LukeFRC Posted July 1, 2017 Author Share Posted July 1, 2017 Thanks for the advice JPJ - I'll follow that! This week mostly involved learning how to repair the inside of an iPhone... Anyway this morning... drillin holes for inserts in the neck! Daft inserts I got didn't just say "drill a hole this size" but gave a range. I rounded up which was a mistake as they were only just held in by the wood. I got grumpy and didn't take any photos at that point. Running superglue down into the outside of the inserts should keep them in one place I think...? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted July 1, 2017 Author Share Posted July 1, 2017 then made that little cut out bit for the truss rod wheel thingy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted July 1, 2017 Author Share Posted July 1, 2017 And then made the holes and bits for the things the bolts go in. It's attached now without the thingies as they won't come out easily when the go in - but knowing exactly where the neck is will let me put the bridge in the right place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Posted July 1, 2017 Share Posted July 1, 2017 Good progress. You'll know in future to round down - you can take more wood away, it's not so easy to put it back. CA should hold the ferrules though if they are snug enough. They are not load bearing though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stoo Posted July 1, 2017 Share Posted July 1, 2017 I take it the holes that are oversized are the ones in the neck? Would it not be worth getting some dowels glued in the holes and then redrilling at the right size? It's easy to sort now, but it'd be a nightmare if it all let go once it was up to tension.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted July 3, 2017 Author Share Posted July 3, 2017 [quote name='stoo' timestamp='1498948124' post='3328231'] I take it the holes that are oversized are the ones in the neck? Would it not be worth getting some dowels glued in the holes and then redrilling at the right size? It's easy to sort now, but it'd be a nightmare if it all let go once it was up to tension.... [/quote] that's a good idea! Probably would have been - as it was only 1 of the 6 insets stripped - the superglue will have both hardened the wood and er stuck it in so I think it should be ok. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted July 4, 2017 Author Share Posted July 4, 2017 So. Tuners on bridge Measured and drilled holes for bridge all ok - think it's in the right place. Strung it up to check, just on two strings - seems ok. Think the neck pocket could probably be 2mm deeper as the bridge saddles are set quite high... but without a setup who knows. Hard to check intonation without an amplified signal! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted July 10, 2017 Author Share Posted July 10, 2017 Deeper neckpocket done. Tried first template for the pups- pretty close but not great for the corner radii ... £4 on a guided router bit - ah go on then! No photo updates for a bit - I need to sort a new window cill in our bedroom first before I pick this up again. Lots of sanding to come (on both projects) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted July 14, 2017 Author Share Posted July 14, 2017 So I'm supposed to be building a window cill. Or should it be Sill, I'm not sure. But I got bored, and took photos. First job is the er holes (?) to put the pickups in. I made about 4 templates that didn't work until I made one that did. Then for some reason the 6mm MDF that I was copying onto the 12mm MDF decided to destroy itself and I was back to square one. This time I was a bit more organised/methodical. first the radius of the screw lugs I can work out and then use a hole in a bit of wood to rout out with the brushing. two down - one to go! and then the corner radii - one corner (top left) wasn't quite bang on which is the problem when using a crappy almost pillar drill rather than a real pillar drill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted July 14, 2017 Author Share Posted July 14, 2017 now I got really fed up of trying to saw straight lines inside a hole with a coping saw for the edges of a neckpocket/pickup - so I ended up just nailing a bit of straight wood to the template and using the guided bit to rout it stright. A bit ghetto cos I had to root around in my scraps to find bits with a straight edge on it but it works and as the story goes... if the pickup fits... close enough for me. Measure, measure again, measure a third time. Think about it a bit and then measure again. Then draw loads of lines, and measure to check they are in the right place... tape then clamp in place.