Stuck in the 50's

[kodiakblair]

Saturday I paid another visit to Reid Timber in Glasgow. 

 

Bought a few blanks. A thin 1 piece sapele, torrefied ayous blank and a tulipwood 🙂  The plan was to do most of the machine work on the building site.

Plan foiled at the first hurdle.  Heard this afternoon no start back until the 16th at the earliest 🤬

 

Dust sheets came out and the kitchen taken over . Took photos of the blanks but they got lost in the phone somewhere ☹️

 

Jigsaw blade would likely waver so rough cut is bigger,used this handy washer.

Here's the tulipwood.

 

About an hour later I've ended up with this 😃

Just got away with the upper bout on this 😓

 

I'll stick the template on and router trim tomorrow.

[kodiakblair]

A fair bit has happened since start of last month.

Forgot to take photos for most of it 😬

A fair few mishaps too 🤬

Major mishap was slipping while cutting round the horns.

 

 

Had a bright idea. Binding will hide that  Fact I'd never tried binding before nor had the right tools never entered my head.

What could go wrong ? Actually a fair bit can go wrong 🤣 Combination of wrong bearings,too big guides and a craft knife left me with this.

 

 

Forgot to photo the gluing part 😖

 

One thing. I wanted to do the binding before cutting the neck pocket, thought I'd get a sharper finish.

[kodiakblair]

Other stuff.

 

Had an idea I wanted a reverse Telecaster neck. Bought one from Wan Guitar on Ali Express. £69 and 3 week delivery.

Worth every penny 🙂 Lovely chunky neck.

  

 

Had a 2 saddle bridge in the spares box. @The_Rodster came to my rescue with these T-bird pickups 😎

 

 

Had the option of 1 or 2.

 

   

 

Decided on 1 👍

[kodiakblair]

Neck pocket cut, marking for pickup and bridge.

 

 

On to my DIY spray booth. 

 

 

After much scraping, gnashing of teeth, sliced fingertips and general nonsense ; a working bass guitar appeared 🙂

 

   

 

Edited July 8, 2020 by kodiakblair
photo too wee

[songofthewind]

Good work! Love the binding. Got any close up shots of it?

[kodiakblair]

5 minutes ago, songofthewind said:

Good work! Love the binding. Got any close up shots of it?

Will do.  Nowhere near perfect and it seems every time I scrape it  I miss some gunk 🤬

[songofthewind]

Aye, it's the scraping it clean and neat that would put me off. Props for having a go! I might visit Reid's next time I'm in Glasgow. 

[kodiakblair]

8 minutes ago, songofthewind said:

I might visit Reid's next time I'm in Glasgow. 

He does mail order 👍

[songofthewind]

2 minutes ago, kodiakblair said:

He does mail order 👍

I saw that. It's quite difficult to see details in the images of what he has on offer. David Dyke has nice stuff on his Instagram feed, luthiers_supplies.

[kodiakblair]

11 minutes ago, songofthewind said:

I saw that. It's quite difficult to see details in the images of what he has on offer. David Dyke has nice stuff on his Instagram feed, luthiers_supplies.

Aye, going by photos isn't much cop. 

Alasdair is quite picky on how he grades things but nothing beats choosing your own pieces.

[RichardH]

On 04/06/2020 at 16:38, kodiakblair said:

Saturday I paid another visit to Reid Timber in Glasgow. 

Bought a few blanks. A thin 1 piece sapele, torrefied ayous blank and a tulipwood 🙂  The plan was to do most of the machine work on the building site.

 

What's the torrified stuff like? Been eyeing that up but have been a bit put off by the comment about it being soft....

[kodiakblair]

1 minute ago, RichardH said:

What's the torrified stuff like? Been eyeing that up but have been a bit put off by the comment about it being soft....

It's soft, no doubt about that 🙂  Much the same as working with Paulownia, factor the softness into your finishing plans and it stops being an issue.

Plan for that is a piezo only P-bass. My main concern is the weight, may need to go headless to avoid serious neck dive.

[Maude]

In loving the look of this, just classic good looks.👍

[Pea Turgh]

What brand are them there pickups, @kodiakblair? 

[Rexel Matador]

The bass looks awesome, so classy!

I buy mail order from Reid Timber all the time. The prices and quality are amazing. Regarding ordering without seeing the stuff, of course it's not ideal, but I once asked him if he had something that wasn't showing as in stock on the site, and he took pictures of specific pieces and emailed them to me, so it's worth asking if you're looking for something in particular and want a close-up - I get the impression he's happy to help.

[kodiakblair]

1 hour ago, Pea Turgh said:

What brand are them there pickups, @kodiakblair? 

Eric custom Thunderbirds

https://www.eyguitarmusic.com/Thunderbird-Bass-Pickup-Vintage-Style-for-GibsonChromeNickel_p_2287.html

 

T-bird players raved about them on the Last bass outpost a few year back. 

[RichardH]

I've been toying with the idea of using Tbird style pickups on my (as yet unstarted) project, in mudbucker and bridge positions, maybe with a 51 P pick up thrown in for good luck as well 

[Jimothey]

Another lovely bass! Its similar to one I have planned in my head a kinda Dusty Hill sig-ish style but maybe with a single MM pickup👍

[kodiakblair]

5 minutes ago, Jimothey said:

Another lovely bass! Its similar to one I have planned in my head a kinda Dusty Hill sig-ish style but maybe with a single MM pickup👍

Take the idea out of your head and get it built 👍

 

I would love to see it 😎

[The_Rodster]

Looking good, and you've got a spare pickup to use on another build!! 😜