34" scale EUB build

[-Asdfgh-]

I could buy one of the Ibanez, but I have a lot of bits so I am trying to be cheap.

I will lay out the components when the balance has arrived, but it will be:

• A left-handed Jazz bass neck. I selected a left-handed one although I am right-handed to avoid getting smacked in the face with tuners when playing it upright.
• DB fingerboard
• Screws and washers for neck mounting.
• A piezo standard electric bass bridge (actually four outs). This has just enough adjustment to match the fingerboard radius.
• A string tree that can take three strings.
• Some 3mm walnut to make a new nut.
• A quantity of sapele to make a body.
• A broken microphone holder and short microphone stand in lieu of an endpin.
• A jack socket
• Wire.
• Tuners (right-handed forward, so they'll be a bit backward in this application, but it's fine).

Method:

• Carefully remove fretboard from the neck.
• Cut down the DB fingerboard to an appropriate length and sand down a little to the final neck isn't too think, then glue to the neck.
• Build a body based on planks of sapele, building up a pocket for the neck in the process. This would be only slightly wider than the neck, add in a bit of tilt as part of this.
• Build up a small platform for the bridge. This requires some gap under the bridge for the wires from the piezo elements.
• Drill through to accomodate the wires from the bridge to an output jack. No onboard preamp (I have external ones and it saves trying to build a box to put a spare onboard preamp I have) but I may consider a passive volume. I might later consider taking the 4 outputs to a 13 core socket as then I could theoretically build a preamp and interface with a standard pitch-to-MIDI unit. Or I could just use mono pitch-to-MIDI.
• Dill a hole in the lower end to insert and glue with epoxy the nut from the broken microphone holder.
• Colour and oil the fingerboard a bit.
• Fit tuners and nut.
• A lot of luck.
• Some cursing.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

The neck I got is so nice i might send it back as it would be a travesty to rip the fingerboard off. Can I make a laminated neck stiff enough not to use a truss rod? I'll need more sapele and maybe I'll add a couple of stripes of maple and see if my spoke shave is any good.

 

[Bruce Johnson]

The neck I got is so nice i might send it back as it would be a travesty to rip the fingerboard off. Can I make a laminated neck stiff enough not to use a truss rod? I'll need more sapele and maybe I'll add a couple of stripes of maple and see if my spoke shave is any good.

Yes, definitely. I would recommend building a new neck from scratch, to the dimensions and configuration that you want. That's going to be less work than modifying a Fender-style neck, and you'll get a better result.

An EUB neck should be thicker front-to-back, and have a thicker fingerboard than an electric bass neck. And with a rounder radius. That's for comfort of playing while held vertically. And it usually won't need a truss rod.

I'm currently working on an EUB project myself. It's 35" scale with a 3 1/2" radius fingerboard. The neck will be a 3-piece laminate with no truss rod. The first prototype is maple with a purpleheart fingerboard, but for the production version, I'm looking at cherry with a Grenadillo fingerboard.

Here's the prototype neck in my radiusing fixture. I showed the construction of that fixture over in my Pin Routers thread.

 

[Flamingo21]

production version

Does this mean there'll be a larger number of these, like your Scroll Basses?

OP: sorry for the slight derail.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

Does this mean there'll be a larger number of these, like your Scroll Basses?

OP: sorry for the slight derail.

Absolutely fine!

 

[-Asdfgh-]

Yes, definitely. I would recommend building a new neck from scratch, to the dimensions and configuration that you want. That's going to be less work than modifying a Fender-style neck, and you'll get a better result.

An EUB neck should be thicker front-to-back, and have a thicker fingerboard than an electric bass neck. And with a rounder radius. That's for comfort of playing while held vertically. And it usually won't need a truss rod.

I'm currently working on an EUB project myself. It's 35" scale with a 3 1/2" radius fingerboard. The neck will be a 3-piece laminate with no truss rod. The first prototype is maple with a purpleheart fingerboard, but for the production version, I'm looking at cherry with a Grenadillo fingerboard.

View attachment 7384704

View attachment 7384705

Here's the prototype neck in my radiusing fixture. I showed the construction of that fixture over in my Pin Routers thread.

I'm looking now at a 5 piece laminate neck. That's just based on what I have on hand. I have a fingerboard ready to go

 

[Bruce Johnson]

Does this mean there'll be a larger number of these, like your Scroll Basses?

OP: sorry for the slight derail.

Hey Flamingo;

Yes it is one of my ongoing R & D projects for a new model to add to my product line. Let's not talk about it here, though. This is Asdfgh's thread. I'll be discussing it more over on my Scroll Basses thread, probably in the spring.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

Yes, definitely. I would recommend building a new neck from scratch, to the dimensions and configuration that you want. That's going to be less work than modifying a Fender-style neck, and you'll get a better result.

An EUB neck should be thicker front-to-back, and have a thicker fingerboard than an electric bass neck. And with a rounder radius. That's for comfort of playing while held vertically. And it usually won't need a truss rod.

