Rounding Neck Heel Advice (w/ Pictures of Build)

[Gopher Bob]

I'm doing a rebuild of a custom bass I assembled primarily from Warmoth components. I am finally close to the end of the rebuild and other than the finish not coming out perfect I am very happy with the results. I do have a few questions for anyone with some experience in the matter.

1) I was thinking of using a curved neck plate and rounding the exposed edge primarily for comfort. Will this affect neck stability? Note: this bass is routed for a hipshot bass tremolo.

2) Initially the bass had a sleeve style output jack. What would be the easiest and safest way to open this hole up so that it can accommodate a Les Paul style jack? i.e.

Black Jack Plate | Allparts.com









I'm pretty sure this is the plate I'm using...

http://www.carvinguitars.com/product...ct=NP1B&cid=43

[john grey]

Opinions:

1.) I don't see any advantage other than esthetics to using the curved plate. The possibility of it weakening is of course dependent on the depth of the neck (and body cut-out) & the stresses that are involved (string tension, number width, handling, & bridge and nut assembly. I personally would stick with a square one. If it IS an issue of esthetics then there are alternatives such as the use of bronze or brass (stained or weathered, engraved, or stamped or burnished, or even a very heavy one or a plate of a textured medium) or copper square unit.

2.) Opening that hole would be simple if the body were supported with heavy, wide clamping and heavy reinforcing blocks on each side so as to provide for very ridged set-up. Using very slightly wider full spiral bit drills, just increase the size at perhaps no more than 1/16 at a time. I would NOT use flat (open) wood drills but full spiral drills to support the walls of the hole. First I would make a "beveled counter-sink" widening to the width of increase to keep from splintering any wood at the opening.
The primary agenda would be to make your clamping set-up as ridged and thick as is practical. And if possible to use a drill press. If this is not available, then reduce the level of drill size increase. If a "plug cover" will wrap around the sides of the opening from the new plug, I would measure that also before doing any work. The angle of it's contact should be taken into account. If no cover or support will be available or it will be small, still remember that it may need room for either support screw purchase or proper angle (or both). Assume the jack-plate will have to be formed and purchase more than one of them. When forming use a dead-blow hammer and obtain your angle through a carpentry angle or similar. You MAY have to fashion your own if the screws (& holes) are too close to the edge, etc.

[berwick63]

I believe LP style jacks fit in a 7/8 hole. Did some work adding stereo jacks to my buddy's strat and just used a 7/8 spade bit to. Only thing is that there's already a hole there, so that spade bit won't work.
I also think you should stick with it being square, just seems like a lot of meat to take out of the neck pocket

[WilliamSandoval]

plus, you would have to paint the entire body. IMO that is a great finish, and if it was mine, I would hate to lose it.

[Gopher Bob]

Thanks for all the great advices.

neck plate:
It wouldn't be an aesthetic reason for the neck plate I just remember 'bumping' into it with my hand the first time I built it so I was trying to think of a way to round it so it doesn't feel like my hand is hitting a brick wall. I wouldn't mind refinishing that small area. If you saw it in person you would see a good amount of "amatuer-ness" already in the finish... This however is the best it's looked so far and it only took 4 tries.

output jack hole:
I'll have to see what kind of drill bits I have available. I do have a fancy drill press at a friends house but it is a little difficult to 'schedule' time with it. I was almost thinking Using smaller drill bits to take off little at a time and just doing some fine filing at the end.

[Gopher Bob]

May as well post what it looked like in... 2005? I forget but it was quite awhile and hipshot just released that trem system.

[john grey]

It has a nice "Spartan" look. What's important are things YOU have learned via putting it together. Did you square up corers and keep even spacings? Did you use the correct screw driver (& color of screw) bit so your screw heads are clean? Did you take just a bit more time in assembly to make sure you're lined up properly? Could you have counter-sunk areas for a "flat-professional look"?
These are the important things and these things you learn privately, on your own. And at your own rate. The Bass looks good.
Remember the little issues you learned and your next one will look even better and better.... but the most important thing is to have fun.

[Gopher Bob]

Absolutely. My list of dislikes that I've tried to address:

The bottom horn jabbed into my leg when played sitting so I've rounded it out and it seems to feel much better now.

Really didn't like the dimarzio jazz pickups. Just wasn't my thing so this time around I've routed the cavities for EMG DCs. The batteries (going 18v) could fit in the main control cavity but I went ahead and routed for a battery box anyway.

The strap button placement initially was poor so this time I'm going to think extra hard when its time to drill those holes. The eagle bass body is not very strap button friendly as far as placement options. Even BC Rich rethinks their strap positions on these basses every few years.

The tremolo claw screws were initially angled too much causing the proper adjustments to stick out of the cavity. This time I used a thin long drill bit to get the holes low and nearly parallel for proper adjustments.

The neck was initially bare wood... again hated it. So I used some tru-oil on it and finished with a ruby shellac. Feels great and looks really nice.

The stainless steel frets sound much too bright and feel too slippery for my tastes. Not much I can do about this but I will mention the Warmoth fret job was probably one of the best I've ever seen on a bass.

Neck initially had a white corian nut which was fine. Aesthetics and the fact I liked using a graphtech nut on my other bass I went ahead and got a black tusk graphtech nut for it.

I'm sure there are more but the last I can think of: The sperzel locking tuners seemed to "slip" and not hold strings. It's cool how fast you can change strings with them but when they slip out of tune all the time it kind of defeats the purpose. Those have been replaced with some good ol' Gotohs.

[john grey]

I learned the hard way that my full sized router was a beast for many of the jobs that I just needed a small area (either) cleaned up or a new section formed.

What I found was that many of the bits fit into inexpensive "grout-routers" and allowed me to get in very close and work on a very small scale. Flex-shaft devices work well for some things but it becomes a matter of what bits and what chuck I can find to make that flex shaft much more manageable.

With the advent of newer laser levels and squares, a great many things no longer require a bubble-type level of a large clumsy square to get my joints clean. Plus they have gone way down on price.

The bass looks nice to me. I like that "raw wood" look.
On occasion if you ask.... "Mom & Pop" guitar places will sell off singular neck(s) and bodies. Occasionally this can be a gold mine IF you have one in your neighborhood that's willing to deal & wants to clean house.

[Gopher Bob]

Hopefully the stainless steel frets will not be as much of a bother as I remember them to be. I learned the tough way why you do not see many instruments using stainless frets. The only nice thing is that they will probably outlast me.

[john grey]

Are you sure they're pure SS ? If it has a very high percentage of nickel (like 18%) it will also be seriously tough. The place below is a good source. If you ever have to pull a fret due to a seriously nasty problem, you might get close to a match with it.
I use this chart:

Fretwire chart

Which I made a PDF of because it has decent info. You can see that pure SS is not common. Although, a great many mfg contractors use "non-commercial" wire. Nickel doesn't oxidize easily but when it does it gets a very slight green patina, often in the edges next to the board.

[Gopher Bob]

I believe it was advertised as dunlop brand stainless steel around 2004/2005

[john grey]

I take it that it's all wired up and ready. Have you played it? How does it sound? - Nice photos BTW. Almost seems like a macro lens. I wish more folks would put up pics of their stuff; even in a casual discussion it helps to know what the other guy is seeing.

[Gopher Bob]

Haven't tried it out yet. I'm going to wait until its completely finished. Yes that last close up was the auto macro setting on my inexpensive canon camera.

[darkstorm]

I see you use bc rich eagle body shape minus the front forarm cut. Looks nice with the wood finish.