Andyjr1515 Posted July 22 Share Posted July 22 There are builds on this forum that make me go WOW! Builds that are SO different, or so challenging, or so intriguing that I remember why it is that my own build journey has often veered towards the 'bet that can't be done' project gauntlets that are occasionally thrown my way. Occasionally, I even get to see these in the flesh - the regional Bassbashes are great for this And now and again I have been flattered to be asked to assess, or tweak, or mod one of these marvels - either for the original owner or to suit a new owner. One such opportunity has come to me in the last few days - and has to rank a bit of a pinnacle in clambering up the learning mountain. Many of you will remember @6feet7 's remarkable Alumibird 5. If you missed it, his build thread is here. It was an awesome project in the literal sense as well as in the vernacular: Well - to cut a long story short, @6feet7 put it up for sale in the marketplace here recently - and @Happy Jack bought it And @Happy Jack has asked me if I would consider doing some of the tweaks on it he was considering to suit his own playing style and gigging needs. Now, with me having immediately bitten his hand off, he'll need to sort out some prosthetic alternative before he will be able to play it - but my answer was, of course, YYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted July 22 Share Posted July 22 As a fan of aluminium in guitar and bass construction, I'm definitely looking forward to this... 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted July 22 Author Share Posted July 22 @Happy Jack wanted to change it from a 5 string (it originally had a modified 4-string neck - see original thread above) and so promised to send a couple of possible necks and most of the other related hardware, etc, to me to assess and, if it could be done, to get on and start doing it. So how to send a big lump of aluminium and a couple of necks?? The DPD man, when he arrived at the door, gave me a 'WTF?' look...but then we agreed that this was actually a splendid way of sending a large, heavy parcel. Has its own carrying handle! Protected. Weatherproof. Padded. Tear-proof And here it was! An amazing piece of engineering - have a look at @6feet7's original thread. It is hollow, made up of multiple components, ali-welded together. But you would never know - the grinding off of the main front/back weld line is completely invisible. The swirl finish of the top is very impressive... @Happy Jack sent me his preferred 4 string T-o-M bridge and stoptail and challenge 1 was that the post centres were not the same as the pre-drilled bush holes. I did some googling, based on that a different T-o-M type might be a better option than to mod the one sent - but no joy...the stop tail was going to need a major mod, and the T-o-M bridge a smaller one. The right hand side has a 2mm sliding bolt arrangement, but the mismatch was more like 3mm. But as you can see - the stop tail would need to be a major mod if this was going to be used: So out with the heavy gear...they don't call me Bodgers Rogers for nothing!!! 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beedster Posted July 22 Share Posted July 22 Body = lovely Pickguard............ WTF? 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Jack Posted July 22 Share Posted July 22 My aim here is to have this bass as the 'doubling' instrument with my AliKat DB at outdoor/festival gigs with https://www.facebook.com/DamoAndTheDynamites/ Since I normally use a Mike Lull 54P with that band, I could only get into this project if the bass reverted to 4-string. I'm not fussed about the Thunderbird aesthetics so the classic headstock shape doesn't particularly inspire me; I sourced two feasible necks from BC (a J and a P) and suggested that @Andyjr1515 would be better placed to decide which neck would be a better all-round fit for the neck pocket & bridge arrangement. Similarly, I included two sets of strings with the package so that he could choose which worked better with the eventual setup. His machined ally 'wings' to the tailpiece have not yet featured here but trust me ... they're worth the wait. This is not going to be a lightweight bass when it's finished, certainly it will be significantly heavier than the Mike Lull (in fairness, so are most basses 🙄) but my last commission for Andy was the uber-lightweight 5-string so I thought he'd set a hitman on me if I made low weight a priority again. I can deal with the weight because I organise the setlists for that band. I routinely arrange for an instrument swop every 5/6/7 songs anyway, and of course they're short songs ... it's only rock'n'roll. This bass will never be on my shoulder for long enough to give me trouble. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard R Posted July 22 Share Posted July 22 Glad to see the bird will be used. But @Happy Jack - surely it would have been quicker and easier to, well, you know,. . ...just remove the B-string? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Jack Posted July 22 Share Posted July 22 11 minutes ago, Richard R said: ... surely it would have been quicker and easier to, well, you know,. . ...just remove the B-string? I'll assume that was tongue-in-cheek. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted July 23 Author Share Posted July 23 (edited) I took off the pickguard, I'll admit, with a bit of trepidation. Was it hiding something horrible? Actually, no - not bad at all. The gap round the pickup can easily be covered with a normal-sized pickup ring; the couple of snail trails (reminder to always use a pillar drill wherever possible when drilling metal) are insignificant; a few surplus holes that maybe can be disguised but, in any case, would be invisible at stage-to-audience distance. Cutting straight lines in aluminium as thick as this is immensely difficult - this is pretty darned good So...to the tailstock. Stop tails on basses are not that common - and there is no commonality across makers. The bushing hole centres do actually match one version of the Hipshot T-o-M ish set...but not the one most commonly available. And the price is eye-watering. So @Happy Jack and I agreed that the only practical first step was to see if I could mod the one he had supplied. But that would mean filing and drilling aluminium alloy away. And that means that, wherever the filing was done, the black powder-coating would be no longer. So I had a ponder. @Happy Jack and @Silvia Bluejay were on the road at the time and our dialogue was being carried out by text via (one hopes) the non-driver. You can imagine the discussion in the car: 'Jack - Andyjr1515 say's he's having a ponder!' 'On no! Not a ponder!' 'Yes - I know...' 'He says if you can't hide it, then you must flaunt it.' 'Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo' ** (** As heard by a pedestrian patiently waiting to cross the road) Edited July 23 by Andyjr1515 2 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted July 23 Share Posted July 23 I don't know what metal-working tools you have at your disposal, but if the stop tail-piece holes were significantly different to the hardware supplied, I'd have had a look at making my own from scratch. In the 80s I was able to do some fairly major modifications to some heavy-duty aluminium rack box sides with only a junior hack-saw, a hand-held drill and some files. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted July 23 Author Share Posted July 23 Meanwhile, back in the Andyjr1515 workshop (a posh word for a bench in the cellar) files were being laid out as a surgeon lays out the scalpels and bone saws. Files, no less, manufactured for proper jobs. Yes - files manufactured for cutting METAL. And up until now used by Andyjr1515 for shaping nothing tougher than...well...bubinga! And even that made him sweat... So, starting on one side first so that it could be chucked in the bin before expending any more energy if it turned out like a dog's dinner: Hmmm...well, it would need to be tidied up. But that might just work...may as well attack the other side... Bit more fettling to do (not least being to file off the copper outer layer), and a proper sanding and buffing of the exposed ali - but this might just work...and maybe even suit the overall vibe: 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted July 23 Author Share Posted July 23 15 minutes ago, BigRedX said: I don't know what metal-working tools you have at your disposal, but if the stop tail-piece holes were significantly different to the hardware supplied, I'd have had a look at making my own from scratch. In the 80s I was able to do some fairly major modifications to some heavy-duty aluminium rack box sides with only a junior hack-saw, a hand-held drill and some files. You are right, @BigRedX , and I'm always impressed what folks can do with metal. I'm a bit limited with no bench vice and no room for a separate area to do this kind of stuff (and metal filings don't really want to be where wood work is going to be done) - but also nowadays it's more about the pesky hand arthritis. Modding this has turned out to be doable but, nowadays, filing and sawing metal, even soft alloys is problematic. As is, increasingly, wood... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted July 23 Share Posted July 23 @Andyjr1515 I completely understand. I did this back when I was still young and even more stupid than I am now, and as a consequence nearly sawed off the end of my index finger. I'll be interested to see your solution. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted July 23 Author Share Posted July 23 So, still to finish the stop tail. How to gain that mm of post width for the bridge. One side of the bridge has, designed in, some slide adjustability but the other side does not. Well, to be precise, did not. A bit less dramatic but I realised that if I filed the side of the retainer-nut recess, I could elongate the other side and gain myself the mm: Pretty invisible - especially on the stage So time to drive in those bushes! And here is a pro-tip from a rank amateur...before driving in these kind of bushes, always work out how you will get them out if (when) they get stuck! And in my box of bits, I have an old bed-head fixing screw that is the same thread as most T-o-M/Stop tail bushes: If it gets stuck. I screw in the screw until it bottoms...and then with a large screwdriver, keep screwing. Two possibilities - the bush stays stuck and the screw bursts a hole in the back of the body...or usually, if you are careful, the screw stays bottomed and the bush pulls out. And yes - I did need to use it. One of the bushes did, indeed, get stuck. And yes - this got it out: And so that brings the thread up to date - more fettling to do, but we have the T-o-M fitted: And that means I can properly measure the scale length and work out how much I need to take off the back of the new neck heel and see if we can get the neck to fit in the pocket 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauzero Posted July 23 Share Posted July 23 (edited) 1 hour ago, Andyjr1515 said: If it gets stuck. I screw in the screw until it bottoms...and then with a large screwdriver, keep screwing. Two possibilities - the bush stays stuck and the screw bursts a hole in the back of the body...or usually, if you are careful, the screw stays bottomed and the bush pulls out. Could you use something like a 12mm or so socket, or a short length (2cm or so) of pipe, something that will accommodate the top of the bush, put the screw through it, and pull the bush out with the screw? No risk of going through the body that way. Something to consider the next time you do one of these... 