5 string buckeye burl/mahogany neck through

[lbridenstine]

Keep after it Lisa - you are incredibly talented and dedicated. Even though this is talk BASS, I would love to see your guitar builds too. Not sure if they allow it here, but if you have to post elsewhere, let us know where....

Also, love to see some prelims on the new designs if and when you have the chance.... I don't have mixed emotions about you finishing this one - as long as we can follow along on the next ones!

I have posted guitar builds here and other people have too. The consensus seems to be "if you're building an instrument, we want to see it". But, I have noticed that between here and tdpri (a guitar forum similar to this one, except mostly Teles), the bass builds definitely get more views/comments here and the guitar builds definitely get more views/comments on tdpri, understandably.

At this point, I will soon have built more guitars than basses, so I don't know if anyone here is getting sick of seeing the guitar threads and if they are, I'll stick to just basses here, but if not, I can make new threads for those.

I've decided to not post the designs until I'm in build mode for each one. I'll probably end up making changes between now and then anyway.

 

[PDX Rich]

You can always label the guitar builds as 6-string 25" scale mini-treblebass.

 

[lbridenstine]

We decided to add some ebony binding to the fretboard. Not glued yet. I need to clean up the epoxy around the inlay and make sure the fret slots are deep enough first. I think it’s going to look really nice, but still subtle. I need to be really careful not to get glue squeeze out in the slots though...

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Aaaand I got the stiffening rods epoxied in.

I'm going to be so mad if the epoxy gets under the tape.

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First I squeezed each rod in with epoxy in the channel and wax paper between the epoxy and the clamp, then once they were set all the way in I decided to get off the excess epoxy.

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Then covered it back up with wax paper, blocks, and clamped it up.

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So now to wait 72 hours for the epoxy to cure. In the meantime, I'll try to find some time to get the fretboard all ready for gluing on.

 

[lbridenstine]

Oh yeah, I decided not to show pictures of the headstock until I sand the shape a bit more. I mean, you can see the end of it in the last picture, but the other side looks off to me and I need to do something about that.

 

[Jon Clegg]

You can always label the guitar builds as 6-string 25" scale mini-treblebass.

Or 6-string short-scale piccolo basses.

 

[eightyearsapril]

At this point, I will soon have built more guitars than basses, so I don't know if anyone here is getting sick of seeing the guitar threads and if they are, I'll stick to just basses here, but if not, I can make new threads for those.

For what it's worth, the guitar build you finished recently was one of my favorite build threads I've read. Keep 'em coming.

 

[lbridenstine]

For what it's worth, the guitar build you finished recently was one of my favorite build threads I've read. Keep 'em coming.

Thank you!

 

[lbridenstine]

The painters tape worked pretty good at masking off the epoxy. It doesn’t look like it should take too much to clean up.

I wasn’t going to post pictures of the headstock yet, but I changed my mind. Might as well. The shape isn’t finished. Normally I would make a headstock template and route to the shape after rough cutting it, but I honestly don’t plan to use this headstock shape again (I don’t particularly like it) and mahogany and buckeye burl both sand quickly, so I figured I’d just sand around it until I’m happy with it. I have done a little bit of that, but I’m not done. The truss rod cover is only rough cut as well.

After I drilled the tuner holes and looked at it, I was like “oh crap, that looks bad” and thought I screwed something up, but I had to get out the tuners to remind myself that bass tuners are gigantic compared to guitar tuners and that the holes look like they’re in the wrong spots because I’m angling the tuners instead of having them stick straight out to the sides. So, after getting the tuners out, I feel better about it. I can’t get the 1st and 5th tuners in until I clean up the maple on the back of the neck because the tuners bump into it, so the last picture is to show the layout above the headstock.

 

[lbridenstine]

I've been trying to find time to do this for a while.

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[MrArose13]

I've been trying to find time to do this for a while.

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I know what you mean Lisa, Just keep it up, take pics and post wen you can. You know we all want to see how it's going, but that shouldn't be something you stress-out about. It looks really really good! Keep your focus on that and catch us up when you can.

 

[lbridenstine]

I know what you mean Lisa, Just keep it up, take pics and post wen you can. You know we all want to see how it's going, but that shouldn't be something you stress-out about. It looks really really good! Keep your focus on that and catch us up when you can.

I didn't know I sounded stressed, but honestly, I kind of am. This bass is just going really slow, but I think now that the fretboard is on and the weather is better now (40's and 50's) it should start coming together quicker. I'm looking forward to the couple of weeks when the finish is curing and I can just sit back and let it cure. [although I'll probably be spending that time planning the next guitar]

 

[lbridenstine]

Sorry I didn't take pictures of binding the fretboard, but all I did was use a router and straight edge to clean up the glue (from the fretboard glue-up) and epoxy (from the inlay), then glue the binding on. I used binding tape to hold it in place, then clamped the top with blocks the same way as I did for gluing the fretboard on.

Today I trimmed up the maple to the edges of the fretboard binding and cleaned up most of the glue. The neck looks much wider in person. My wide angle lens made it looks slim.

I'll take closer pictures of the fretboard and binding when it's sanded.

Here's a side view of the neck.

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Scarf joint. A little bit more glue to clean up there...

Truss rod cover. It's a bit too wide to fit between the tuner washers, so I'll have to make it more narrow.

