SpondonBassed

I can see how a hollow ground blade might steer the cut in the wrong direction. The oil stone that I inherited would be ideal for that job. That would leave me free to adopt a method similar to yours for sharpening edges that are not curved. Nice. PS; I have a scythe that I'd love to learn to sharpen well. In my youth I never quite got my technique down to my satisfaction. Any tips for that one? Heeheehee.

You are welcome. I don't recognise the partial spelling but it might be the manufacturer's brand. I should have mentioned. With Alclad, any cut edges are exposing the underlying alloy to air. I'd want to sweat proof the edge of a pickguard for that reason even if I was going to leave the surface with a polished finish. PS; My apologies. On taking the time to read this topic again, I realised that you wanted the ally as a hidden shield to go behind the existing pickguard. Ignore my ramblings about it being polished or sweat proofed. Next time I will refrain from responding to posts until I have woken up.

"Alclad" indicates that you have a sheet of aluminium alloy that has a thin layer of pure aluminium rolled onto its surface for corrosion resistance. If you scratch the surface deeply enough, the underlying alloy will be exposed to atmoshere and it will start to corrode if the scratch is left untreated. The partially obscured number, possibly 2024, indicates what alloy of aluminium the sheet itself is. It is one of the "2" series of aluminium alloys and as such, it is heat treatable. Detailed document You needn't worry about the heat treatment bit unless you intend to work the sheet into a 3D form but I'd advise you to consider a coat of tough lacquer to preserve a highly polished finish on the pure aluminium surface. You can repolish the surface and go without a top coat but only so many times.

Welcome Kenny.

My housemate got one in for our workshop when he was making his first ukulele from scratch, kerfings and all. It was the first and last time he used it. For later builds he bought in ready carved necks. It's definitely a tool that demands respect. I'd imagine the trick is to observe the grain closely at the heel of the neck and modify the cut accordingly? If there is a recommended drawknife sharpening technique would you be kind enough to append it to your blade sharpening guide please? I'm loving how the final form is shaping up.

I get what you mean. At Olney, in the sixties and very early seventies, we were served desserts of spotted Richard or treacle pudding with gravity defying custard. I didn't learn that custard could flow until secondary school! The colour was okay however and I never left any behind. Yum. It's something to look forward to in another topic. You've proved that the uncomplicated design of those instruments lends itself to tweaks that are well within the scope of the DIY enthusiast. Thanks for sharing.

Yes. For saying it is the butt end of the instrument it has grain features that you can lose yourself in until you drag your eye back to that neat binding. When order is restored to your visual cortex sufficient for another dip into that moody sea-like grain, your eye goes right back for another surf across the ripples. The near symmetry is a real tease. Every time I look, I see something new and I look for its complement on the opposite side of the centre line. When the finish brings out the full depth and colour of that timber, it's going to blow everyone away. I am going to get sympathetic contractions in the days immediately before Andy births the instrument. Lets wish him a comfortable and natural delivery*. *Andy - This is not a guitar that I'd recommend for tw4tting some lairy yoof across the back of the nut with. It's just as well that old scrotes like us mellow with age.

No, you are bang on with that observation. It has a neck shim that I put in after to bring the action at the twelfth down a bit. What it does is to raise the neck instead of sinking the bridge as I should have done when I was refining the body shape. To be fully effective it needs to be a tapered shim and then I will have some new snags relating to the new neck angle. As it is now the action is on the high side of my preference but it is workable. There is also a hidden benefit. Playing with a higher than usual action is making me me work harder at fretting accurately at the octave marker and thereabouts. Coming from an aero-engineering background, I don't regard my shim as a proper cure for the underlying problem so much as an attempt to alleviate the symptoms. It's going to be fixed so that there is full surface to surface contact between the neck and the neck pocket - one day. If I was served custard that was the colour of your bass as rendered on this screen I'd send it back. I stand by my words; your Jazz bitsa really does cut the mustard, visually speaking. I'm hoping you get a sound you like from it too.

