5 string fan fretted 36"-34" all in Wenge

[Matteo Marziali]

Finally i got the baseplate for the bridge, it's made out of steel.

The baseplate will be placed in a cavity in the top. It will be covered by a red veneer/Wenge cover.
I'm making the places for the bridge "nuts"

 

[Technotitclan]

This is coming along very nicely. Can't wait for the finished product.

 

[Smilodon]

Wow. That loos great!

I may have to steal your idea of using red strings, though. I'm currently building a wenge/bloodwood bass that may benefit from red strings. How red are they in real life? They seem to be almost burgundy red in the pictures.

 

[CosmoReverb]

I have a set on one of my Stingrays. They're pretty red in real life although not a very "bright" red (color tone-wise, not "tone" tone-wise) they do seem to deepen and darken with age and use.

 

[Matteo Marziali]

I may have to steal your idea of using red strings, though. I'm currently building a wenge/bloodwood bass that may benefit from red strings. How red are they in real life? They seem to be almost burgundy red in the pictures.

I'm following your Bloodline Post! It's very inspiring!
Red string will fit perfectly for you bass, and yes: DR red devil strings are not bright red, now they make Invalid Link Removed Red Neon string, probably those string are brigther tna REd Devil

 

[GKon]

I use and am a big fan of Aurora colored strings. I happen to have red on my bass. They look great, feel great and sound great.

 

[Matteo Marziali]

An italian strings company Invalid Link Removed made coloured strings a couple of years ago, but they stop the production, now the make only trasparent coated strings.

UPDATE!

I routed the bridge baseplate recess, this is a very important part of the project, everything is based on its position

Routing was not perfect, but everything works!

This is the wood cover for the bridge baseplate. Everything will be settled by 5 screws, you can see some little holes where they should go.

This is the "heel block", a wedge to tilt the neck backwards

I glued the wedge on the neck and routed an "huge" neck pocket. It was a little tight, so I used the scraper to fix it.

Finally I was able to put the neck on, without glue. I'm quite satisfied!
It can stand alone, and it's very light, only 2.4Kg (5.3lb)! With the hardware should weight 3.6kg (less than 8lb).

It has a fat bottom right side, it's not a mistake, it's the way i like.

The back:

I made also the cover for electronic. I removed the red veneers in the middle to have much space for the jack, because the body is very thin, only 29.5mm (1 5/32 inch), and the tip of the jack touched the bottom of the cavity without removing the veneers.

Now I'm going to check the distance between nut and bridge, and i will try to put a couple of string on to check if the bridge compensation works as i planned.
Then i will route the PU cavity and for last the more pleasing part: body carving!

 

[Matteo Marziali]

I made a temporary nut and put two strings on, everythings works!

 

[GKon]

Great! Looking forward to seeing more

 

[natw42]

looking great!

 

[Matteo Marziali]

Thanks guys!
Actually i'm carving the body...

 

[Morten_B]

Thanks guys!
Actually i'm carving the body...

As always... Your work look amazing..! This one with the fat bottom etc seems to end up as a beautiful cross between a CT, a Ritter and most of all, a Matteo of course.

How is it to carve the wenge? I hear it's difficult? Can you use the usual tools, or do you do something special?

 

[Matteo Marziali]

This one with the fat bottom etc seems to end up as a beautiful cross between a CT, a Ritter and most of all, a Matteo of course.

Thanks! Indeed my idea was to build a CT/Ritter/Prometeus bass, with mine personal touch...

How is it to carve the wenge? I hear it's difficult? Can you use the usual tools, or do you do something special?

For me it's not difficult, i like carving Wenge. It's hard, more then mahogany, but not so hard like maple.
It's like Morado (Pau Ferro) or Bocote, Cocobolo... I like the way it look like after the scraper, Probably i will not use sandpaper to finish it, just scraper...
I'm working it in the same way as other wood: chisels, rasps, scraper.
The only critical point are where wood grain is parallel with body shape, sometime a chip go away.
And of course i have to be carefull of splinters!!!

After rasp and scraper:

 

[Matteo Marziali]

Carved

A chip skip away in the upper part of the neck pocket, cause of PU cavity routing...

 

[pilotjones]

Wow, that carving looks great!

Have you considered putting a few of those teeth or scales on one edge of your cavity cover?

 

[Morten_B]

Crazy..! And amazing

 

[ComposedFiend]

That's stunning!

 

[cnltb]

Whilst I am interested in seeing how this turns out I am terribly bored of Carl Thompson lookalikes.

 

[Matteo Marziali]

Have you considered putting a few of those teeth or scales on one edge of your cavity cover?

Yes, I'm actually drawing it, thank for the suggestion.

...I am terribly bored of Carl Thompson lookalikes.

Instead I love CT and CT lookalikes!

 

[DreamError]

Excellent. Not entirely my cup of tea, but you're doing great work

Definitely has a "70s metal" sort of vibe to it.