Happy Jack's Mike Lull Necks

[pete.young]

Given that these necks are going to be on and off more frequently than , er, something that goes on and off a lot, why didn't you consider using threaded insets instead of screwing straight into the wood?

[Andyjr1515]

1 hour ago, pete.young said:

Given that these necks are going to be on and off more frequently than , er, something that goes on and off a lot, why didn't you consider using threaded insets instead of screwing straight into the wood?

 

I haven't discounted that yet

 

[Andyjr1515]

I bet you all thought I'd forgotten about this one 

 

I've been a bit heads down to try to get the ebony guitar build finished - on track with that and so thought I'd better give @Happy Jack 's neck a bit of love (in a manner of speaking  )

 

The plan is - as far as possible - both necks to feel very similar.  On that basis, I have measured the Lull neck depth to include the fret thickness.  

 

On a 'measure 14 times and cut once' basis, I first took the bulk off on the band saw and then moved onto my trusty spokeshave:

 

Clearly the volute will be much, much smaller than this below but this now has the 1st to 10th frets to within 0.2mm of the depth, including the fret depth, of the Lull.  At the moment, the neck thickens a little early from the 11th fret towards the heel, but I will leave it there for the moment and straighten it up a touch when I start the neck carve proper:

 

You can see how even this small headstock angle gives me a helping hand with the break angle and the ability to use Hipshot/Sandberg type string retainers.  I think I've said before, but there will be an extension to the fretboard the other side of the nut, carved to meet the scoop of the headstock.

 

Next job is the neck carve which, with luck, will start tomorrow.  But first I'll have to sharpen the spokeshave blade...rock maple is tough stuff!

 

 

[Andyjr1515]

Proper woodworkers can sharpen chisel and plane blades without a jig...    I need a jig 

 

I use the Veritas sharpening jig and then just a couple of diamond stones and finish on a small leather strop.  This is the spokeshave blade in the jig:

 

There is actually very little time spent with the spokeshave because it takes wood off at a considerable rate - this is after only around 15 minutes.  The squiggly pencil line is the measured spine depth that I work towards but don't cut into  :

 

You can tell if the blade is sharp by the chippings - each one here is unbroken for the whole length of the neck:

 

Over too quick but very satisfying.  And yes, I know what you're all thinking - just like a small bag of Maltesers.   

 

And then I move onto a razor plane without the handle, used two handed when I'm hot holding a camera - very effective and very controllable.  And yes, I should be wearing gloves:

 

I check the shape as I go along with a joiners profile gauge.  You can see here that I already am starting to get the nice 'C' shape of the Lull but at the moment it's a bit asymmetrical:

 

So this is where I am at the moment:

 

 

Tomorrow I will finish the rough carve and then move to cabinet scrapers to creep up to the shape of the fretted neck. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 15, 2021 by Andyjr1515

[Silvia Bluejay]

Thoroughly fascinating. 👍🙂

[Daz39]

16 minutes ago, Silvia Bluejay said:

Thoroughly fascinating. 👍🙂

I know, right? It’s Almost as exciting as Bake Off!!!

[TheGreek]

I've never seen an episode of Bake Off.....followed nearly all of @Andyjr1515's builds. So more exciting than Bake Off.

 

 

[Daz39]

2 minutes ago, TheGreek said:

I've never seen an episode of Bake Off.....followed nearly all of @Andyjr1515's builds. So more exciting than Bake Off.

 

 

I mean that's literally incomparable in your case!

I love Bake Off. I love Andy's builds. Both are soothing and fun (it's not me swearing as I hoover up the loose ebony dust in a hazmat suit...)

[Andyjr1515]

And so to the humble cabinet scraper.  Even though they are very cheap, the cabinet/card scraper is one of the tools that would be on my 'if you only had one hand tool' list.  The burr that is along the edge turns it from a dust generator to a wood plane and, from quite early on for a neck carve, I move to this for the controllability (because, let's face it, you don't want to take too much off on a neck carve!  )

 

Here you can see that what is coming off is a proper shaving:

 

But yes - it's slow, and particularly with a timber as hard as rock maple.  But nevertheless, after an hour it's starting to get there:

 

 

It's not often you get the chance to do a side by side profile comparison - this is at the 1st and you can see that the shape of the curve is starting to get there (The one on the right is the Lull)  :

 

 

 

But, for example, at the 10th you can see that the new one is still a little flat-topped and steep sided on the one side. 

 

 

Doesn't look a lot, but that represents a lot more scraping still to go

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Andyjr1515]

Well, the basic carve is done, ready for final sanding:

 

This is why I like the cabinet scraper - you wouldn't think that this hasn't been sanded at all yet.

 

And so in terms of what's been progressed:

 

The headstock is now at finished thickness - a really nice bit of maple, this.

 

 

The heel is still presently deeper than the fretted neck, but the neck depth from the spine to the top of the fretboard is now the same, as is the overhang:

 

A volute on a P Bass??  Heresy!  (But @SpondonBassed might want to treat it as a Christmas present    )

 

And an offcut of the radiussed fretboard is ready to be cut-and-carved and then added the other side of the nut:

 

I don't know how much extra will be done before family duties for Christmas start taking over, but the next jobs will include cutting the nut/fitting the fretboard extension and drilling the tuner holes so that I can temporarily fit them to allow me to cut the heel to the final depth and angle.

