yorks5stringer Posted March 26, 2011 Share Posted March 26, 2011 (edited) I've been wanting to make one of these for a while since seeing the Bassix New Tech and the Alter Ego. I bought a Stagg just to see if I could play it and to provide me with some real life dimensions. First thing was to get an Ebony Fingerboard of the correct length (43"): in the end after 6 months of emails, a very nice man in China made me it for £85 delivered. As its '"real" value was $20 and it was marked as a "sample", that's all I paid! The next stage was to build the neck. I bought some nice Maple from Boddy's in Borobridge, cut it up and glued in strips of zerocote veneer to provide a contrast. Here it is after glueing an untrimmed, then again after thicknessing [attachment=75816:25032011017.jpg] [attachment=75822:25032011018.jpg] Edited March 5, 2012 by yorks5stringer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henry norton Posted March 26, 2011 Share Posted March 26, 2011 (edited) so can you tell us a bit more about it; hardware etc? Some pictures would be nice too Edited March 26, 2011 by henry norton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassBod Posted March 26, 2011 Share Posted March 26, 2011 Sounds good! The one that always impressed me was David Friesen's EUB - no idea who made it..but look him up on youtube. The tuners on the tailpiece are a work of art. Any plans on which strings? I'm guessing they will need to be designed to fit the headstock? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yorks5stringer Posted March 26, 2011 Author Share Posted March 26, 2011 (edited) Sorry, got interupted whilst loading the photos! Hardware will be Black Shaller type tuners under the back of the fingerboard, think of a headstock behind the lower body with the strings going over a bridge near the end of the fingerboard and round the back. The Tuners will point down vertically with the T shape key underneath I'm getting a dual piezo pick up made by Alan from Newcastle (J-Tone on ebay) and making my own bridge out of some hard wood! I've yet to design or make the body wings but intend to use small neodymium magnets to help fasten them on. Strings will be clamped at the nut either by an ABM system or an ETS one. There is a carbon fibre channel running through the neck to about 2/3rds along as you will see from these photos. The rest of the neck will be routed as the "headstock" although in reality it's probably the "ar*ehole stock"! [attachment=75828:25032011023.jpg] [attachment=75827:25032011022.jpg] [attachment=75826:25032011021.jpg] [attachment=75825:25032011020.jpg] [attachment=75824:25032011019.jpg] [attachment=75829:25032011024.jpg] You can see from the last photo, I had to stick the neck onto a straight edge of MDF utilising a centre line in order to rout it out for the cf channel. Edited March 26, 2011 by yorks5stringer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yorks5stringer Posted March 26, 2011 Author Share Posted March 26, 2011 Strings are an issue, those with long silk windings are no good but the guy from Picato said he will custom wind some if necessary. My scale length will not exceed standard strings so on the measurements I've taken we should be OK...! I don't actually need a ball end at all, as the top end will be clamped, the other around the tuner! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scojack Posted March 26, 2011 Share Posted March 26, 2011 Looking forward to seeing this :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yorks5stringer Posted March 28, 2011 Author Share Posted March 28, 2011 Well I've got the ETS string clamp from the very nice Skelf, ordered some strings and had a bit of chinwag with the guy making the pickups. I think routing the " ars8stock" is the next job before glueing the neck and fingerboard together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geoffbassist Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 Keep going Keith! I'm looking forward to the finished product! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yorks5stringer Posted March 29, 2011 Author Share Posted March 29, 2011 (edited) [quote name='geoffbassist' post='1180294' date='Mar 29 2011, 12:08 AM']Keep going Keith! I'm looking forward to the finished product![/quote] Yep, it'll probably be finished when you're back from your cruise...! Edited March 29, 2011 by yorks5stringer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yorks5stringer Posted April 1, 2011 Author Share Posted April 1, 2011 (edited) Hmm, I'm a dipstick. Strings have arrived, 4/4 length but I've made the neck/body too short so the arsestock will be in the wrong place, and the strings will not wrap around the tuners! Need to get another piece of sycamore next week! Good news is that in rooting around in my cellar I came across some spare wires that plugged into my Stagg sound module from the EUB. Have realised having taken the bridge off on the Stagg, these are under bridge pickups that I could use for this build as when they sent the new module, they also sent replacement pickups which I did not use! So whilst I don't have to buy pickups, I need to buy wood for another neck/body and start again, grrrr. Looking for a nice piece of ebony to do something clever with a combined nut/string guide down to the string clamp way..... Edited April 1, 2011 by yorks5stringer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Bassman Posted April 2, 2011 Share Posted April 2, 2011 [quote name='yorks5stringer' post='1185457' date='Apr 2 2011, 12:39 AM']Looking for a nice piece of ebony to do something clever with a combined nut/string guide down to the string clamp way.....