A fiver started…

[Dark Horse]

While I’m feeling good, I decided to glue up a body for a future build. Everything else I have is a little bit on hold right now while everything dries up and gets ready. I have scans today and then chemo tomorrow, so it’s doubtful that I’m gonna feel good enough to do any real amounts of work for a bit.

Anyway, here are the basic specs…

Walnut top
Alder back
Maple neck with walnut stringers
Rosewood fretboard
21 frets
34” scale
1 7/8” nut
19mm spacing
Hipshot hardware
Nordstrand, bartolini, or EMG pickups

Here are the basic body and neck templates

This is the top, glued up.

I used 3/8” dowels to register and keep the top from sliding out of place during glue up

And here is the body, glued and clamped….

You can ever have enough clamps !!!

By the way, when I use this many clamps, I am not clamping them down hard. I would rather use more clamps with a little less pressure on each one, instead of using less clamps with more pressure. It distributes the pressure more evenly and I find gives me a better glue up. I’m just going till they’re tight, but not on a death grip…

 

[JRA]

damn, man --- you're on fire! totally badass!

 

[Dark Horse]

damn, man --- you're on fire! totally badass!

Thanks man… Just trying to get things done while I can. I can only manage to work about an hour at a time at best, so trying to do little things. Or do things that can set me up for later.

I have scans here in an hour, hopefully I’ll know by the end of the week whether the current treatment is working. If it is, we will continue with the plan. If not, we will have to adjust and try something different.

 

[JRA]

Just trying to get things done while I can.

hang in! you're doing a bunch --- i hope all goes according to plan!

 

[burgerdj]

Here’s to many more days of feeling good! I’ve always admired your work and appreciate the effort you give despite the challenges. Would love to see one of your creations in person.

 

[Dark Horse]

Here’s to many more days of feeling good! I’ve always admired your work and appreciate the effort you give despite the challenges. Would love to see one of your creations in person.

Thank you

 

[Dark Horse]

hang in! you're doing a bunch --- i hope all goes according to plan!

Thanks, my friend !

 

[JRA]

 

[Dark Horse]

My chemo brain fog is definitely affecting me… I had planned to route wiring channels before gluing the top on. Stupid. Oh well, gotta do it “old school” with the long drill bits later…

 

[definenredefine]

I'm in. Hope your scans yield good news!

 

[Five or Six]

Hoping everything will be fine! your build looks great! I especially like the headstock. It's good therapy, keep moving. You will beat this!

 

[Dark Horse]

I’m going to pull the clamps off tomorrow. It’s been hot and humid here, so I figured an extra 24 hours of clamp time wouldn’t hurt

 

[Dark Horse]

Out of clamps and basic shape cut out. This one is going to be nice and light, it is only 5 lbs. 5 oz. and hasn’t even had the control cavity, pick up cavities, neck pocket, or contours done yet ! I fully expect when this bass is complete, It should be between 8 1/2 and 9 pounds, which is amazing for a five string!

 

[Dark Horse]

Starting to make the neck block. The first thing to glue up is the center section, which is made of two flame maple one by twos. The actual nominal size of this is 1 1/2” x .75” each, for a total of 1.5” x 1.5” . I will be adding walnut stringers and finishing it out with more flame maple, but doing it this way gives a nice solid center section for the truss rod to sit in. Plus, being that this is figured wood, a multi laminate like this (with the center block rotated) will add strengthen and rigidity to the neck. And it will still have the coolness of a flame maple look.

After the glue is dried (in about 24 hours), I will add the stringers and glue up the entire neck blank. After that, it will go to the planer for surfacing.

 

[Dark Horse]

Cut the walnut stringers from a 1x2 and then ran them through the planer to get them to size. I may opt to make them even skinnier, but I wanted to at least mock up the neck with them at this size first. My original plan was to use some walnut veneer, but it was just too thin and made it look like a bad glue joint

When cutting them with a bandsaw it’s important to feed the wood sloooooooowly so the the blade stays as straight as possible.

 

[Dark Horse]

A little denatured alcohol…. Gonna be a pretty one !

 

[Dark Horse]

Usually I’m the guy building more classic stuff…. Not the “coffee table” basses. But this one’s fun, and I need a great 5er !

 

[Dark Horse]

So today I’ve been feeling decent, and in conjunction with that I do have some good news… Talked to my oncologist, and she said “you have had an amazing reaction to treatment” ! So it looks like I may live through this round of cancer! Maybe I did my will, medical power of attorney, and all that stuff for no reason! Too early to say what the definitive outlook is, but they did not expect me to be able to be fighting back this cancer because it was so widespread, aggressive, but here I am, still kicking !!!


OK, now the good news aside……

Since I’m feeling good, I was able to get a lot done today. Part of it was working on an urn for my father-in-law’s ashes. I was asked to make this, and so not only is it honor, it’s something I take extremely seriously. It’s going to be teak and walnut. I did some of the glue ups today, and then tomorrow or the next day I’m gonna start doing test cuts on other boards to make sure that my 45 degree angles are dialed in for the box.

Once I got the glue up done, I decided to work on the five string. I took the Neck center stripe out of clamps, and then cut it down to size… 1 inch. Then I did a glue up with the walnut strainers and the outside flame maple on the neck. It’s all clamped up and just drying.

With that done, I turned my attention to the body. I routed the control cavity, and made the template for the Nordstrand Fat Stack pickups. I have not routed to pickups yet, as I just ordered a new bit from Amana Tool. If you have not used Amana bits, I highly recommend them. You will be glad that you tried them! Anyway, that should be here in the morning sometime, and I will route the pickup cavities at that point. I will also drill the wiring channels then.

Here are a few pics…..

 

[Dark Horse]

These bits are the shizz….

 

[definenredefine]

So glad for your good news!