Owen

My tame luthier student went and tapped all the polepieces with a allen key and there was equal volume across everything so I gave skater student a spare E string and we shall see what happens. Thanks all..

Wow, they have not got any cheaper

I still miss my Korg G5.

Not wanting to de-rail, but EXCITING TIMES!

This looks like the kind of manual I might actually read. This is not normal for me. Good job.

I have a student who was carrying his bass on his back while skateboarding. He fell off. I have mentioned that this was not his finest hour. However the upshot of the fall was that the neck pickup (J type instrument) was pushed down on the E string side. He has lifted it again but strangely the E is now quieter than G D and A on both neck and bridge pickups - solo-ed and together. The instrument is passive. Can anyone suggest any fixes? TIA.

The plans? Possibly. But I cannot guarantee that. Have you noticed the thread title?

Again, thanks everyone for humouring me I have bought special long paper and a presentation board to tape it onto. I have a 3B pencil and a rubber. I am almost certain I have a long straight edge in the garage. I am on fire!

If I am going super curved I will need an extra thick body blank, no? I was going with sonic blue but realised that might well need a whte-ish scratchplate to offset it. I am thinking maybe copper leaf cos ....... umm.......... shiny.

I resemble that remark.

I think I am over the lathe thing (even though it was exciting), but I could make a bowl will a flat bottom which only curved at the extreme edges.

They have some pretty accurate readings of what is happening in the UK at the moment, but that would be de-railing my own thread!

The lathe option would give a certain line which there is no way I could get with hand tools, but the by PM and various posts I am beginning to think the hand tool thing might be a go-er. Thanks everyone for their willingness to guide. I am going to buy some really big paper.

Andy, you are on the money right there!

Thanks. Would doing the turning and then putting it through a large thicknesser do the bridge end to neck end? Whether such a thicknesser exists, I don't know.

Rats, you have pointed out the obvious flaw in my plan. And now you have pointed it out (thanks. No, really!) it changes what is happening in my mind. Back to the drawing board.

Thanks everyone for your encoursgement. It will be your fault. I am thinking about getting a piece of scrap wood, having it turned and then seeing if I can wrestle it into shape. It will be 310mm at it's longest by 280mm at it's widest. How deep do I need to leave it for neck pocket, pickups and control cavity?

Ver, ver shmooooth.

I truly love the idea of doing it all by hand, but I know I will get impatient/sloppy/over ambitous and cut too deeply or whatever. I only have to look at the extra grooves I have in my bathroom floor where I sanded it to understand the limits of my skillset.

I will need all the help I can get!

If I get the convex top on it, I could live with a flatter concave back (not as deep dish) to make it work.

I think that I will take the lines it comes out as, as a product of the process. It will kind of design itself. My thought process is being guided by this discussion. I will have to do a prototype in pine or something cheap and cheerful. The thought of doing rather than wondering is quite exciting.

Wait! You have a luthier's course close and you have not gone on it? Eh?

Because it will be super short scale the body will be a max of 75% normal body size. Perhaps smaller. I dunno. Perhaps you can tell.