Whapppp
That's the sound of curious slapping his forehead.
That is, of course, correct
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Build 9 - WB5 build for Dave
- Thread starter reverendrally
- Start date
That's the sound of curious slapping his forehead.
That is, of course, correct
Damn, I'm about to do a headless with individual tuners and no zero fret and didn't even think about that problem ... thanks for the heads up, it pays well to always be on the lookout for solutions of problems you didn't even know you had^^
Don't really get the 8 bolts on the neck though
Hopkins
Commercial User
Damn, I'm about to do a headless with individual tuners and no zero fret and didn't even think about that problem ... thanks for the heads up, it pays well to always be on the lookout for solutions of problems you didn't even know you had^^
Don't really get the 8 bolts on the neck though
A zero fret isn't necessary. A brass or aluminum nut will achieve the same goal. Or you can ground each individual saddle, which is not that big of a deal either.
Yeah, I think I will probably go for the smallest string spacing possible and put a strip of adhesive copper under it. Have to figure out if that's possible or the space between the tuners on the headless saddles need more space than the width of the saddles ... I definitely don't want that copper to show 
... Might also consider connecting the strings to each other on the "head piece" by machining it from conductive material.
... Might also consider connecting the strings to each other on the "head piece" by machining it from conductive material.
From the silence you may be tempted to think nothing has been happening in Casa Del Lento Aprendiz*... but NO!
Instead, I've been living up to my handle (which is "slowlearner" on most other forums). :rolleyes
I've often said, "learning to be a luthier is as much about learning to fix your own mistakes as it is about building guitars". Yet again I was right. So let me give you a run down on this week's pain.
The first thing I did was 're-inlay' the 2nd 12th fret dot marker. Dave and I inlayed it only to shave it off while shaping the neck. Hmmm, that's brains for you. Still easily fixed.
Then it was pickup route time. Really I should have known not to put the pickup template on the body on Monday. I'd already had a disaster with an engine and a notching tool. I should have realized whatever else I tried that day wasn't gonna be pretty. Anyhow... These are my templates.
These days I'm incredibly picky about templates. Especially PU templates. Because unlike some other parts of the bass, you can't hide a bad PU route. It sticks out like a sore thumb. So even these templates had hours of work in them. As you can see from the P template, everything pretty well nye on perfect. Well, as close as I can get WITHOUT CNC (yes, that's CNC envy you detect there).
So, after a LOT of measuring and ruling lines, I started drilling holes with forstners and the like. The point of this is to hog out most of the material before hitting the outlines with the router.
I'd had a few dramas with the outlines. So, following the tip of David Searle and TB luthier's corner wisdom, I tried a test piece using a 1/4" router bit with great results.
Having done all that, I got the templates on the body and got ready to route. All went well with the P template. There was one little issue, but nothing worth mentioning here. The neckbucker template was a different story. Basically, because I'd hogged out all the timber for the P PU, I was left with no reference line for the middle of the body. I thought I'd got it all straight and right. Until I took off the template...
That's when I got a nagging feeling it wasn't quite right. I'm not sure if you can see it, but basically the route was literally 1mm out. Maybe even a little less. I say, "less" because the top and bottom edge of the PU shell isn't actually a straight line. In fact the whole thing is a bit of an oval with corners, if you get my meaning.
Not happy. Not happy at all. I agonized over it for a couple of days and then sent Dave a pic of the body to hear his thoughts. I had some possible fixes, but all of them seemed like a lot of hard work. They included things like wooden pickup covers and pickguards. Dave was (understandably) not keen on either. Heck, neither was I.
So what to do?
The short answer was, I put it all on the shelf and attended to some other disasters for a few days. This afternoon I came back to it. After doing LOTS of measuring and ruling lines and right angles again, I came up with a plan. Because the top and bottom lines of template (and PU shell) were slightly curved, I could get away with using it again. All I had to do was twist it so that I got a straight line on the top left and bottom right corners. Sounds simple, right?
Umm, yeah sure. It is simple. However, again, you only get one shot at this. Screw it up and it's new body time. I really was trying to avoid that. So there was measuring, lining up, eyeballing, lining up, panicking, re-measuring, etc. And that was before I even got the double sided tape on the template. Finally, I sucked it up and fired up the router...
I had to reposition the router in between different corners, but it's a win. PHEW! 8|
Now, let the sanding, drilling, detailing and scorching begin.
I have a 20 something point list and most of it looks straight forward.
'Looks', being the operative word. 
*(Spanish, lit; the house of slowly learner)
Instead, I've been living up to my handle (which is "slowlearner" on most other forums). :rolleyes
I've often said, "learning to be a luthier is as much about learning to fix your own mistakes as it is about building guitars". Yet again I was right. So let me give you a run down on this week's pain.
The first thing I did was 're-inlay' the 2nd 12th fret dot marker. Dave and I inlayed it only to shave it off while shaping the neck. Hmmm, that's brains for you. Still easily fixed.
Then it was pickup route time. Really I should have known not to put the pickup template on the body on Monday. I'd already had a disaster with an engine and a notching tool. I should have realized whatever else I tried that day wasn't gonna be pretty. Anyhow... These are my templates.
