A 3d printed bass guitar

[rwillett]

I have been trying to work out how to handle the pickups.

 

I've managed to design a test pickup holder that hangs the pickups from the pickguard as opposed to screwing the pickup to the body. I'm still not sure the best way to go.

 

The issue with the pickups are the height and the restricted space to work in. I did have 19mm from the floor to the top of the body, which isn't a lot as a bass pickup is about 20mm high. There needs to be a gap to the string of around 5.5mm (according to my Fender Jazz).

 

The red ellipse is showing where the new pickup case I designed is separating due to spring tension. You solve one problem and then another pops up. [Now solved]

 

 

The slots on the top allow me to play with the position. The three screws adjust the height ands angle. I'm going to reduce the top of the pickup case as I think I can save 0.5mm, yep its that tight

 

 

This is the bottom of the pickup. It has to be a reasonable depth as the springs work against it.

 

Edited April 2 by rwillett

[rwillett]

The monster lives....

 

 

 

I've jury rigged pickup mounts for the neck and bridge and wired in some choc blocks and a nice Fender Jazz set of controls to see if the pickups work, do they work suspended and how they sound in this position. I could change the position but the pole spacing seems to indicate that this is where they need to go

 

Blow me down with a feather but it actually sounds quite good. Nothing is held permanently in place, so I couldn't even pick the body up as the wiring would have fallen apart.

 

It also looks crap in the photos but it doesn't look that bad in real life.  I now know it works and it doesn;t sound bad. No copper lining so some hum, but not a great deal. I also couldn't remember which one of the wires went in which direction, so the pickups might be out of sync (well it worked for Peter Green).

 

The aim here was to check:

 

1. The pickup cases held the pickups OK. - Seems OK

2. Suspending the pickups from the pick guard works.  - No issues that I can see or hear.

3. The wiring works. - It works but no idea if it is in sync or out of sync.

4. The earthing strap to the bridge works - OK

5. I have a control panel that works - Seems OK.

6. Position of the pickups is right. - Given the pole positions, can't see any option to be honest.

 

Now I now know it works (phew), I can focus on getting it finished for the NW and Scottish bass bash on May 18th.

 

Next steps.

 

1. Reprint the bridge adapter base plate as the last one pulled a nut out, so only seven nuts are holding it on.

2. Reprint the neck module base plate as it has stuff in thats not needed and might vibrate.

3. Make a proper pickguard as opposed to the stuff above.

4. Design the control panel to hold the controls. I'll probably drop the chrome plate as it's a little too big for the space. I might leave the choc blocks as they make assembly a whole lot easier.

 

Thanks

Rob

Edited April 3 by rwillett

[JohnH89]

Looking good . Just an idea for you . Lose the choc blocks and get yourself some wago connectors from screwfix or the like . So much quicker and easier if you are changing things around

[rwillett]

Well, funny you should mention these....

 

 

I do have a box of them. The issue is that they are twice the size of the choc blocks and space is a little tight. Thats why I used the blocks.

 

 

I do like them though, but not sure yet if I should use them. The screwfix ones may be smaller though

 

[rwillett]

Mr Amazon did one of his regular pilgrages to lay gifts at my feet (more or less).

 

So I printed a drill template to make a stitching cut in the aluminium, then cut through all the holes with my new blades to leave this. This looks like junk and I did wonder if I had cocked it up.

 

 

So used the blade sander (wonderful tool) for the first time and gently smoothed and smoothed and came up with this. I was amazed how well it came up.

 

 

I can now start assembling this properly.

 

This is it fixed to the body of the guitar

 

The photos show every blemish, but not a problem.

 

The intention this weekend (apart from a trip to Malton to watch eldest daughter play her first senior womens game) is to get the pockets copper lined, the control panel for the tone and volume printed, to check the height on the strings, and possibly get the pickguard cut and fitted. The last might be a step too far. If this all works, glueing on the body is an evenings work.

 

Progress at last

 

rob

 

 

[SamIAm]

40 minutes ago, rwillett said:

So used the blade sander (wonderful tool)

What is this wonder tool!?

Sam x

[rwillett]

[rwillett]

A busy weekend of rugby and finishing things.

