Andyjr1515

I are confuddled too - because I've just thought of a MUCH better sequence of inset wood in between said purfling Purfling's this: You can use it as a feature line by itself, like the outer ring, or as a boundary, like the inner rings: Or you can use purfling as an inner addition to binding which is on the outside of the side corners:

So - rosette time. This is the design that P and I have settled on - the outers will be black/white/black purfling, the inner will be back/side offcut wood, the swift will be MoP It's always a risk to show how I'm going about it before it's done...because this, of course, may not work But this is Andyjr1515! As one of my fellow band members once said (about my playing, but my building is much the same) "what I like, is that you're always on the very edge of disaster!" He then, of course, went through all the stuff he didn't like So I had a ponder and, although on the face of it, this makes no sense, I think it might work. This is my main kit (plus a Dremel): After using the compasses to pencil out the shape and verify the centre points, I drilled those centers for the spike of the Dremel radius tool to go into. Then routed the curves for the purfling up to the tangent points: Happy monkey! Then used a straight edge to join the curves up: And eventually ended up with this: The slightly Andyjr1515 thing is that I'm going to put the purfling in and then rout out the area between it. And I'm then going to cut some back wood and fit it as I would a control cover. We'll soon see if that is a decent idea or a really, really, really bad idea Anyway, this is broadly how the top is going to look: And this is how the now-joined-but-not-yet-thicknessed back is looking: Tomorrow, I'll bend and fit the purfling and then see if I can rout the bit in between

Lovely job. Looks beautiful.

Excellent!

Yes. I'll go into the black art of tap tuning when the braces have been put on, but yes - you do just that. If it just goes "donk" and it is tight-grained quarter-sawn spruce, then is usually means it's too thick. If it just goes "donk" and is tight grained, quarter sawn but not spruce or cedar or mahogany, then it probably isn't the right wood. I'll go into more detail later, but basically, you need the top (which is where most of the tone comes from) to resonate somewhere to every note that will be played. So once it is braced, you are trying to hear - either at the base pitch (like tuning a drum skin) or as a harmonic - every note when the top is held from different edges and tapped in different places. It bodes well when the unbraced wood is already giving out a distinct set of base drum notes but also multiple ringing harmonics at every tap. When we get to the tap tuning, I'll post a fantastic video of a top builder doing and demonstrating this to an audience before their (and our) very eyes. It makes you a much more discerning buyer of acoustic guitars!

I think it's the cast iron cylinder/screw unit that the handle goes in @Si600 ?

The Schecter, I am sure, will be dual rod.

Yes - he's done the same as me. That is, taken a standard OM body shape and shortened the top by two frets worth. The only difference is that we've gone for straighter sides from the top bend to the waist whereas Nigel has retained the OM's curve. Oh...and the other difference is that Nigel is a fabulous instrument maker... And I wish I'd seen that photo when I was trying to see what a guitar bouzouki was! Luckily, P sent me a few from different makers, including Nigel's Well - the top is a 3.00 - 3.07 mm and that will do. It doesn't look much, but I'm VERY excited by this: Why am I so excited? - because with the long reach calliper, I know, for the first time, that the thickness is even across the whole surface rather than just the edges - because this is the tightest, most even grained top wood I've used so far - because you can already see the chatoyance (the tiny ripple effect in good timbers) - because it rings like a bell! A reminder, also - the knot on the join line is where the sound hole will be cut; the darker wood at the join to the right of that will be under the fretboard. So, as these threads always go, so far so good and plenty of time still to b****r it up

Yes - indeed. The company name is Schroter (with the old double dot over the 'o' ) at www.edelholzhandel.com, but the easiest way nowadays is to use their ebay shop. Excellent supplier - I've used them before. Great range of products, excellent photos of the pieces with any flaws properly marked up and quick shipping (less than a week - even at the moment!) in good packaging. I would happily recommend them. And a little more progress. First of all, P and I have firmed up on the soundhole. It's an opened-out version of the original 'triangle with rounded corners': And I've started thinning the joined top down to near final size. For this, I am using my trusty Stanley No.80 Scraper Plane: It's a slow, careful job - the blanks were 4mm and I'm thinning down to 3mm, leaving 0.1mm for final sanding once the braces are all on and it has been glued to the back and sides. I've got around 0.2mm to go, being careful to reverse the direction of cut for either side so that it is always scraping with the grain and not against it (the fibre angle for bookmatched wood lies in opposite directions - which is why sometimes a guitar top looks one side light, one side dark in certain lights. Scraping with the grain for each side significantly reduces the possibility of tear-out ).

Yes - I suspect that the application of some finish would draw out allsorts of interesting things. Same with the other one too...

I was drawing something along those lines when you posted. Of course, P might have something completely different in mind than either of them In the meantime, we have crystallised the back and sides choice - we're going for this one and see how it goes in terms of whether my judgement's right about the splits : Colour-wise, it will be closer to the supplier shot I showed earlier (stockists of these kinds of products will usually show them dampened which is pretty much the colour they turn to when the finish is applied): I think this is going to look fabulous!