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted July 14, 2017 Author Share Posted July 14, 2017 and sawdust! After cutting all that MDF it was nice to be cutting something real. Look if it all goes wrong I'll just cover it with a pick guard! If I was a pro, and had more gear to get the tight radii in the corners that could be better - but I can live with what i've got. The edge is straighter than this photo makes it look - it's not been wiped down from all the fluffy sawdust the router kicked up. wait a mo! what's this??? and boom - done it once - done it again! I was so so careful routing that wee bit between the pickups - but it looks to have worked! I drilled the the string thru body holes tonight too... not 100% perfect... but I planned ahead to work out a way to work around the almost inevitable slight wonkiness ... that will come up later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted July 14, 2017 Author Share Posted July 14, 2017 and to finish this eve.... Lets start making a template for the cavity. It's getting there! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted July 14, 2017 Author Share Posted July 14, 2017 (edited) I also started playing with the ink/paint I'm going to use. Now start looking at wood dye and wood stain and different forums and sooner or later you'll find AndyJr1515 syndicating himself across different forums expousing the beauty of using ink for wood dye. He gets some amazing finishes - go and look. But for anyone trying to follow him there is a bit of ambiguity in what 'ink' actually is, and from my fine art background I know not everything is the same... So: Dye based inks use a colour fully desolved and suspended in a carrier. They will penetrate the wood well but from an art POV tend not to be as lightfast. So your lovely build will fade over time. Pigment inks use a pigment suspended in the carrier - they will tend to be more lightfast. Simple yeah? Well not really as you can get different types of pigment ink - indian ink will dry perminatly and waterproofly as it has shellac in it, other inks are acrylic based (this is what Andyjr1515 has used before) and there are a few different types I've forgotten about... they all will do different things, and will have different levels of lightfastness. And you can't really argue with some of the finishes that Andyjr1515 has been getting with them! For me, and as this bass is going towards the transparent black colour range I wanted something water based, transparent and wouldn't affect whatever finish went onto of it. I knew from my art days that a concentrated water colour paint should give a lot of the benefits of using ink, be chemically simpler as it won't have been designed to be fast drying, give me less of the uncertainty of finish mixing and also be designed for archival levels of lightfastness. So off I went to town to buy two wee bottles or Dr PH Martin's Hydrus fine art watercolour. I went for Payne's Grey (and blue black) and carbon black (a very black black) I hate the images of guitars with a transparent black with the grain filled darker and they just look grey and meh - if the grain gets filled darker then I want the lighter bits to have a bit more richness to them. In my day job as a graphic designer you call that rich black. You could either do that taking it down the yellow/brown tonal range, or you could take it down the deep blue blacks range and see how that works. I started wiping the ink on like so many videos on youtube do - but it didn't really work - probably as it's pigment based rather than dye based? Any way wiping it seemed to lift it off as well as lay it down. A brush seemed to work better Top bit of this image is a wipe of Payne's grey, bottom half is the carbon black - I've then used a water colour brush to add more payne's grey ontop of the carbon back - it's not a good image at all but gets the idea across - work more layers of that up... PS it's a scrap of pine with a test cut from one of the templates that wasn't good enough Edited July 14, 2017 by LukeFRC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted July 17, 2017 Author Share Posted July 17, 2017 The bedroom window sill is complete! Actually ended up using a lot of the same techniques it's a lump of wood , cut to shape, sanded lots stained then varnished - really it's the same thing. Except a window sill is a lot cheaper - oh and the router depth lock has been playing up almost catastrophically In the case of the cill - but hey builders caulk fixes everything right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted July 18, 2017 Share Posted July 18, 2017 (edited) While I don't fully understand the chemistry, Luke, I like the results I was also particularly impressed with your pickup routings - that separating piece between them is mighty thin. Great job Edited July 18, 2017 by Andyjr1515 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alittlebitrobot Posted July 24, 2017 Share Posted July 24, 2017 Great stuff! Interesting that you used watercolour to stain. I made a bass a couple of years ago that I used oil paint on. My thinking was that I wanted to avoid adding water to dry wood, but I suppose the amount is so small that it makes no difference. Either way, I was very happy with the results. I thinned some paint a little bit with turps (fine art bg here too ) and rubbed it in with a rag, then let it dry and then rubbed in a heavier coat. By the way, since it seems nobody else has