Self build 5 string single cut headless (x2)

[Kiwi]

Some of you will know I have been doing a bit of work with Jon Shuker on a bass build idea I've had for a while mainly because nobody makes a bass that fits my specifications. So this week was the day the ideas became more tangible and it also gave me an opportunity to learn more about luthiery.

The idea was based on these principles:

1) A wide bodied five string:
Ergonomics are a very personal thing...I prefer VERY wide bodied basses as I owned a Jaydee MK Series II for 12 years and it pretty much set the standard for other instruments in terms of comfort. The Pangborn and Alembic I own are the two basses I feel most comfortable on but neither are 5 strings and I definitely NEED a B string in my life.

2) Headless but without a large chunk taken out of the body for the tuners.
I also like the weightless balance of headless basses I also have a stash of Moses steinberger necks which have proven to be very stiff and warm sounding. I'd brought a neck over with me from NZ but forgot that I had left a four and a five with Jon anyway. So given we had two five string necks, it made sense to make two bodies and for one bass to have a defretted neck.

Part of the design challenge was to come up with a wide bodied design that could be headless but without a nasty great chunk scooped out the bridge end of the bass for the tuners. Jens Ritter provided some inspiration on that front with a special edition headless fretless he'd built some time ago.



But Jon and I have developed Jen's great design idea a few steps further in the interests of practicality, tonal options (and, it has to be said, a lack of super deep routing bits!) We will end up with a bass where the tuners will be flush with the back of the basses rather than protruding so they can sit in a case without bending the tuner screws and the tuners will be mounted on a removable tone block for ease of repair or maintenance.

I've also admired the Fodera Beez Elite single cut body shape so that kind of set the standard for the quality of curves, especially around the upper and lower bouts. So while I didn't want to copy the Beez Elite shape (not wide enough) I did want to produce a single cut that had the same fluid curves.

3) Aesthetics inspired by a D'Aquisto/D'Angelico jazz archtop:
In terms of appearance, I've think jazz archtops are very elegant. So I wanted to borrow some of that 40's Art Deco aesthetic too but without compromising on any contemporary design features. I also think D'Angelico/D'Aquisto make some of the most elegant archtop guitars I've ever seen, and they're not tied to traditional finishes. My favourite uses a stunning blueburst finish.



I also have a very distant memory of seeing Daryl Jones playing a stunning (Leduc?) fretless jazz bass with a carved, flame maple top in an 80's Hartke ad. Both led me to choose a carved top in maple with edge binding and maybe an f-hole.

4) Basic sound: warmth with lots of midrange growl and some mellow but clean highs.
The standard for this is my Spector NS5CR. It's all maple and sounds very growly with a nice amount of warmth. I wanted to keep some of that but with the growl slightly lower and with a bit more warmth. I've also played a number of chambered and semi hollow basses which also had loads of growl. Mahogany is generally a good bet for lower mid range growl although it can still be a bit of a lottery with the density of wood. Sometimes it can sound a little boomy. So chambering seemed to be one way of reducing the mass a little to remove some of the potential for boom, lightening the weight, make those mids more prominent and provide an opportunity for an f-hole to enhance the jazz archtop look.

5) Flexibility
I approached Aaron Armstrong, who makes the pickups for Ken Smith, and asked him to provide a couple of designs based on the Ken Smith spec but with more warmth, same mellow highs and a more neutral midrange. I also asked him to design them so coil splitting was available. I have coil splits in my Spectors and they are really great for emulating close approximations to other basses.

I located the pickups nearer the bridge so that the potential for midrange was maximised. I should be able to get a nice burpy midrange with both pickups on, plus a passable stingray sound with the neck coil in the bridge pick up and the bridge coil in the neck pick up on. I don't expect to get a stingray sound, just something that sits in the mix in a similar way.

For the electronics, I went to Klaus Noll who has built me variations on his three band parametric eq over the last 6 years. I really like his circuits and also he's great to talk to about various ideas. The latest circuit he's sent through has yet further refinement on the previous versions he's sent so it will be interesting to see what difference the changes will make.

So in summary the spec is:

Body: Wide shape, single cut, carved top with edge binding. Mahogany core, quilted maple top, flamed maple back, edge binding on front and back.
Neck: Moses headless Steinberger 5 fretted and fretless
Bridge: Custom made assembly with no hardware visible.
Pickups: Armstrong Custom made
Electronics: Noll 3 band parametric with customised frequency centres

[attachment=142212:DSC09390.JPG]

Above, the bass is mocked up with the CAD drawing I produced. It's not to everyone's taste I'm sure, but this is intended to be a very individual pair of basses that feel right to me and are satisfying to look at.

