Dom in Dorset

I've done the final bit of epoxy, sanded it flat and put the neck pocket in. A few more experiments with puckup positions and I'll rout for them.

Remember me? I'm back and I've made some progress. I was planning on using a set of Entwistle JBXN pickups but not in the usual Jazz bass positions. I found this picture which shows how Rickenbacker do it so: I've put the neck onto this mock up to test the idea. The result is just what I wanted, fat but focused and great throughout the whole range. I haven't begun to experiment with control settings much , it's vvtt so should be versatile too. I was holding off on the body until I'd had a chance to test to theory but I'm giving it the green light now. Shouldn't be too long now.

Back in 2021 before I'd finished the workshop.

How do I share my band's Spotify page? It just comes up as a link rather than the full profile when I do it. https://open.spotify.com/artist/047Xu1TKM30TCSlcU0VV96?si=0G1P3nZuRR6xgdrGC0DL4w

A note book. If you hear or think of an interesting phrase write it down. Any odd bits of lyrics that come to you , write them down. Sometimes more structured ideas will come to you, write them down. When you come to actually finalise your song's lyrics those notes can be a useful resource for filling in gaps when you just need a line to finish a verse etc. I've kept many such note books over the years and it's not uncommon for me to use a phrase I jotted down ten years ago in a song I'm writing now . I Sometimes make notes just brainstorming ideas for months on a theme before moulding them into lyrics. The current A4 book showing the notes, rough work and out takes from a recently finished song. I had the original idea about ten years ago and finally got it done a few months back after a few false starts. It's a silly country and western song. The book is filling up with pages of similar gibberish that may or may not find it's way into a song. A thesaurus and rhyming dictionary are useful too.

First coat of lacquer on the travel guitar, it will take a few more coats and two weeks to cure. I'll be back on the denim bass soon.

Remember my post on April fools day about making a guitar out of wood ash? A few people fell for it I suspect because it sounds vaguely plausible. I even started to think that there might be something in it myself. So to prove it one way or another I'm giving it a try on a small scale. I'm using ash from the fire pit that we used last night. After removing any large lumps or unburnt bits I added wood glue and water. Stir and leave to settle, not sure how long it will take to dry..... I'll get back to you.

I found time to finish the carving (I'll sort the heal and out when the neck pocket is ready) Side dots in I wasn't sure if I had enough abs rod for the side dots but I did... just

I've spent the morning finishing applying the binding on the travel guitar and made a start on carving the bass neck. As it's finally stopped raining and the sun is predicted to come out shortly I'm off out to enjoy it.

Shiny shiny, shiny frets of nickel....

Masking the fretboard ahead of level/crown/polish of the frets Masked and coloured with a Sharpie then a couple of passes with the levelling beam to get an idea of how much work I will have to do. Once I'm happy that the frets are level the tops are re blacked before recrowning. The idea is to leave a thin line of black down the middle of the fret. Levelled, crowned and sanded up to 800 grit ready for polishing It's one of the more tedious parts of the process. I'll polish them next week.

The cats woke me up before five this morning to let me know that they wouldn't survive until a more reasonable hour without food. I used the opportunity to get the frets in. I covered the tangs in wood glue to fill any voids left in the fret slots. I also added binding to the headstock, I'm trying a partially bound style. Dolly and Tammy on the brink of starvation

Guilty as charged. That particular build should be underway as soon as these two are complete.

If you hadn't already worked it out yesterday's post was an April fool joke. I posted it on several platforms and what I found interesting was how enthusiastic some people were about the idea of using wood ash to make a guitar. As a result I'm actually going to make a sample of "ashcrete" just to see what happens.... Meanwhile back in the real world -

Slight change of tack but I'm trying something new today - An experiment in extreme timber recycling.... building an electric guitar entirely from wood ash. I'd noticed that the pile of discarded ash from the fire when exposed to the rain turned into a clay like substance. I did a few experiments and discovered that the alkaline wood ash reacted with wood glue to form an incredibly hard yet light substance. I made a mold from cardboard and added the first layer of "ashcrete" , it will take at least three layers and a month to dry before it can be machined and turned into a guitar. Watch this space...... The thread title seems more relevant than ever!