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Black Limba, Rosewood 4-String Bass 1st Build

#41
Harry Cahyadi said:
It is looking great!!

I'm currently working with black limba too (http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f57/black-limba-single-cut-1054018/). I found that tear outs is something to do with the router speed and the routing direction (follow the grain direction).

I tried to lower the rpm as soon as I got a little tear out, and it has been working well so far.

For your tear outs at the horn, you can sand the affected part until you have got enough dust to fill the holes. Put a few drops of super glue into the filled holes. When the super glue is completely cured, sand it. With the black limba, I found the filled holes blend quite nicely.

I hope it helps...


Harry
Click to expand...

Yeah, I've had my router on its slowest speed for all of the work I've done on this bass so far. It must have been the direction part. Or maybe my speed pulling the router around, because I noticed when carving out my neck that if I went ridiculously slow holding the router and following the shape, tear outs were nearly eliminated. By the way, your build is looking great! You really found a beautiful piece of black limba.
 
#42
So.... I've run into an issue.

2aa0yg9.jpg


If you look at the truss rod route, its slightly curved which I just noticed only this morning looking at it. That means that my piece of bubinga that I used for my guide wasn't as straight as I had thought.... F$@^!!! :rollno: :scowl: So I'd like some advice. Basically, I would think that a slightly curved truss rod route would be a very bad thing. It seems like it would cause twisting, and basically be useless. Is that true? And if it is, should I just forget about the rosewood and try again? I can use that piece of bubinga, I just need it cut into two halves, because its like 1 7/8" thick or something. I figure it's good that I noticed this now, because I haven't glued the board down and put the truss in place, so it's not a complete waste. Should I just stop with this neck and let it be a learning curve? Or is it not as big of a deal I think it is, and maybe is still useable?
 
#45
I suppose that is a possibility, but I don't have experience with epoxy. It is probably off by no more than 1/32". I may just start over with the bubinga. When I routed the neck to size the color of the rosewood changed, and I wasn't crazy about how it looked with the mac ebony. It also would be a bit thicker than 1", so it would need some work to get it to fit in the neck pocket and have it set up properly. I thought about it a bit more and it may just be a better option to start over with the bubinga. I'm thinking now it would probably just make me happier. Maybe one day I'll come back and fix this blank. Thanks for the input though, I had just ruled it out in my mind as unfix-able and unusable.
 
#47
StarbardGuitar said:
I suppose that is a possibility, but I don't have experience with epoxy. It is probably off by no more than 1/32". I may just start over with the bubinga. When I routed the neck to size the color of the rosewood changed, and I wasn't crazy about how it looked with the mac ebony. It also would be a bit thicker than 1", so it would need some work to get it to fit in the neck pocket and have it set up properly. I thought about it a bit more and it may just be a better option to start over with the bubinga. I'm thinking now it would probably just make me happier. Maybe one day I'll come back and fix this blank. Thanks for the input though, I had just ruled it out in my mind as unfix-able and unusable.
Click to expand...

I would take out the truss rod, widen the route to achieve a straight route, cut a strip from the neck off-cut with the same width, glue it in (By this time, your neck will look like you haven't done the truss rod routing), and start again.

However, since the the fixing strip is wider, later on, in order to get rid of the glue line, you need to cut the wider cover strip to cover it up (the cover will be wider than the actual truss rod route).

Even you can do something like bubinga-maple-bubinga sandwich as the cover, so the cover will look like "floating stingers", if that makes sense.

I don't think anybody would be able to tell from the finish product.

I hope it makes sense and didn't confuse you :)


Harry
 
#50
Harry Cahyadi said:
I would take out the truss rod, widen the route to achieve a straight route, cut a strip from the neck off-cut with the same width, glue it in (By this time, your neck will look like you haven't done the truss rod routing), and start again.

However, since the the fixing strip is wider, later on, in order to get rid of the glue line, you need to cut the wider cover strip to cover it up (the cover will be wider than the actual truss rod route).

Even you can do something like bubinga-maple-bubinga sandwich as the cover, so the cover will look like "floating stingers", if that makes sense.

I don't think anybody would be able to tell from the finish product.

I hope it makes sense and didn't confuse you :)


Harry
Click to expand...

I don't quite understand what you mean. I get the first part, widening it so it becomes straight, and i could add a small strip or 2 if i need before re-routing so that the channel remains tight, but straight. I just don't understand the part about the cover?