I'm currently working on an EUB project myself. It's 35" scale with a 3 1/2" radius fingerboard. The neck will be a 3-piece laminate with no truss rod. The first prototype is maple with a purpleheart fingerboard, but for the production version, I'm looking at cherry with a Grenadillo fingerboard.

View attachment 7384704

View attachment 7384705

Here's the prototype neck in my radiusing fixture. I showed the construction of that fixture over in my Pin Routers thread.

I am curious about the headstock design. I have 4 normal elephant ear tuners in my parts box, so I could just use those, even if two would be 'reversed', or I could get a pair of smaller 2+2 tuners - cheap ones are about $20. But I am curious about the required geometry to make them work without the strings popping off the end of the 'barrels'. Looking at your headstock, though, I am curious about the block running perpendicular to the neck across the headstock with a hole in. What's the purpose?

Also, what's the best way to construct such a headstock with my quite limited woodworking skills? I was purchased a router and routing table (if I can find it and assemble it) but I've never used it. To build a hole through I might prefer to drill holes and then use a saw through the holes and/or drill lots of holes and file it to an acceptable shape and retain my fingers. It's probably the part I should do first so if I mess it up I've wasted less time. But the question is how do I ensure I have enough wood for each wing? Is that the benefit of a 3-part neck as opposed to 5? 5 was going to be my choice simply because the most cheaply available wood is intended for skirting boards and is typically up to 20mm thick, and the fat end needs to be more like 75mm, so 3 pieces don't easily work with that. But I could get alternative pieces of wood so the outer wings are ~30mm thick and, say, a 20mm core.

I am looking at bolt-on construction for the neck as I understand that and I can then also adjust the neck angle as I don't necessarily trust my ability to get the bridge the right height. I actually have a piezo-loaded electric bass bridge which can take the required radius (just). It's what I have on hand and allows me to adjust the height of each string. It also has four outputs for potential 13-core Roland cable output at some point. But as noted above, first off I will just combine them into a single output and use one of my acoustic bass/guitar external preamps with it to keep things simple.

 

[Bruce Johnson]

Looking at your headstock, though, I am curious about the block running perpendicular to the neck across the headstock with a hole in. What's the purpose?

That's a maple hold-down block that clamps the neck into the fixture.

Here's the headstock of this prototype neck. It's a basic, simple pegbox design. Minimal and functional. On the production version, I'll be making it a little bit fancier, with some added lines and shapes.

Key things about the design, to make it functional:

• I'm using Hipshot Ultralites on this bass, which have the small mini-size bodies and screw-on bushings. That minimizes the vertical height of the side walls of the pegbox. This one is 1.5" tall, front surface to back. The 9/16" holes for the bushings are centered vertically on the side walls.
• The width of the pegbox is 2.6", so the posts of the E and G tuners line up horizontally for a straight pull from the E and G strings. The sides of the pegbox are straight, so the A and D tuners will be straight in line with the E and G. There will be a couple of degrees of outward angle of the A and D strings onto their posts, but it's not enough to cause a problem.
• Vertically, the top surface of the pegbox is even with the glue line of the neck. This makes the construction a lot easier. The centerline of the posts is 3/4" down from the glue line. The vertical break angle of the strings from the nut to the posts will be about 30 degrees for the E and G and 25 degrees for the A and D. Side note: You are going to want to wind the strings under-hand on the posts, not over-hand.
• The thickness of the side walls needs to be a minimum of 1/2". That's the minimum thickness that tuners with screw-on bushings will fit.

Sticking to that basic geometry will make it easier to build. Then you can round things off and make it prettier.

This neck was built as a basic 3-piece laminate, in my usual pattern of the rings in an upward V. Jeremy built this neck for me back in the summer. He cut the inside of the pegbox by hogging out the maple with a Forstner bit, then cleaning it up with a router and a simple template. You could also clean it up by hand with files. I'll be cutting the production ones in the Pin Router. This pegbox is straight vertical walls for simplicity. but you can curve them and shape them to add style and beauty.

This neck has a conventional bolt-on style heel. Inset brass bars, 10-32 threaded. But I've decided to go with a tilting-neck design on the production version.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

That's a maple hold-down block that clamps the neck into the fixture.

View attachment 7386670

Here's the headstock of this prototype neck. It's a basic, simple pegbox design. Minimal and functional. On the production version, I'll be making it a little bit fancier, with some added lines and shapes.

Key things about the design, to make it functional:

• I'm using Hipshot Ultralites on this bass, which have the small mini-size bodies and screw-on bushings. That minimizes the vertical height of the side walls of the pegbox. This one is 1.5" tall, front surface to back. The 9/16" holes for the bushings are centered vertically on the side walls.
• The width of the pegbox is 2.6", so the posts of the E and G tuners line up horizontally for a straight pull from the E and G strings. The sides of the pegbox are straight, so the A and D tuners will be straight in line with the E and G. There will be a couple of degrees of outward angle of the A and D strings onto their posts, but it's not enough to cause a problem.
• Vertically, the top surface of the pegbox is even with the glue line of the neck. This makes the construction a lot easier. The centerline of the posts is 3/4" down from the glue line. The vertical break angle of the strings from the nut to the posts will be about 30 degrees for the E and G and 25 degrees for the A and D. Side note: You are going to want to wind the strings under-hand on the posts, not over-hand.
• The thickness of the side walls needs to be a minimum of 1/2". That's the minimum thickness that tuners with screw-on bushings will fit.

