Semi Hollow Bass (and another two...)

[Jabba_the_gut]

I'm using an ebony fretboard for the other build that I had prepped previously. Each side dot on it is an individual LED. Works well but an absolute pain to solder as each LED is something like 0.8mm x 1.6mm.

I haven't tried using fibre optics yet, but might give that a go another time.

Edited August 7, 2017 by Jabba_the_gut

[Jabba_the_gut]

Two side are now glued together and clamped. The two G clamps are used to prevent any movement front to back. I use three sash clamps on opposing sides to ensure the pressure is a bit more balanced to keep the two sides stay square. If they were all on one side they could potentially just apply pressure that may cause the joint to move while setting or push the joint up a bit. That's the thinking anyway!!

[Andyjr1515]

[quote name='Jabba_the_gut' timestamp='1502098919' post='3349241']
Two side are now glued together and clamped. The two G clamps are used to prevent any movement front to back. I use three sash clamps on opposing sides to ensure the pressure is a bit more balanced to keep the two sides stay square. If they were all on one side they could potentially just apply pressure that may cause the joint to move while setting or push the joint up a bit. That's the thinking anyway!!


[/quote]

Great tip ref the sash clamps, Jez....

[SpondonBassed]

The elimination of creep. Love it.

[Jabba_the_gut]

I've managed to get a couple of other jobs done today but unfortunately work will now rudely interrupt this until the weekend.

I've roughly cut the body to size with my bandsaw. My saw is a tiny Kinzo machine which really is only just capable of cutting wood of this thickness - generally it is best for wood up to about 25mm. I would love to get something a little bigger in the near future but it does work and it only cost £20 off eBay and has worked well enough for the past few years doing this so I can't grumble at all.



This should look quite nice - there are a few interesting areas of grain showing already.




I've also made a 'JR' logo for the headstock using a bit of left over spalted beech with a dark veener edge. Should look nice on a maple headstock.



Next task is to make a new neck template, neck pocket template and bridge template. Hopefully I'll get time next weekend.

[honza992]

Wow, so many great things in this build. Love the beech. Is it soft by the way, like spalted maple is? For some reason in the the photos it looks hard. (Why do my comments also end up sounding like double entendres? They're not supposed to be, honest)

I'm just about to build a piezo bass with an artec and a Cafe Walter pre amp, so really interested to see how yours ends up. I've never heard of Shadow, and didn't know of the existence of that John East MPM01 either, so this is already worth the price of entry.

Do you mind if I ask a question? I see that you are gluing the top onto the two halves separately. I think I've mostly seen people do it the other way round, ie glue the top together, glue the two halves of the bottom together, then stick the top on the bottom. I've sheepishly copied this method without really thinking about it. Why do you do it the other way? Does it make jointing the two edges easier?

[Jabba_the_gut]

[quote name='honza992' timestamp='1502133998' post='3349541']
Wow, so many great things in this build. Love the beech. Is it soft by the way, like spalted maple is? For some reason in the the photos it looks hard. (Why do my comments also end up sounding like double entendres? They're not supposed to be, honest)

I'm just about to build a piezo bass with an artec and a Cafe Walter pre amp, so really interested to see how yours ends up. I've never heard of Shadow, and didn't know of the existence of that John East MPM01 either, so this is already worth the price of entry.

Do you mind if I ask a question? I see that you are gluing the top onto the two halves separately. I think I've mostly seen people do it the other way round, ie glue the top together, glue the two halves of the bottom together, then stick the top on the bottom. I've sheepishly copied this method without really thinking about it. Why do you do it the other way? Does it make jointing the two edges easier?
[/quote]

Hi Honza,

I know - too many opportunities to make this sound like a script for a Carry On film!!

The beech is pretty hard with the exception of the bit where the neck pocket will be which a fair bit softer. I've aligned the top in that way purely so all the soft wood will be cut away.

There's a couple reasons why I put the tops on the two halves first, then join them (I do the same if I am making a solid body bass with a top on it). On this bass, there is a spine running down the centre of the body. By putting the top on each half at a time I can make sure I'm clamping all of the surfaces where the back joins the front - if I joined the two top halves then joined to the back, I would have any clamps that could reach the middle of the bass to ensure it was properly clamped. And because I nearly always use veneers between the front and back, I want to make sure any excess glue is pushed out from the centre of the wood so doesn't create a bulge when adding the other layers. Probably a number of other ways of doing this but this is just the route I took. Also, I have quite a few clamps but not enough to go all the way round an entire bass in one go!!

The reason for the two g-clamps on the previous photo is to do with aligning from front to back. As I use the veneer layers, I want to ensure they align when I join the two halves - they wouldn't need to be far out to look very wrong.

The John East MPM-01 has two inputs and can be used to mix a magnetic and piezo pickup. I might still keep it for another project for that reason, or swap it out of this at a later date.

I keep looking at your build diary too - there are loads of builds ongoing on here at the moment!!

[Jabba_the_gut]

It's been a little while since I last posted but I have got a few things done - wish this work malarkey would stop getting in the way of this project!!

I've settled on this being 32" scale so I purchased a set of La Bella Black Nylon Tape wound strings. I wanted the strings in hand before I started cutting anything or finalising the templates as I wanted to be sure where the silk would be to ensure that the bridge and nut would be in the right place. The reason for wanting to check this is that this design has slightly different lengths from where the string is anchored to the nut. I could have relied on the details on the La Bella website but I much prefer to have the parts in front of me so I can see how it goes together. After sizing up the strings, the design has ended up at 800mm scale, so just slightly shy of 32".

