Practice build: 5-string multi-scale, HD woods - Page 8

knucklehead G · #**141** 10-09-2010, 01:39 AM

http://www.boulevard.com/

You should give some of these a try. Its a local brewery, but they're huge around Kansas City.

TrevorOfDoom · #**142** 10-09-2010, 02:03 AM

seriously, why does every "First Build" or "Practice Build" thread end up a discussion of beer?

(i'm not complaining, i'm just curious.)

btw, anyone in the Austin area NEEDS to try Live Oak Brewery. everything they make is amazing, but they only sell in kegs.

pilotjones · #**143** 10-09-2010, 11:40 AM

Clamps off. The headstock rotated a couple of degrees, but that's all right because I had left extra width available, and there's an extra 1/16" yet to be machined off the fingerboard mounting surface (including HS part of the scarf). It is still tilted back at the right angle to the neck shaft, regardless of the orientation of the HS plate itself.

When I do this again, if I again do not have enough scrap room for a pin on each side of joint, then I will make the wedge blocks if needed so that I can clamp up without slippage.

pilotjones · #**144** 10-10-2010, 12:07 AM

Tonight, met up with Martin Keith to buy a truss rod from him. He's a great guy, unassuming, intelligent, practical, and has beautiful designs executed in impeccable workmanship. And he has a very nice wife, and lives in a house he built himself, in God's Country in the Hudson valley. If you ever considered buying one of his basses, don't hesitate. It is guaranteed to be a quality piece of work.

Tonight's selections (elsewhere after the visit, never drink and drive) were Ommegang Three Philosophers, and Ommegang Ommegeddon.

This second one is a fragrant funky friendly and quite functional brew. It is Bootsy back when he played for James, before the costumes.

gnarlyopossum · #**145** 10-10-2010, 10:10 AM

I just wanted to say that I love this thread. Bass building and beer tasting. It's great, as long as it's done in the right order.

pilotjones · #**146** 10-10-2010, 10:22 PM

The bass's name inspiration, Storm King Mountain. Photo from Sugarloaf Mountain on the opposite side of the Hudson River.

iamlowsound · #**147** 10-10-2010, 11:07 PM

I love how well this bass is engineered. The equal proportional gaps is brilliant. One questions though, do you have to do a compound angle scarf joint with a fanned fret, or can to do a normal one and just use a zero fret with a straight "nut"?

lowsound

pilotjones · #**148** 10-11-2010, 05:10 AM

Thanks. People have done them various ways. Using a zero fret, I would (and do) want the "nut" (string separator) to be parallel to the zero fret, so that is is evenly close to it. This would enable it to provide even side force resistance, and even break angle over the zero fret. If the separator were perpendicular to the centerline, if would be awfully far away from the zero fret on the G string.

pilotjones · #**149** 10-11-2010, 10:56 PM

Want detail? Here's a bit of detail.

The truss rod I got from Martin looks good, dimensionally nice and consistent, no bumps and bulges to file down, looks well put together. So, it's time to make a truss rod slot for it, on a practice board.

The rod is built as a flat bar over round bar, so it is best to make a slot that is rounded at the bottom. You could do a square bottom slot, but that would have a lot of stress at the corners, and more likely to split the neck. The rod is, for the main part, 1/4" wide by 3/8" deep. So, I will make a 1/4 x 1/4 slot with a plain straight router bit, then mount the 1/4 round nose bit to finish the main slot.

The rod has a bit going on in larger width and depth at the business end, so the end of the slot will be enlarged appropriately, with some extra length for wrench access.

First, here are the rod, and the board, marked for its slot.

In the middle of the second pass with the straight bit.

The adjustment end of the finished slot, after first using the round bit over the full length, then widening and deepening the end cavity. Having a geared, sliding table (and therefore a sliding fence w/r/t the bit) made this pretty easy. I learned a bit about how wood and router bits react to climb milling, but it's all good in the end.

And finally, my rod in the slot.

To celebrate this great achievement, a brew that was purchased with no prior knowledge and low expectations.

This turned out to be very good. One good, pleasant, full and well-rounded tone, with no brittleness but also not dull. It's a cheap bass you pick up in a store that makes your eyes widen once you plug it in and hear it sound like a perfect woody 50's P that you could just play all night long.