[/quote] What size? I may have a couple of ebony nut / saddle blanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yorks5stringer Posted April 6, 2011 Author Share Posted April 6, 2011 [quote name='Mr Bassman' post='1185653' date='Apr 2 2011, 11:13 AM']What size? I may have a couple of ebony nut / saddle blanks[/quote] Hi Keith Needs to be a bit bigger than a nut/saddler blank in depth as I can't take the strings down to the clamp at too tight an angle. Around 2x2x2" and actually got it from David Denby today! Cheers Keith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yorks5stringer Posted April 13, 2011 Author Share Posted April 13, 2011 (edited) Here's some more photos of my second attempt to make the body.... This time I cut the neck/body pieces sideways on to the piece of wood and glued them up, again with laminate inbetween. The picture below shows it all clamped up. [attachment=77443:08042011025.jpg] This one shows the laminate sandwich [attachment=77444:08042011026.jpg] Here we have the side the fingerboard will be glued to, all cleaned up, level and square! [attachment=77446:13042011028.jpg] You can see the preliminary shape of the neck here... [attachment=77448:13042011030.jpg] Edited April 13, 2011 by yorks5stringer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yorks5stringer Posted April 13, 2011 Author Share Posted April 13, 2011 Once the neck/body was cleaned up (I've made it extra long now to allow for the string length!), I routed the channel for the carbon fibre box [attachment=77450:13042011032.jpg] Here you can see the box section in the channel I routed, sorry for poor photos, phone camera! [attachment=77452:13042011037.jpg] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yorks5stringer Posted April 20, 2011 Author Share Posted April 20, 2011 (edited) Today I made a template from MDF, stuck it with 2 sided tape to the fingerboard and routed it via a top bearing bit parallel with the sides. I then used that template stuck to the body to rout the sides of the body ( with a bottom bearing bit) parallel to the fingerboard, used little metal pins made from wire ( as well as 2 sided tape) to ensure nothing slipped . [attachment=78033:april20_122.jpg] [attachment=78034:april20_123.jpg] [attachment=78035:april20_124.jpg] [attachment=78036:april20_125.jpg] [attachment=78037:april20_126.jpg] [attachment=78040:april20_127.jpg] [attachment=78041:april20_128.jpg] [attachment=78042:april20_129.jpg] Edited April 20, 2011 by yorks5stringer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yorks5stringer Posted April 27, 2011 Author Share Posted April 27, 2011 April 27th Update [attachment=78522:april27_001.jpg] Planed off the body parallel and then shaped the neck a little. I did this by attaching a MDF straight edge and using a sanding drum with a bottom bearing. [attachment=78523:april27_002.jpg] Next job was to do a rebate at the nut end so cut this on the band saw [attachment=78526:april27_003.jpg] Made a little plug to go in the rebate to reinforce the end ready for the "not a headstock"- string guide! [attachment=78527:april27_004.jpg] Made a template the size of the rebated end , cut my ebony end block and stuck it to it, then routed this out. Will need to square off the internal corners next week [attachment=78529:april27_005.jpg] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yorks5stringer Posted March 4, 2012 Author Share Posted March 4, 2012 Here's some pictures of the finished Bass. In moving I've lost a bag of bits containing drills, strings and things so the body rest is not finished. Luckily my Stagg one fits, that was a surprise! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sprocket123 Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 [quote name='yorks5stringer' timestamp='1330875417' post='1564175'] Here's some pictures of the finished Bass. In moving I've lost a bag of bits containing drills, strings and things so the body rest is not finished. Luckily my Stagg one fits, that was a surprise! [/quote] Gee man , you worked your butt out on that one , did a nice job Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scojack Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 Looks really good, did you resolve the strings/break angle? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yorks5stringer Posted March 6, 2012 Author Share Posted March 6, 2012 [quote name='scojack' timestamp='1330960535' post='1565368'] Looks really good, did you resolve the strings/break angle? [/quote] Used better strings (thanks for the donations Daf and Keith). Have also got a camera monopod with a connector so I can use it free standing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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