5 string fretless showcase-buildoff; Signature 2

Musiclogic · #1 01-10-2011, 01:07 AM

Hello All,

This is my entry into the 5 string fretless showcase/buildoff. In comparison to some of the other guys, this will be quite tame and rather plain. As this is a customer build, I have very little say in what goes into this instrument.

I am just putting forth what has been requested for this bass. Hope it brings some interest or maybe an idea or two for someone else. This is going to be fun.

Specs so far: 35" scale 5 string fretless
Neck through
Walnut body with 5/8" wenge top
Padauk Neck, curly maple stringers, ebony accents(maybe)
Birdseye/curly Fingerboard
ABM or handmade wood bridge(piezo)
Bartolini or Custom Wound pick-ups w/wood covers
Tuners will be of the compact variety, still undecided
FB will accomodate at least 2 octaves, possibly 26/27 positions
Custom Active Module with a Highlander piezo if handmade bridge.

The design is my Signature 2 model, a modification of my original design from 1984, and a mainstay in my shop.

The woods chosen by the customer are walnut for the body core, and wenge for the top.

The customer asked for the most swirly Wenge I had, but a bookmatch wasn't needed, he just wanted the wild grain, this is what I had.

For the neck he wanted to try a Padauk neck with curly maple stringers and a birdseye fingerboard. This is what was chosen(note; the birdseye has decent medium large birdseyes, but very nice curl also,(pic 4) which made it the choice for this build)

So these are the basic woods, we are still deciding if he wants a complete top, or neck showing, still a lot up in the air, but enough known for me to get started. Let's see what happens

Beauchene Implements · #2 01-10-2011, 05:58 AM

I like that design, very balanced and elegant. I bet it will look stellar in wenge!

Are you deciding between handmade or ABM bridge? I vote handmade...

miziomix · #3 01-10-2011, 06:55 AM

nice design! very slick

interesting woods combination too. Handmade bridge pleeeassss? which wood are you thinking of using for p-ups covers?
hardware color? methinks black would be nice, maybe black/gold...........

mike phillips · #4 01-10-2011, 08:09 AM

nice. cant wait to see this completed.

Musiclogic · #5 01-10-2011, 08:13 AM

The bridge as with everything on this is upto Eddie, he's the final word. The covers will match the top, so if he chooses an exposed neck, they will match, if he goes with a full top, the covers will be wenge, unless he talks me into making the bridge, then it will probably end up with the bridge and covers being contrasting compliments. Hardware is still up in the air. He has gone Gold or chrome on the other 3 I have built for him.

Musiclogic · #6 01-10-2011, 01:13 PM

Everything changes, and this one is no different. With a nudge from pilotjones, this thing is gouing to be a complete test of my ability to adapt to things I generally avoid doing.

Musiclogic · #7 01-31-2011, 02:18 PM

There are times, you just wish things could remain simple, this build has become one of those times. So anyway, onto the woodworks as it is.

The concept changed from a simple wenge topped walnut body with Padauk and Curly Maple neck through to a solid Transition top with a walnut body, hidden neck, and a custom bridge. Hopefully this actually happens, as time is getting short.

I start with joining my pieces before cutting to size, this gives me a good square edge to cut my pieces for laminates, and keep the size equal and pieces square. This makes getting a nice square clamping a LOT easier.

next is to the Table saw where the pieces are cut to size for making the neck blank

After checking pieces for size and square I swap tablesaw for bandsaw to resaw strips for neck lams. Doing Purpleheart here for another neck build, but also did the maple for this neck.

Once cut into strips, I ran all of my pieces through my thickness sander to get uniform thicknesses for this neck. After sanding, the 3 pieces of maple and 4 pieces of Padauk are gathered with 4 walnut veneers and glued into an 11 piece sandwich, with the walnut veneers lining the inner 2 Padauk lams. And clamps applied.

Next installment we get to some top work

Musiclogic · #8 01-31-2011, 02:44 PM

Well, after a little wrangling, the neck blank was run through the joiner and surface planer a few times, and by golly, it looks pretty darn nice...LOL

a little closer look at the 11 piece lam(walnut blends well, but will pop a bit after finish)

Now it's into foreign territory for me...doing a Transition top with 2 different woods...and I do not have a CNC to make the templates. I'll save the gorey details, but after a few whirls, I made a set of templates that fit pretty well, so it was on to wood selection.
Wenge was definately 1, and we mulled over Padauk, Purpleheart, Bacote, Cocobolo, and we ended up with Zebrawood. 1 problem, I only had 1 bookmatched set of Zebrawood and it wasn't near wide enough for the other half. I call both my wood brokers, and 2 regular sellers I buy from, and no 9" wide shorts available, and I do not buy 9" wide topwoods, too much waste. So he asked me to try joining up some scrap pieces I had to make a decent looking piece, and it seemed like an idea.(not like it was going to become anything other than knobs) so I joined and clamped 4 pieces of 2.5" wide zebrawood to try to make a board.

