Andyjr1515 Posted March 25, 2020 Share Posted March 25, 2020 (edited) With Tom's African Bass Mk2 getting pretty close, it's time to start thinking about the next full build. And I'm a bit excited about this one. But first, the sack-cloth and ashes stuff. "I solemnly swear that I will try to concentrate on the true and original instrument, that is called Bass (hallowed be its name), and I confess that I am a weak and miserable sinner to even contemplate drifting to the dark side but... "...but, heck! This is going to be FABULOUS!!!!!!!!!!!" Does anyone remember this SG-influenced neck-through build I did a few years back for one of our band members, Pete? : And those with REALLY long memories, anyone remember this own-design I built for myself in Yew? Well, both guitars are still in use. Pete & I are still playing (or were until the recent lockdown!) - him lead and me vocals & sax. And at one of the places we regularly play, another player - Matt - has started making pickups. And for his first attempt at humbuckers I offered the Yew guitar above as the test bed. So Matt has been playing it for the past few weeks. Matt has drooled over Pete's SG for some time. But he was also a bit bowled over by how good Yew can look once it's been carved and varnished. So the new project is an SG-style guitar made for Matt....made with a Yew top. And I just happen to have a book-matched set that has been languishing in my shed for years : And I'm excited because - although you have to be very careful routing and sanding Yew because it is pretty poisonous - I found it a nice wood to work with...and this is going to look FABULOUS And, let's face it, it's not like I'm going anywhere else over the next few weeks... Edited May 15, 2020 by Andyjr1515 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rexel Matador Posted March 25, 2020 Share Posted March 25, 2020 It's all good - the guitar is important. After all, if the guitar hadn't been invented, it would have been impossible for us to go on to realise that it had two strings too many and was a few inches too short, correct said errors and invent the bass. Looking forward to seeing it unfold. 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Si600 Posted March 25, 2020 Share Posted March 25, 2020 Oi, Andy! NO!! Guitar builds belong on Guitarchat. It'll keep Kiwi and Ped happy anyway 😉 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scrumpymike Posted March 25, 2020 Share Posted March 25, 2020 Your yew guitar looks amazing - want some! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted March 25, 2020 Author Share Posted March 25, 2020 26 minutes ago, scrumpymike said: Your yew guitar looks amazing - want some! Well, for a mere king's ransom, Mike... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scrumpymike Posted March 26, 2020 Share Posted March 26, 2020 13 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said: Well, for a mere king's ransom, Mike... Are you suggesting that I increase my collection of Andy Rogers Swifts to 3? That's almost a flock of these rare birds! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted March 26, 2020 Author Share Posted March 26, 2020 1 hour ago, scrumpymike said: Are you suggesting that I increase my collection of Andy Rogers Swifts to 3? That's almost a flock of these rare birds! How's the Rascal Mk II doing? Hopefully you're getting plenty of practice in with the lockdown Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted March 26, 2020 Author Share Posted March 26, 2020 I think today is my last one on Tom's African bass until I get the hardware that he has ordered from the US (and which, I suspect, may be some time coming) so tomorrow I will be gathering together the timbers. The plan is to maximise the number of pieces of timber I already have lying around and other stuff I already have at hand. The guitar will be a through neck with the same basic construction as Pete's red one: I'll make it thinner than Pete's which will make the neck heel even more unobtrusive than this one. The control chamber cover will be matching Sapele in a recess for flush fitting with magnets. Matt will be making his own humbuckers for it and I'll be using as much hardware out of my 'bits box' as I can. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scrumpymike Posted March 26, 2020 Share Posted March 26, 2020 3 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said: How's the Rascal Mk II doing? Hopefully you're getting plenty of practice in with the lockdown I did actually manage to gig it before the world shut down. Much admired by my bandmates! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted March 27, 2020 Author Share Posted March 27, 2020 Got the timbers out today. As I had hoped, I have: the Yew; the Sapele for the back wings; a lovely piece of quarter-sawn David Dyke mahogany for the neck. I’m pretty sure I also have a piece of bubinga somewhere that I can use for the centre splice on the neck. And I’ve also found all the original templates from Pete’s build! Assuming David Dyke is open, I will order a length of ebony for the fretboard and headstock face-plate on Monday – but that won’t hold up the start of the build. I’ll also have a broddle in my bits boxes over the next couple of days. I’m almost certain I have a tune-o-matic roller bridge somewhere and I may even have some locking tuners. I’ll see. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted March 27, 2020 Author Share Posted March 27, 2020 If you ever wondered how they bookmatch…. (Assistant in bulk DIY store,"It's tree wood, sir. You can cut it, sand it, glue it drill it - just like plastic") Well - I broddled around in my bits box and the number of things I've bought and never used invested in over the past few years is a bit eye-watering. Certainly, these will do fine on the build - and even with a choice of roller ToM bridges! : And I even found a full set of chrome locking tuners! Except, I then realised they were 6-a-side and not 3+3. Never mind - I'll probably go for Axesrus's splendid lightweight ones. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted March 28, 2020 Author Share Posted March 28, 2020 (edited) In between some domestic stuff, managed to start the thicknessing of the Yew and the Sapele. While you clearly have to flatten the top, for bookmatched wood you need to minimise the wood removal from the bookmatched face - just a few mm and you already start losing the match - so most of the removal to get it to the correct thickness is off the backs. And with Yew - there's no messing about. Hat, goggles, respirator, gloves. Every bit of a yew is poisonous except - I am told but do not take my word for it - the red fleshy bit of the berry (which is the bit that looks the most poisonous). The seeds are especially poisonous. And poisonous doesn't mean it make you sick. This is meet your maker poisonous. And so, with the tiny bits that throw off out the thicknesser, despite decent extraction, it's the full PPE approach. As it is ingestion or inhalation that is the particular risk, same precautions will be done for any routing and sanding. Does look nice, though: Edited March 28, 2020 by Andyjr1515 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon. Posted March 28, 2020 Share Posted March 28, 2020 That is pretty! Albeit a bit deadly... 