5 string neck-thru build

[bassmanhamilton]

I'm building this for my son, we are actually working on it together. So far a great project. Here are the specs.
35" scale,
Nordstrand Big Split pickups
Aguilar OBP-3 preamp
Hipshot brass bridge (black)
Plan to run the B, and E string through the body
Hipshot ultralight tuners
Corian nut?
zero fret
Neck-thru made of Maple/Wenge stringer/Maple stringer/Rosewood/Maple stringer/Wenge stringer/Maple
Rosewood fingerboard 24 fret
Body is Ash core with Walnut Crotch top and back, all book matched
I plan on turning walnut knobs

We have most everything glued up.
Today we routed the neck for the trussrod and graphite rods.
Here's a picture to give an idea.

[UncleBalsamic]

That's some lovely looking walnut, your son's very lucky

[asad137]

Originally Posted by bassmanhamilton

Corian nut?
zero fret

Looks good. But I wonder if the nut material makes much of a difference when you have a zero fret. I'm no luthier (nor even close), but I would just go with whatever is easiest to work with.

Asad

[eleonn]

Nice... I like the neck and I just love every crotch walnut pieces I've seen and this is no exception to that rule!

[bassmanhamilton]

Thanks guys.
I got the walnut tree off of a creek bank at a local farm. It has been air drying for several years now.
We used four cuts from the same crotch for the front and back.
We had a couple of nicely figured pieces that blew up in the planer. What a shame.

[bassmanhamilton]

Does most everyone use epoxy to set graphite neck rods?
Also, I am planning to use LMI's dual adjustable truss rod. Anyone have any experience with these?

[stevetx19]

Ive used the lmii truss rods a few times, and i really like them. They seem to be well made, and they work great once installed. These are by far the best rods ive used, but ive only made a handful of basses.

sounds like you son is gonna have a slammin bass; good luck with the build.

[grace & groove]

You've got to tell me how those electronics are when you're done with this! I was just discussing with a very experienced player yesterday about what electronics I should get to achieve the tone I was describing to him, and he said Nordstrand Big Splits and an Aguilar OBP-3.

[wilser]

beautiful design! can't wait to see it all put together.

[bassmanhamilton]

Thanks for the input guys. I will post some sound files when we get finished.

[bassmanhamilton]

I will be glueing on the fretboard this weekend and after that I plan on cutting the taper of the neck.
I plan on using a 1/2 straight cutting bit in my router, with the router riding in a guide to set the taper. After which I would like to use my shaper or router table to cut the shape of the neck (at least rough cut it). I have a couple of shaper bits with different elliptical profiles that come close to fitting the profile of a neck.

Does anyone go at it this way?
If so, any suggestion of bits?

[bassmanhamilton]

Today we got the taper routed on the neck, relief cut on the body and the fingerboard set. We had a good day!
I decided to run the taper on the neck prior to glueing the fingerboard. Then come back and route the fingerboard with a bearing guided straight cutting bit once it is set.
I also used my joiner to run the relief on the body portion of the neck, just up to the point that the fingerboard will end.

Here are a few pics of the progress.

[Phil Mailloux]

That's a pretty good idea to slice a block of wood in the length to use as a caul when gluing the fingerboard to the neck. I'll have to steal your idea.

[eleonn]

It seems to me that you havent tapper the whole neck but just from the end of the body to the nut or it is the angle at what the pic was taken?

[bassmanhamilton]

Originally Posted by eleonn

It seems to me that you havent tapper the whole neck but just from the end of the body to the nut or it is the angle at what the pic was taken?

You are right. The taper runs to the point that the body will join the neck.
This was an oversight of mine early on. After joining the neck I didn't have enough width left to run the taper through the body.

[bassmanhamilton]

Trimmed the fingerboard today. Things are starting to take shape. Here's a couple of pictures with the body wings set in place.

[dorian965]

lookin good man!

[pilotjones]

Looking good indeed.

[bassmanhamilton]

Originally Posted by dorian965

lookin good man!

Thanks Dorian, I planning on installing the frets and starting the neck shaping this week. Should be fun.
Joe

[bassmanhamilton]

We made a little progress this week. First off we shaped the belly cut and the forearm cut. Forearm cut I used a couple of different rasps and sanding blocks. The belly cut I used a spindle sander and some finish up hand work.



We used a drill press to drill for the tuners, 2 up and 3 down.


We rough shaped the neck with a band saw and ran it partially on the shaper. I have a handrail profile cutter for the shaper that will get me pretty close to the final profile. When I started to set it up I realized that the headstock profile was going to hold me off of the fence, so I'll have get a collar to go under the cutter for the neck to ride against.


Lastly, we leveled the fret board. I didn't have the steel tubing that stewmac sells so I ran a 1"x3"x20" piece of Ipe on the joiner, beveled the ends slightly and stuck adhesive sand paper to the joined edge. It worked out pretty good.