rwillett

here's the full length with pickguards, dodgy control panel and quite nice knobs. I can see better pots wiring and capacitors on the horizon. None of this is difficult to solder up using decent CTS pots, and decent wires. A close up of the front. if this was a Hollywood film, you;d be able to reverse engineer my DNA just by looking at the reflections in the knobs Strap points in, pick guard screws aren't quite right. Will probably move to silver button heads as opposed to countersunk. Here's the back. This is a 60mm wide backbone rather than an 80mm backbone. Seems fine though and saves circa 300g. Things that still need to be done. I still can't get a decent glossy finish so all my guitars are still raw. Six months and no tangible progress. The pieces that make up the outside are not glued together yet. There is tiny movement between them. This needs to be done but I don't want to screw up before Saturday. Rewire the contol panel. probably not before Saturday though I might have a sneaky look on Amazon today for next day shipment on CTS pots. Reprint the pickguards as they aren't perfect. Probably change the pickups to my new Wilkinson ones and design a new pickguard. Thats thne nice thing about this bass, don;t like the pickups, try somnething different. Perhaps a telecaster deluxe design or a strat type design with three pickups. Not a massive problem to do.

John, These were the first pickups that came to hand Literally. I wanted to check that these all worked. Its wired volume/Volume/Blend (or it should be). I'll sort the hum out, may be a noisy PSU, I suspect that my home office is bloody awful for RF as I have a large colour laser printer, 2 x 3d printers, 2 x UPS's, network switch, EXSI server, multiple laptops, desktops, monitors, ipads and servers. I might change it to use two Jazz pickups, or something else. I really like my P90's on my home made Tele and once I get the guitar winder working, that'll be my first design. Here's what pickups can be fitted. The red squares are for Thunderbird bass fittings, the blue squares are for Fender neck and Fender bridge pickups. The neck pickups are 38mm apart and the bridge pickups are 40mm apart. The yellow squares are for precision type split pickups. I forgot to add them to the neck position in the design <doh>. However since this is a modular design, I will put the split pickups screw mounting holes in to the neck position as well. I need to print off a single new plate. It does involve dismantling some of the guitar as it's right in the centre, but probably 45 mins each way. Six hours to print as well. I may just go back to my Wilkinson Jazz pickups, all that entails is taking out the split pickups and putting the jazz ones back in. All the cabling is modular as well, so thats not a problem. I will need to print a neck pickguard, but thats a few hours and easy. The other screw holes are for pickguards, or attaching the outer frame. Thanks Rob

Fitted the cheapest, nastiest control panel I could get from Amazon to make sure I have something that works. Well it was cheap but it was wired incorrectly with the cables to the socket reversed. I assumed it was my connections or soldering or anything, but no, it was the sodding wrongly wired socket. No doubt there's a chinese forced labourer chuckling to herself in her dormitory how she's going to bring down Western capitalism, one badly wired socket at a time. Two sodding hours to find that as I thought it had to be me. Anyway, fixed that, left a review on Amazon so the next sucker knows what to change. Plugged in and there's sound. Not sure if its the right sound, but there is something coming out of it through the mod_dwarf. There's also a lot of hum, even without the bass plugged in, but thats a problem for another day. Got both pickguards on, weight is 4.02kg which is highly annoying as it's 21g more than I was working for. I'll change the metal knobs for plastic or fit lighter strings. It's 400g lighter than the last one though. It still needs to be setup properly, it's almost there, but I prioritised the build over setup so that its ready for Sats Bass Bash. I'll post pictures tomorrow, but I now have a working headless bass. First post for this was May 6th, so eight days from start to finish. For some reason I thought it was significantly longer, it feels a lot longer, especially as I got up at 02:30 this mornning to add some embedded nuts for the strap mounts.

If nothing else, we'll eat well..

And particular favourite pig? I suppose proper home made crusty bread goes without saying, any, preference on the flour? Would an aluminum pan be ok or do I need to forge an iron pan with Lake District ore? I also suppose you want it cooked on oak boughs grown in a western hillside with specific soil pH. I'm afraid that rounding up a virgin to cook it might be beyond my powers though....