Musiclogic · #**150** 10-12-2010, 12:02 AM

Looks like someone went shopping for truss rods at Keith guitars....LOL It always scares me to see a router bit in a drill press, but it looks like it worked well. Looks Like you are doing a fine job Pete.

pilotjones · #**151** 10-12-2010, 10:29 AM

Thanks JC. It's a shopsmith, so the spindle is built for the side loads of routing, drum sanding, etc. The only iffy thing I think could be the chuck, as shopsmith provides a toolholder for routing, but it only takes 1/2" shank bits.

pilotjones · #**152** 10-15-2010, 11:29 PM

Now that I'm fairly confident I can route a truss channel, the next step was to thin the neck all the way down to where it should be to mount the fingerboard.

First I needed something to put under the neck to raise it up enough to have the headstock clear the table while I planed off the top. I tried two 2x4's that had been jointed previously, but there was some warp to one of them, so the neck was kind of spongy feeling sitting on top of them.

So, looking around for other things to use, I spotted my taper jig. Ahah! After a few skims top and bottom under the planer to get it flat and parallel, it was ready.

So then I went at the planing.

I found that the plywood had dulled the planer blades. Yes, the saf-t-planer manual said that would happen. So I sharpened them. It was not hard, using the stone that came with the saf-t-planer.

All thinned out, just needing a bit more sanding. The joint looks pretty good.

There's quite contrast between the neck maple, and the body maple that I re-used for the headstock. It could be good or bad looking where they'll be side by side down in the body. Time will tell.

CustomTech · #**153** 10-16-2010, 07:41 AM

no need to do that, if you dont have enough room for pinning into what will become scrap/sawoff, pin toward the center of the neck where it will be the thickest/on centerline, or one just to each side, not too far back from where the headstock meets the fingerboard, and just go about 1/8 or so deep once you go through into the neck blank. it will be under the f/b or routed out of the truss rod channel never to be seen.......

Quote:

Originally Posted by pilotjones

When I do this again, if I again do not have enough scrap room for a pin on each side of joint, then I will make the wedge blocks if needed so that I can clamp up without slippage.

BassShifter21 · #**154** 10-16-2010, 08:47 AM

Pete, looking good! How do you like bass building so far? Keep up the good work and don't hesitate to ask if you have a question!

pilotjones · #**155** 10-16-2010, 09:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CustomTech

no need to do that, if you dont have enough room for pinning into what will become scrap/sawoff, pin toward the center of the neck where it will be the thickest/on centerline, or one just to each side, not too far back from where the headstock meets the fingerboard, and just go about 1/8 or so deep once you go through into the neck blank. it will be under the f/b or routed out of the truss rod channel never to be seen.......

Yes, that would work, too. I suppose I'd need a wooden dowel, glued in, if any of it were to remain after machining. It would require a bit more thinking about neck carving to be sure it doesn't end up exposed.

pilotjones · #**156** 10-16-2010, 09:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BassShifter21

Pete, looking good! How do you like bass building so far? Keep up the good work and don't hesitate to ask if you have a question!

Thanks, Dean. I love doing it so far. We'll see when it comes to finishing if that's still true. That seems to be the tedious, time-consuming part for anyone trying to get a good result.

pilotjones · #**157** 10-16-2010, 01:52 PM

I cut the truss rod slot.

Here's the setup, before.

Between re-figuring where I wanted the rod to be axially, and a bit of router slip, the slot is not perfect up at the nut. But it should be good enough, with the fretboard covering up the bit of extra space.

This time I used the ball nose bit only, and the slot is nice and snug. I took 1/32" deep passes, and maybe that's a little conservative, but it's only when I took a deep pass at the nut that the router slipped.

CustomTech · #**158** 10-16-2010, 01:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pilotjones

Yes, that would work, too. I suppose I'd need a wooden dowel, glued in, if any of it were to remain after machining. It would require a bit more thinking about neck carving to be sure it doesn't end up exposed.

yep, you can do that too......what i do is use small metal 1/16" pins, or a finish nail with the point ground off and pull it out after. as long as you only drill it shallow, and knowing where youll be shaping the neck and how thin youre going you should have no problems of it becoming exposed. its worked for me the last 25 years or so since ive been building necks...good luck with your build bro! always good to see new people trying their hand at a build.

pilotjones · #**159** 10-16-2010, 06:11 PM

Tonight's selection: Brooklyn Brewery "Local 1." Conditioned in bottle.

Lots of interesting, very good flavor, without the grunginess that often accompanies a beer with character. You could sit with this for a long gig and be happy the whole time.

pilotjones · #**160** 10-16-2010, 06:45 PM

Pt. II

Take the rich tone of the previous entry, double it, trade Brooklyn for Belgium, and add a dash of Ritter awesomeness.