: These particular luminlay sticks are 3mm dia, so after pressing a sharp punch spike to mark the spot, I use a decent quality 3mm bradpoint drill bit in my little battery powered hand drill and drill to around 3mm deep. The luminlay diameter is accurate and the drill point and diameter are also accurate and so you end up with a nice tight, gapless fit (this one is a previous build). I buy the type with a black sleeve around the luminous core - it make the finished result look great: So after a trial fit, I then I just pull it out again, put a teeny spot of gel superglue on the end and push it firmly back in. After a few minutes I can use a modeller's razor saw to cut it fairly flush, then either use a sharp chisel or just a sanding block to sand it flush with the board: And because there are no gaps, that's it! Nothing to fill - it's done. It is one of the reasons I stick with Luminlay even though you have to buy it from Japan and, with VAT and the inevitable customs handling charge, it ends up pretty pricey for a teeny stick...but the accuracy means it is very easy to fit. I'm probably doing @Fishman 's Wal neck tomorrow - I'll try to remember to take shots of the whole process

And the Luminlays are in:

Purposely asymmetrical

I've started the neck carve and the final sanding. With the neck I still have probably 1mm to take off the thickness and I have to move from a U profile to a D. With the sanding, I have to do the cutouts, the tail, anything I've missed and then re-establish the edge radii. But, as many of you will know, I find it very useful to apply a quick coat of Tru-oil as a 'revealer'. I don't know about other builders, but I find it exceptionally difficult to spot sanding marks, dips and dints in a dry sanded body. So still loads to do here, but that sealing coat gives a decent indication of the wood tones that will be there in the finished article. So it's time for a mockup : I think that's very promising

Well what I've done is this: I've set in a piece of ebony into the top under the tuners to act as a visual balance. I've been looking at this propped up in the evenings the past week thinking, 'there's something missing and I'm not sure what'. Now I've done it, I know that is, indeed, what was missing: Fingers crossed that @Jus Lukin likes it too! And so, the plan for today and tomorrow is to get this to finishing stage. Tasks: - Putting in the luminlay side dots - Starting the neck carve - cutting the control chamber hatch - sanding all of the glue blobs, router burns and general lumps and bumps away ready for the first finish coats

Unscrew the large screw at the back which will release the gear wheel. Then pull the whole peg with its flange out from the top. Then you should be able to get a spanner on the bush

So what is Andyjr1515 up to now?? I will reveal tomorrow (assuming it's worked - or in a day or so if it hasn't ) And polished frets and rounded fret-ends:

Looking really good. Those chips will fill no problem with the sawdust, as you say.

So all three of those pedals don't work at all? OK...that's weird

Try taking one out of the loop at a time. Might be that the bypass signal isn't getting through either because of a pedal or faulty patch lead/jack.

Looking really good

Adjusting action with the trussrod is a 'quick fix' in certain situations (generally if your frets aren't level) but isn't the way to do it all other things being equal. Ideally, the neck should be within a gnat's whisker of flat in any case.

Did you try this, @CLR ? I agree with @A.G.E.N.T.E. and @tommorichards that it is most likely to be the nut that needs a small tweak or the break angle need increasing by fitting a string tree or winding the strings further down the tuner post. It's often not either of those. The nut slot is supposed to be angled a small amount downwards from the fretboard side of the slot to the headboard side so that it is just a sharpish edge that the string is sitting on right at the start of the fretboard. If the slot is too level, the string can vibrate - 'sitar' - in the slot. A quick press of the buzzing string immediately behind the nut as @A.G.E.N.T.E. suggests will - if it is this that is the problem - immediately stop the vibration.

Interesting stuff It's worth considering whether a truss rod is needed at all. That is going to be an exceptionally stiff construction - maybe into Vigier territory (which I seem to remember don't have a truss rod).

For completeness and as a 'How To' guide for @Jus Lukin I'll confirm all of this when the real strings have been fitted, but this is how I would do it with what I've done with the test strings. Below assumes that the bass has already been intonated and therefore the tuner holders are already clamped in their playing positions: 1. Normally, the ball-end socket blocks are going to be in the right place - because normally you will have recently loosened the strings. But assuming that I'm starting from scratch, I would unscrew the brass block, then reattach and screw it on around 3mm to ensure that enough thread is in the block to start off with: 2. Then the ballend of the string is pushed through the tuner holder: 3. The ballend is hooked into the holder and the unit pulled into the holder: 4. The string is pulled straight, the position to the end of the clampblock noted and the string is clipped at this point: 5. The string is fed through the clamp block until the string is straight and then clamped: 6. String is tightened to pitch: I trimmed and fitted all four strings in less than two minutes. Oh, did I mention that I love the Nova system...? . Ref intonation, if you were, say, fitting a different gauge or make of strings, you would leave them overlength, tune up, check and/or adjust the intonation, then, when the tuner block was secured in its final position, just loosen, unclamp, shorten and reclamp.

All incriminating photos are destroyed, of course. As I say, I am developing at least some skills...

Sounds and looks OK to me. I've said before that even after quite a few builds, I still make slips and certainly have major fingers crossed moments. If I am developing skills, then many of them are that I am simply getting better at sorting the c**k ups I continue to make... This is looking very good

No grommets necessary...well, other the ones that are filling all of the holes I drilled in the wrong place

If I get time tomorrow, I'll pre-trim a couple of the strings and take some photos of how I string up with this system - it'll double as the 'How-to' that I would normally be doing for @Jus Lukin anyway Before I used these, I had the same questions in my mind, but now having seen how the Nova system works, it takes all the guess work out of it.

It should be OK. These are just rough cut old strings, I haven't finished sorting the intonation offset and the ebony end cap isn't sorted yet. Once the intonation positions are set, then I see no reason why the ends should poke out of the back of the clamp block at all. Having now put them on and taken them off pretty frequently as I was sorting up the fixings, I have found that it is exceptionally straightforward to push the string ends into the block and clamp them and it won't be any more difficult once the strings have been pre-trimmed. It'll look better too

Next big step is sorting the positions for the tuner blocks. The only sure way I know of getting the bridge units (or even a fixed bridge!) in the right place is to fit some old strings to the headstock and try it for real. It's relatively easy with this because the strings are clamped at the headstock : Then, with the tuner units positioned with a minimum of 5mm back movement from scale length, it was a case of pulling the two tuner blocks tight and positioning to be even either side of the fretboard and 54mm apart to give @Jus Lukin his preferred 18mm string spacing. Then I could mark the front screw hole positions for those 2 and then divide the remaining space for the other 2 : With all 4 front screws fitted, I could now string it up lightly and check the angular positions - they could be set straight (as, of course, fixed bridges are), but with single element bridges, I always think it adds a little to have them following the string line: Then I could fit the back screws to each of the four bases and...of course ... do a mockup. I've dampened some of the walnut to show broadly the colour it will eventually be. The fretboard also will darken from this: Next job is levelling and recrowning the frets and then I can see what my action range is so I know if I need to sink or raise the elements at all. And yes - this above is actually tuned to pitch and actually plays acoustically. Admittedly not a great sound...but, trust me, with my playing, a lot better than when it's finished, plugged in and louder And I love that Nova system. It just WORKS!