🙄 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted March 29, 2020 Author Share Posted March 29, 2020 I had a single length of David Dyke neck timber - as usual a beautiful piece of quarter-cut mahogany. I always buy bass-length because of my slightly quirky way of doing things. With luck, I would be able to incorporate the headstock angle and the neck angle in the one blank to be able to flip one blank over and get the mirrored end grain pattern when the two are put together. There will be a 6mm centre splice of harder wood between the two in the finished 3-part assembly. For anything to do with through-necks, I always start with the physical bridge in my hand and draw the thing full-size, with the adjustment ranges of the bridge so that the angles are going to be right: You can see here why I buy the bass length. There is then enough extra length to allow for the extra depth each neck side is going to need for the neck angle (looking like 3 degrees) and the headstock angle (I always use 10 degrees). I wouldn't have had enough depth of blank to do this if it had been a guitar-length blank of this particular width (which is sold to be part of a multi-splice arrangement). Cut between the two sides: And checked that my 'upside down & back to front' stuff was correct in terms of end grain. And luckily it was A bit difficult to see with the saw marks, but hopefully you can see the V of the mirrored grain which should, in theory, give good stability of the finished neck and avoid twist, etc.. And then back in the shed to see if I've got anything suitable for a centre-splice. As always, thanks for looking and your encouraging feedback 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted March 29, 2020 Author Share Posted March 29, 2020 It's been a productive day. Amazing how much you can get done when you are ordered by your Prime Minister to stay at home. And it's amazing how much you can procrastinate about the decorating when you know you probably have thirteen more weeks of the same (so its rumoured) with a guaranteed no-one coming to visit in that time for any other reason than one where the decorating won't really matter anyway... Got the Yew and Sapele to their final thicknesses, the Yew cut out and also found a 6mm splice of Purpleheart for the neck! Here's the Yew, ready for final jointing (that will be just a skim on the handplane) and gluing together: Those who have seen my previous build threads will know that I'm a bit weird in that I will file and sand the top to its final outline and use the top itself as my routing template for the body once it has been glued on. My logic (and remember I simply tell you what I do and absolutely not that this is how it should be done) is that way, for the finish rout of the body outline, I don't then have to let the router blades go anywhere near those decorative horn tips because - for me, at least - that is the road to misery Tomorrow's job will be to assemble and glue the neck blank... 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maude Posted March 29, 2020 Share Posted March 29, 2020 That yew is certainly a very pretty wood. Just curious about the poisonosity (surely that's not a word) of it. If the body was left unfinished, would it stay poisonous or is it just when freshly cut? 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scrumpymike Posted March 29, 2020 Share Posted March 29, 2020 AFAIK what's dangerous is any machined particulate that's small enough to breathe in - provided you don't eat it of course 🙂 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Blank Posted March 29, 2020 Share Posted March 29, 2020 57 minutes ago, Maude said: Just curious about the poisonosity (surely that's not a word) of it. Toxicity? Although I prefer poisonosity. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted March 29, 2020 Author Share Posted March 29, 2020 Just now, Maude said: That yew is certainly a very pretty wood. Just curious about the poisonosity (surely that's not a word) of it. If the body was left unfinished, would it stay poisonous or is it just when freshly cut? As @scrumpymike says - it's ingestion and inhalation. So unless Matt decided to chew on it like a dog chewing on a bone, it isn't going to do him any harm. And clearly, you would need to be trying to ingest. But when I used yew once with a router, I unknowingly ended up with a teeny chip in my mouth. It was about 2mmx1mm. By the time I fished it out, my tongue was already going a bit numb! But inhalation of the dust wouldn't do your lungs any good at all. So routing and sanding is probably the greatest risk without adequate PPE 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maude Posted March 29, 2020 Share Posted March 29, 2020 4 minutes ago, Frank Blank said: Toxicity? Although I prefer poisonosity. That's the word! My mind went blank. It would make for an interesting System Of A Down song though. 😁 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted March 29, 2020 Author Share Posted March 29, 2020 Just now, Maude said: That's the word! My mind went blank. It would make for an interesting System Of A Down song though. 😁 I agree with @Frank Blank - I love poisonosity Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Blank Posted March 29, 2020 Share Posted March 29, 2020 10 minutes ago, Maude said: That's the word! My mind went blank. It would make for an interesting System Of A Down song though. 😁 Heh, yes, or an album of outtakes from Toxicity. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted March 29, 2020 Author Share Posted March 29, 2020 The Wood Database agrees: Additionally, nearly all parts of the Yew tree are considered toxic and poisonous to humans, and care should be exercised when working with this wood species So if it is considered toxic AND poisonous, it stands to reason that it exhibits Toxicity and Poisonosity. So I reckon you are spot on @Maude 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maude Posted March 29, 2020 Share Posted March 29, 2020 I'll go along with that @Andyjr1515. 🙂 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Blank Posted March 29, 2020 Share Posted March 29, 2020 Just reading up on the poisonicity of yew on wiki, I had no idea! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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