Noob builder gets inspred by TB/LC, hilarity ensues...

MarkL · #1 04-11-2011, 11:23 PM

So I am not a bass builder. I'm a metalsmith (jewelry) by trade. I have been playing bass for fun for 25 years or so (was almost semi-serious as an early twenty-something, though weren't we all). Back the 80's, I worked at a music instrument importer and I managed to talk one of the principals of the Headway Company in Japan (Kei Yatsuzuka) to send me some thru necks. They made some pretty excellent quality basses and guitars back then, I still own one of their Riverhead "Unicorn" headless basses (love it, btw).

I remember the necks came in a shipment of guitars and were marked as "repair parts" valued at ¥2,000 each (which in 1985 if I'm remembering right worked out to around $9.00 each!!! Seriously!)

Anyway, I had this insane plan to make a double-necked bass, one fretted and one fretless. I had this norwegian cabinet maker (I can't remember his name at all, but will never forget his huge Viking style mustache that he could have very easily braided) make me the body wings per some drawing I had made. You can tell I was hugely inspired by one of Mark King's Status basses. I had him make the body out of rock maple and he asked if he could put a "nice veneer" he had on the top I think he told me it was padouk?

As luck would have it, I never got around to completing the project. I consider it lucky because, let's face it, a double neck fretless/fretted is just dumb, he-heh. Fast forward to this year when I stumbled across the Luthier's Corner here at TB and read in awe all the spectacular builds you guys post here and got motivated to resurrect this old project.

As mentioned I have no real woodworking tools, just a few things most normal homeowners have lying around in the garage. I do have quite a huge array of jeweler's tools, but besides the foredom (flexshaft rotary tool) I haven't found much use for most of them yet. I do have plans for some neat custom etched parts, but those will come later...

I doubt very much any here will learn much about bass building from this thred, and I kinda feel like I'm cheating a bit on this because I haven't made any of the wood parts myself. I'll be making the body myself on the fretted one, still wont feel like it's mostly me until I make my own neck. That'll have to wait for a bunch of new tools and a little more free time. No doubt from time to time any actual luthiers who skim through this thread will gasp out loud at my keystone-cops woodworking skills, he-heh Who knows though, right? Maybe other lurking noobs will get inspired by my floundering around in amateurville to try something fun, too :-)

I am starting with the fretless for a couple of reasons:

1) I haven't actually played a fretless in 20 years and so won't be too discouraged if it's a disaster. Not expecting to play it a whole lot anyway.
2) I have a much cooler body-shape in mind for the fretted one (more Ric inspired, but curvier).
3) It seemed that it'd be easier to make :-)

MarkL · #2 04-11-2011, 11:26 PM

Wings being glued to the necks. I read too late a tip in one of the other build threads on here about using small dowels to line up the body parts with the neck. Luckily I managed to wrangle them into perfect position before letting them sit overnight.

The neck blank stuck out a bit at the end of the bass so I went after it with the only thing I could think of: a sanding block with 80 grit paper...

20 minutes or so later it's almost there. I know there are probably a hundred other better ways to do this with any number of machines, but I tend to do all my metalsmithing old-school as well. Besides my foredom and my tumbler, I don't really have any other powered tools (torches don't count! lol).

Worked a bit with more 80 grit sandpaper to round out and "blend" where the wings meet the neck at the business end.

MarkL · #3 04-11-2011, 11:31 PM

After measuring and drawing the placement of the bridge and pickups, I started removing material from the pickup cavities the best way I could figure out. I took out the biggest drill bit I had (think it was 3/8") and started putting holes in the front (cue luthiers' gasps, chickles, and facepalms). Ended up with this:

Bleh! After almost an hour with a chisel and a cutting burr mounted to my flexshaft, it looked a little better. Going to be making some pretty etched brass frames to go around the outer edge of the cavities to hide that ugly, ugly work:

After a quick trip to Home Depot to buy a forstner bit I started the second cavity by carefully slicing into the wood with a razor...

Way easier with this bit to get perfect depth holes with lots of wood taken out cleanly! Will chisel out the rest tomorrow and then get to work on the electronics cavity...

I promise it'll get more interesting when I get into the hardware and stuff, I'm WAAAAY more comfortable making metal pretty than wood. Have some cool plans for the cavity cover, truss rod cover, logo, etc...

ehque · #4 04-12-2011, 12:28 AM

If you're a metalworker, perhaps this thread can give you some ideas for your other neck.

vintage65 2011 TDPRI Build Challenge Thread - Telecaster Guitar Forum

Ottsworth · #5 04-12-2011, 02:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ehque

If you're a metalworker, perhaps this thread can give you some ideas for your other neck.

vintage65 2011 TDPRI Build Challenge Thread - Telecaster Guitar Forum

That guitar looks @#~£$ing epic!!!

