My Fretless 5 comp entry.

Reticle · #1 12-31-2010, 10:56 AM

This was a very last minute decision after acquiring an enormous load of wood from a local mill. Since there wasn't really any time for planning, I am going to build this as a twin (more or less) of a fretless 6 I am working on at the moment. Oddly enough, my biggest issue right now is narrowing down wood choices. I've always had to visualize the wood combos in my head then buy the lumber. Actually having all of these woods right in front of me seems to have compounded my indecision and tendency to 2nd guess my choices.

Anyhow, for the thread starter I'll post some pics of the lumber I'm trying to choose from and a pic of the 6 to give an idea of the direction I want to go.

The 6

The Woods

This has "Fingerboard" written all over it.

My main choice for the body.

Beauchene Implements · #2 12-31-2010, 11:09 AM

Welcome to the fray, nice wood pile! I'm partial to walnut, but those first three on the left are a pretty striking combo. Since it's a fretless, I'd probably use that maple for the neck instead, probably wouldn't live long as a fingerboard.

Musiclogic · #3 12-31-2010, 11:22 AM

2 birdseye FB's in the same showcase...LOL. Sweeeeeeeet!!!

As a side note, I have instruments/fretless necks I have built with Birdseye and curly hard maple that have lasted more than 10 years. When coated and kept up, like any other material, it works well.

Beautiful wood, another to look forward to!!!

Beauchene Implements · #4 12-31-2010, 11:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Musiclogic

2 birdseye FB's in the same showcase...LOL. Sweeeeeeeet!!!

As a side note, I have instruments/fretless necks I have built with Birdseye and curly hard maple that have lasted more than 10 years. When coated and kept up, like any other material, it works well.

Beautiful wood, another to look forward to!!!

Good to know, ML. That will look amazing!

jmorbita · #5 12-31-2010, 12:13 PM

beautiful wood! good luck with this!

Reticle · #6 12-31-2010, 12:22 PM

Oh yea, no matter what the fingerboard ends up being made of, it will be safe under a thick coat of epoxy.

Big B. · #7 01-01-2011, 04:55 PM

Nice. Those laminates in your 6 are dead sexy. I have always had a bit of an affair with dark neck woods.

Reticle · #8 01-04-2011, 05:49 PM

First off, thanks for the comments. I really hadn't planned to document a build here until I became a lot happier with my end product, but screw it, I need something to motivate me to build more.

I finally made up my mind on the details for this one and while it will be similar in size and scale to the 6, I'm going a completely different direction with almost everything else. Here is what I am planning (for now).....

35" scale
18mm @ bridge
Undecided on the nut spacing but leaning towards 10mm ctc.
9 piece Neck through (Sapele, Maple, Purpleheart, Maple, Wenge, Maple, Purpleheart, Maple, Sapele)
Jatoba/Bubinga wings
Birdseye maple fingerboard
Hipshot A style piezo bridge
Bartolini MPB2-918 buffer
Probably a Bartolini NTMB preamp
Delano MC5 Hybrid pickup

On that note, I just got a call to go do some recording, so I'll end with some pics of the little bit I've done over that last couple of days.

Making the maple laminates.....

Neck woods.....

Jatoba for the body wings.....

Grant Bass · #9 01-04-2011, 05:57 PM

nice stuff!

kcandme · #10 01-04-2011, 08:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by barnaclebeau

Welcome to the fray, nice wood pile! I'm partial to walnut, but those first three on the left are a pretty striking combo. Since it's a fretless, I'd probably use that maple for the neck instead, probably wouldn't live long as a fingerboard.

Why wouldn't the BE Maple last as fingerboard?

I need to know cause I have one, and I like it. It has very low miles on it, so I want to keep it nice if there is some "problem" I should be aware of.

Thanks,
KC

Grant Bass · #11 01-04-2011, 10:10 PM

i dont see maple not 'lasting'
but you have to put a finish on it that can take the abuse; like epoxy; or the board will be green within a month; and i dont know personally but a regular laquerd board would prolly get munched under the strings. only an opinion.

kcandme · #12 01-05-2011, 11:29 AM

@ Grant; Thanks. It's a G&L L2500. I'll be researchin' the finish.
The neck is pretty sweet. It's made from one solid piece of BE Maple.
It's barely discernable where the cut was made for the truss rod. I'll try to post a pic.

@ Reticle; That picture of the 9 pieces clamped together is a mind blower.
What a choice of coordinating color and texture. Very Cool!

Reticle · #13 01-13-2011, 09:52 PM

Ok, it was a crazy week and a half around here but I've finally gotten back to work on this thing.

As is so often the case with Sapele, my outer neck lams didn't like being dimensioned and started to split. After scratching my head for a few, I decided to use the Bubinga in place of the Sapele. Turned out to be a pretty good match with the other lams.

With the Bubinga going to the neck, I decided to use the Birdseye Maple for the top and Wenge for the fingerboard. I've wanted a Wenge unlined fretless neck ever since playing one on a Warwick 20+ years ago. Anyhow, the body wings are going to be Jatoba back and BE Maple front with a 5mm Purpleheart laminate in the middle.

I tend to be unusually sloppy with glue-ups because of how much I love scraping dried glue off of the floor.

Most of my hardware showed up yesterday. Hopefully the rest will be here tomorrow. The final electronics setup is a Hipshot piezo bidge, a single Nordstrand DC5, a Bartolini MPB2-918 piezo buffer and Bartolini NTMB 2.4 A/P preamp.

miziomix · #14 01-14-2011, 08:26 AM

very nice!

Beauchene Implements · #15 01-14-2011, 08:41 AM

Reticle, that neck looks amazing. Those colors look like they are made for each other.

KC, didn't mean to freak anybody out about maple fingerboards, forgot that epoxy coating is de rigueur nowadays, it seems to open up a lot of options.

Reticle · #16 01-17-2011, 12:37 AM

Well, I'm still waiting for the CF strips to show up from dragonplate.com (which I ordered 3 days before everything else, that's already here.) So, I spent a while today shaping up the body wings.

ronin614 · #17 01-22-2011, 09:19 AM

Subscribed...Nice work!

Drake Custom · #18 01-24-2011, 11:38 AM

Cool shape, very cool woods. Great work. I am loving the build and will be following through until the end for sure.

Reticle · #19 01-26-2011, 12:31 AM

Thanks for the kind words guy I have been searching all day for my CF card with the pics on it but no luck yet. I went ahead and snapped a couple of pics of where it's at for now and hopefully I can find the rest of the pics tomorrow.

flowlikeocean · #20 01-26-2011, 04:28 AM

Love the shape.