Over the next four weeks, I'll post pics here of the build process as I sort through the photos of work already done. More photos will be posted as I continue to complete the fretted bass. The fretless will follow the same process so will probably skip straight to a pic of them both when the second bass is finished.

I suspect there's another 48 hours of work left in the fretted. A good 56-62 in the fretless.

[Bassman Sam]

This sounds interesting Kiwi, I'm looking forward to seeing more of this.

[Kiwi]

I think its going to look very classy, even just based on the work I've done to date. The front features some crazy quilted maple.

I think Jon might want to do the interesting and tricky bits so I've left him to progress the carved top a bit in my absence and build the bridge anchor unit.

[Acebassmusic]

Oooh.....subscribed and looking forward to the next instalments. This is going to be a pair of basses VERY different to normal. You seem to have listed a lot of things people tend not to like on a bass - figured "coffee table" top, single cut, chambered, carved top, headless, wide body, more than 4 strings, F-hole, blue-burst, active elecs.....I love the idea of combining them all

[Myke]

This sounds like it's going to be fantastic!

I'm excited for you!

Subscribed!

[Ghosts Over Japan]

This sounds perfect! I'd love a headless 5 singlecut! Always wanted to try and make one myself but it's best if I don't attempt that looking forward to this!

[Kiwi]

[quote name='Acebassmusic' timestamp='1377354422' post='2186636']You seem to have listed a lot of things people tend not to like[/quote]

[quote name='Acebassmusic' timestamp='1377354422' post='2186636']
I love the idea of combining them all
[/quote]
It's rebelling against punk.

[Kiwi]

OK so the first installment is going to involve the template making: I can be a bit "Alan Partridge" when it comes to detail I'm interested in...so feel free to let me know if I'm going OTT with the process.

I cut out the body outline from the CAD drawing I brought and traced it onto a piece of MDF.



Then rough sawed the shape out and sanded the edges smooth on the oscillating sander and then finished by hand. The shape was then transferred to a second piece of MDF for rough sawing and edge sanding. One template was going to be for the body shape, the other for the chambering.



We then sawed out two body cores from a plank of honduran mahogany trued up the edges for a super close fit (this took a LONG time...Jon wanted nothing less than zero light getting through the joint) and talked about the top wood.



Originally I wanted flame maple for the front and back but Jon didn't have enough flame maple in the extreme level of figure I was looking for...one of the basses would have to be something else. Because the finish was going to be blue burst, we needed a pale wood or the blueburst wouldn't have enough intensity. Jon happened to have some stunning quilted maple. Although the effect wasn't quite what I planned, it would mean identical instruments and a satisfying level of visual impact.

[BassBus]

I don't think you can be OTT enough when it comes to planning. If you have good planning and foundations it makes the rest of the job so much easier in the long run. Fascinating so far.

[Kiwi]

So the gluing up happened over night for jointing the bookmatched cores and tops.

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In the morning the blanks were rough sawn to a few mm within the template line and then routered for clean edges.



Jon and I had a looooong discussion about chambering...the effect of mass and density on the sound in conjunction with the graphite neck...and the increased mass of a wider body. I reached the conclusion that the primary role of the body would be to dampen the graphite neck a little (not that the steinberger necks need much dampening) and needed to be as light as possible but without over dampening. So the mahogany core eventually became a frame over which the stiffer maple facings would become a skin. I had to rely on Jon's experience with his Artist basses and the chambering he did on my 6 string for the call on how thick the walls of the chambers were.

So we rough cut the tops to the body shape (again a few mm within the outline I'd drawn) and then glued the tops to the cores...



(yes, too much glue!) and left them that night to dry after clamping up.

[Kiwi]

[quote name='BassBus' timestamp='1377526918' post='2188463']
I don't think you can be OTT enough when it comes to planning. If you have good planning and foundations it makes the rest of the job so much easier in the long run. Fascinating so far.
[/quote]
Well I guess thats one of the unexpected lessons I took away with me!

I started to feel pretty frustrated by Thursday morning because we were both fatigued from having worked until 8:30pm the previous two nights. The measuring of pickups and aligning them to the neck taper was taking so long, it was threatening whether I would have anything to take home..very much a case of measuring three times and cross checking then measuring again...and it all had to be within half a millimetre!! I moaned about how long it was taking me to get it right to Jon.

He replied "well you also care about getting it right...and you also don't want to make any mistakes. These things [the measuring] take their own time and shouldn't be rushed".