😁 Edited July 23 by tauzero 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted July 23 Author Share Posted July 23 2 minutes ago, tauzero said: Could you use something like a 12mm or so socket, or a short length (2cm or so) of pipe, something that will accommodate the top of the bush, put the screw through it, and pull the bush out with the screw? No risk of going through the body that way. Something to consider the next time you do one of these... 😁 Yes - that's another way. Usually it depends on how soft the top is, how deep/hard the back wood is and how stuck the insert is. With a wood body, the 'broken screw' trick can work quite well - heating the bush up with a soldering iron to expand it, then letting it cool back down before trying again. The main thing is to work out how you would do it for the particular instrument you are working with before hammering them in Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted July 23 Author Share Posted July 23 The general rule for setting a neck position is to wind the top string saddle fully forward and set that at scale length. That is because a string will never flatten when fretted and the one that will sharpen the least (all other things being equal) will be the top string. The thicker strings will tend to sharpen more the thicker they are. So if the top string saddle is set fully forward when the bridge/neck position is determined, then it will give you the maximum backward adjustment available for the other saddles. In this case, I'm working out where the neck position needs to be. So with the G saddle fully forward, I place the steel rule at the saddle peak and adjust the position of the neck until the nut slot edge is at scale length: A pencil mark where the end of the heel comes to tells me how much I have to shorten the pocket area of the neck heel for the neck to be able to intonate. The heel is a little too wide for the pocket and so that will need some tweaking too. If I get this right, I will only need to rout the heel to the depth of the neck pocket and so the fretboard itself will remain unaffected and will overhang the body. It's a job for my DIY router table...which might mean a bit of tidying in the cellar... By the way, that's a crackingly good pocket that @6feet7 and his supplier have created there... This is how it's starting to look so far: 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Jack Posted July 23 Share Posted July 23 That is already starting to take on the sort of dynamic I had in mind from the start, but could never have created myself. It has the whole 50s rocket-ship-to-the-Moon thing going on ... loving it to bits. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard R Posted July 23 Share Posted July 23 Very Flash Gordon! How about a matching headstock? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Jack Posted July 23 Share Posted July 23 That would take you back into neckdive territory, I suspect. It would also be a helluva challenge to find an aluminium veneer to fit the headstock and which would also take that 3D holographic polish. 😉 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard R Posted July 23 Share Posted July 23 You might find some suitable holographic stickers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hellzero Posted July 24 Share Posted July 24 Will you call it "Saviour of the Universe" or "King of the Impossible"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardH Posted July 24 Share Posted July 24 13 hours ago, Happy Jack said: That would take you back into neckdive territory, I suspect. It would also be a helluva challenge to find an aluminium veneer to fit the headstock and which would also take that 3D holographic polish. 😉 0.5mm alu sheet here - can't imagine that would weigh much for the area of the headstock https://www.smetals.co.uk/product/0-5mm-thick-1050-grade-aluminium-plate/ DIY swirl pattern video here - looks like he's just using a bit of a pan scrubber attached to a drill 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Jack Posted July 24 Share Posted July 24 3 hours ago, RichardH said: 0.5mm alu sheet here - can't imagine that would weigh much for the area of the headstock https://www.smetals.co.uk/product/0-5mm-thick-1050-grade-aluminium-plate/ DIY swirl pattern video here - looks like he's just using a bit of a pan scrubber attached to a drill I can see you're well into this aluminium bass stuff. Have you considered buying 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted July 24 Author Share Posted July 24 And so today's job was getting the neck to fit the immoveable and un-modifiable neck pocket at the correct scale length. I don't use the DIY router table that often, but there are certain jobs that are perfect for it. First was getting the length right, while retaining the heel end shape. I used a narrow router bit so that the sides of my fences either side of the bit could be close together and making the cut follow the heel end curve. Little by little is the golden rule here - this is after 6 passes of around 1mm length removal at a time. The height of the cut is around 1mm higher than the depth of the pocket, leaving an overhang for the unchanged fretboard size and shape: Then, positioning the neck along the length of the fences, I narrowed each side by a couple of mm. Here's how the new heel comes out: It fits! On this side, I have narrowed the whole length of the heel to give a clean face in line with the pocket width - I will blend and refinish the join later On the other side, I could do the same - but I have another cunning plan I am considering and so, for the moment, have left it as a cut-out And this is how it looks at the moment with the neck heel sitting fully and snugly in the pocket : And the all-important scale check... Phew! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JPJ Posted July 24 Share Posted July 24 6 hours ago, Hellzero said: Will you call it "Saviour of the Universe" or "King of the Impossible"? ….or following a Star Wars theme “The Rebel Bass” (I’ll get my coat) 😂 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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