 

 

 

 

 

[Happy Jack]

That is looking bloody gorgeous!

 

[MoonBassAlpha]

Just out of curiosity,  why didn't you make the fingerboard continuous past the nut,  in one piece? Were you limited by the board blank length?

[Andyjr1515]

57 minutes ago, MoonBassAlpha said:

Just out of curiosity,  why didn't you make the fingerboard continuous past the nut,  in one piece? Were you limited by the board blank length?

No, the board was plenty long enough.  Unless you go for a zero fret, then the board has to be either slotted to fit the nut, or split there, assuming an extension beyond the nut is required.  In this instance, it was easier and neater to split it

[MoonBassAlpha]

8 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

No, the board was plenty long enough.  Unless you go for a zero fret, then the board has to be either slotted to fit the nut, or split there, assuming an extension beyond the nut is required.  In this instance, it was easier and neater to split it

Fairy nuff!

[Andyjr1515]

Christmas/family stuff all sorted and so it's back to the important stuff 

 

So that Jack doesn't have to keep changing the tuners round, we agreed that I should get a set of tuners for the fretless neck.  Problem is that - like most things guitar/bass build related - the prices of stuff is going through the roof.  The Hipshot Ultralites fitted to the Lull are now £40 EACH!  That's £200 just for the tuners!!!

 

Happily, Hipshot have started allowing 'Licensed' tuners to be sold - and even happier is that Bass Direct have quite a few models in stock...and they arrived today.

 

Hipshot USA at the back, Hipshot Licenced at the front:

 

The licenced ones are about 10% heavier (still very light) but 60% cheaper.  And very nicely made.  That'll do.

 

And so there's not much stopping me from getting on and finishing this... 

[Hellzero]

Hipshot are "making" these Licenced tuners in Korea since around at least 10 years... 😉

[Andyjr1515]

Decent progress today.

 

It's safer to start from scratch in terms of the tuner positioning to ensure that the string runs from the nut to the tuners are going to be straight.  After doing the geometry, always a good idea to physically position the tuners to make sure that is 'looks right' and also that nothing is going to clash between each unit:

 

Then - to replicate the recess that Lull put in for the tuner washers, that's the first size of Forstner bit to use:

 

Then simply line up the central prong of the smaller bit to drill the through-holes:

 

Also, the first rough cut for the fretboard ebony extension to at least give me initial string clearance for my first trial fit of the neck:

 

And this allowed me to fit the Licenced tuners:

 

And finally, a slice off the heel to get it to broadly the right thickness.  I was pleased with the accuracy of the cut as, for hard maple, this is at about the limit for my hobby-grade bandsaw:

 

And taking that slice off allowed me to - in made-to-measure suit terminology - do the 'first fit'.

 

It's actually pretty close for a first fit 

 

 

Tomorrow I will cut the nut (more of a spacer than a full nut on a fretless - the slots will take the strings to within a gnat's of the surface of the fretboard) and then I can bring the strings to tension and see how much I need to tweak the angle of the heel so that the action is correct under tension whichever neck is on without having to adjust the saddle heights (even though, as discussed earlier, the intonation probably will need to be tweaked due to the different strings that will be fitted).

 

 

[MacDaddy]

Are you going to transfer the Mike Lull graphic, or leave it blank?

[Andyjr1515]

 

8 minutes ago, MacDaddy said:

Are you going to transfer the Mike Lull graphic, or leave it blank?

I won't be doing the actual graphic - it's not a Lull neck - but actually, it's not something we've discussed.  I'll have a think and maybe put forward some suggestions.

[LukeFRC]

7 minutes ago, Andyjr1515 said:

 

I won't be doing the actual graphic - it's not a Lull neck - but actually, it's not something we've discussed.  I'll have a think and maybe put forward some suggestions.

Matching headstock to the body, then with one of your bird inlays …

[Hellzero]

Terrific work as usual @Andyjr1515 !

[Happy Jack]

1 hour ago, Andyjr1515 said:

 

I won't be doing the actual graphic - it's not a Lull neck - but actually, it's not something we've discussed. 

 

58 minutes ago, LukeFRC said:

Matching headstock to the body, then with one of your bird inlays …

 

The neck is a piece of sheer craftsmanship by Andy, and his logo is the only thing that should be on there. I draw the line at his mobile number and website, mind ...

 

The idea of a matching headstock is very tempting and would look as cool as the other side of your pillow, but that's a 10-year-old white nitro finish on the body so I can't imagine that it would be an easy match!

[Silvia Bluejay]

Now if only that horrible, horrible tort pickguard could be replaced with a black one... 🙄

[Happy Jack]

15 hours ago, Silvia Bluejay said:

Now if only that horrible, horrible tort pickguard could be replaced with a black one... 🙄

 

Nooooooooooo!!! 😱

[Gareth Hughes]

16 hours ago, Silvia Bluejay said:

Now if only that horrible, horrible tort pickguard could be replaced with a black one... 🙄

 

Blasphemy!!!!!!