6 String twins Single Cut Builds

[kvnjcbsn93]

So now that its time for a new build ive decided to go with a single cut 6 string fretless and a fretted pair. they are both going to have Walnut wings, 5 Piece ash neck and alder tone block. The only differences will be burl redwood top on the fretless with indian rosewood fretboard, and a delano extender pickup. The fretted will have a buckeye burl top and birdseye maple fretboard. with nordy big singles. both will have a pope flexcore preamp.

The Walnut

1 of the 5 pieces of ash

The Template thanks to JC

 

[Splods]

Awesome, looking forward to this.

 

[kvnjcbsn93]

My time cutting and routing out the body went way better than last time. only 1 tear out and that was easily fixed!

now i need to get another piece of ash before i can start working on the neck. I under estimated how many pieces i would need for the neck. I am also waiting for my redwood burl top / black veneers, truss rod, fingerboard, and carbon fiber reinforcements to come in the mail.

 

[kvnjcbsn93]

Since the body is going to be chambered i decided to save some nice sapwood for the back so it actually shows.

btw these are going to be 33" scale.

 

[Splods]

What is the plan for the finish?

 

[eddo8862]

Hey do these basses come in a 5

 

[kvnjcbsn93]

What is the plan for the finish?

im planning on a clear satin finish. im going to experiment with tru-oil, water based lacquers, and rub on finishes. The neck is going to be the hard part since ash has very open grain and i need to figure out which will work best for that. if all else fails i dont see a reason not to send it to pat wilkins.

Hey do these basses come in a 5

actually i just do this as a hobby. but there are plenty of luthiers on this forum who could do something like this easily in a 5 string version. look around and pm them. i got my template from JC basses so you could always ask him.

 

[kvnjcbsn93]

i really wish i had a bandsaw. or at least a corded jig saw. after my jigsaw batteries die i have to get the neck pieces ready for glue up by hand.

 

[thebandcircle]

i really wish i had a bandsaw. or at least a corded jig saw. after my jigsaw batteries die i have to get the neck pieces ready for glue up by hand.

That's how I do it also..hehe

 

[kvnjcbsn93]

Just got my Redwood top and fingerboard in

Now i need to wait for the glue in the neck to be dry before i go and attempt to plane it by hand. and i also need to decide whether or not i want the neck exposed through the top or covered by the redwood.

 

[gbarcus]

I'd go full top if you have enough wood to cover the whole top. I'd be a shame not to use as much of that top as you can.
Although from a technical standpoint, having it on the wings and showing the neckthru is a lot easier to build.

 

[kvnjcbsn93]

it looks like i will have enough of the top to do the whole body and the headstock. the thing thats getting me thinking is the round overs if i do the whole body and getting the whole top level which is getting me thinking of making a plane jig for the router. and also how thick the tone block should be since i have a 8/4 of alder to use which will have to be thinned down to what im thinking of maybe 1" think so the neck can be around .75" thick.

 

[kvnjcbsn93]

alright so ive decided that the top will go on just the wings for how much easier it is to do, but i will make a matching ramp.

and a few questions
how and when should i carve the headstock angle. it seems like its going to be too thick for the jigsaw so is the best way just with a hand saw? and also how would i get the bottom part of the headstock if i go with the hand saw? if all else fails i can always look for someone with a band saw.

and does anywhere sell the delano xtender template for 6 string? best bass gear only has it for the 4 and 5 string.

 

[kvnjcbsn93]

so for now the neck through is a bust. luckly i have some left over ash for a one peice neck. im also going to try making a 2 part bridge out of rosewood and brass.

 

[kvnjcbsn93]

finially got to work here are some more recent pictures. they jump since i dident document as well as i should have so will post the more recent stuff. a few changes are that i bought a Nordy dual blade pickup and im going with a strat style jack on the backplate like a ritter and maybe figure out how to put a mustang style switch for dual coil and single coil switching.

putting the redwood top on
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body neck glued and bridge/tuners in
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thickness of neck. (high action due to nut slots not deep enough since i made it in about 5 min to just try out the spacing
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first coat of gel oil based urethane
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[reverendrally]

Looking good. Keep it up!

 

[sprocket123]

Wow nice bass & wood choices also !

 

[kvnjcbsn93]

final update
so i decided to re-finish it and finially got what i was looking for.
took 3 tries to make a good nut. The action is perfect and perfect other than the fact i have no adjustability since the truss rod is maxed out, hopefully it gets somewhat better as time goes on. the low b string is great even for a .125 with a 33" scale!
i also need to get a longer drill for the grounding wire since i went through the body and had to make a bigger cavity.

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[kvnjcbsn93]

Wow nice bass & wood choices also !

thanks!

also to add i used general finishes satin gel and it was great to work with. you just wipe on and wipe off and sand every few coats. the final coats for me went on really smooth so i dident even have to final sand from what i can tell.

 

[Splods]

You need to clean up that cavity cover man. Looks awesome though.