Self build 5 string single cut headless (x2)

[Kiwi]

At this point it started to become clear that I wasn't going to be finishing both bodies by the end of the week. So I prioritised the fretted body to work on in the hope I'd have at least something to take home. We skipped gluing the back facing on the other body and went straight to the edge binding.

Jon sawed the edge binding from plastic sheet so it was 6mm wide and long enough.

[attachment=144737:DSC09444.JPG]

I glued it in the routed channel and held it snugly in place with masking tape. This was done to both the back and the front faces of the priority bodies so took a while to complete.

[attachment=144738:DSC09445.JPG]

When the glue had hardened there were still a few places where the binding was loose so I reglued and clamped those. The tight radiusses and curves around the lower horn were the most difficult bits to stick down and the inside curves of the cutwaway needed some lateral thinking when regluing and clamping.

When the regluing was done, it was necessary to take the edge of the binding down to the same level as the surface of the top. So I used a file to achieve that.

[attachment=144739:DSC09446.JPG]

A router was used next to take the binding height down further to the finished height of the top around the outer edge. This bit was messy as I was pelted by both the usual wood chips but also white plastic chips from the binding.

[attachment=144740:DSC09447.JPG]

The whole process was repeated for the back of the body as well so we ended up with a body with complete bindings and facings.

[Kiwi]

So after the binding had been taken down to the finished thickness of the outside edge of the carved tops on the front and back, it was time to do the pick up routing and some rough shaping.

THe pickup routing was, not to put too fine a point on it, a complete pain in the butt and took most of that morning to do. I tried doing both pickup routs in the same template but the working template shifted slightly while I was routing the master and it looked a complete dogs breakfast. So I stuck with the single template and while there was a shift of a millimetre or so, it didn't look noticeably out of alignment.

[attachment=144762:DSC09435.JPG]

We also routed the f hole template but discovered another boo-boo. The control cavity needed to be a certain size to accommodate the electronics and the wall we created between the cavity and the lower chamber ran directly underneath the lower f-hole. Of course, we only realised this after gluing the back facing on! We also forgot to route the control cavity lid out of the back facing to ensure matching grain. But in our defence, it was midnight when we glued the back facing on and we'd been working since 9am that morning. Our brains were fried and we didn't want to stay any longer in the workshop than we had to.

So we dispensed with the lower f-hole completely since we couldn't make it work symmetrically. We also had to use a lid for the control cavity from the same piece of wood that was used for the back facing. The grain didn't match exactly but hopefully it wouldn't be too noticable once the colour coat had been applied.

The next morning was the last day and it was time to do rough carving for the tops. For this, I used a half round rasp. The rounded side seemed good for getting depth quickly and the flat side seemed good for flatting out surfaces. So the rounded side was used to carve depth-setting channels that connected the outside edge of the body to the inner limit of the carve.

[attachment=144757:DSC09452.JPG]

After the depth carving had been done, I went around with the flat and joined the valleys together into a single, continuous surface.

During the carving, a part of the edge binding came loose in the tricky lower cutway. So I had to reclamp that using a pencil to apply pressure in the right part of the curve before I could start on the back.

[attachment=144765:DSC09458.JPG]

The valley carving and flatting was done for the back as well and luckily the control cavity lid was a snug fit so could be carved in situ also.

[attachment=144763:DSC09464.JPG]

The lower horn gave a nice indication of what the rest of the top might look like on completion. The carve won't be as deep as a PRS but hopefully it'll be enough to at least catch some highlights.

[attachment=144764:DSC09466.JPG]

After the rough carving and flatting, we needed to route the underside of the f hole so that it at least had the appearance of consistent thickness even though, in reality, the top would be thinner at the edge and thicker in the middle. Jon set up a small router for me and I whizzed it around the underside of the f hole with satisfying results. I was in two minds about whether to edge bind the f hole so decided to leave it while I focussed on finishing the rough shaping of the tops.

[Kiwi]

The last job of the day, before I had to catch my train, was sanding the tops smooth. Jon borrowed an industrial orbital sander from a neighbour and I set to work with some 100 grit sanding discs to take out the rasp marks from the surface of the facings.

[attachment=144767:DSC09467.JPG]

A lot of dust was created so the shop vac came in useful but the orbital sander made short work of removing the markings. Hopefully I didn't chew too much wood away from the finished surface!

So the end result looked something like this:

[attachment=144766:DSC09468.JPG]

And just to get an idea of how the instrument was developing, I decided to fit the neck as well.

[attachment=144768:DSC09469.JPG]

Jobs still to do - final carving of the contours into the top using a mini plane (which is what violin makers use) and final sanding, plus edge binding inside the f hole, rout and fit the special bridge assembly and holes for the wiring.