Which was fair comment...so I got my head down and kept my eye on the prize...and then made a complete mess of the pickup template!

[rk7]

Subscribed!

RK

[eude]

Subscribed! This is VERY exciting!

Eude

[JPJ]

Wow, simply stunning! Something completely different and left field. Not to everyones taste I'm sure, but its nice to see some originality. Oh and when glueing a top on, you can never have too much glue :-)

[Pete1967]

Also subscribed... very very interesting!

[quote name='JPJ' timestamp='1377608892' post='2189323']
Oh and when glueing a top on, you can never have too much glue :-)
[/quote]

or too many clamps it seems!

[lowdown]

I don't usually follow anything (other than chord sequences)
but this all looks very interesting, and has me hooked.
Good luck with it all, and you have another follower.

[Kiwi]

Maybe Rob Green will use the hidden bridge, wide chambered body with a carved top, 3 band eq. and headless neck and call it the Electro-King Paramatrix...or something like that.

OK next installment.

[attachment=142746:DSC09427.JPG]

So we unclamped the bodies the following morning and rough routered the jaggy tops so they were closer to the body outline. The drips of glue meant that the outline was a little bumpy but this didn't matter too much as we planned to smooth them out by edge sanding on the oscillating bobbin sander later anyway.

There wasn't a clear way of doing the next order of tasks - routing for chambers, neck pocket and pickups, putting the back on and routing the control cavity. The chambering was relatively straight forward...just follow the outline of the template.

[size=4][attachment=142747:DSC09428.JPG][/size]

I also drew an outline of the control cavity on a piece of scrap to saw out, smooth and rout into to a thicker piece of MDF.

[attachment=142748:DSC09406.JPG]

This was something I later should have been more careful with bec[size=4]ause although the control cavity was made to be big enough for the electronics, it was also located in a position where the bottom F-hole was. OOPS...but more on that later.[/size]

The next thing we decided to do was the neck pocket. So I took the neck and traced around the outside of it before cutting and shaping the inset.

The problem with this Moses neck heel is that its not only tapered so it can be popped out the mould easily but the sides of the heel are also curving outwards and a little lumpy.

[attachment=142749:DSC09429.JPG]

So I set to the neck with some fine sandpaper and a steel block to shape it so its a little more consistent. We also allowed a margin around the outside of the trace just large enough for the neck to sit in tightly up to a certain depth. Then came the demanding part. We tested the neck for fit in the scrap template by inserting the neck and checking along the sides and bottom for light coming through.

[attachment=142750:DSC09431.JPG]

Any chinks or bumps were smoothed out with a file. This took AGES. Mainly because just when I'd thought I'd sorted one spot, another showed up. The corners were roughly filed too but the router bit for the MDF template would provide the filleting so no need to be too precise. However despite the necks supposedly coming from the same mould, Jon was adamant that both necks would need their own template.

I also routed the template for the control cavity but I don't have any pictures of that.

[Acebassmusic]

Patiently waiting for the next instalment.....

[Kiwi]

Oh right Sir...well I'd better crack on with it! Edge binding next...

[Acebassmusic]

....sorry, just looking forward to seeing how this beasty evolves.

[Kiwi]

Me too!

Another visit is being discussed with Jon for the start of next month. I still have a load of photos to post up though so I'll take a look at them tonight.

[sprocket123]

Nice job in there mate ! Sub d .

[Kiwi]

Well I'd better get on with the next installment then...

OK so last time we were fitting the neck in the template and checking for ZERO tolerance before committing to routing a neck pocket.

So we used the working template to rout a clean master template and then centred that on the bass body

[attachment=144688:DSC09434.JPG]

and routed out the neck pockets along with the control cavity.

[attachment=144687:DSC09433.JPG]

Then, it was time to look into routing a channel for the binding around the outside of the bass body but first the glue drips had to be sanded off and any flat spots smoothed over by hand.

[attachment=144691:DSC09439.JPG]

This was to ensure the glue bumps don't end up being repeated in the edge of the binding channel. Routing the edge binding channel was relatively straight forward but needed the use of depth stops to ensure I didn't go too deep. It was a bit tricky around the lower horn due to the lack of a stable platform to run the router over. While there were a few heart stopping slips, luckily there was nothing terminal!

[attachment=144717:DSC09442.JPG]

[RichValentine]

Looking amazing. Going to be a beautiful bass. How long do you think it will take you to finish?

[Kiwi]

I think there's another three days work in the first bass. Probably another 4 in the second because the back facing and binding needs installing.. Most of the time has been taken up with making templates.