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$100 Bass Challenge - Double Trouble

#101
Rôckhewer said:
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;)
Click to expand...

Making mistakes often means getting to cut a section of that "cool board you've been saving for a future build, yet leaving enough for said future build" to use in the current build to correct the mistake.

Win-win
 
#102
Rôckhewer said:
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;)
Click to expand...
I am hoping it turns out OK. I have been looking into accent lines and trying to get my head around what potentially looks good for neck and body transitions. I think that a crazy sandwich of 1/8" layers of walnut and purple heart might look really cool....or it will look silly. One of those. ;)
 
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#103
The first neck is out of the clamps, which frees them for laminating the next fingerboard together. Here are a few shots of the process.

1. The fingerboard layers are planed to about 1/4"
2. An oak board is wrapped in wax paper, and the layers are placed upon the ceraceous plane for gluing.
3. Glue is applied onto the walnut layer using my fingers. I like to use my manipulative digits to spread glue as it gives me more control, and it's easier to get a good even spread. It also provides a tactile experience that adds a certain emotional investment to the build. I am not sure I can explain it adequately, but there you go.
4. A top board is laid on top, and clamps are employed. The two oak boards provide a more even clamping pressure and insurance that glue lines will be tight and problem free.

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#105
One neck has been cleaned up and is ready for a bridge route and some fret line sawing. I started by trimming as much excess as I could from the top using a taper jig, and then used a 1/2" template router bit on a router table to clean up the edges. The glue line looks solid, and though it's not a work of art by any means it's going to be pretty.

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#106
Fingerboard number two has been planed down and is under clamping pressure. I am a bit further behind than I thought I would be this weekend, but physical exhaustion made shop work a bit risky. Instead of making sawdust last night I spent some time working on the design for the harp I will be building towards the end of the year. Of course my daughter wants one as well - her 22 string harpsicle has a cracked soundboard and she wants a custom design.

When will the madness stop!?! ;) As with anything new I need the practice, so I will be building hers before mine. Worst case scenario I end up making a bunch of harps before I find the sweet spot.

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#109
Rôckhewer said:
Harps sound like they would be fun to build.... Do you have any pictures?
Any harps you have built?
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This will be my first attempt at building a harp. There are a ton of plans available for sale, and for an easy (and free) entry you can download the rudimentary plans for the Waldorf 22 string lap harp from [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]. I am planning to build a 36 string harp for myself, and a 22 string lap harp for my daughter. It may be insane, but I am working on my own plans instead of building from someone else's design.

I have only the beginnings of my design laid out, but will be happy to share when I get further along. I am tempted to start a build thread on TalkBass when I get moving the builds at the end of this year.

I am hoping to eventually get good enough to build a cross strung harp similar to this:

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#112
Doner Designs said:
You might just end up with a marketable product with enough room for you to make a bit of profit on sales.
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Perhaps, but it takes years to build anything other than what they call "harp shaped objects". It's a very competitive and niche market. I could easily make a harp that would sound as good as something like a Invalid Link Removed, or one of the cheaper harps from the Invalid Link Removed.

Rôckhewer said:
That's a cool instrument.
A bit much in the gilt department for my taste... But cool.
I don't think I have ever seen a cross strung harp before.
Click to expand...

I am not a huge fan of the gilt, or the ornate design aesthetic, but I very much like the X shaped pillar and the dual necks. With some design tweaking I think an absolutely stunning looking instrument could be fashioned. What I have in my head will be a challenging design to execute, and I am nowhere near ready in the skill department.

That particular style of cross strung harp, with it's dual necks and an X shaped pillar, are very rare. I am not aware of any contemporary harp builders that are doing anything like that. Cross strung harps in general are a niche product within the harp world. There are two basic types of harps: lever harps and pedal harps. The pedal harps are the instruments you see most often in orchestra's and at high tea in expensive hotels. The lever harps are more often than not called celtic harps.

In general harps are tuned diatonically to the seven natural notes within a specific key, and to play accidentals or chromatic runs you either have to flip a lever (lever harps), or press a pedal (pedal harps). A cross strung harp gives a player the full chromatic scale at their fingertips, though playing technique is quite a bit different due to the modified angles of the strings, and the altered fingerings required to traverse two separate planes of strings.
 
#113
I am physically wiped out tonight and exhausted, so no power tools for me this evening. My daughter and I put our heads together and came up with a few harp designs she is interested in. Here's the final three in consideration for the morbidly curious.

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#115
vmabus said:
Have you considered making a nice wooden sounding box for one of the Waring harps? It would have to be better than cardboard...
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That thought had crossed my mind, but it's not much more effort to make my own harp than to copy one of the Warring designs. I also want to optimize the string length. My daughter already owns a Harpsicle and enjoys it, so building her a triangle with a wood sound box would not be much of an upgrade. ;) I expect my son will want one as well, so I should plan on making two of them at the same time. My kids are going to have a lot of musical instruments, and a few of them will be made by their father.
 
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#119
To alleviate the problems I have run into with inaccuracies in the fret line sawing process I decided to build a 24" long open alder box topped with aluminum angle bars. Once the glue dries I will drill the bars and mount them on top. The inside width is 5" to allow for wider fingerboards, and it's deep enough to allow me to drop in a neck with a fingerboard glued on. This won't work for fanned fret boards, but I can always build another jig. ;)

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