progress: top & neck glued

[Don Harris]

Here's the latest pics. Going to fit the trim pieces next to the neck heel tomorrow (don't know what you call 'em). I tuned the bassbar following Traeger's instructions (tap, tap..., tap, tap...,).

[Don Harris]

Here's glueing the bassbar. I propped up my graduating cradle on 2x4s and put sand bags in the hole to support the top arch. Worked great. My wife made the label to match the button purfling design on the back. I really like how it turned out. It's all archival inks and paper, so 200 years from now hopefully someone will be able to read it. That's a really weird thought...

[Darren Molnar]

Very, very, very nice Don.

How are you feeling now that all the major shaping ,carving, bending stuff is done?

I'm about a month away, i think, from that stage.

How high are you're ribs? I havn't decided on a final height yet.

[Don Harris]

Thank you. I have an amazing sense of satisfaction and accomplishment at this point. It's hard to believe how much work and how many little details go into a project like this. It's been a good exercise in patience and persistance. The thing I'm most happy about is that I've learned so many new skills over the last six months. From sharpening to handling hand planes and chisels, to "seeing" in three dimensions and being able to create and manipulate shapes in wood. I tell my wife almost every day how grateful I am to be able to follow through on something I've dreamed about for years. Sounds kind of gushy, but it's a big deal for me.

The rib heights are 179mm at the neck and 215mm at the saddle. The plans called for 175 at the neck, but I left extra for fitting and ended up keeping it. I do remember some threads where Ken Smith was talking about deep ribs don't always equal deep tone. That some of his deepest sounding basses have a fairly shallow rib height. Just for reference, some of the Chandler plans rib heights are:

Amati: neck-156, bend-209, saddle-227
Lott: neck-159, bend-225, saddle-236
Panormo: neck-122, bend-219, saddle-222
My Jakstadt is: neck-163, saddle-220

Hope this helps. I'm excited to see yours take shape.

[Greg Clinkingbeard]

Don,
I have been extremely proud to watch your progress and look forward to seeing your finished bass. You struck me as a very detailed person 25 years ago when we first met. Through mutual friends I understand nothing has changed.

Your constant updates on this project are great, but would you consider putting together some sort of guideline regarding a budget for making a bass? Certainly, the first one would be the most expensive due to system development and tool acquisition, but I have been curious.

I have a dream of following in your footsteps at some point, but don't really know how feasible it is.

[Don Harris]

Hey Clink, I'd be happy to think through the budget for you. I'll do it in several posts though. I got off pretty cheaply on the wood. The sitka top was $110, the board that the ribs were cut from was $50 (both from Orcas Island Tonewood), and the back came off Ebay for about $130. The wood for the neck was a $50 board from Orcas also (the same as the ribs, only 2" thick, therefore the lamination), with $45 or so for the bubinga stripe down the middle (enough for a couple more). People would say that compared to your time in it, the money spent on nice wood would be nothing, but to me, I didn't want to be intimidated by nice, hard to replace wood my first time out. All the clamps, jigs and templates were a constant nickel and dime situation. My wallet was always crammed full of Lowes reciepts. I went into it with very few power tools, just a power miter box and a saber saw, scroll saw and electric hand drill. I bought a few nice hand planes at Woodcraft (I took a hand plane class which was a perfect start, spent a few hundred on a good jointer plane, a #4, a low angle block plane and a scrub plane. I bought a drill press for making the spool clamps, a set of nice chisels ($65), just one gouge ($40, not sure how I got by with just one size), a dozuki saw ($16). Believe it or not, I didn't have a band saw. I developed a good relationship with a wood shop it town and had them do some ripping, power planing and band sawing. Another guitar building shop in town did my resawing for the ribs and then the thickness sanding. I was holding out to make sure this bass was a good experience before diving in with a bunch more power equipment. So in the spring I'll probably buy a table saw, big band saw, maybe a drum sander, a jointer, and a spindle sander might be nice. I figure I'll sell off a couple or three guitars to pay for the tools. There were times when I thought that this is just too much work and that it seemed endless. But now that I'm wrapping it up, I'm psyched to do it again, and to try to improve on a few things. Of course if the bass sounds awful, then I might have a different slant on things.

I hope this is what you were looking for. I'll give it some more thought.

[Greg Clinkingbeard]

Originally Posted by Don Harris

Of course if the bass sounds awful, then I might have a different slant on things.

I don't care who you are, That's funny.
The bass is going to be a great one.

You have just given me a lot of encouragement.
I've already got quite a few power tools and have some experience making nice furniture, so it may not be too much of a stretch for me to do it. What I don't have right now is time or a suitable space.
Can't wait to see the finished bass.

[Don Harris]

<<What I don't have right now is time or a suitable space.>>

We've got a full basement, but it's so full of stuff that I didn't want to think about trying to set up shop down there. So my space was in the garage with 3-ply MDF on top of a Black and Decker Work Mate portable bench. As things progressed I added a graduation cradle on a couple plastic saw horses. What I'm saying is that I did this bass in an incredibly small space. Now time. That's a whole 'nuther issue. I was able to devote a lot of time to this, and I think it would have made me crazy to only have an hour here or there to work on it.