eude Posted October 19, 2018 Share Posted October 19, 2018 Thank you for sharing @Andyjr1515, and brilliant work "saving the day" too! Eude 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted October 19, 2018 Author Share Posted October 19, 2018 I have one more decision before gluing the top on - do I take a bit of thickness out of the body to reduce the weight a touch more. To assess the current state of play, if you remember: I chambered heavily the body but the katalox is much heavier than the equivalent 10mm of ash I removed off the top and the Warwick bridge is also significantly heavier than the previous bridge. So, apart from the curving of the katalox edges once fitted, the other things I have now done is: Rounded out the angular sides of the control chamber: Then deepen the new neck pocket (it will be final shaped once the neck has been done): And finally chambered the underside of the katalox top (including the final thicknessing for the control chamber roof): Final tally is that, even with the new bridge, this is now 1/2lb lighter than the original body. So while I have a sandwich, my pondering will be - should I take another 5mm off the thickness of the body. Weightwise it's a no brainer. Functionality, it makes no difference. My only reason for pondering is whether aesthetically it changes the vibe by being a tiny bit slimmer. Not sure it will but these things are always worth a ponder before committing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted October 19, 2018 Author Share Posted October 19, 2018 Well - over the sandwich I decided yes - it could do with a 5mm slimdown. Actually, it will balance the look of the top and the back better. So out came the home-made router rig again: Weight-wise it's broadly where I wanted it to be. Including the heavier bridge, the body is now 3/4lb lighter than the original. That will feel quite different So next job is gluing the top on 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGreek Posted October 19, 2018 Share Posted October 19, 2018 1 hour ago, Andyjr1515 said: Well - over the sandwich I decided yes - it could do with a 5mm slimdown. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted October 20, 2018 Author Share Posted October 20, 2018 And the top's on! Lightly dampened to show the colour it will be when it's finished: You can see the ebony veneer demarcation here: The ebony is very, very thin but it still makes quite a difference to the look of completeness. It will also widen as it is sanded round the curve of the carve. I think I first saw veneers this thin for demarcation (at the time I was generally using the thicker 2mm constructional veneers for demarcation and this thickness for veneering tops) used on one of @Jabba_the_gut 's builds and thought how classy it made it all look. I will sort the neck before I do the final carve - reinstating the curves of the original - and then I can make sure the curves all blend with one another. BUT - based on the fact that this was the 'fill-in project' - first I'd better do a little bit more on the full build for the guy in Hawaii! 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merton Posted October 20, 2018 Share Posted October 20, 2018 Nice! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Marcoelwray Posted October 20, 2018 Share Posted October 20, 2018 Classy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eude Posted October 20, 2018 Share Posted October 20, 2018 @Andyjr1515, that is bloody gorgeous! Thank you SO much! The veneer accent works really well too, this is going to be a stunner 😎 Eude 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpondonBassed Posted October 20, 2018 Share Posted October 20, 2018 That's so subtle yet effective. Splendid. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Marcoelwray Posted October 20, 2018 Share Posted October 20, 2018 I'm really curious about the neck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted October 20, 2018 Author Share Posted October 20, 2018 5 minutes ago, Marcoelwray said: I'm really curious about the neck! Me too! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted October 25, 2018 Author Share Posted October 25, 2018 And it's time to start doing actual stuff preparing the neck. There's also a bit of buying - the carbon rods and a suitable router bit to cut the slots. First thing was working out what size of rods. Anyone who has cut a neck at the nut or seen a neck break will know just how little wood is actually there. @eude would like me to get to a similar feel to his favourite 6 string bass in terms of slimness, which is 22.5mm running up to 23.5mm. What I do is to draw full-size the cross section, with 'don't go beyond lines' to see how much leeway there is: 22.5mm with a 10mm fretboard (could be slimmer but I think I might stick with this) leaves 12.5mm maximum depth of wood. Cutting out the slot for the trussrod leaves 3.5mm wood underneath the rod in the middle and a touch less either side. That should be enough to prevent the rod bursting out of the bottom to say hello But it's a wide, slim profile so I have to be careful with the position and depth of the rods. I'll take the rods up to the 1st fret and have concluded that 4mmx4mm rods should give me what I need with a margin of error laterally and vertically. That done the rods and router bit are on order. Because it is going to be a flush-fitted heel, the neck angle will have to be set into the cutting of the tenon and heel - a bit like an acoustic. Therefore, the neck angle needs to be known pretty well before those surfaces are cut. Therefore, the sequence I am going in is: Fretline and top finish the fretboard. Then I know exactly what thickness it is Work out the required neck angle using full-size drawing and double checking with actual mockup Cut the heel Based on that, todays job is marking out and cutting the fret slots Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eude Posted October 25, 2018 Share Posted October 25, 2018 