Andyjr1515

And here is the bracing. This is standard OM bracing and, as you can see, plenty of room to be a bit more creative with the soundhole

Basically, yes. P and I are still pulling together the spec and I am still clambering up the learning curve using every crampon, piton and googlon at my disposal. So - as @BigRedX says, basically a guitar body with a bouzouki neck and bridge. The body size we are going for will be the OM/Concert - 15" across the lower bout and around 110mm deep at the tail (you can see I spent my formative years in transition between SI and Imperial!). The main difference to the body is that it joins the neck at the 16th fret, as opposed to the 14th fret of a standard steel string acoustic. However, the bridge position, bracing and sound hole broadly remain in standard position, and so the upper bout shortens by around 30mm. This is the shape we are toying with. You can see in light relief the outline of a standard OM acoustic: The sound hole will be wider than the norm and may well be shaped. It will have a standard-style guitar bridge with a compensated saddle. The construction and internal bracing design will be very much based on my own OM build: The top timber, some lovely AAA spruce from David Dyke is already here. The back and sides is on its way from Schroter in Germany and is Red Gum Satin Walnut. I've ordered two sets - P will decide which one he wants when I am able to see them in the flesh and made sure they are both OK to use: To say that I'm quite excited by this project is a bit of an understatement!

No cracking risk

But more seriously. I seriously have no idea what.... It's early days. We are just crystallising the spec at the moment and it's a long time before I need to worry about those aspects. I'm guessing octave but I'm not sure at the moment - happily the prospective owner already has one - in fact, I think he has two bouzoukis, a trad one and a guitar one (and proper ones built by folks who know what they are doing ) and so a lot of the details, neck width, profile, etc, etc will be aimed at trying to replicate a 'feel' that he is comfortable with, along with, hopefully, some AJR stuff too . I've worked on mandolins in the past so I'm guessing that will help me a bit. Which, I know, is a bit like saying to the Mercedes F1 team, "Well, I changed the oil on a Ford Anglia when I was younger and I'm sure it's the same principle"

You know I have no idea what you are talking about...

I'm sorry. Yes - I know it's not a bass. But I have done two smaller bass jobs since the guitar build thread. And besides - this is a BOUZOUKI! The conversation went something like this: Him: "Loved that video of Matt Marriott playing the dreadnought acoustic you built for him" Me: "Why thank you!" Him: "I was just wondering. Could you make me a guitar bouzouki? Presumably you could use the same general arrangement but with a bouzouki neck and joining at the 16th" Me: "Absolutely. Yes - of course. Same principle. It's all just wood, after all, haha. And strings...it does have strings doesn't it...and...frets, hmmm, presumably and..well... well yes, yes, yes of course! Yes - the answer is yes!" Him: "That's great" Me: "It's been a pleasure talking about this. Have a great day. Bye!" Him: "Bye then." Me: (Thinks) What the FLIP is a Guitar Bouzouki??????? And so over the next couple of days I will bring you all up to date of what one is Treat this as a voyage of mutual discovery...

Lovely job - very neat In terms of wood cracking - no. When you string up, the forces are on the pocket, not the corners so - unless you are planning to use the neck as a club to keep the adoring crowds at a social distance, then there are no strains that I can imagine that would give the timber a problem in those corners. If you had a very hard and brittle finish, then feasibly the finish could develop a crack which would generally come from a corner but most of the non-pro finishes most of us use generally are a bit softer and more flexible. As Jez says, what finish are you planning?

Yup. Trouble is, she will be in full ppe

That's very nice of you to say. People have mentioned that before Although it's generally been about one of the dead ones...

Looks good

Amended as requested, @scrumpymike 8. @Andyjr1515 Not yet sure what I will be bringing except my athletic physique, chiselled good looks and post-lockdown waist length hair (and if you believe that.... )

I'm rubbish at envisioning such things. But I think I've just worked out how this works! And if it does work eventually, @Si600, consider the idea stolen!

And all done, packed up ready to return Here was the final result: So, to a few household tasks, and then on to the guitar bouzouki. And to preempt your question - I've got no idea

Decent question With the larger radius, there is more to chisel away and get out of line on the body whereas on the plug, with the same larger radius, counter-intuitively it is easier to round off accurately than with a small radius So I thought it would be a neater solution. It's probably fairly irrelevant anyway as it will be filled and solid painted over

And battery chamber plug is cut carved and gluing. Tomorrow, I'll plane and sand it flush and then it's all ready to be shipped back to @donslow

I am a bit unconventional when it comes to pickup chambers: - I hate templates...I never get them in the right place; they move and shift and rock - I hate routers...they are of the devil So what I do - and, as usual, I am not saying this is how they should be done - is: - create the corners and lug slots using the appropriately sized drills (earlier post) - hog out with a Forstner bit - chisel to the outline - and then, and only then, I might use a now fully captive bearing bit on a router to level the bottom to final depth. But only if it is really necessary. In this event, I know the router bit can't go anywhere. I know it can't do any damage. So here starts the hog: Then a sharp chisel and wooden mallet to take it to the pen line and remove the wave peaks left by the Forstner. And here it is. Based on the chamber depths, I don't think I need to rout the bottoms. Which suits me fine So final job is that I realised that I am going to have to pop a block in the battery compartment anyway for the pickup screw to screw into. So I've suggested to @donslow that I may as well put in a full block and sand it flush so he doesn't have to create the faux compartment. So that's what I'll do this afternoon.

