Build Diary: Number 2

[Daquifsta]

Hello all,
The story here is that I bought a second neck for my bitza generic J style bass ages ago, planning to pull the frets out and have the option of trying the fretless thing without permanently changing the bass, as you do. Well I never really got round to it: the jazzalike is my main bass for band practice and the rare gigs that we do and I didn't want to mess with it. So I was left with a neck.

Enter BC member Paul_C, having a clearout of his stock of interesting wood, among which was a body blank made from a single piece of Ash with an Ebony veneer and a spalted Maple top. Well I've always had a thing for spalted Maple, so I had to have it :-)

Here's the neck and body blank, not the greatest photo, but you get the idea
[attachment=72547:2011_02_...19.31.22.jpg]

Now for my day job, I spend a quite a lot of time drawing things, so it makes sense to me to try and plan this guitar inside the computer before I go anywhere near any powertools.

So here's the CAD model of the neck
[attachment=72552:Neck.JPG]

Followed by the body blank
[attachment=72553:Body_Blank.jpg]

N.B. Number 1 is the P style in my avatar, that I built from a Saga kit, so this will be 'Number 2' until I think of a proper name

That's where I am so far. My plan is to choose and buy all the hardware, draw that too, and only then think about the actual shape of the body.

I am excited, and also scared of messing up such a nice lump of wood :-)

[Daquifsta]

I have made my first decision: the pickups!

I've ordered the very interesting looking 'combo' set from Wizard

[url="http://www.wizardpickups.co.uk/shop.asp?category=Bass&page=1"]http://www.wizardpickups.co.uk/shop.asp?ca...Bass&page=1[/url]

Next, I think I should choose a bridge. Does anyone have any experience with the Babicz 'full contact hardware' type? It looks like a well thought out design to me, and quite a refreshing change from the endless BBOT variants.

edit: I should add that I'm only considering black hardware, because I don't think chrome would look right, and I personally dislike gold of any kind, on a guitar or otherwise.

Edited February 22, 2011 by Daquifsta

[lettsguitars]

theres always the option of making your own bridge. stands out a bit more from the crowd, and keeps weight down. floating bridges intonate just fine and look more natural/traditional to me.

[Daquifsta]

Just a mini update: a few parts have arrived, and more are on order.

Wizard pickups 'JB combo' set and single string through bridges with matching ferrules.
[attachment=73297:2011_02_...16.31.46.jpg]

Credit is due to both suppliers (Wizard and Papa D's music store on ebay) - super fast delivery

On order is an Artec SE3PA 3 Band EQ pre- amp. Now the EQ is designed for two pickup basses, not the three I'm going to have, so my plan is to use something like the five way switch from a strat to select different arrangments of the bridge pickups and present that as a single input to the pre- amp.

I think that leaves me with tuners, a string tree, battery boxes, strap pins, jack socket / plate and, obviously, a strat style switch to get.

[EdwardHimself]

Looks nice. I personally am not really so keen on those single bridges any more. They do look nice though.

[Daquifsta]

[quote name='EdwardHimself' post='1142647' date='Feb 26 2011, 06:39 PM']Looks nice. I personally am not really so keen on those single bridges any more. They do look nice though.[/quote]

Have you had a bad experience with them then, or is it just the look?

What occured to me is that a 'normal' bridge is actually putting another bend in the strings, since they travel up the fretboard at a slight angle to the guitar centreline, and the saddle slots on a conventional bridge are of course exactly parallel to the centreline, meaning that there will be a slight sideways force on the bridge saddle caused by the angle of the strings. I know that it's always been done that way since the year dot, but that's no reason not to try something else :-)

My thoughts are that, subject to my woodworking skills, I could set these individual bridges in a sort of fan shape, to exactly match the string angles, and probably also offset them relative to eachother (a la Dingwall's fanned fret designs, but not quite as extreme) for a bit of visual interest, and to maybe reduce the chances of string breakage.

Edited February 27, 2011 by Daquifsta

[EdwardHimself]

[quote name='Daquifsta' post='1143143' date='Feb 27 2011, 11:21 AM']Have you had a bad experience with them then, or is it just the look?

What occured to me is that a 'normal' bridge is actually putting another bend in the strings, since they travel up the fretboard at a slight angle to the guitar centreline, and the saddle slots on a conventional bridge are of course exactly parallel to the centreline, meaning that there will be a slight sideways force on the bridge saddle caused by the angle of the strings. I know that it's always been done that way since the year dot, but that's no reason not to try something else :-)

My thoughts are that, subject to my woodworking skills, I could set these individual bridges in a sort of fan shape, to exactly match the string angles, and probably also offset them relative to eachother (a la Dingwall's fanned fret designs, but not quite as extreme) for a bit of visual interest, and to maybe reduce the chances of string breakage.[/quote]

I just thought they were a bit rattly on my old peavey bass is all. It might have just been that they were cheap and not very well put together though. Interesting idea. I do think the angle you're talking about though is not huge at all. I would have thought fractions of a degree surely?