These days I'm incredibly picky about templates. Especially PU templates. Because unlike some other parts of the bass, you can't hide a bad PU route. It sticks out like a sore thumb. So even these templates had hours of work in them. As you can see from the P template, everything pretty well nye on perfect. Well, as close as I can get WITHOUT CNC (yes, that's CNC envy you detect there).
So, after a LOT of measuring and ruling lines, I started drilling holes with forstners and the like. The point of this is to hog out most of the material before hitting the outlines with the router.
I'd had a few dramas with the outlines. So, following the tip of David Searle and TB luthier's corner wisdom, I tried a test piece using a 1/4" router bit with great results.
Having done all that, I got the templates on the body and got ready to route. All went well with the P template. There was one little issue, but nothing worth mentioning here. The neckbucker template was a different story. Basically, because I'd hogged out all the timber for the P PU, I was left with no reference line for the middle of the body. I thought I'd got it all straight and right. Until I took off the template...
That's when I got a nagging feeling it wasn't quite right. I'm not sure if you can see it, but basically the route was literally 1mm out. Maybe even a little less. I say, "less" because the top and bottom edge of the PU shell isn't actually a straight line. In fact the whole thing is a bit of an oval with corners, if you get my meaning.
Not happy. Not happy at all. I agonized over it for a couple of days and then sent Dave a pic of the body to hear his thoughts. I had some possible fixes, but all of them seemed like a lot of hard work. They included things like wooden pickup covers and pickguards. Dave was (understandably) not keen on either. Heck, neither was I.
So what to do?
The short answer was, I put it all on the shelf and attended to some other disasters for a few days. This afternoon I came back to it. After doing LOTS of measuring and ruling lines and right angles again, I came up with a plan. Because the top and bottom lines of template (and PU shell) were slightly curved, I could get away with using it again. All I had to do was twist it so that I got a straight line on the top left and bottom right corners. Sounds simple, right?
Umm, yeah sure. It is simple. However, again, you only get one shot at this. Screw it up and it's new body time. I really was trying to avoid that. So there was measuring, lining up, eyeballing, lining up, panicking, re-measuring, etc. And that was before I even got the double sided tape on the template. Finally, I sucked it up and fired up the router...
I had to reposition the router in between different corners, but it's a win. PHEW! 8|
Now, let the sanding, drilling, detailing and scorching begin.
I have a 20 something point list and most of it looks straight forward.
'Looks', being the operative word. *(Spanish, lit; the house of slowly learner)
Manton Customs
UK Luthier
Glad to see you got it sorted, must have been a big relief! You probably already figured it out, but what you can do to avoid this mistake in the future is to drill with the Forstner bit while your templates are attached, this also ensures you don't go over the line as it's more obvious if you hit the pickup template than over the line.
Spent most of the night and this morning sanding and detail shaping bits and pieces of the body. In retrospect, some of the sanding has now become a little less important. This is because Dave took this sentence literally...
At first I thought he was joking, coz the only scorching I was planning on doing was with my logo branding iron. Turned out he was quite serious so we broke out the butane torch and he started burning things...
Starting with the back of the body first. Avoid the edges coz they burn REALLY fast. In the end, we found going and up and down the grain got the best effect. You can burn quite dark patches on the timber, coz sanding it back afterwards is pretty easy. The heat also opened up a few cracks in the timber and loosened one glue joint on the front a little. This is not a big drama. We just filled it with superglue and sanded it back. Here's the final look for the mo...
The front.
The back.
If you're wondering how the oil will change the finish, here's a pic of shellite (Naptha) on the back of the body. (For some reason Dave said we shouldn't turn the blow torch back on while I was poring it on the body. I wonder why?
)
The pic doesn't do it full justice, but basically you ended up with a finish that is the colour of bourbon. I'm not a whisky drinker at all, but whenever I see this finish I instantly feel like a bourbon.
Mmmmm, soft, smooth, mottled, gorgeous. Droooooool.
BTW, of all the basses I've done so far, my wife loved the look of the last scorched one the best. Dave's should be equally good or better.
At first I thought he was joking, coz the only scorching I was planning on doing was with my logo branding iron. Turned out he was quite serious so we broke out the butane torch and he started burning things...
Starting with the back of the body first. Avoid the edges coz they burn REALLY fast. In the end, we found going and up and down the grain got the best effect. You can burn quite dark patches on the timber, coz sanding it back afterwards is pretty easy. The heat also opened up a few cracks in the timber and loosened one glue joint on the front a little. This is not a big drama. We just filled it with superglue and sanded it back. Here's the final look for the mo...
The front.
The back.
If you're wondering how the oil will change the finish, here's a pic of shellite (Naptha) on the back of the body. (For some reason Dave said we shouldn't turn the blow torch back on while I was poring it on the body. I wonder why?
)The pic doesn't do it full justice, but basically you ended up with a finish that is the colour of bourbon. I'm not a whisky drinker at all, but whenever I see this finish I instantly feel like a bourbon.