I dont think Id worry about it. Does the truss rod turn without binding?
Click to expand...

Yes, it seems to turn easily, I have to give it a small turn so I can get it out of the slot.
 
#51
ctmullins said:
I don't see it as a problem at all.
Click to expand...


LightGroove said:
I dont think Id worry about it. Does the truss rod turn without binding?
Click to expand...

Hopkins said:
This
Click to expand...

Guys, no offense, but why shouldn't he worry about it?

To be honest, I'm not sure about the consequences. I have never had any experiences like that. However aesthetically, it will look crap.

If I were him I would've regreted it in the future by not fixing it, and I would hate to explain everytime somebody asked me about it.

However, it is not my call to make the decision. :)
 
#52
Harry Cahyadi said:
Guys, no offense, but why shouldn't he worry about it?

To be honest, I'm not sure about the consequences. I have never had any experiences like that. However aesthetically, it will look crap.

If I were him I would've regreted it in the future by not fixing it, and I would hate to explain everytime somebody asked me about it.

However, it is not my call to make the decision. :)
Click to expand...

How would it make any difference aesthetically when the fret board is glued on?
 
#53
It will not be seen, as it is routed from the top (the slot will be covered by the fingerboard). So I'm not worried about how it looks, only I will ever know, besides anyone whose seen this thread haha ;). My concern was just that it being slightly curved may cause uneven pressure when adjusting the neck, and I figured that could cause twisting or bumps in the neck/fingerboard. The truss does fit and seems to work properly, I just wanted to make sure structurally that it is okay.
 
#54
StarbardGuitar said:
It will not be seen, as it is routed from the top (the slot will be covered by the fingerboard). So I'm not worried about how it looks, only I will ever know, besides anyone whose seen this thread haha ;). My concern was just that it being slightly curved may cause uneven pressure when adjusting the neck, and I figured that could cause twisting or bumps in the neck/fingerboard. The truss does fit and seems to work properly, I just wanted to make sure structurally that it is okay.
Click to expand...

Ooppsss... sorry guys. I didn't pay attention to all photos. I thought you are doing the back route, fender style routing.

I apologise for all my non sense... :)
 
#57
lbridenstine said:
I'm not any sort of expert on the subject, but I would think that since the rod would move up or down when adjusted and not side to side, that it shouldn't matter. I'm sure if the curve of the route was bad enough you wouldn't have been able to get the truss rod in there in the first place.
Click to expand...

Well, there is the appearance of a chance that tightening the rod could cause the neck to deflect a bit to one side, but it's not likely. There is a lot more material to bend in those directions than the up/down directions.

If deflection was a real risk here, then every neck with two truss rods would potentially start bending off to the sides every time the rods were set with different levels of tension.


You'll be fine starbard. Next time, use MDF and plywood templates...those materials are quite a lot more stable.
 
#58
Thank you all for the help. You all brought up some good points, it does fit easily so it probably isn't curved that much. Which means that it twisting the neck would be insanely minimal, and there is a lot more wood side to side than thickness-wise. I will keep on going with the rosewood neck then, maybe next weekend, as I have limited time to work on this bass unfortunately. I think it will look great once it gets more shape. I will save the bubinga blank for another build, and it needs to get re-sawed into two halves which I can't do yet. I suppose my next task is getting the fretboard aligned properly and gluing it up!
 
#60
ctmullins said:
Actually, it sounds like your next task is getting a proper straightedge!

Big ;)!

Seriously, it's looking great!
Click to expand...

Haha, very true!

I decided to do just a little more work today since I will be busy for a while. So, I added one more slot on the fretboard for the nut; as it only had the slot for the edge of the nut closest to the first fret. So, I clamped a piece of mdf on the edge of the fingerboard and used an x-acto saw to cut the other slot.

2isjot1.jpg


2iaric9.jpg


All that crap on the fingerboard is residue from the stickers that lmii put on it. I will take care of it later.

I then aligned the fingerboard to the centerline using small nails. In this pic you'll see two on one end because the first attempt just pushed the nail too deep into the neck (shouldn't be an issue later I hope! :hiding: ) But I filed that one flush and re-did it, this time successful.

fbdrmf.jpg


Now the fingerboard is being clamped... I'm nervous to see how it all went, I really hope nothing got messed up!

10igvsy.jpg


I don't have a radius beam, because they are rather expensive, so I used a piece of pine with rulers taped to the sides to sort-of recreate a radius... I hope it works right.
 

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