2nd Build - The Falcon
 

The Stats:

32" Scale 22-fret 4-string neck-through
9pc. Wenge and Mahogany neck w/maple veneer accents
Flame Maple body wing core
Walnut top
Bubinga back
Flame maple toneblock
Fingerboard undecided.
All black hardware:
Hipshot Ultralite tuners
Hipshot "D" 2-piece bridge
Exposed blade pickups, ala Joe Barden, possibly Lace.
Pre undecided, most likely will be Vol, Blend, T, M, B. Again open to suggestions.

Obligitory Wood Shots:


8" wide 4/4 Flame Maple. The whole board is just as nice.


Family shot. Back row: Mahogany, Wenge, FM. Front Row: Bubinga




Bubinga. This was going to be the top way back when I was going to have the neck show.


The Design:



The bass will be heavily carved both on the body and the headstock. I've named it The Falcon because the cut on the end of the headstock reminds me of a raptor's beak.

I'm still refining some things. The carve on the lower horn is not quite right. It should be the same width on both sides. I'm also trying to decide if where the carvings meet the neck should be parallel like in the lower horn or converge on the neck like in the upper horn.

It is not represented here, but the body will have 2 accent veneers. It will go flame maple core, black veneer, flame maple veneer, walnut top. The headstock will have a walnut veneer to match the body. I would like to do a matching bubinga veneer on the back, but I'm not sure I will have enough left over after cutting the wings.

The bass has been through a lot of revisions and tweaking. As you can see it's pretty ambitious for a second build. As a comparison, here's the original drawing. I will rework this into a short scale piccolo bass.




Thanks everyone. I'm intending this build thread to be detailed with lots of pictures. Including the mistakes. There may be an adult beverage shot (or two). But I can't start yet.

My hair is, ahem, not ready... :o

I think many people will be interested in the scene of the crime, so next post will be about the shop where I work and the tools I will be using to perpetrate my wood butchery... :D

Looking cool man, I prefer having angled machine heads on a paddle headstocks, but that's just me.

Well, the angle of the dangle, like a lot of things on this build, is not yet set in stone...

This should look really cool. I love the headstock shape and the falcon inspiration. The wood combination sounds great. I think the inlays being ovals like that will look really nice too, not sure if you did that on purpose in the drawing or if it's supposed to be normal dots.

I put a little bit of a carve on my headstock and I was cautioned to not do too much because of the tuner placement. I think you basically need to have the tuners sitting there while you're planning out how far to carve to make sure you don't go too far.

Your design looks very well balanced and dynamic. That maple board is stunning. Subbed!

That looks very nice.

I could never do that design, though, because I'd snap off that point on the bottom within a week.

I am a little worried about the point on the bottom. I plan on doing a test piece to see just how bad it will be. I figure if Alembic can have those pointy things on the Series II I can probably make it work. I'm pretty easy on my gear also.

lbride: yes the ovals are intentional. Not sure what they will be at this point though. I'm leaning to paua abalone. I think the tuners are well enough inland from the carve that I won't have any problem. I'm hoping next week to do a section on the body and the headstock just to see where exactly things will fall.

Awesome, can't wait to see it.

Your first build is tight!

I think I've worked out their strategy for preserving delicate features -- charge ten grand for the bass, and the customer will baby it as if it were made of glass!

Good point PJ. Though, unlike some people, I'm pretty sure I don't do "Alembic quality"... :P

Chuck: Thanks man. I'd be honored for your beard to shred a gnarly solo on it!

Ok. Shop time.

I'm an electrician (also known as "lighting guy") at Arena Stage in Washington DC. I hang and focus lights, program the lighting console and run the board during the shows. Conventionals, moving lights, practicals, fog, LED's, basically anything that gets plugged in. People are always asking me to re-wire houses, install ceiling fans, 220v outlets, etc. I CAN do it, but I'm not that kind of electrician. We have also been referred to as "squinty-eyed, no-good sparkers".

I recently did this Janis Joplin show last year. Full on Rock and Roll rig:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ww4JubD2MRM

So I have access to the shop. It's pretty big. It has to be. They build large sets in there. There is no fine woodworking going on here. Every thing is pine, MDF, plywood, plexiglass and steel. We used to use a lot of 5/4 clear pine, but not so much anymore these days. Almost everything is put together with drywall screws for easy dismantling. There is a reason we call them "wood butchers". :D

Sorry for the crappy cel phone pics, my camera doesn't want to play right now.


Steel area.



Drill Press/Mill, Cold Saw, Stock Storage.



One of 2 table saws. Crosscut saw in the background. You an see the dust collection here also.



Yes, we have some clamps. This is about half of them. We also have pipe clamps up to 15'



Dadoe saw. I used this to thickness a headstock once. Leaves grooves that have to be sanded out though.



Wire rope/aircraft cable area. Drawers are full of Nicopress for the various sizes of cable we use.



One of our newer toys. Kreg router table. No lift though. :crying: It has one of the bigger Porter-Cable routers in it.



Hardware. Mostly different kinds of bolts, nuts, washers. The smaller drawers on the left are all brads and nails for the pneumatic nailers. The blue box with the cylinder on it is a hydraulic pump.


Tool room left side
















Tool Room right side



Screw gun anyone?



Angle grinders, Jig Saws, router bits, etc.



Brad guns. We likey



Routers big and small. This is not even all of them. All P-C.



Under the routers we have sanders.



Various things in cases. Sawzalls, portable bandsaws, etc. I don't think I've even opened some of them.



Another new toy. Laguna 18" bandsaw. Now we just need a resaw blade, but I'll most likely have to buy it myself. In the background you can just see part of one of the 2 dust collection units, and a bunch of risers for one of the sets we just pulled out.


I know this is a really crappy picture of the paint room, but it gives you an idea of the size. Those are 4X8 sheets drying. The black square in the back is the spray booth.


And the aforementioned spray booth.

That's it for now. I did not get pics of a lot of the machines. We just got done building 2 shows back to back and everything is all over the place. These pics are from a while back when things were relatively clean...

Next post I'll have pics of the machines, remnants of a dead set, and hopefully I will start on the neck blank.

Wow, that is a crazy workshop.

Looks cool man, can't wait to see you start.

Great looking workshop and your drawing is fantastic.

SAWDUST!

Got the neck blank ripped and glued up. Unfortunately my camera still won't give up any pics, so I can't post pics of the glue/clamp up. I had to use the cel phone. Hopefully I can get this cleared up soon and will post those later.



Surfacing on the drum sander.





9 pc. Wenge/Maple/Mahogany. It looks like it curves at the far end, but it's just my crappy cel phone.





Close up. The Wenge is a lot darker in person.




More to come.

Oooh, pretty

Now that I look at it, if I had it to do over, I would put a thin black veneer between the maple and the mahogany.

I now have a terminal case of shop envy!