Last chance for letting me know about any dietry issues. Otherwise it'll be a selection of pizzas. Also any interest in bacon butties or sausage sarnies on arrival?

Brilliant, sadly Frank can't make it @rwillett- Ibanez short scale, Fender Jazz bass, Fender Mustang bass, Telecaster, Westone six string, 3d printed guitar, small practise bass amp, small practise guitar amp, Mod Dwarf, various guitar/USB interfaces and quite a lot of software and a fair few laptops as required. I live next door Probably cake as well. @ossyrocks- '73 P bass, '73 J bass, '78 P bass, '87 MIJ P Bass, Fender Bassman 50 (rebuilt from the ground up by Gartone), Bergantino Forte D, TE Elf, Barefaced Super Compact and One10, Fender Rumble 100. @sifi2112 - Vigier Excess 4, Mas26 (x2) sfx D3 preamp Koch ATR4502 poweramp @neepheid - Some and hopefully all of Epiphone Jack Casady, G&L L-1000, Epiphone Les Paul Standard, G&L Tribute LB-100, Sire D5, Reverend Triad, Yamaha BB1200, Harley Benton HB-50, Soloking MJ-1, Epiphone Explorer, Markbass Mini CMD 121P IV, Markbass NY 121 cab @ead - ACG SLG 32" 4-string; "Lee Sklar bass"; Ibanez Grooveline GS104; Yamaha Attitude Special; SBMM Pete Wentz Stingray sig bass; practice amp (with headphones) @Muzz Three or four various Shukers, Dingwall ABZ4, modded BB414, modded Rumble 100, modded Westone Quantum, Helix Stomp, possibly Walkabout and BF cabs if I've got enough room in the car... @peterjam - ACG J-Type 4-string (0096), ACG Finn Fretless 4-string (0122), ACG Harlot 6-string (0240), ESP Ltd B-208FM 8-string, Michael Kelly Firefly 4-string acoustic, Chapman Grand Stick 10-string (deep matched reciprocal tuning), Ashbory Mk2 4-string, Phil Jones Bass BG-110 Bass Cub Combo ... and cake. @GreeneKing - ACG B Retro 5 35”, two Zoot Funkmeisters both 32” scale, one a P with a Noll preamp and the other a J with a John East Uni Pre 5 knob, Cort Elrick NSJ5 35” with Noll preamp, Eich T900, Accugroove Tri 112, pedalboard (?) @Ruarl - Sei Original Headless 6, Ibanez GWB1005, JV Precision modified into an active PJ, Ibanez EHB1506MS (for sale!). Barefaced Big Baby 2 & Quilter BB800. Maybe the Tacoma fretless acoustic if there's room in the car. I might chuck the G&L ASAT (non-bass!!) in too.

Good progress overnight. Managed to finish off the last two body parts. Strap screws in place for neck and bridge. Earthing wire in and not working Need to resolve this. Am now printing off two pickguards, one for the neck and one for the control panel. 4-5 hours each. @JohnH89 still offering advice, the guy must be a saint putting up with my witterings Weight without pickguards and control knobs, 3.9Kg. can't see it being under 4K as each pickguard is 50g and the control knobs and wiring will be around 100g, so 4.1Kg. The last bass was 4.4Kg so I have saved 300g. TBH was hoping for more. The body is a little longer so more filament, may look at printing with less infill or tailor the infill for certain areas. My MIJ 97Jazz is 4.4Kg, my medium scale Mustang is 3.5Kg so just about in the middle. Rob

Oddly enough the one subject I did like was maths. Did a lot of maths, a hell of a lot from memory. None of it any use whatsoever in the real world.