Ended up looking okay, so I decided to sand it out and start the Trans top.

and cut the Wenge and Zebrawood board out on the bandsaw to get a look.

Looked pretty cool to me, so I decided to get the templates out and give it a go. Trued em up with the Template set, and clamped em together, keeping my fingers crossed.

I was really hoping for a decent result and after gluing, I took the pieces back to the thickness sander to see if it was worth the time.

Yeah, I like it, 2 of my favorite woods to make an odd top....hehehehe check out the seam, or should I say "No glue line Ma"...LOL

and

so this is where the circus ends for today, hopefully I'll get back to it in another day or two, work is backing up, and I need to keep some people happy.

roberthabraken · #9 01-31-2011, 02:52 PM

Very nice combination of woods indeed, I like that melted design. They fit really nice into each other. How did you make those templates so that they are seamless?

Musiclogic · #10 01-31-2011, 02:58 PM

The templates have some slight gaps(should post a pic), but not enough that proper sanding wouldn't alleviate it. I made them using my small bandsaw and my spindle sander, and a bit of hand sanding to get them close, I knew I could block sand the edges to a tight fit, with some cautious work and a bit of luck.

Phil Mastro · #11 02-01-2011, 08:14 AM

I'm glad to see that this is "rather plain". Maybe I should have built something a bit more exotic for the buildoff...

Anyway, I really like zebrawood and wenge together. I dunno why, I always put them in the same bag. Can't wait to see the body cut to shape.

RedLeg · #12 02-01-2011, 08:16 AM

zebrano and wenge are such a nice combo

Musiclogic · #13 02-01-2011, 08:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phil Mastro

I'm glad to see that this is "rather plain". Maybe I should have built something a bit more exotic for the buildoff...

You can thank TB'er Pilotjones for that Phil...his post in wood bridges with all of the multi-wood tops and wood bridges gave my customer ideas after it was originally planned, thanks "Pete"...LOL

Quote:

Anyway, I really like zebrawood and wenge together. I dunno walways put them in the same bag. Can't wait to see the body cut to shape.

Hopefully nothing else changes...LOL

Beauchene Implements · #14 02-01-2011, 09:38 AM

Wow, that top is hawt. I like the mainly padauk neck, too.

Musiclogic · #15 02-01-2011, 09:54 AM

Thanks Adam, this has become a exotic wood sample pack...LOL
Padauk is one of my favorite woods to work with, and the purpleish red it darkens to with age is just beautiful.

mike phillips · #16 02-01-2011, 03:08 PM

that is B-U-T-FULL. nice work.

pilotjones · #17 02-01-2011, 03:45 PM

Yes, I definitely like that padauk and curly maple in the neck...LOL
Looks great with the walnut dividers.

miziomix · #18 02-01-2011, 06:01 PM

Who needs CNC?

Very, very nice!

Drake Custom · #19 02-01-2011, 07:40 PM

Nice build so far. I use a lot of Wenge/ Padauk/ Maple/Zebrawood combos but I always have issues with the finishing. The Padauk dust/color gets into everything so I swore that I would never put Maple or Zebra next to Padauk again as I always have to deal with pink Maple after sanding. Got any suggestions? I have masked off the maple and sanded it seperately before with good results but how are you going to do the thin stringers in your neck? Mostly I do as in the pictures of this 8 string tapper I did. I put the Wenge in to leave the Padauk away from the Maple. I still had some orange pink stains on the Maple during the finishing stage. I had to scrape and refinsh my stringers. Any tips? If you look close enough you can still tell where the pink was.

Musiclogic · #20 02-01-2011, 09:04 PM

I have found a diluted lacquer treatment to the maple after scraping will keep the maple clean , then sealing the complete padauk/maple area with 2 or 3 coats will allow for a clean finish sanding before resealing. It's all experimentation, I usually do not pair maple and Padauk, I try to stay with darker woods like Purpleheart, wenge, katalox, nogal etc to avoid the traveling color....LOL
Thanks to all for the positive feedback, keeping fingers crossed to avoid any disaster on this build...LOL