I'm just doing the fill and routs. But I'm hoping @donslow will post the result when it's done

Yes - there is something very pleasing about Ibanez basses I did a reverse P a few years ago for PaulS and it worked out well. With this one @donslow was keen to try as best as we could to retain the classic Precision vibe and so I've stuck with the 60s Fender Precision positions. I'm quite happy with the mid point between the 60s and 70s for the J. I think it will give a good balanced but usable variation in sound when @donslow needs it.

Excellent! Battery box will not be used, so @donslow will just refit the box as a faux cover. This should be finished tomorrow, then

Well, crunch time is tomorrow morning - Rog and I are meeting in my back garden for a gloved handover and we'll see if he's a happy chappy or not

But for one detail, which actually is a good thing to flag to new modders, this might have been finished tomorrow More about that later, but in terms of today's progress - I had asked @donslow to send me both the bridge and the intended pickups with the body. Why? Well, ref the bridge - it means I can get the pickup chambers in the right place. New pickups often aren't exactly the correct pole spacing and that is OK - but you do want them to be symmetrical ref the pole positions vs the treble and bass strings. Having the bridge means you can draw the string runs which means you can position them correctly. Ref having the actual pickups - three reasons. Again, it is easier to line up the pole positions when you have the actual covers to hand. Secondly, there is no such thing as a standard bass pickup size! Especially Jazz pickups. Even Fender's aren't always the same as other Fenders! Lastly, you want the chambers to have the right radii for the corners and fixing lugs. So having the bridge and the pickups means I can get them the right shape and in the right place: For the lengthways positioning, @donslow and I had a discussion about what he wanted from the bass (PJ spacing is often different to both a P and a J). @donslow 's preference is to go for a Precision 'sweetspot' and then really just have the bridge adding some variation when needed. Even then, there are choices about the bridge position - most commonly the 60's or 70's J bass positions. The 60's Jazz position is about 10mm further away from the bridge than the 70's position. On a PJ, the 70's position can sometimes make the bridge sound tinny and weak against the boom of the P neck. So, often, makers would use the warmer 60's position for the bridge but - to keep the space between the two pickups even, would then move the P 10mm away from the Precision position, further towards the neck. I've gone for neither I've gone for Precision 'sweetspot' for the neck P and moved the bridge J closer to the P, placing it halfway between the 70s and 60s position. I don't use templates. I start with creating the corners and lug positions and radii. For the lugs, the centre of the circle is inset a mm or so: For the corners, it's a standard radius, tighter on the P than the J So then they are drilled. I used a 1/2" forstner bit for the lugs: Then a 4mm bradpoint for the P corners and an 8mm bradpoint for the J corners: So tomorrow, I will hog out with a Forstner bit up to the pen lines, tidy up the sides with a chisel and then use a small top bearing router bit to flatten the bottoms of the chambers. So why won't it be finished tomorrow? Big tip for new modders - and don't ask me how I know this: before you cut anything or drill anything - ALWAYS - look at what's on the other side. Happily, for once, I had taken my own advice so knew that the battery box was going to clash with the proper positioning of the P pickup: So yes - when I've sorted the pickup chambers, I have to move the battery box a few cm too But should be all done by the end of the weekend

Nice job on the fretboard! I like the shape of the scratchplate and I think the grain looks good on it. The colour change of the body from the outside shots to the later shots - is that just camera/light foibles or have you used a coloured stain/finish? It looks so different (from reddish brown to yellow-ish) it threw me a bit...

They look good

Hi Probably doesn't warrant a thread, but for anyone interested. A few weeks ago, @donslow contacted me to ask if I would be able to fill the existing chambers in an Ibanez body and re-rout to fit a SD Quarter Pounder P-J Set for him. It's a fairly straightforward job - and with the added bonus that @donslow will be doing the hard bit, the stripping and finishing - so I was more than happy to lend a hand. With @Roger2611 's veneer job back in its gig bag just waiting final polishing, I started it off today. I had some nice lightweight mahogany offcut from the recent SG-style guitar build which is going to be ideal, so first job was to square off the corners of the old pickup chambers and also take the curved paint edges round the tops of the chambers back to a crisp 90 degree edge: With some careful bandsaw and plane work, got the first block cut to size. And a tip - before gluing these kinds of infill blocks in place, always remember to cut access for the cable runs for the new pickup to get from the new chambers to the existing runs - they may not be in the same position as the old ones! Fitted and glued: Then planed and sanded smooth. @donslow is going to be spraying solid colour over the finished body so I just need to sand it down to the present finish : Then the next one in: Busy day tomorrow, but Friday / Saturday, this will be also planed and sanded flush and then the new chambers cut I'll let you know how it goes. Andy

Was is manchesterguitartech you used in the first place, @donslow? If so, then either of the two colours would be fine (if I was going to add the tinted clear, I would personally go for the desert sand) and they could be sprayed directly over this, using this as your primer. The manchesterguitartech paints are good quality and their solids would, I'm pretty sure, cover the shadings after only a couple of coats. If the original is another brand, then yes - sand it fully off first, just in case there are compatibility problems, and use a primer coat, preferably white.