I'm already thinking of how I might be able to improve the instrument. I tried Urb's Sei last weekend and loved the sound of the maple/wenge combination. So at some point may well decide to build a wooden neck from those woods just to see how it compares to the Moses necks.

[rk7]

Fantastic work, and a detailed build diary!

nice one

RK

[Kiwi]

cheers

[sprocket123]

Great updates ! Keep it on mate !

[RichValentine]

Any news?

[Kiwi]

Sorry, I had planned to go up there last week but work committments kept me here. Jon's also having some work done on his house so I suspect something may happen closer to Christmas.

[sprocket123]

Hey cool , will have a look . One s gotta do other stuff some times right !

[RichValentine]

How is this coming on? Should be collecting my shuker soon!

[Kiwi]

Jon has decided to push his own builds before the end of April so I'm booked to go back in on May 12. I'll get at least one done for sure...hopefully both but the precision stuff does take a long time to set up, especially when tired. I've also been thinking about maple and wenge necks as on the instruments I've played, they have the mids that I'm looking for. But we'll see how the steinberger necks go first.

[72deluxe]

Looks very interesting! Are wenge necks massively different from ovankol ones? I only ask because I only have ovankol Warwick necks and many swear by the old wenge ones.

Going for a blue bass?

[Kiwi]

Blueburst with white edge binding and a carved top specifically, like the D'Aquisto arch tops but with figured maple.

I don't have much experience of playing ovangkol, all I know is that there are basses I've played that have exactly the sound I've been looking for and they have a combination of about 2/3 wenge to 1/3 maple. Unfortunately the same basses all had body shapes I couldn't get on with. But the wood combo seems to generate all the growl of wenge but, when enough maple is used, without the brittle top end.

But we'll see how much growl is already present with just the mahogany body and graphite neck.

[Kiwi]

OK time to resurrect this thread. I've been at Jon's since Monday and I have the body to the point where its ready for staining.

Monday was spent carving the arch into the top. By hand. Using a mini plane. I have blisters on my fingers but that's old school I guess.

[attachment=162685:DSC09892.JPG]

Then rough sand back with 40 grit to get rid of any edges.

[attachment=162687:DSC09893.JPG]

This had to be done for both the front and back of the instrument.

[Kiwi]

Tuesday we discuovered two issues. The neck heel which wasn't quite square and there was a dip in the top bout on the back facing where the orbital sander from last time had dug too deep. Old school is often better because although it takes longer, there is also plenty of time to reflect on progress and avoid over working areas.

[attachment=162688:DSC09907.JPG]

So I decided to recess the heel back to a greater depth than the dip and blend the carve back into the rest of the body. This was a trial and error process, it would have been easy to carve it smooth and just leave a straight line in, but I wanted there to be more flow connecting the top and lower bouts. So more determined carving was needed, again finishing with 40 grit to take the carving marks out.

[attachment=162689:DSC09910.JPG]

To take care of the unsquare heel I decided to resaw the heel so it reflected the angle of the bolt locations on the neck more closely. I fashioned some pointers out of old bolts Jon had lying around so I could locate the position of the neck bolt holes in the pocket without too much guess work. I pilot drilled the positions so I could see them on the other side of the heel.

[attachment=162691:DSC09911.JPG]

This was a bit awkward because the heel had already been bound and the new heel angle would need a new rebate for the binding. However we managed to peel back the super glued binding to make enough room for filing the heel straight and to let the router to carve the rebate.

[attachment=162690:DSC09912.JPG]

Despite my best efforts, the binding eventually broke off on the upper side but with some deft gluing and sanding, the join is almost invisible.

[Kiwi]

Yesterday - there was just sanding. Lots and lots of sanding. 40 grit, 100 grit, 180 grit, 240 grit and finally soaking the wood and finishing with 400 grit...to a point where we're now ready for the finishing...

[JPJ]

That carving is looking pretty tasty mind!

I know what you mean about the sanding but there really is no alternative. Are you going to use a grain filler or just a sealer?

[Kiwi]

It was complicated Kev...sealer went down after I stained the wood with a light blue tint and sanded it back to give the grain more contrast.

Then Jon sprayed the sides dark blue to hide the mahogany after I masked off the front and back. Then I took the mask off and then applied a new mask to the sides so he could do the blueburst on front and back.

After the colour was down he put on 2-3 coats of clear for protection and we then started assembly of the hidden bridge.