Always good to prep before squeeky bum time @Andyjr1515. Good luck! Eude 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted October 25, 2018 Author Share Posted October 25, 2018 Cutting frets by hand on a wide ebony board is b****y hard work! I'm about halfway through and having a rest Using the Stewmac on-line calculator, I marked carefully with a tiny pinhole each position - always from the nut. To double check, I then measured the dot to dot lengths against the calculators 'fret to fret' measurements. Happily, they matched! Then got the G&W mitre block out. These are the pin dots: The types of clamps I use on my bench are great for this rig, but they do tend to drag the board slightly as you tighten. It doesn't affect it when you are using a template, but with this it can drag it a couple of 10ths of a mm. So for each position, with a lamp shining directly down the blade, I tightened the two clamps until the dot disappeared from both sides of the blade. Then I knew the blade would be directly over the marker: The other thing I do is fit a couple of sized packers to fully fit the width of the jig. With a wood like this, the saw even pulls my heavy workbench away from the wall so, without packers, the fretboard can easily loosen from under the clamps. Eleven slots done. I'm going to have a cup of tea and then get down to the rest of them Andy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted October 25, 2018 Author Share Posted October 25, 2018 Well - I've got nothing to compare a 31.5" scale with but it certainly doesn't match my 34" bass, nor my 25.5" guitar, or my 24.75" guitar, or even my alto sax - so I presume it's right! @eude was after some lighter figure in the ebony. This should do nicely. This is where the fretboard will come to at its full 24 fret lines and a bit: Quite a bit of next week is going to be a bit of a disaster time-wise but before then I should at least have got my head around the neck angles, etc, to be able to start working on the heel. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eude Posted October 25, 2018 Share Posted October 25, 2018 That looks lovely @Andyjr1515! Great access to the dusty end and a beautiful bit of ebony too. Don't worry about the fretlines, it's fretless and I won't be playing in tune much anyway 😉 Eude 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGreek Posted October 25, 2018 Share Posted October 25, 2018 4 minutes ago, eude said: and a beautiful bit of ebony too agree....so used to seeing it plain...nice to see a bit of grain... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Marcoelwray Posted October 25, 2018 Share Posted October 25, 2018 So I'm not the only one to prefer ebony with *flaws* rather than "pure" black ebony..... ! I had a specimen of fretboard some times ago with smooth figures in the ebony! It's so niiiicce! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted October 27, 2018 Author Share Posted October 27, 2018 Rock hopping a little bit on this. Carbon rods and truss rod are on order and I've got a few days of family commitment coming up (I know.... ) so thought I'd just start a fill in job - working out the best way to carve the body. Although I have one of these: ...I'm not letting that anywhere near the body. Too possible to wreck it! But the katalox is tough stuff and the ash is, well, ash. I tried a concave spokeshave, scrapers, micro-planes, Shinto rasp and sanding. And concluded that it needed all of those! Full curve not yet achieved but I think that combination is probably the way based on how it's going so far: So no more progress likely until well into next week but then I have a fairly clear stretch 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eude Posted October 27, 2018 Share Posted October 27, 2018 Looking great, thank you @Andyjr1515, I recall carving the original body in Ash was a fairly long winded process. Sorry 😉 Hope you family time is fun! Eude Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGreek Posted October 27, 2018 Share Posted October 27, 2018 Hmmm...I recall some video "walks" around various manufacturers - is there one around Spector/Warwick or Ibanez where you might pick up some tips or are all these factories so automated that there's nothing to be learned? I'm off to YT to see if there's anything there... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGreek Posted October 27, 2018 Share Posted October 27, 2018 This'll scare the bejeezers out of other cack-handed BCers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGreek Posted October 27, 2018 Share Posted October 27, 2018 (edited) Spector use a much slower method of molding the body (2.00 onwards) Oops...forgot to post the link! Edited October 28, 2018 by TheGreek Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassTool Posted October 28, 2018 Share Posted October 28, 2018 😮😮 that's some confident chisel work right there! 😲 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted November 2, 2018 Author Share Posted November 2, 2018 (edited) Still rock-hopping a little because now I've worked out how I will do the body carve, but before I actually do it, I need to get the basic neck fit in place. And to do that I need to know what neck angle I'm going for. So I have tapered the fretboard to within a couple of mm of finish size, flipped it round so that the narrow end (nut end) fits in the neck pocket enough to pivot on the top of the body and put a straight edge flat on the board in a straight line to the bridge slots (with all bridge adjustment flat to the floor). Then the angle the fretboard is at, is the angle the neck needs to be fit to, which is just a touch over 2 degrees: And now I just need to work out how to machine the various cuts and fits at the end of the neck to incorporate that angle with an exact fit on all planes. Hmmmm... I may be some time! Edited November 2, 2018 by Andyjr1515 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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