Dunno what school you went to, my school day consisted of trying to avoid getting beaten up by 5th years, 6th formers, 4th years, actually just about everybody now I think about it, trying to be super cool and chat girls up (failing miserably), copying homework out in the line before it's due in class in around 30 secs, wearing crappy clothes, discovering deoderant, talking about TOTP the day after, blagging NME and Melody Maker from whoever could afford to buy it, failing to chat girls up, not spending your dinner money on school dinner, but heading down to the local chippy for a bag of chips and saving what was probably 8p and so on. I'm struggling to remember any talk of Fender basses and identifying the particular year of manufacture to be honest. Perhaps my school was 'special'...

Currently it weighs 3.3Kg = 7.27lbs. Things to be added: Control panel = 198g Top Middle bit = 179g Top left = 205g Pickguard <== estimate of 150g with screws Control knobs and wiring <== 70g This theoretically adds up to 4.1Kg/9lbs Now the previous bass I made weights 4.4Kg and I know I have reduced the weight for the headless one. I have a narrower backbone which saved 300g, the headless neck is lighter. The neck clamps and bridge may be heavier but not to a great degree. lets see what it comes out by. The aim was to get under 4Kg and I'm close. Perhaps I won't paint it a la Formula One cars Rob

A number of printer issues has slowed down printing the outside components but it's progressing. Big shoutout to @JohnH89 who has been exceptionally helpful as I struggle through some of the setup. He's been utterly brilliant. The neck is still being setup, am printing another neck shim to try and get things in the right place. I'm also doing the three remaining components, bottom left (control panel), top right and top middle. These aren't that important but give you somewhere to rest your hand In deference to @tauzero I have added three strap buttons to the bottom of the bass as well. One in the middle and one either side. I can easily blank any of them off. Added in two pickups, these are what I had to hand, though I can use Thunderbird pickups, jazz pickups or probably most others. Not soldered them yet as I need a control panel and thats still printing. I might just have it done for the bass bash. Rob

^ This

Six days to go

Does anyone have any special dietary requirements please? Please note fillet steak, Chateaubriand, Montrachet and freshly caught scallops are not dietry requirements unless you bring a note from your doctor and your mum. So if you are vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, nut free, diary free, gluten free or something else please let me know through a DM. I am planning to put pizzas in the oven for lunch so will have a selection but it would be good to know if people can't eat somethings. If there is enough demand, happy to do bacon or sausage (meat and/or vegetarian) for breakfast. @neepheid can you let me know approx when you intend to come please? You are welcome at any time as I work from home. I also still have a spare bedroom with a double bed if anybody needs somewhere to stay for either Fri or Sat. Thanks Rob

You can still come...

You can't print the centre pieces as one piece. The max size is 205mm x 205mm. It's six pieces (I think). I've now done or am printing the stuff in white below. This leaves four big chunks to do. Sadly these are hefty chunks to print. The bottom left where the controls will go is 11.5 hours. This one is even worse at 15 hours If I move to 0.2mm height, its 26 hours.... and 01.mm height is a mere 49 hours

Oddly enough just received an email confirming payment and key access at the same time as your notification. So hall now confirmed. We have the whole hall including kitchen.flr the whole day. My daughters have promised to do some baking the night before. Food, tea and coffee will be free but a contribution to one of my daughters charity's welcomed. Clapham is not a major metropolis not even a small village. We have a village shop, we have a decent cafe at the Old Sawmill, a pub and a bar that has new management and that's about it. I'm happy to do breakfast bacon or sausage butties in the morning at the hall if people would be interested. For lunch i can pizzas in the oven. That might be easiest but am happy with any other suggestions.

