Andyjr1515

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!

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