You sort of got away with that one luckily. The lessons learned could be considered as character forming, both for the instrument and for your good self. I've got a kit build that is maxed out on saddle height adjustment because of my inexperience. The outer saddles are flat to the bridgeplate!. It's fixable but like you, I don't want to undo an instrument that already works. When I am sure that I can sink the bridge to the correct depth in my Pitbull's body (as seen at MBB5) it'll get fixed but for now I am happy enough. It's a testbed for me and luckily it sounds well too. You and other builders here have inspired me to do at least a pair of builds concurrently next time. It's true. Even before you finish your first ever bass build you find yourself thinking about the next ones. And I thought I'd just dip a toe in the water - heeheehee PS; Even though I am not a fan of chrome plate I think your mustard bass looks good.

Have you tried a search through Basschat's Build Diaries yet? I think I've seen others with similar ideas. I'm looking forward to a build topic from you if you go ahead. All the best with the project.

I've never liked chrome plate much. Maybe if they were anodised aluminium in an appropriate colour I'd like the look of them more but then there is getting used to the feel of the thing under your bridge hand to deal with anyway.

They're great on my B2A but it is an active bass. (Said of Rickenbackers.) I am in another category altogether. I like them only for their looks. I don't want one though. Too much baggage. They are definitely for the those who are light of touch. Set up correctly for such a gauge, any bass should sound okay with them. Rickies are stunning to look at in my opinion too. Beyond that there is no great attraction for me. Maybe I'll change my mind after trying one but I don't think I'd be comfortable with one.

That's a great excuse. May I use that from now on? Heeheehee

Thinking about what you said I realised that I share your sentiment. I then realised that I haven't owned a bass with any sort of pickguard since 1987. Currently I own five working instruments. Then it struck me that another reason for my mild aversion to Fenders in general is the pickguard or pickguard/control plate in combination. I am less bothered about what colour it is than the fact that it conceals some ugly routing in the guitar's top. I know that production cost used to be lower because of it and that low manufacturing cost is part of the reason for Fenders being the Ford of the guitar world. It's cheap but not nasty. Never the less, subconsciously, my brain says Fender pickguard = concealed bodge. I have no problem with the hollow body type of pickguard (Gibson for example) that stands just off the bass top. They're pick guards, nothing-more and nothing-less, so I don't think bodge! when I handle them. It's just that with Fender the pickguard is in reality more of an access panel than it is pick guard. Oh those clever marketing people for calling it a pickguard. That's just my take on it. Other opinions are available. Slight diversion; Burns take the Fender style "guard" notion to an elegant extreme by covering the guitar top with panels. This seems to be for purely aesthetic reasons. It might also have been an attempt to protect new instruments from surface damage from those flouncy cuffs that were big in the sixties - with cuff-links they'd scratch the heck out of the whole guitar top!. Either way, I'd hang a Burns on my cool wall and a Fender on my workhorse wall. P (and J) basses sound okay though so don't take me for a hater just yet. Leo got his priorities right for the era.

I'm so sorry.

I'm just grateful we haven't seen this yet. Whoops.

You are displaying one of the most interesting bottoms I have seen on the 'net for some time my friend. Heeheehee, it's a cracker!

Well done for going back to school. I don't think I could but that's a different story.

Set backs huh? Internet shopping cuh! Lots of eager followers on your build topics - ach! I understand your frustration but really, the progress you have made in, what? six months is astounding. You have fully fabricated two guitars and three more are within sight. Why wouldn't you need a holiday in the middle of it? Perhaps thinking that way would help.

Welcome BlueMoon. A Burns? Cool.

Careful now. We'd hate to see you out of pocket and struggling to pay the bills or worse, end up faced with a room full of Jar Jar Binks impersonators and one massive Wookie suit with three of the shorter members stood on each others' shoulders trying to get in on one ticket.

Nice job. If you've had the neck off - I'd say you may have reassembled it with a better seat than it had previously. It seems a more likely cause than from changing the finish.

Hahahaha! Bless.

All the best with it. There's no challenge in sitting around wrapped up in cotton wool. You will have had proper advice on discharge from the cardiac unit unless you walked out on them. I'm happy for you.

It's good to hear that you have such ambitious plans. I wish you both every success getting your venture up and running.