Mmmmm, soft, smooth, mottled, gorgeous. Droooooool.
BTW, of all the basses I've done so far, my wife loved the look of the last scorched one the best. Dave's should be equally good or better.
Got stuck into a few other things this arvo. The last of them was my brand. I can't tell you how much fun it is to heat up the branding iron and watch it smoke as you brand the timber...
I've put it on the body next to the neck pocket, because the headstock has a black veneer and it wouldn't show.
To my surprise, the body was actually ready to be oiled. I'm trying a different product this time. Watco Danish oil. I had some dramas with some I'd bought from Masters (I couldn't undo the top), but once I'd swapped it over I was ready. The thing that always surprises me is just how much oil the timber absorbs when you first oil it. I took this pic after applying a lot of oil to the bass and it still looks like there's almost none on it...
The way the bass has been scorched also highlights the laminations on the bouts. I'm pretty pleased with how it's going. Course there's still plenty of work to do.
The next trick is to get the neck ready for oil. Plenty of sanding ahead there.
I've put it on the body next to the neck pocket, because the headstock has a black veneer and it wouldn't show.
To my surprise, the body was actually ready to be oiled. I'm trying a different product this time. Watco Danish oil. I had some dramas with some I'd bought from Masters (I couldn't undo the top), but once I'd swapped it over I was ready. The thing that always surprises me is just how much oil the timber absorbs when you first oil it. I took this pic after applying a lot of oil to the bass and it still looks like there's almost none on it...
The way the bass has been scorched also highlights the laminations on the bouts. I'm pretty pleased with how it's going. Course there's still plenty of work to do.
The next trick is to get the neck ready for oil. Plenty of sanding ahead there.
- Apr 18, 2008
- 16,007
- 1
- 31,701
- Disclosures
- I'm highly opinionated and extremely self-assured
Got the neck and body together. Hmm, a very, very satin finish. The Danish oil I used is a lot different to the tru-oil I've used in the past. Hopefully it's owner will be just as happy...
Totally on the home straight with this bass. Shame it's such a hot day to be in the shed!
Got all the shielding done and the pickups and hardware on the bass yesterday. I'm really starting to dig this.
There's been some discussion about how to deal with trussrod accessibility. Dave was keen to the the slot open, so he wouldn't need any tools to get into the trussrod beyond an allen key. I can see the attraction of this at a gig. That said, I wasn't really happy with the aesthetic of the slot and wanted to cover it up. So while I was out for my walk this morning, I got thinking about the trussrod cover I pulled off an ibanez a few years back...
Basically, you can just slide a little door sideways and get to the trussrod, but it's neat and covered up the rest of the time. Then I realized, I could easily create something similar. It's just about putting 1 screw in the right spot and radiusing one bottom edge slightly. Here it is...
Closed
Open
The screw hold's it down and it doesn't move unless you push it aside, then you have heaps of access to get to the allen end truss rod. Here's a pic without all the tape, all finished.
I believe the expression is "Sano".
Got all the shielding done and the pickups and hardware on the bass yesterday. I'm really starting to dig this.
There's been some discussion about how to deal with trussrod accessibility. Dave was keen to the the slot open, so he wouldn't need any tools to get into the trussrod beyond an allen key. I can see the attraction of this at a gig. That said, I wasn't really happy with the aesthetic of the slot and wanted to cover it up. So while I was out for my walk this morning, I got thinking about the trussrod cover I pulled off an ibanez a few years back...
Basically, you can just slide a little door sideways and get to the trussrod, but it's neat and covered up the rest of the time. Then I realized, I could easily create something similar. It's just about putting 1 screw in the right spot and radiusing one bottom edge slightly. Here it is...
Closed
Open
The screw hold's it down and it doesn't move unless you push it aside, then you have heaps of access to get to the allen end truss rod. Here's a pic without all the tape, all finished.
I believe the expression is "Sano".
- Apr 18, 2008
- 16,007
- 1
- 31,701
- Disclosures
- I'm highly opinionated and extremely self-assured
IT LIVES! And the P PU sounds amazing. The neckbucker... werl, there's some work that needs doing there. Course the Nordy P is totally overwound, so that's probably part of it.
@collins81; it's my easy way of inlaying something permanent without having to inlay anything.
...and burning stuff if just fun right.
@collins81; it's my easy way of inlaying something permanent without having to inlay anything.
...and burning stuff if just fun right. I do love fire.IT LIVES! And the P PU sounds amazing. The neckbucker... werl, there's some work that needs doing there. Course the Nordy P is totally overwound, so that's probably part of it.
@collins81; it's my easy way of inlaying something permanent without having to inlay anything.
Mmmm, fire.... (hopeless pyros)
How do you mean? You mean, across the grain? Coz we found the best effects we could get were with the grain. Otherwise you get a less consistent scorch and it looked very patchy.
Oh BTW, I brand my logo into every bass. Not just this one.
How do you mean? You mean, across the grain? Coz we found the best effects we could get were with the grain. Otherwise you get a less consistent scorch and it looked very patchy.
Oh BTW, I brand my logo into every bass. Not just this one.