Edited February 27, 2011 by EdwardHimself

[Daquifsta]

[quote name='EdwardHimself' post='1143172' date='Feb 27 2011, 11:54 AM']I just thought they were a bit rattly on my old peavey bass is all. It might have just been that they were cheap and not very well put together though. Interesting idea. I do think the angle you're talking about though is not huge at all. I would have thought fractions of a degree surely?[/quote]

You're quite right - I drew it all up and it's only about 0.8°, and it just didn't look right. I'm keeping the slight offset between each bridge piece though, but they're all running parallel to the centreline now.

Anyway, after many hand sketches, I've come up with two possible body shapes:

Bertha, which isn't quite right yet in the upper horn area:
[attachment=73937:Bertha1.jpg]

Raven, which is supposed to look kind of like a bird with an outstretched wing (the top half).
[attachment=73938:Raven1.jpg]

Obviously, I haven't done any virtual carving and shaping of these virtual bodies, which would soften the lines a bit, and I'm still flicking through magazines looking for inspiration. I've also changed my mind about the neck and ordered one with a maple fingerboard instead.

I'm going to have a big pile of unused parts to sell off at the end of this :-)

[Daquifsta]

Just a little update. I decided I didn't like either of those body shapes, so went back to pen and paper and had another crack at it. Anyway, this new idea is the result.

[attachment=77521:thumb3.JPG]

Controls are in quite daft positions just now, but it's easy to fiddle about with a design while it's still in the computer. All comments and suggestions gratefully accepted :-)

[ziggydolphinboy]

[quote name='Daquifsta' post='1199823' date='Apr 14 2011, 07:45 PM']Just a little update. I decided I didn't like either of those body shapes, so went back to pen and paper and had another crack at it. Anyway, this new idea is the result.

[attachment=77521:thumb3.JPG]

Controls are in quite daft positions just now, but it's easy to fiddle about with a design while it's still in the computer. All comments and suggestions gratefully accepted :-)[/quote]


like it alot except for the top horn
but thats just my opinion dude looks cool
maybe make the top horn not so busy more elegent ( maybe a bit longer) or what about making the top horn into a singlecut ?

regards
ziggy.

[Daquifsta]

Hi all, I'm very aware that this thread has been all talk and no trousers so far. Well, this weekend that's all changing and this, this is the begining of the trousers.

Anyway, first spend two days making templates from a salvaged sheet of perspex (squirreled away at work a while back for just such a job - it was the glazing in a large electrical junction box that the couriers managed to smash within minutes of loading on their lorry ).

[attachment=78297:1_Templates.JPG]

Difficult to see, being clear :-) , but basically I printed several copies of the body out full size (top and bottom vews) and stuck them to the perspex with spray glue. Then you just go at it with jigsaw, drill, file and sandpaper until you get the shapes you need. I've made templates for: body outline with bridge and basic pickup locations, neck pocket, control cavity and battery box, control cavity cover recess and the individual bridge assemblies (because my 3D model showed me that I need to recess the bridges into the body about 3mm to have any hope of getting a decently low action on the finished bass!)

Next up, I transfer the outline to the body blank. The blank has obviously dictated my choice of shape - i'd have liked a bit of a longer top horn, and the lower horn was intentionally kept very stubby so that the offcut from that corner can provide enough wood to make the control cavity cover from.

[attachment=78298:2_Templa...dy_blank.JPG]

Step 3, grab the jigsaw and have at it!
Lesson 1 of the day, Spalted Maple is about as hard as Wensleydale cheese. Even though I used the wooden blocks under the clamps as you can see here, I marked the top all over the place :-( Lots of sanding needed later to fix that. Lesson 2: Jigsaws are not the best tool for cutting curves into very thick workpieces like this - the end of the blade tends to wander off all over the place relative to the top face. A bandsaw would be much better.

[attachment=78299:3_First_Cut.JPG]

Some time later, we have a roughed out shape, ready for the router.

[attachment=78300:4_Roughe...ut_Shape.JPG]

The routing went well, until the top horn! I should say at this point that I've only used a router twice before in my life, and I borrowed my dad's. This time out I decided I should buy one for myself so new user, new router, new bit = recipe for something not going to plan! The 3rd lesson of the day - if you don't do the router chuck up extremely tight, the bit slips out a tiny bit, and goes underneath your template. I'm currently hatching a plan to fix this disaster by using a hole saw (without the arbor drill) to cut a circular plug from some of the offcuts, and gluing it in. It won't match the top properly, obviously. It will give the thing character, I suppose :-(

[attachment=78301:5_Disaster.JPG]

After finishing a complete pass around the body, I then flipped it over and changed to a router bit with a bearing at the bottom, rather than the template following bit I had in, which has a bearing at the top. This meant that the guide bearing was running on the newly cut surface, removing the rest of the waste wood. The 'normal' method apparently, is to leave the template following bit in the router and just pull it a further out of the chuck to make the second cut, but after my little accident, I wasn't prepared to trust it!

So here we are at the end of day 3:

[attachment=78301:5_Disaster.JPG]

[MoonBassAlpha]

You dont necessarily have to recess the bridges - you could set the neck at a slight backward angle, or rout the pocket out flat and shim the neck, even easier. This would save you trouble in the long run, but then I'm a lazy git.