• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

9 string neck through build

M

Maximus5150

Jun 11, 2009
15
0
Minneapolis, MN
#1
Figured since I have a bunch of extra wood laying around I might put together a more challenging build. These specs may change.

9 string
through body neck
multi scale, centers on the 12th fret
try to make all parts except tuning machines and pots

Ripped and sized the neck pieces:

7881958274_514a69e78e.jpg


Gluing in my angle steel caul, normally I don't use that much glue to get that ammount of squeeze out but my top on the glue bottle was fighting me:

7881959130_76b44603f3.jpg


7881960136_102937cc1f.jpg


Cleaned up the neck blank and squared it up on the jointer:
7897574108_278679bb3c.jpg


7897572410_f5a61a9c3d.jpg


Neck woods are paduk, maple, walnut, maple, paduk, tigerwood. Not the best combo IMO, but it will work since this is a scrap wood build.

If any one has suggestions please let me know. I'll put up more pictures when I get further along. This one might be a longer term project.
 
#3
Nice looking neck blank. What scale lengths and tuning are you going with?

Have you played a multi-scale bass before? Dingwall uses the 7th fret as the parallel, I'm just curious how changing that might skew the fan into uncomfortable territory, especially up towards the nut.
 
#4
Have you made sure your laminations arent going to 'run out' anywhere up the neck? Like where it gets narrower towards the nut, it may interrupt one of them. You probably have and its just the massive size of a 9 string throwing me.
 
#5
Scale lengths: I'm thinking 35" and 32", I was looking at the Dingwall at the 7th fret. I may have to mock up what it will look/feel like if I do this at the 12th fret for the straight fret. Might just go with what I've seen works.


As far as the laminates getting cut off from the width getting cut down. The pieces of paduk on the ends are just outside of 5" which is roughly what my 24th fret will be, so they won't get cut off, but the walnut will probably get cut short. I kinda like the looks of laminates entering in the neck in the middle. Did a fretless bass that had that and it looked good, trick was to make sure the neck was symmetrical so it didn't look off center. But because this was a scrap build I didn't have a bunch of options for wood that had the length I needed.

I need to get back moving on this one, I'm still trying to figure out if I want a dark or light fretboard. I've got some cool figured schedua for the top, so i was thinking birds eye maple or curly for the fretboard to contrast or wenge(but not that great of a pretty piece).
 
#6
3" scale length increase across eight string gaps isn't much, and will result in fairly mild fret and bridge angles regardless of whether you go with seventh or twelfth fret perpendicular.

However there is a difference, and it pays to try them both out in fretfind to determine which you want.
 
#7
This is a 3" gap on 10 strings... you can see how it is with the 7th fret perpendicular.
I've also made an 8 with a 4" gap and the first fret was too angled on the lowest string.
 

Attachments

  • SUC53545.jpg
    SUC53545.jpg
    65.9 KB · Views: 272
#8
Triad said:
This is a 3" gap on 10 strings... you can see how it is with the 7th fret perpendicular.
I've also made an 8 with a 4" gap and the first fret was too angled on the lowest string.
Click to expand...

This looks exactly like the angles I want (beautiful guitar also, wow!). I did diagram out being straight on the 12th fret, didn't look very playable. I think I'm not going to experiment on this and just stick with 7th fret.

I don't want to get too crazy since I want to be able to play it and not just hang it on a wall as art. It will be interesting to see if my stubby fingers can work the 9 strings. I might need to tighten up the spacing a bit.
 
#10
Hi, I am building 2 12 string basses, fan fret 35"-29" with the 12 fret parallel...I printed a full scale drawing of the fretboard and transfer that to a plywood board and put on some frets and old strings just to feel how the centered fan would feel...For me felt great, I had never played any bass with fan fretboard, and I thought having it centered was better for me...With a 6" difference, much people could think the fan could be unplayable, but for me it works great.... So, maybe you could try to do the same, use some cheap wood to install frets and strings and try it, and decide were to have the parallel fret.
 
#11
I think the 2 higher strings will have much less volume than the thickest ones. And they're pretty "soft" under the fingertips, so maybe no reason to use such a short scale...
 
#13
Any of you guys that have put together such a wide fretboard. Did you radius the fretboard or did you keep it flat? I saw a ACG guitar that had a flat board for a 9 string when I was trying to see what others have done. I think that will be a good choice for me since I normally radius my personal boards around 20 in. Suggestions/comments, what are your experiences.
 
#14
I go flat, mostly by the recommendation of Oscar Prat from Prat basses....I have an 8 string and a 7 string, and they have 16" radius...They are nice, but is hard to play in the last string after 12 fret...And in a board that big, having to defeat the curve for playing the lower strings, mmm...I think that would break my wrist... For me flat is the way to go...
For my 12 strings I will have 15mm bridge distance...Nut is 3.5" equal spaces...
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back