No real contribution to the thread at all, but I felt a need to express my awe!!!

MarkL · #6 04-12-2011, 10:47 AM

That is VERY cool! Though my metal skills usually are confined to relatively tiny, sparkly things that make girls go "oooh, want that!" He-heh...

One thing about that steel Tele that makes me a little nervous is that I didn't see any bracing at all behind the front. I'll defer to the steel mastery this guy clearly has, and I only ever work in softer metals (silver, brass, copper, gold, etc...) but 1mm is only around 18 gauge. Probably more than thick enough in steel, but I'd worry about string tension and the front warping in anything else. He even mentions that while forming the sides, the metal pretty much "bends if you look at it". If you look in the picture you posted you can see a little bit of a "bulge" in the front, dunno if that was planned or just serendipity (or my paranoia, lol). Really neat piece though :-)

Anomalous Bass · #7 04-12-2011, 02:47 PM

Steel is an odd choice, most go with aluminum for things like that. I know id love to do that but i dont havethe means.

Anyway, nice build so far.

BassCycle · #8 04-12-2011, 04:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MarkL

. . . Anyway, I had this insane plan to make a double-necked bass, one fretted and one fretless . . .

. . . As luck would have it, I never got around to completing the project. I consider it lucky because, let's face it, a double neck fretless/fretted is just dumb, he-heh . . .

Yeah, it's dumb, but I just had to try it.

MarkL · #9 04-12-2011, 10:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BassCycle

Yeah, it's dumb, but I just had to try it.

Ha! That's gorgeous! I still can't think of an instance where I'd need to have both fretted and fretless instantly available to me aside from some gimicky song I'd write just to have an excuse to use one, he-heh. Plus yours are 6 strings so that adds instant credibility despite how outré the concept is

knucklehead G · #10 04-12-2011, 10:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MarkL

I consider it lucky because, let's face it, a double neck fretless/fretted is just dumb, he-heh.

I disagree.

Ouch!!!
Show us your Double Neck Bass
DOUBLENECK FEST 2010!
Doublenecks

MarkL · #11 04-12-2011, 11:47 PM

Hrm... alright, just went through all those double-neck threads. Maybe "dumb" isn't the appropriate word. I appreciate all the double-neck lovers out there, but outside a bass/guitar pairing they still seem a little too "niche" for me personally.

MarkL · #12 04-13-2011, 01:21 PM

Finished up some work on the control cavity last night. Decided that for someone with no power tools besides a cordless drill, the forstner bit is the best thing ever invented! After cutting out most of it like this, I just had a little work to clean and even out the edges with a chisel:

I've been wanting to do this ever since I bought this crazy long drill bit last week. The bridge pup cavity was close enough that I could start right at the bottom corner and get inside the control cavity with plenty of "angle" to spare.

The neck cavity was too far away to start at the bottom corner and get a low enough angle to make it all the way to the control cavity without coming out the back somewhere short or trashing the top so I opted to start a little higher up in the cavity and carve out space for the wires to come up from the bottom of the pup later. No idea if this is a "don't do that!" thing, but it seemed to make sense to me...

After getting that all cleaned up I popped the pickups in to see if the wires behaved as I'd hoped (they did) and got a little carried away checking out if all the other hardware would come together as easily (it did). Yes, I know, it's the much maligned gold hardware. Well, too bad! I like it. Going for an amber color for the finish and I like how it'll all come together. But don't worry, I have black hardware for the fretted one, he-heh...

Please feel free to tell me everything I'm doing that I'm going to regret later. In my experience in jewelry/metalsmithing there's very rarely a "right" way or "wrong" way to do most things. Seems like however you manage to make the material work comfortably for you to a satisfactory end is the way you should be doing it. Having said that, I am sure there are still better ways to be doing most of what I am given the limited resources (tools mostly) available.

Going to get all the hardware off and give it a good sanding so I can get started on the finish and the REALLY fun stuff (pickup borders, truss rod cover, logo, nut, etc.)

BassCycle · #13 04-13-2011, 01:43 PM

Looks pretty neat so far! I still think you should have went with a doubleneck.

ehque · #14 04-14-2011, 06:29 AM

From what other builders have posted, I think most people drill from the neck pocket to the bridge pocket and route the wiring through there.