Sticking to that basic geometry will make it easier to build. Then you can round things off and make it prettier.

View attachment 7386671

This neck was built as a basic 3-piece laminate, in my usual pattern of the rings in an upward V. Jeremy built this neck for me back in the summer. He cut the inside of the pegbox by hogging out the maple with a Forstner bit, then cleaning it up with a router and a simple template. You could also clean it up by hand with files. I'll be cutting the production ones in the Pin Router. This pegbox is straight vertical walls for simplicity. but you can curve them and shape them to add style and beauty.

View attachment 7386672

This neck has a conventional bolt-on style heel. Inset brass bars, 10-32 threaded. But I've decided to go with a tilting-neck design on the production version.

That looks great. I wondered if making that sort of neck would be beyond me, but maybe it's doable. We'll soon see. I'm going to be aiming for functional.

hogging out the maple with a Forstner bit

No idea what any of that means. It might as well be Latin. I at least did that at school.

Anyway, it looks like I'll need to get some thicker bits of sapele to make it work as the outer wings. I will work out what wood I need.

A tilting neck is beyond me, I think. I can probably sand a shim, though, which I reckon might be easier than trying to cut an angled pocket. Once I've used simpler shimming until I've got the right depth. Actually, I am intending more building up the pocket - one narrow plank for the bit that the neck screws into, and another to build up the depth, then two wings to build up the width than cutting a pocket. I (hopefully) know my limits. Then a little 'platform' to give the bridge sufficient height given the neck angle. If I am sensible I will have that screwed fitted so I can remove and shave it down or replace it with something thicker until the point I get it right. It may also provide the correct clearance under the bridge for the wires from the pizeo elements.

And thanks for your posts - they are really helpful.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

Anyway, I will do some woodworking practice tomorrow, but it's just making a new way to keep the dogs' voice buttons scattering all over the place. But I had to get a better 10cm hole cutter drill attachment that doesn't skitter all over. That way I will still be able to play bass. I'll find my drill press too...

 

[-Asdfgh-]

Inset brass bars, 10-32 threaded.

Reminds me of some furniture I've assembled But a cunning way to do it. I once tried threaded inserts but had them pull out of the neck.

 

[Bruce Johnson]

No idea what any of that means.

"Hogging it out with a Forstner bit" is a quick way to remove most of the wood from a pocket or opening. Forstner bits are a special type of drill bits for woodworking that peel the wood out in big spirals, and leave a nearly flat bottom. They are available in sizes from 1/4" to 3" diameter. A couple of them in the 1/2" to 1" size range are very useful Luthier tools.

Freud FC-005: Carbide Forstner Drill Bit 3/4-Inch by 3/8-Inch Shank - Amazon.com

Freud FC-005: Carbide Forstner Drill Bit 3/4-Inch by 3/8-Inch Shank - Amazon.com

www.amazon.com

For a job like this EUB headstock, drill about 6 holes with a 3/4" Forstner bit, which will clear most of the wood out of that rectangular opening. Then you clean the opening up to size with a router and a quick template, or by hand with files.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

"Hogging it out with a Forstner bit" is a quick way to remove most of the wood from a pocket or opening. Forstner bits are a special type of drill bits for woodworking that peel the wood out in big spirals, and leave a nearly flat bottom. They are available in sizes from 1/4" to 3" diameter. A couple of them in the 1/2" to 1" size range are very useful Luthier tools.

Freud FC-005: Carbide Forstner Drill Bit 3/4-Inch by 3/8-Inch Shank - Amazon.com

Freud FC-005: Carbide Forstner Drill Bit 3/4-Inch by 3/8-Inch Shank - Amazon.com

www.amazon.com

For a job like this EUB headstock, drill about 6 holes with a 3/4" Forstner bit, which will clear most of the wood out of that rectangular opening. Then you clean the opening up to size with a router and a quick template, or by hand with files.

I was more laughing at my ignorance
/special codes for various trades . I'll see if I can avoid buying more stuff apart from a better spoke shave and some more sheets of sandpaper. I have a 10cm hole cutter (too big) but also (somewhere - garage needs tidying) 18mm and 22mm bits for building nesting boxes, so hopefully I can get the job done. After Christmas. ..

 

[-Asdfgh-]

Latest status - I will do photos at some point soon - is that the carve of the neck is basically done apart from some filing and sanding. Next up is drilling for tuners. I bought some 2+2 but it turns out I already had some! The spares can go on eBay. Then it's the centre block on the headstock to change it from a U to an O shape. I will drill holes and screw and glue and then plug with some dowel I can make from spare sapele and a bit of carving and then spinning on a drill and some sandpaper to make it into dowel. Then it will be adding the fingerboard.

A question remains, though - how deep should he neck (without fingerboard) be for comfortable playing but also stability?