brought it up, well done on getting a bottle of Lagavulin 16 yr old for 20 notes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SH73 Posted July 24, 2017 Share Posted July 24, 2017 I see you're working with Bosh 1400 ace router. I'm thinking of getting one. How do you find it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted July 24, 2017 Author Share Posted July 24, 2017 [quote name='alittlebitrobot' timestamp='1500885682' post='3340741'] Great stuff! Interesting that you used watercolour to stain. I made a bass a couple of years ago that I used oil paint on. My thinking was that I wanted to avoid adding water to dry wood, but I suppose the amount is so small that it makes no difference. Either way, I was very happy with the results. I thinned some paint a little bit with turps (fine art bg here too ) and rubbed it in with a rag, then let it dry and then rubbed in a heavier coat. By the way, since it seems nobody else has brought it up, well done on getting a bottle of Lagavulin 16 yr old for 20 notes [/quote] thanks it's tasty. Water is fine I think - it will raise the grain but if you think how many finishes are water based these days. Oil paint would be good I suppose but there would be the question of how long it would take to dry! (and more seriously what you would put ontop of it and how compatible it would be) It could all end in tears for me - we shall see! There's been a few times though when going through pages of people talking about guitar finishing, and high specialised and costly tools when I've sat and thought 'wait that sounds like this generic art product I used to use'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted July 24, 2017 Author Share Posted July 24, 2017 [quote name='SH73' timestamp='1500919961' post='3341108'] I see you're working with Bosh 1400 ace router. I'm thinking of getting one. How do you find it? [/quote] Erm - it works! I'm not really an expert on routers - this one has done everything I've asked it to though. I think especaillay using the brushing guide you need bits with longish shanks - but that might be a common problem/issue I think that the depth lock sometimes vibrates slightly loose. I've no complaints.... except if I were in a position to ask again I would ask folk who know more if I would be better with something that does a 1/2inch shank cos it was a question I was asking when I was looking for bits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted July 24, 2017 Author Share Posted July 24, 2017 [quote name='Andyjr1515' timestamp='1500365486' post='3337173'] I was also particularly impressed with your pickup routings - that separating piece between them is mighty thin. Great job [/quote] 5.5mm - should have been 5mm but I chickened out. What could possibly go wrong? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted July 24, 2017 Author Share Posted July 24, 2017 Pet hates time #2 : crappy screws and fixings. If you ask me about what push bike you should buy, the reason I'm not going to suggest some cheap halfords brand (or worse) isn't because 'they are great spec for the money' or 'you're paying for the brandname' - it's because they often seem to save the money by buying screws that are made of cheese. And when you are miles from home in he freezing cold the last thing you want to do is try and adjust something that has no thread. The same is true in the bass world with cheap bass stuff. Actually it's worse in bass world cos metric screwdrivers and hex keys aren't the same as imperial screw drivers and hex keys... And one of the worst things about the pink bass was the alright bridge from Retrovibe that came with utterly useless screws... so for this build descent screws are a must! So I was looking for the afore mentioned neck bolts and found Grainger guitar parts selling the insets, bolts and circle bits for the neck. They seemed to be fairly decent quality. And at the last moment I switched from the Furrells for the string through bridge to this British made string block. Very nice bit of kit, I doubt it will have any audio benefits but it means everything is straight which is what I'm interested in at the moment! After 2 days practice making a guide for this I cut the two different width holes it needs and test pushed it in. Pretty spot on! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted July 24, 2017 Author Share Posted July 24, 2017 Next rear cavity - which I then forgot to take photos off when finished Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted July 24, 2017 Author Share Posted July 24, 2017 rounder bit number 1 and the bigger number two not quite perfect on that thin edge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted July 24, 2017 Author Share Posted July 24, 2017 oh and wiring planning.... Fender Roscoe beck meets musicman? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimbobothy Posted July 24, 2017 Share Posted July 24, 2017 Nice build Luke, will be nice to see it when it's finished. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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