MarkL · #15 04-15-2011, 07:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ehque

From what other builders have posted, I think most people drill from the neck pocket to the bridge pocket and route the wiring through there.

Oh hey! that would have made it easier, lol... Will keep that in mind for the next one - thanks!

Speaking of, here's my photoshop drawing of the fretted one. Started with the top wing from one of those Skjold slayer basses because whenever I tried to draw something Ric4001-ish, but curvier it comes out looking more or less like that so with a few tweaks to the top wing and a completely original bottom wing it's just about the shape I'd make if I we're making my own - oh wait! He-heh...
Black hardware, flame maple top (and back) with something dark in between, and the same Seymour Duncan passive soapbars as in the fretless.

I just love love love this shape. Probably not everyone's cup of tea, but gorgeous to me. Going to go with a brass disk with this design etched into it for the logo:

And this for the pick-up borders (also etched in brass):

Probably not going to go with square fretboard inlays like the picture but with "shark-tooth" style diagonal ones similar to a Ric.

pilotjones · #16 04-15-2011, 11:12 PM

That's an attractive design, I like it. As you've shown it, though, there's a lot of acreage beyond the bridge to the bottom of the body, which would tend to make the whole bass sit to the left while hanging, likely to increase neck dive and to make for an uncomfortable reach to the first fret.

MarkL · #17 08-10-2011, 01:29 PM

So I've been super busy this summer and haven't spent as much time messing around with this project as I'd have liked, but I did get a chance to finish it.

Used minwax wipe-on poly clear gloss on the whole bass, even the fretboard (I'll be using flats so it should last a bit before I need to refinish it if ever). I just used a stain cloth (bag of 100 or so for $4 at Lowes and followed the directions on the can. Let it dry 3 or more hours between coats, wetsanding after every 3 or 4 applications.

I took down my wife's punching bag and used the chains to hang it up while I finished it:

Was surprised that after only three applications it was starting to look like a finish!

Ended up doing 19 coats (19!!!). I think I got a little over-zealous with one or two of my wet-sandings and found myself down to the wood at some spots between coats 6 and 9 though.

Finished it up with some excellent quality furniture wax (the kind you rub in and leave on until it dries then buff out) to get the final polish.

Shielded the cavities with that conductive adhesive copper tape from Stewmac (which seemed to work out easy-peasy). Installed the hardware, wired up the Seymour Duncan passive soapbars to the pots, etc. Had some issues with the wiring shorting out, but soon discovered that the jack (duh!) needed to be shielded from the cavity shielding and that fixed that, he-heh.

I think, considering my considerable noobishness and the complete lack of skill it turned out to not suck.

Made a little truss rod cover, etching my name in some brass sheet and polishing it up to a mirror finish (a little renaissance wax will ensure it doesn't tarnish):

And finally, the neccessary "toe-shot":

Only thing I need to do is shave down the nut a bit. The strings sit about 3/16" from the fretboard at the nut and it just seems weird, needs to be a lot lower I think.

Now the request:

I've, got a nice piece of curly maple that's around 10" x 24" and 1 3/8" thick that I need to have resawn so I wind up with two half-inch or so thick pieces. I have access to a thickness planer so that part of the equation isn't an issue. I just don't know anyone with a bandsaw that will accept so wide a billet. Is this something a local cabinet maker / woodworker / luthier would do for a customer? Where would I start looking for someone to do such a thing. I'm going to do the rest "by hand" but just need this piece resawn. Any ideas?

Hopkins · #18 08-10-2011, 02:41 PM

Thats a nice looking bass you got there man.

And yes, you could most likely get in touch with a cabinet maker that would probably help you out for a small fee.

mikeyswood · #19 08-10-2011, 03:06 PM

I believe that the capacity of my resaw is ~13"; you can pm me if you don't find anyone local.

JayGunn · #20 08-10-2011, 05:57 PM

...but, are you really going to need the glued-up top to finish out at almost 20" wide?

Of course not, so you could rip the maple down before splitting it. Say your body will be net 13 1/2" wide; you could rip the maple to about 7 1/8", then split it on a smaller bandsaw. Joint it and get about 14" to the rough top before gluing it up. Just a thought.

Of course you need to decide whether the scraps will make a headstock veneer and whether it also will be book matched. Because if you glue up the whole 20", you might get a wider useable piece from one side between the bouts.

I'm eager to see this next build.