 

Pickguard and control panel facia now done.

 

Bottom of guitar glued in place. 

 

Pickups are currently slanted as I think they are too wide for the strings to sit in the middle of the pickups. My Fender Jazz pickups aren't perfectly aligned but still better than this. Is this normal?

 

Intending to have this finished middle of the week now. Need to glue the top of the guitar on and then get into setting it up. 

 

[rwillett]

Still need to think about finishing it. Sanding, spraying and lacquer/epoxy resin comes to mind. 

 

Epoxy resin wasn't a great success but I'll try again. 

[tauzero]

On 05/04/2024 at 19:05, rwillett said:

 

Ah, the finger sander/power file. Good when you're trying to cut out a rectangle in a diecast Hammond type box for a 16x2 or 20x4 display. My third favourite power tool, after the angle grinder and pillar drill.

[rwillett]

Never thought of using it for that. Still working out what I can do with it. My aim was to simply cut out the right shape in the aluminium.

 

It's far too powerful for printed filament and it needs some care and attention.  I suspect shaping plywood will be a doddle if I make a six string again. 

[rwillett]

Well after an evening of glue sniffing and the like, I bit the bullet, pulled everything together to see how it worked. Nothing worked for a while until I realised that the metal control plate acts as an earth and as I hadn't used it, plastic wasn't the solution. A quick application of copper tape on the back of the control panel solved that little issue.

 

The pickups actually look good and work well. Not set anything up beyond screwing it together and tuning it. Plugged it into GarageBand and it sounded fine, plugged into a NUX micro headphone amp and sounded fine. Plays OK, zero neck dive. The neck is great, the Hipshot tuners work well and it's a good guitar. Not tried to compare it to my Fender Jazz or Mustang, but good first effort.

 

Will now try and set it up properly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The last photo was coz I left the camera in black and white mode. It is a very black guitar.

 

Edited April 11 by rwillett

[SamIAm]

Looking fantastic!

Really like the body 'honeycomb' and the rakish angle of the pups.

Sam x

Edited April 10 by SamIAm

[rwillett]

The rakish angle was driven by necessity rather than design. I do like them now. 

 

The body is using the veroni shapes you suggested.

 

I have done no work on the finish. That's being thought about and tested in the garage on some old bits. 

[SamIAm]

Your build has inspired me to look again into following suit, but for me a short scale 5er headless would be my goal ... finding a suitable pre-built neck is proving difficult! Crafting one from wood with frets and truss is beyond my skills and having one made for me (even if just the carcess with me doing the finish) beyond my budget. I've seen some who crafting one from an aluminium t-truss and 3D printed parts, but this approach does not allow for adjustment of relief.

 

Sam x

Edited April 10 by SamIAm

[rwillett]

Sam,

 

To me the neck is the most important bit. I can change the pickups, I can do a new body, replace the tuners etc etc, but I can't make a neck. I've seen the one with an aluminium truss rod and it was OK as an intellectual exercise, but would Geezer play it? Probably not.

 

Thats why I made the design to handle just about any neck, because I couldn't make a neck.

 

Now your problem, finding a headless five string is tricky. Necks seem to attract a lot of money. I was very lucky with the MIM Jazz neck. I also have a lovely Aria Pro neck as well as a decent Ibanez neck for the next bass projects. One of these, probably the Ibanez will be the headless bass, simply because the shape of the head makes it easier to convert to headless. Mind you I'm probably wrong as normal. I have four eBay searches setup for guitar necks and most of the results are rubbish, but occassionally one pops up thats worth a punt.

 

I am assuming that a wide four string neck can't be repurposed to a five string neck with a new nut? Its going to be headless so the number of tuner holes is immaterial.

 

Rob

[SamIAm]

The question is how wide is wide enough?

I've been looking at this, which looks like I could loose 98% of the 'paddle' leaving enough space to mount the headless string retainer and is affordable at about £60.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/184628868144

 

I need to figure out of its 65mm heel will result in sufficient string spacing at the bridge, I'd like 18mm ... I really need to draw up a design to check angles, spacing etc.

 

And, despite 97.4% +ve seller feedback, I'm a bit wary of a made in china ebay neck ...

