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Acoustic Electric Bass
- Thread starter mapleglo
- Start date
Sanded the edge of the top flush with the shell this morning.
Now that the shell is glued on, I don't understand how you're going to attach the neck.
The body has 6 holes in the neck pocket:
The neck has 6 studs coming out of the inserts. I'll use nuts, tightened through the sound hole, to secure the neck.
No, on purpose. It's heavy. I'll guess it'll be about 9 pounds or so.
No binding. That's an issue I've always had with acoustic guitars. They're thick, and that bound sharp edge always dug into my forearm. I'm planing on just doing a round over around the perimeter of the body.
Those will be perfect for playing this winter!A local music store, Boogie Music, was advertising on Craig's list that they has bass strings for $8.00 a set. I stopped by today to pick up a set for this bass. Many of the sets were for 32" scale, but I saw these, and went for it.
Cryogenic activated? Count me in!
BassHappy
Supporting Member
Hey mapleglo
I bet the first few "rubber bands" were the hardest, especially with wet glue on there - getting it to hold into proper position.
The natural look of the top is really nice, you don't need to do a whole lot. I love the subtle almost rounded swirls - they remind me of the back of my Warwick Alien - and a natural clear finish would be just the ticket on yours. Of course, the front of my Alien is so plain jane - I wish it was more like yours with some figure on the front.
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I did have the advantage that two of the neck mounting bolts go through the shell perimeter brace, which helped to hold the top in place. But yeah, my fingers still hurt from dealing with those rubber bands. I enjoyed cutting them off when the glue was cured
And I'm pretty certain I'll just go with the clear lacquer I have in stock - that seems to be my preference.
Oh, and I weighed the body - 5 and a half pounds, so my 9 pound total estimate is probably going to be pretty close.
What's the verdict on your sound hole? I noticed you had cut a fairly substantial circular hole to give you access to the neck bolts. Are you keeping it at that or making a pretty cover? It could always be a removable cover (magnets?) so that you can regain easy access to the bolts if any adjustments are needed...
Whatever you do, your builds are a huge amount of fun to watch. I'm so jealous that you seem to have the weather to get work done so regularly - It hasn't been dry in my home town for more than a couple of hours at a time on the weekends for weeks now!
What's the verdict on your sound hole? I noticed you had cut a fairly substantial circular hole to give you access to the neck bolts. Are you keeping it at that or making a pretty cover? It could always be a removable cover (magnets?) so that you can regain easy access to the bolts if any adjustments are needed...
Whatever you do, your builds are a huge amount of fun to watch. I'm so jealous that you seem to have the weather to get work done so regularly - It hasn't been dry in my home town for more than a couple of hours at a time on the weekends for weeks now!
For now, I'll leave the sound hole as is. I may dress it up in the future. And regarding the weather, that's one reason I moved to Phoenix. The summers are a little rough, but I like the warm weather.
OK, all dry, and rough trimmed.
I missed soaking some areas completely.
And I got some ripples.
But after a little sanding and a round over, I think it'll be ok for a test/concept instrument.
I think I'll spend a little time assembling it for a test run, to see if it's worth putting more time and effort completing it. I'd have to paint the back, maybe with that Duratex, and nitro the front.
I missed soaking some areas completely.
And I got some ripples.
But after a little sanding and a round over, I think it'll be ok for a test/concept instrument.
I think I'll spend a little time assembling it for a test run, to see if it's worth putting more time and effort completing it. I'd have to paint the back, maybe with that Duratex, and nitro the front.
I have one thing to say. It weighs 11 pounds.
Ok, so I spent a little time setting it up. I have to say I'm impressed with that G&L neck. I'll have to buy one or two more. What a bargain at $35. Though in addition to the fret dressing, I might have spent some time leveling them. Oddly enough, it had a slight back bow before I mounted it. After, with the string tension, it was dead flat. I had to add a little relief to address fret buzz.
Beside the neck, I'm not impressed with the acoustic volume. I had hoped it would be louder. I'd say it's louder than a solid body, but not nearly enough to play acoustically with a couple of guitarists or a piano. I still have to wire it up to see how it sounds through the pickup.
I'm also a little disappointed with the weight.
But that said, I did this build to determine the feasibility of this kind of project. I think if I use fiberglass sheet instead of the cloth for the first body layers, that will save some weight, and increase strength. It'll have to be sanded and painted though. Additionally, the top is way too thick. I might try some kind of hardwood framework (bracing), with a very thin top wood. That would also save a ton of weight. So I may save these parts and try another at some point, using the experience from this build. I'm still undecided about putting in any major work on this, like a nitro finish on the top. I'd need to do some significant sanding first, as it's pretty rough. Remember, I used the wrong side - the good side is facing inward
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Consider this mach 1 of your acoustic bass build. So far you've said you could change thigns and save weight and so forth. BAsed on it, and i do agree with you, i wouldn't put much more into making it an everyday "unplugged" gigging bass. I'm sure mach II, with the improvements over mach I, will be greater and overall better. My halloween costume build took me a year of correct planning (and loads of useless spends) to have a final mach costume that i was satisfied with. Although some minor flaws and last minute updates that didn't perform correctly, i was still happy with it. And now i know what to improve on and what i keep. Yes it's totally different from a costume made of foam and fabric to a bass made of wood and electronics, but the basis is the same. The more trials you do, the more key parts from each will stay along the way while improving on existing around it.
Best of luck, and mach II is surely going to be the ONE
Best of luck, and mach II is surely going to be the ONE
Yeah, "plastic" is a pretty vague term. I suppose one could argue that the resin I used could be considered "plastic". That said, the Ovation I have seems to be made from some sort of plastic. What specific type is the question. It's pretty strong, yet light. According to their website and Wikipedia, they use a plastic called "lyrachord", which is some kind of composite synthetic, which is further described as "interwoven layers of glass filament and bonding resin". Sounds a lot like fiberglass to me.
So that's one reason I think I should have used the fiberglass sheet instead of the cloth. I think it would be stronger and lighter. Well, I need to pay down my credit card a bit, and then perhaps I can start on "Mach 2" of this build.