I cut this off of the back of the neck to get the neck to the correct thickness. It would be kind of perfect as a guitar fretboard, but I don't really want to have more maple fretboards to finish in my future (I already have 2 birdseye and 2 flame maple fretboards that were given to me), so anybody have any cool ideas?

 

[Marcury]

I cut this off of the back of the neck to get the neck to the correct thickness. It would be kind of perfect as a guitar fretboard, but I don't really want to have more maple fretboards to finish in my future (I already have 2 birdseye and 2 flame maple fretboards that were given to me), so anybody have any cool ideas?

use it as an inlay on the back of another build, it will look like the kind of wedges they use for three piece backs on an acoustic

 

[Solarmist]

I am so impressed! That's just plain art.

 

[lbridenstine]

use it as an inlay on the back of another build, it will look like the kind of wedges they use for three piece backs on an acoustic

I like that idea! Thanks.

I am so impressed! That's just plain art.

Thank you!


I radiused the fretboard yesterday.

I've decided that I don't like radiusing and probably any time I order a fretboard from LMII, I'll just have them radius it for me from now on. If I get one from somewhere that doesn't offer that service, then I'll go ahead and do it myself, but it's not a step I would miss doing if I don't have to.

I did a few other things too. I shaped the fretboard end (before radiusing) and made the template for that, which I'm also going to use to make the template for cutting that out of the top, cleaned up the truss rod area a bit and added some ebony binding to cover the end of the rod, and drilled for and glued the dots in. I also had to fill a few small gaps between the binding and fretboard with epoxy and sawdust. Overall yesterday, I spent about 8.5 hours working on this... most of which was radiusing. I was sore until this morning. I guess I've gotten used to the 2-3 hours at a time of woodworking over the winter!

Today I didn't have too much time to work on it because of the family get together for Easter, plus looking at the house my brother is trying to buy, but I re-radiused the fretboard to smooth out the dots and the epoxy and I cleaned up the headstock and the sides of the fretboard.

One of the eyelash dots on the eye inlay is just slightly off from where it should be because I couldn't find my brad point bit yesterday and ended up using a normal twist bit and it slipped a little when I drilled the hole. So, I found my brad point bit, turned out that my dad put it with his bits, and drilled out that dot and filled it with epoxy and sawdust. Since I'll have to sand the fretboard some more, I didn't bother going past 80 grit so far.

I'm also going to sand flat the top of the binding on the headstock and add one more piece laying on top so I can radius that with the fretboard. It's just a little short in the middle right now, so it looks kind of weird.

Anyways, here's how it looks so far.

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It's so, so close to fretting and neck shaping. Then I can glue the neck into the body and put the top on and it will look like a bass! Of course, with a handful of steps between each of those things...

I don't remember if I mentioned or not, but I got a new job a few weeks ago, so I'm working full time now. So now that the weather is working in my favor for working on the bass, I don't have time! I'm going to try to do as much as I can on weekends and maybe 1-2 evenings during the week each week until I can get finish on this bass because I really want it out of my hands by like mid-May. I have another guitar to start soon after this is done and another one that I'm hoping to start soon too.

 

[Lonnybass]

Lisa,

Looks great and that scarf joint is a work of art.

Lonnybass

 

[lbridenstine]

Lisa,

Looks great and that scarf joint is a work of art.

Lonnybass

Thank you! I really like how the scarf joint turned out. Glad I decided to go with the mahogany headstock.

 

[lbridenstine]

I did the ebony on the headstock thing and the eye lash dot today. I also started nipping the fret tangs. I used my end nippers for it and it looks like I might need a new pair. The cutters are all chipped up.

I got 15 of the frets ready and only bled twice from it. I lost like 7-9 of the tangs somewhere in the basement and I'm hoping they don't end up in someone's foot... I'm pretty sure they're probably on the table I was working on though.

As far as I can tell, the fretboard should actually be ready for fine sanding now.

 

[lbridenstine]

Off topic, but I got this cool English walnut that I'm thinking will make a pretty neat guitar top.

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And back on topic, I got the fretboard all sanded and shiny.

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The dot I replaced is still not in the right spot and there's a little bit of the previous dot left below it! Grr.

I do think it looks better a little high than a little low though. I'm hoping with frets and strings that it won't be noticeable. What do you guys think? I feel like if I redo it again there's just going to be a mess of epoxy filled holes around it.

Man, I love how the ebony binding looks now that it's rounded and all polished.

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[BassHappy]

Off topic, but I got this cool English walnut that I'm thinking will make a pretty neat guitar top.

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And back on topic, I got the fretboard all sanded and shiny.

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The dot I replaced is still not in the right spot and there's a little bit of the previous dot left below it! Grr.

I do think it looks better a little high than a little low though. I'm hoping with frets and strings that it won't be noticeable. What do you guys think? I feel like if I redo it again there's just going to be a mess of epoxy filled holes around it.

Man, I love how the ebony binding looks now that it's rounded and all polished.

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Hey Lisa

Wow, nice work and nice progress....

And yes, the fingerboard DOES look really nice with the binding and all.

I think the little boo boo on the eyelash design makes it. And with the pinkish on the color of that one it draws your eye to it in a really nice way. With that one being a pinch higher, and with the "balloon-tail" it looks to me like it was designed that way. If you look at them next to each other, I think it improves the design by giving some additional asymmetry, pulling your eye upwards and definitely adding interest.

Just my two cents.....

I say, move along and keep up the great work!