HazBeen

A chicken eating peas....

Can someone please tell me why I have a partially lined, epoxied wenge fretboard in mind all of a sudden? Must be all the Intronaut I’ve been listening to. Time will tell if it is a phase......

25% is relatively hard still, so you will get years of use before a refret is needed.

For instance

The thinner and lower the fret, the better your technique needs to be. Medium/Jumbo is a solid middle of the road option. A fretpress is easier, but you can certainly hammer frets in as well especially if you have a relatively flat fretboard it is quite easy as long as you think twice/take care. I would advise against Stainless Steel/Titanium and such. Reason being it is harder on your tools (you may even need harder = more expensive tools), detanging/rounding/finishing a stainless fret is significantly more work too. So for that reason alone I would advise to go for normal Nickel Silver alloy, not more than 25% alloy. You can buy fretwire in lots of price brackets. Sintoms is a make I see more and more of that is not very expensive, but gets good reviews.

Very cool.

So I decided that even though I build for fun/hobby, I want to be able to add a logo to my instruments. I think it looks cool, it gives "identity" to my builds and it helps people see what I did and did not build/mod. So a crash course in Inkscape further and I came up with this: Infinite Bass, clearly a take on the Bass Cleff and the Infinity sign. Will be adding the logo to all basses from now on, starting wth the fretless and shortscale basses I built earlier this year, and also on the Modern 5 I am doing now. Not really a build diary, but I still wanted to share

You could also impregnate with epoxy. Get something you like and make it hard as a rock with epoxy.

In true “me” fashion I am already thinking of/am making changes to the original plan. - I am indeed going to put the pickups side by side - with the wenge fretboard and centre “spine” I’ve gone off the nut top idea, most likely going to mix it up Did the rough body shaping (bandsaw). Since getting my spindle sander I just sand to shape, not needing to make a routing template. More control and no chipout risk.

Just ordered neck and fretboard material. It will be a 3 piece neck, flatsawn maple with a 2cm quartersawn wenge spine and a wenge fretboard.

Ehm, I think I’ll pass.

I can imagine the confusion, as I am using a kitchen-esque tablecloth on my worktop and clearly I am standing on a chair. However, my mrs would never let me build anything but dinner in the kitchen (she did let me nick a plastic tablecloth for my workshop), and I’d be chasing any mouse with a mallet

A part of me wants to put both MM5CS pickups right next to each other, so without a gap. Like an MTD Super 5, but slightly further from the bridge....... hmmmmmm.

And we now have a full size drawing, to the correct dimensions, scale etc. I need to sort out some neck wood, as I didn’t yet order anything whilst I was deciding what I wanted to do. Tuner positions are just approx. to get an idea of the headstock. Not sure what it reminds me of, but I may unintentionally have nicked a design. Pedulla Rapture-ish, but smaller. The body is an adaptation of the body I designed for my fretless. Anyway, can start on the body, but the neck will need most work so need to start ordering something...

I think I will stick with the walnut top, looks understated but I think it will have a nice contrast against the swamp ash body, black hardware and wenge fretboard.

The trussrod really only impacts the neck between the nut and heel. Even with a thin heel, where your neck is bolted onto the body is where any flex ends. So the distance between the nut and heel/body dictates length required. So ask yourself, what is my scale length and at what fret does my neck attach to the body. Generally that means 3-5cm or so shorter trussrod than the length of your fretboard, but it depends on where you adjust (neck or body side) and how/where it attaches to the body exactly. If you have 34” scale, 24 frets and extended heel your trussrod will basically span the entire 25 and a bit inches of your fretboard meaning 630mm is the way to go. Hope that helps.

Graphite rods help stiffen the construction, so you can often have a slightly slimmer neck, and it does help a bit against deadspots. But many builders do not use them at all. I.e. a well constructed neck does not necessarily require them. Logic therefore dictates a shorter rod could also work. Whilst I just want to note that I build for fun/hobby, having done multiple but not loads of necks, I think you certainly could use 500mm rods. However, I personally try to keep my rods the same size as my trussrod minus the adjustment bolt, meaning I am using 600mm rods and a 630mm trussrod for my upcoming 35” scale 21 fret neck. How adventurous are you feeling, I guess is the question and answer

I use 6-6mm rods in my builds (when I do a neck). Just got myself some 600mm long ones for my upcoming build. Get them here: https://tlcguitargoods.com/en/carbon-rod-van-6x6x600mm.html

It will take some time before this thing takes shape, but I think I am happy with the body shape and headstock. - I have decided to go for 21 frets as it helps balance without needing deep cutaways - headstock I want as small as I can get to prevent neck dive (but it does need to look good and balanced in relation to the body) - I am going for a pickup position that is around 1/2” back towards the bridge compared to a Ray Clearly just a first draft, any comments folks?

Phew 😎