 

Sam x

[rwillett]

4 minutes ago, SamIAm said:

The question is how wide is wide enough?

I've been looking at this, which looks like I could loose 98% of the 'paddle' leaving enough space to mount the headless string retainer and is affordable at about £60.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/184628868144

 

I need to figure out of its 65mm heel will result in sufficient string spacing at the bridge, I'd like 18mm ... I really need to draw up a design to check angles, spacing etc.

 

And, despite 97.4% +ve seller feedback, I'm a bit wary of a made in china ebay neck ...

 

Sam x

 

If nothing else works, you can always buy a canoe and have a trip round Brighton pier.

 

For this I'd draw it up in Fusion 360 and really check stuff. I'm happy to help with that bit, but no idea what the ideal measurements should be. One of the things I learnt from the bass was that the pickups, bridge and nut all need to be thought about at the start, rather than what I did, towards the middle I made so many mistakes that I am already thinking about V3 Not sure if the headless comes before or after V3

 

Rob

[SamIAm]

1 minute ago, rwillett said:

If nothing else works, you can always buy a canoe and have a trip round Brighton pier.

Of course, by the time I resculpted it for the headless mount it would be a poor paddle lol

Thankfully I can run F360, the last time I did such a 'measurement thing' it was with Freecad and the model stopped working

Sam x

[JohnH89]

Great work dude . The offer of the headless neck is still there when/if you get round to it . The idea that you can make such a thing of beauty , but reckon that a neck would be a step to far is alien to me , but  everyone has their areas of expertise i suppose . I wouldn't have a scooby where to even start with 3D printing . 

 

No need to be too wary of chinese necks . Who is the seller ? . I've bought a couple over the years and after a bit of finishing they have been fine . Both of the last two have had fingerboards removed and replaced with homemade fretless ones . I do think that you may be a bit tight for 18mm spacing with that neck but would not hurt to have a measure .

Edited April 10 by JohnH89

[rwillett]

@JohnH89

 

Plans now are now to try and work out what the finish on the body needs to be. I have my V1 six string body in the garage, its full of filler, primer, has been attacked by various sanders and tomorrow will be attacked with wet and dry paper to work out how to make the body look good. I still have the V2 body and neck.

 

Even after thinking about what to do for a long time, I still made a load of mistakes that I won't make with the next one. Whether I go headless or not is something I'm thinking about. If I go headless I want the body to look good, so thats a big driver. I have thoughts already....

 

The bits I want to change for the next guitar mean every single piece has changed. I will also make a glue fitting tool to let me glue bits together safely, quickly. Glue works, but even a 0.1mm alignment issue is noticable. So I may be in touch about your very kind offer.

 

I wouldn't have a clue about making a neck. To me thats the heart of a guitar and its as difficult as heart surgery. IIf I can control it with a computer, I'm good. Power tools and me are not a good combination. 3d printing is easy, trust me, I know

 

All the best

Rob

 

 

 

Edited April 11 by rwillett

[Paul S]

What is the weight, do you know?

[SamIAm]

55 minutes ago, rwillett said:

I wouldn't have a clue about making a neck. To me thats the heart of a guitar and its as difficult as heart surgery. IIf I can control it with a computer, I'm good. Power tools and me are not a good combination. 3d printing is easy, trust me, I know

 

IF I had access to a large enough CNC machine I'd definately have a go at making some necks!

 

Sam x

Edited April 10 by SamIAm

[Jackroadkill]

She's looking great, Rob.  I really like her.

[Si600]

2 hours ago, SamIAm said:

The question is how wide is wide enough?

I've been looking at this, which looks like I could loose 98% of the 'paddle' leaving enough space to mount the headless string retainer and is affordable at about £60.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/184628868144

 

I need to figure out of its 65mm heel will result in sufficient string spacing at the bridge, I'd like 18mm ... I really need to draw up a design to check angles, spacing etc.

 

And, despite 97.4% +ve seller feedback, I'm a bit wary of a made in china ebay neck ...

 

Sam x

Sorry @rwillett for a quick hijack.

 

Sam, what measurements do you need? I've got 3 5er necks I can measure for you, two are strung and one is waiting for me to stop procrastinating and finish the bloody project!