Edited September 3, 2017 by Jabba_the_gut

[Jabba_the_gut]

[Jabba_the_gut]

I've made a new neck template to suit, slotted a piece of ebony for the fretboard and fitted a truss rod.



I used the fret calculator tool on the StewMac site to work out the fret positions. I cut the ebony roughly to shape before slotting as I wanted to keep a small piece to make a matching bridge from. There was enough to allow me one attempt at making the bridge - that will come later.

For slotting the fretboard, it really is a case of measure, measure again, measure again, make sure then cut - it is all to easy to make a little mistake in the measurement that would cause real problems!! You can see a printout of the StewMac measurements that was well used.

Edited September 3, 2017 by Jabba_the_gut

[Jabba_the_gut]

I cut the neck roughly to shape with a bandsaw (I have the tiniest bandsaw and it is starting to shows signs of not quite being up to the job - I think the rubber on the wheels is wearing as sometimes the blade slips a little; it is probably time to start considering something a little newer and a bit more substantial. Dear Father Christmas....).

I finished shaping the outline using my template and a router with a template cutter. This proved to be a bit of a pain - the route snatched as I crossed the grain and took a chunk off the headstock. This has glued back together very well; I've tried cutting a test piece using a slightly different method to make sure I don't do this again!! But that's how we learn - trial and error (nearly a quite expensive error!).

I've gone for a different shaped headstock to my previous basses and am looking at adding a different logo - I quite like the look of this so far.

[Jabba_the_gut]

I've also made a neck pocket template using MDF (8mm thick I think) to suit the new neck shape - quite pleased how these have fitted together.

[Jabba_the_gut]

I've cut the neck pocket. Again, nearly another fault - luckily I spotted it before it caused a problem. I have one template cutter (a cheap one) and I think the shaft is marginally smaller than it is supposed to be. After using it for a little while, it starts to creep cutting deeper and deeper....that cutter is now in the bin. I used one of my other Trend cutters and no such problem with that.

The neck was a little tight but nothing a little sanding wouldn't sort.

Not the best photo, but this is what the overall bass looks like at the moment.



This photo gives a better idea of the wood colours.

Edited September 3, 2017 by Jabba_the_gut

[Jabba_the_gut]

So that's where it's at currently. Work is now going to interrupt again until next weekend when hopefully, I'll get the chance to have a go at the bridge.

[TheGreek]

Nice work Jez...I'm hooked....

[i]...see you next week..[/i]
[i].(For those of us who remember "Here come the Double Deckers" featuring Brinsley Forde, no less).[/i]

[Andyjr1515]

It's looking great, Jez

[Norris]

Lovely work. I'm liking the new headstock shape too

[scojack]

Fantastic work Jez

[SpondonBassed]

I especially like that polo mints are a part of the creative process. The headstock looks good.

[honza992]

Are you sticking with the EDAG stringing you have in the mock up?

Edited September 4, 2017 by honza992

[Jabba_the_gut]

[quote name='honza992' timestamp='1504549755' post='3365628']
Are you sticking with the EDAG stringing you have in the mock up?
[/quote]
Absolutely. I like the idea of alternative tuning.....honest....!!!!

I'd completely forgotten about that. I'd stuck the strings down then noticed but it was fine for what I was doing in terms of checking the position of the string silk. Doh!

Edited September 4, 2017 by Jabba_the_gut

[roman_sub]

looks sooo good so far!

[Jabba_the_gut]

Always a fiddly job with potential to go very wrong - making the bridge!!

I've made a few piezo bridges for other basses before and learnt a few lessons along the way about how best to use the router (one of the bridges got smashed to bits when the router snagged it). I think this bridge was a little trickier as it is smaller but also the slot for the piezo element is 8mm wide, so patience was required. I also only have one piece of ebony that matches the fretboard so really needed to get this right first time.

Firstly, I made a simple jig to cut a slot for the piezo. Nothing more complicated that a board with a large hole in the middle to hold the work piece, and some straight pieces of wood around the edge to act as a guide. I used an 8mm router bit in my Triton router. It really makes a difference with the Triton router as it has a depth adjuster dial on the top allowing small depth of cut changes. By doing this a few times I cut a neat slot in the ebony exactly the right size. I then drilled and countersunk two holes where it will be mounted on the bass.

Next I made a template from 8mm MDF for the shape of the bridge. This template will be screwed on to of the ebony and cut to shape with a short template cutter a little bit at a time so it doesn't snag.


I then reversed the template and ebony so the ebony was on top and used another router bit to round the edges. Then a bit of sanding with progressively finer paper and a quick wipe over with some oil.


The Shadow piezo element fits snuggly in the bridge - I'm really pleased how this has turned out.

[Jabba_the_gut]

I've also settled on going fretless for this bass. It will be easy at a later date to re-cut the slots if I decide to change it to fretted.

I looked at the neck at this point and decided that the fret board was a little too thick. I cut the fret slots a bit deeper to allow me to remove a couple of mm from the face of the board but to still keep the fret lines.

I glued some maple veneer into the fret slots and once dry, sanded back. I then ran the neck through the thicknesser. This left a few small shallow chips but nothing that cant be filled with a little ebony dust - they would probably go anyway when I radius the fretboard.

[Jabba_the_gut]

Next job is to sort the string anchors then I can get on with shaping the body. I'm waiting to sort the string anchors before I start the shaping as I want to use the square edge at the rear of the bass as a datum.