2nd Build - Fretless 5 single cut chambered

Hello everyone,
This is my second build. The plan is a narrow long bodied single cut that is light in spite of heavy woods in the neck.

Specs:
Shape: Long narrow single cut
Neck: Wenge, Mahogany, Wenge.
Headstock: open upright style
Neck Construction: Double acting trussrod, headstock access
Neck/Body Join: Long glue in
Fingerboard: Katalox, 16" radius, thin CA coat, extends into body as integrated ramp
Scale length: 34"
Frets: None. Side dots upper only binding made from maple
Electronics: first gen MM reproduction for mags, Schatten buffer pre-amp for piezo
Pickups: Two Seymour Duncan NYCs next to each other near bridge, Mighty Mite piezo in bridge
Controls: Volume, coil selector for each mag PU, Bass, Treble. Volume, Tone for piezo
Knobs: TBD
Tuners: Gotoh Gold
Bridge: Katalox, aluminum grounding strip
Body Center: Mahogany, IPE, Katalox.
Body wings: Mahogany chambered core, maple back, figured maple front
Finish: Tru-Oil
Strings: EB Slinky Cobalt Flats

Bass 2 by SLivinghouse posted Apr 20, 2019 at 9:21 PM

 

I got busy today and got it started.
The usual neck glue up shots

Apr 20

Apr 20

The two protruding pieces of Wenge at the end are going to be the front surface of the headstock. Since I've been playing stand up bass forever I thought I would incorporate that style of headstock. Something similar to what NS Design does on their URBs.

While the glue was drying I resawed the Katalox to get the fingerboard started. I don't have a bandsaw so I resaw with a jig on my table saw.

Apr 20

After cutting:

Apr 20

Into the planer on a MDF sled:

Apr 20

I leave a few extra inches on the Katalox for snipe. With the sled the snipe ends up being just 1/100 of an inch per the caliper but it is still pretty noticeable.
After planing:

Apr 20, 2019

Houston Rockets vs Utah Jazz game is getting interesting. Gotta go.

 

Thank you! I 've gone over this thing 1,000 times in my head the last six months. Time to get it built!

 

A little more progress.
The neck is out of the clamps and the planed by the the Ryobi.

Apr 22

I got the body shape a little more refined and traced onto a piece of thin plywood to make a template out of.

Apr 22

I also cut the body wing core to dimensioned lumber I can work with. It is an amazingly light piece of maple I got out of the Rocker bargain bin. They had about a dozen similar pieces and this was the lightest. Really light! A perfect core for what I'm doing.

Apr 22

This board was about 4 feet long 5" wide and 2" think and came in about 2 1/2 pounds!

 

Got some more done over the weekend. I glued the wing on to the head stock so it is now 1 1/2 inches deep.

Glue Up Headstock Apr 30

After that was dry I created essentially a jig so I could cut the angle of the wings so that they would match. The jig was essentially scrap shaped like a capital "T". The ends of the "T" hooked behind the longer wenge piece and then at the nut so that I could follow the jig with a router bearing on a trim bit to get the shape/

Headstock Jig Apr 22

Headstock After Route Apr 30

I also made the main curvature of the neck using the router with a 1 1/2 diameter round over bit

Neck After Routing Apr 30

Below is the first mock up using the neck and the body wing templates:

First Layout Apr 30

Thanks for looking! Let me know if you have suggestions.

 

I've been pretty busy at work so progress has been a slower than I would like. Will get more shop time soon.
Below is the center of the core of mahogany with katakox glued on under where the will go under the bridge will be. It's hard to see but the mahogany is radiused at 12" because the bass will be curved somewhat like a Spector. I did the radiusing using a table saw blade and a jig to feed it in almost perpendicular to the blade.

May 7

Gluing the neck to the core in the picture above.

May 7

From side after the clamps are off

May 9

While that was drying I cut out the body wing cores using a jigsaw and then sanded them with a sanding drum in the drill press.

May 7

I used my router to cut 1/8" slots in the bottom side of the finger board but I don't like how it turned out.

It's too many lines to keep track of. I'm going to cover it with maple to make a more simple fret line system

May 7, 2019 at 11:44 PM

Much better!

May 7, 2019 at 11:44 PM