Just put the spirit level on the neck and its slightly concave at the nut end by about 2mm. It gently lifts off from about the 12th fret. This is on a neck that is not connected to anything and has no tension on it., its just sitting on my desk. I understand what you mean by "The long thin triangle needs to be angled such that the strings would lie flat on the fretboard if you hold them down at the first fret.". Thats a good position to aim for, I can work the maths out now I now I have a target position. I suspect that I may need to shim but printing a shim is relatively easy now I know the target positions. So I think I need to get the aluminium backbone (wood colour) drilled so that I can start to connect the bridge module (white left), the bridge adapter (gray left), the middle module (middle white) and the neck module (white right) Put the neck on and put some strings on it, fret at the first nut and see if the strings lie flat against the neck. If not flat then see if it needs shimming OR a slight change in the torsion rod is needed. I need the aluminium backbone to provide some strength as the 3d printing won't. Thanks Rob

OK, understand now. I can see what you mean. I'll have a think about it. never needed it so far, but it's interesting to see it done.

A question for the more skilled builders here (thats not me). Is there a maths relationship between the height of the nut and the top of the bridge where the strings will lie? The neckless head I have is 28.5mm thick at the centre of the end of the heal. The other two necks are 27.5mm at the same point so within 0.75mm which is pretty close. Clearly if the neck was 15mm thick it would be far too low, also if it was 40mm thick, it would be too high. So what should it be? I can easily move the neck up and down in the heal module by either printing it differently. I can extrude the blue area below plus or minus a few mm with a couple of key strokes. Printing it at a decent resolution will take around 12 hours though. I can also print shims to go under the neck or under the bridge. which would be the first check. I have a large 120mm spirit level which is the longest flat thing in the house (apart from my wit). If I put the spirit level on the neck nut and get it just right on the bridge, I can see that the gap between the bottom of the spirt level is around 6mm at the 14th fret (or so) and tapers up to almost nothing at the neck. Should it be higher, lower, it doesn't matter so long as its about right as there's a little bit of vertical travel on the bridge and can use the tension rod in the neck? The Nova bridge is significantly higher than the BBOT on my basses so not sure what to do here. Any help or advice welcomed.

My eldest is heavily into Oasis, Nirvana, Beatles, Blur, Artic Monkeys, The Pretty Reckless. She was somewhat miffed that I had even heard of Nirvana, much less that a friend of mine played with them in 91 in Reading (?). He got them to sign his bass and then sold it a few years ago for quite a lot of money, sensible man. The youngest is more pop orientated. So I have no idea what she listens to as it sounds the same to me. I am my father. Anyway, progress on the headless bass is good. After spending far too long with the Fusion 360 Vontori generator and giving up, I used an online SVG version which is far quicker and easier than the one for Fusion 360. See https://voronoi-editor.web.app Redesigned the bridge holder to have a cut away for access to the Nova bridge, redesigned the Jazz style body outline for the same. Printed off the bridge adapter and am now printing the two central parts of the guitar. Those are the bits in dirty white below. They'll be finished around 21:30 and then will print off one half of the drill guide for the aluminium backbone and the guitar neck holder. The drill guide makes sure I don'lt cock things up. I've reduced the width of the backbone from 80mm to 60mm to try and get the total weight down to under 4Kg. The backbone is in the wood colour below, though it's aluminium. Still need to think about the control panel and splitting down the frame outline, this is the body that sits on the central monocoque. You can see the mounting holes, there's probably too many but rather too many, than too few. I do not know Finate State Analysis to work out stress and load. I did pure maths and never sullied myself with real numbers or even real world maths. The limits now are the size of the print bed, so I've effectively 200mmx200mm chunks to print out. It looks like there are six chunks to be printed, they have to overlap as I need to join them. Each chunk is probably 12-18 hours If anybody can get this down to five chunks with an overlap, I'll send you a decent bottle of white as that saves a lot of time. The main advantage here is that most of the chunk are simple printing with no embedded nuts so I can start printing and forget. I'll probably draw up a timetable to try and get this done for next Friday

One plays jazz sax and is quite good, the other plays flute and no matter how much Jethro Tull I play, she refuses to bite...

Nope, I got a Gorilla stand or two. As I also have two more or less feral daughters, two rescue cats and a wild dog as well, vases and knick-knacks are long gone.

I'll have a look at those but I'm favouring simplcity over functionality. TBH I've no idea how to make them standup without stands and for me, thats functionality I don't need.