In the meantime, I've been playing around with some thoughts of shaping the soundhole. I'll put some of my various thoughts and scribbles to P but this one, I think, has something going for it, giving a passing nod to the curve and straight of the upper bout: With a shaped soundhole, the rosette probably needs to be simple - maybe just a couple of surrounding purfling strips - but, again, I'll have a play around.

The back and side woods arrived today and, true to a good supplier, exactly as described. It looks a nice wood. These are the two options that P will decide on. Both are very attractive and I will be more than happy to use either on a future acoustic project: The yellow marks on the bottom one are splits that the supplier has highlighted. The only relevant ones are those within the shape boundary and close up they are like this: Splits like this are generally not an issue on a back - and when the back is thinned and pressed into its 15' spheroidal shape these will open out more - as they will fill and not show but also are held in place by the back braces. A split in that centre light section, interestingly, would have been more of a concern as it would have the potential of running up the whole length. But the light wood is sound. Having said that, you don't really know until you get it down to the finished thickness of 1.9mm and start bending sides and spheroiding the back. If P does choose this one and if there is a subsequent issue during bending, we'll just switch to the other set Incidentally, the Black Limba on Matt's dreadnought was worse than the above. The splits on his were indeed lengthways and, originally, worsening - but it's not been a problem despite Matt being a percussive player. And a prize of a big emoji smile to anyone who thinks they can spot where it is : Colour-wise, the timber for P's Bouzouki will finish up similar to his own stock photos up above - more amber and darker figuring than in the dry state, but the finish will bring out all of the secret wonders held in the figuring of both pieces Some plywood is on order to make a bending mould for the new shape and then we can start some planing and bending

No - actually, Fender Bi-flex is a single rod. They block the nut from screwing right out which means that when you 'loosen' beyond the rod being straight, it then starts bending the other way. So yes, you would expect those to also be affected more than other types - but there can be other variables. It may use a different steel for the rod or the necks maybe naturally stiffer (I presume the Fenders are maple - the Sterling?) - and I'm sure there are others! Is the Schecter actually the Fender system or do they just use the term? I would have thought that would have used a two-rod system but I might be wrong. What model is it? Yes, keep us all informed...useful info whatever the outcome

The 'Guitar' bit is fine. It's the 'Bouzouki' bit that might be a bit of a challenge

And the first physical step - joining the top. It's a lovely piece of AAA European Spruce from David Dyke. Very even and tight grain: Measuring with my new deep-throat caliper (pricey but without one of those it's all a bit of a guess, particularly when you start reducing to final thickness!), it's starting off at just over 3.9mm: I will be reducing that down to 3mm before putting the braces on, leaving 0.1mm for final sanding, finishing at around 2.9mm (hence the need for deep throat callipers - especially when it's joined!) As is often the case, one edge of the bookmatch is darker and, as I don't want to have that in the middle, I will be joining on the other edge to give a nice and even light look for the bulk of the body. But golden rule - always look on the other side! And along the edge (which is probably why DD marked it up against the other edge) is a small knot which, apart from potentially weakening the joint, might show a ripple on the other side: But happily - because the sound hole is going to be in the same position as this OM plan, the knot will be cut out anyway: And so - with the edge straightened up with a long-base plane and the surface roughed up on my long sanding beam it's been glued and clamped. The caul is to hold the joint against a dead-flat plank underneath to ensure that the two sides are completely lined up, with the sash clamp applying medium pressure to keep the joint closed: Probably leave this clamped up until the morning

I think that the unusual flex in temperature and humidity lately is more the issue than any inherent problem with your bass. I'm pretty certain that the Sub4 has a 'traditional' single rod trussrod. There is nothing at all wrong with that, but single rod trussrods are impacted more by temperature change and humidity change than the more modern (but heavier) double-bar rods. With the single bar, if it gets warmer, the bar expands and if it gets more humid, the exposed timber that the nut presses against changes shape which affects the amount of pull. That can both be pulling in the same direction or in opposite directions depending on the actual weather. In recent weeks and in the UK, though, I suspect that the temperature change would have caused the bigger impact. If I'm right (and assuming you tuned to pitch in both cases), then when it was warm your relief got bigger and when it was cool your relief got tighter? I think in the UK, humidity changes are less pronounced (it's very humid or it's very very humid or it's raining ) but we have had unusually wide changes in temperature recently and - if your house is anything like ours - it has been enough to affect the temperature in the house too. And why is a double-bar rod not affected as much? Because the bend of the rod is determined by the difference in length of the two rods (or rod and bar in some designs). So if one bar expands, then the other bar is going to expand as well and curve remains largely unaffected. So if your other basses have two-bar rods, then yes, they won't have been affected in the same way. Leastways, that's my guess.

And the strings all line up! I must mention to MrsAndyjr1515 that I can SOMETIMES put things together straight...

That looks absolutely beautiful. Good choice with the colour - really adds something on this one It was a pleasure to work on and you've taken it to a whole new level after that

I have to say - a trem on a bass is a new one on me! Fascinating.

All looking good to me Can't wait to see it all finished and assembled.

Nice touch with the hatch access carve

Looking good!

Wow!

Excellent!