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$100 Bass Challenge - Double Trouble

#81
No new updates, and I am out of town next week so things will be quiet on all my builds. In the quest for more piano pins I contacted the piano tech who gave me my original set of 9 and ask him if he would be willing to sell me a few more to add to my pile. I want to make sure I have enough to do the kid's basses, as well as a few other projects that are cooking. He refused to sell me any, and instead gave me a box of 40. I was overwhelmed! When things calm down I am going to have to make him a bass as a thank you gift with......wait for it....piano tuners. ;)
 
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#82
I picked up some quilted maple for the fingerboards, and should have plenty enough to use on other projects. The figure is not AAAAA by any means, but it's decent. The last parts are getting ordered tonight.

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#84
Curly maple fingerboards! I had some trouble with the planer and the surface tearing out, so I need to adjust my workflow. ;) I have three fingerboards to choose from, one of them being an attempted book match. While I am going to do the best job I can for these basses, in many aspects this build is providing opportunities to experiment and practice some techniques that have been on my list for a long time. Since the surface is figured and has some 3D effect to it I am going to see if I can sand out the tear out and fill with a clear CA or epoxy to get the surface level and be minimally noticeable. I am also considering a thin layer of walnut between the fingerboard and neck to provide an accent line.

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#86
michaelwayneharwood said:
Curly maple fingerboards! I had some trouble with the planer and the surface tearing out, so I need to adjust my workflow. ;) I have three fingerboards to choose from, one of them being an attempted book match. While I am going to do the best job I can for these basses, in many aspects this build is providing opportunities to experiment and practice some techniques that have been on my list for a long time. Since the surface is figured and has some 3D effect to it I am going to see if I can sand out the tear out and fill with a clear CA or epoxy to get the surface level and be minimally noticeable. I am also considering a thin layer of walnut between the fingerboard and neck to provide an accent line.

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I have found that maple tears out fairly easily, especially with the router, unless I'm doing a straight line. I'm surprised that the planer caused some tear out.
 
#89
Having just finished the Nucifera build the next I am now getting back to focus on the bass build for the kids, but today I took the day off from bass building to build a wooden axe for the eldest son of some friends of ours. He's 11 and *loves* the Lord of The Rings. He spends a significant amount of his time designing medieval weapons and asked if I would be willing to make a full size wooden replica of one of his designs. To be honest I am not sure if this is his design, or a take off of one of the weapons he has copied from a book he has on the LOTR movies and concept drawings, but it's a *really* cool design regardless.

I took a picture of his life sized drawing, traced it into Inkscape and cleaned up the lines, printed out a card stock template, started making sawdust. I need to finish this by tomorrow evening as the family is moving to Seattle at the end of the week, but it will still need a ton of work. His father and he will have a lot of fun hours carving the axe head as I will be leaving that mostly blocky, but the handle will be ready for his ministrations. I used ambrosia maple thinking that it will make a nice handle, though I believe he is planning on painting the whole thing. ;)

The handle is fully shaped, and the head just needs to be cleaned up and attached to the handle.

I am calling this a last minute going away present.

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#94
michaelwayneharwood said:
Totally off topic. Here's an updated bubinga board render I made with Blender that looks a LOT more realistic. It's a mender of a Blender tinder render bender. What splendor!

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Neato.... What do you use "virtual" wood for?
& shucks ... Can't you make "waterfall" bubinga?
 
#95
Rôckhewer said:
Neato.... What do you use "virtual" wood for?
& shucks ... Can't you make "waterfall" bubinga?
Click to expand...
When time allows I use Blender to mock up designs and spin them in 3D to see if my 2D ideas translate. I have found that something that looks good on paper sometimes needs some tweaking to improve flow. It can be argued that the time taken in the 3D app could be put to better use making sawdust, but I quite enjoy working in Blender so it's a refreshing change of pace for me when I fire it up.
 
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#97
Tonight saw the routing of the truss rod channels in both necks, as well as setting them in with silicone caulk. Deity I hate that stuff. The next step is to get the fingerboards glued down, but I only have enough clamps to do one neck at a time so it will take a couple of days to get that finalized. Once that's done I will route a 1/4" channel for the bridge saddles and piezo pickups, cut slots for the fret lines, and glue in the fret references.

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#98
As previously stated I had some tear out while planing the maple fingerboards, but that has been remedied for at least one of them. It was actually one of those happy accidents as it drove me to I glue down some walnut underneath as an accent line to give me some room to clean up the issues. I have only completed the cleanup of a single fingerboard thus far, but it looks good. I think the walnut accent line will add some class to the build.

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#99
So there I was...heading upstairs to hit the sack. I took a slight detour to the garage just to take one more look at the fingerboard and before I knew it I was gluing it onto the neck. I couldn't help myself... It will free the clamps for the second neck that much sooner.

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#100
michaelwayneharwood said:
So there I was...heading upstairs to hit the sack. I took a slight detour to the garage just to take one more look at the fingerboard and before I knew it I was gluing it onto the neck. I couldn't help myself... It will free the clamps for the second neck that much sooner.

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It is.... OBSESSION!

I like the accent strip happy accident.
Kinda makes you wonder why you don't see more "two tone" fingerboards!
You may have started a trend;)
 
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