[yann]

Realy nice what you do here,
i only have one "objection" : (well,never mind it,you don't make it for me,it's just an oppinion!! )
-The graphite neck...i think it will be as "cold" as space plastic,
while the body combines so nicely the past with the future,and i bet it's gonna give a very warm feeling.
(Talking about feeling,not sound!) Well,to me it's like "warm right,cold left" everytime i touch a wood/graphite instrument...
Maybe you're used to them,then you got no problem.If not,you're soon gonna make a wooden neck for this bass!
.

[Kiwi]

I like graphite necks, in fact I have a small collection of graphite necked instruments that represent key points in the evolution of the technology. I chose Steinberger/Moses because they're a little warmer than the layered necks used by status, modulus etc.

[Roland Rock]

I tried a wood-bodied/graphite-necked bass recently, and was surprised and impressed at how warm it sounded. It blew my preconceptions about 'sterile' graphite out of the water.

Coming together nicely Kiwi, these look great!

[Kiwi]

This reminds me I need to sort out some more pics...
[attachment=163478:DSC09924.JPG]
So this is the finished carved and reshaped heel. I was fairly pleased with the result. I also took the opportunity to drill control indents on the front of the body. The control cavity was a little smaller than I would have liked but it looked OK in the end...I was still unsure where the pickup coil split switches might go though.

Ruby was barking quite a bit at the time. Rotties are known for being very protective but Jon thought she might be overreacting to campers dogs in the campsite over the other side of the estate. So he came up with a novel solution.

[attachment=163473:DSC09926.JPG]
Ruby was successful in managing to retain her dignity and, funnily enough, did stop barking.

But anyways, back to the build. At this point we needed to go back and check on the neck heel. Jon did some calculations for how high the neck needed to sit and discovered that the steinberger neck was 3mm deeper than a standard Fender. So I went back and re-routed the neck pocket.

[attachment=163475:DSC09931.JPG] [attachment=163476:DSC09938.JPG]
Then it was time for the staining. Jon diluted some dark blue mixed tint he had saved from a previous job. The idea is that the tint soaks into the wood where the grain is at an angle to the finished surface and makes it darker.

[attachment=163477:DSC09939.JPG]
After staining, the wood was then sanded back so that the stain is removed from some areas while still staying in the dark areas. This shot is before the sanding.

[Kiwi]

[attachment=163499:DSC09940.JPG]
This is the body after the stain has been sanded back.

[attachment=163485:DSC09943.JPG]
The next job was to mask the front and back using paper and some stretchy white plastic tape so Jon could spray the sides. The binding on front and back were each a different depth so I masked them to ensure the paint could cover the excessive depth on the back binding. Jon is trying to avoid being in the photo on this one.

[attachment=163486:DSC09945.JPG]
So this is the first stage in the finshing process before and after the mask has been removed. The precision shaped body in the back there is the new JJ Burnel prototype BTW. JJ has apparently made a special request for materials but my lips are sealed...

[attachment=163487:DSC09946.JPG]
After the mask is removed you can get a sense of where the body is going in terms of its appearance. Sort of archtop-ish. While all of this painting was going on, I decided to crack on with carving the top on the other body.

[attachment=163496:DSC09955.JPG] [attachment=163497:DSC09956.JPG]
I'm a bit handy with a pencil so drafted the limits of any arch and set to with a rasp to rough out the dimensions. As you'll have seen from the first body, the inclined plane will ultimately have a 5mm lip around the binding edge, the actual arch will be carved using the mini plane and the line at the high part of the arch will be rounded over. The lot will be finished with 40 grit and then 100 grit. No orbital sander this time as it chews too much wood away between inspections.

[Kiwi]

The final two shots I have are the first colour coat halfway through the bursting. The edge binding is again masked so you don't really get a sense of how sharp the final appearance will actually be...which does mean I get to save something for the final 'reveal'.

[attachment=163492:DSC09951.JPG] [attachment=163493:DSC09952.JPG]

Jon and I had extensive conversations about what blue to use. I was very specific but the colour Jon kept asking me to approve looked nothing like the colour I wanted to see. Eventually we trialled it (above) and it was exactly the colour I was looking for.

The following day was a Saturday. We went into the workshop at 7am to get a couple of hours on the bass before Jon held a maintenance course. Unfortunately this wasn't enough time to get the hidden bridge mechanism sorted. There were also issues with getting the ebony bridge cover to fit the ebony string saddle Jon had made and the neck was sitting too tightly in the neck pocket because the steinberger neck is wider at the fingerboard than at the face where the bolt holes are.

So I had to leave it with Jon to sort out as I had a train to catch. I haven't heard from him yet so I hope things are going OK...

[Acebassmusic]

Stunning colour and bass.......you taking orders?