Build II - Paradox MJ5 - New design!

[roberthabraken]

Thanks dremy

As you might have read in the side-topic-thread about the fact that the body didn't stay perfectly flat, I decided to just see what happens in the coming month(s).

Today I did some thinking and puzzling on how to proceed. So not much to report, apart from this mockup I made (nothing new, just a cool picture):

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[roberthabraken]

Oh, and I weighed the body, it's 1955 grams right now (4.3 lbs), so with the neck pocket and pickup routings it'll be less than 4 lbs I guess. It feels very light (although it would've even been lighter without the Maple top, being a full Swamp Ash body), but what do you think? Is it light or just regular / medium in weight? My previous Mahogany / Maple body was much heavier.

 

[octaedro7]

Looking nicer and nicer Rob, congrats.
If you end up with a 4 kg instrument, it's more than decent for a 5er IMO.

 

[MrBEAR]

Nice work Robert.

A holiday salute for you:

 

[roberthabraken]

Thank you!

That beer looks tasty! It's brewed not far from my hometown, but I must admit I never tasted it. Let's fix that next time I'm going out for groceries

 

[whodom]

You guys are making me thirsty!

 

[MrBEAR]

Sold in four packs and Magnum Single Bottles.

My all time favorite for sure, but........ be aware that it is a 10.5% alcohol content product so please enjoy at home. Man I wish my home was near the brewery.

The ladies even like it, especially with a gooey dark choclate cake, as this thick dark beer drinks like a meal.

Enjoy!

 

[roberthabraken]

That sounds delicious!!

Now for some progress:

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Next step is to make the veneers and thin the headstock part down, then glueing..

 

[dremy2006]

**Beautiful** *\0/*

 

[roberthabraken]

**Beautiful** *\0/*

Thank you sir

Some small progress again for today: I am halfway creating a peghead veneer.

I selected a piece of leftover from the flamed Maple top, with the Wenge veneer at the back. It's about 6 mm thick and I need the veneer to be 2 mm thick in the end. Difficulty is that it bent like crazy with the already slightly warped Maple core, the Wenge veneer and lots of Titebond. So I made a sled and mounted the piece on it, forcing it back to flat. I figured that if I'd thin it from the back, I remove the Wenge and glue, so removing the stress from the sandwich and I'll end up with a rather flat piece of Maple I can use as a veneer.

All went well, but when I was thinning the top with the sled on my router table, I noticed that when I reached 4 mm thickness, the center of the piece started to bend in the other direction... This would make my veneer uneven, so I stopped right away, removed the Maple from the sled and cut out the piece I needed from the larger leftover:

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Now, I will need to find another way to plane it down further, but since this piece is smaller and a lot less bent, I think that won't be much of a problem. But to continue the way I was planing the piece would've led to an uneven veneer.

This bass serves me a lot of experience working with wood that is not working with me. It's slowing things down but it's a great experience. In the meantime I'm pondering about my home made drum sander and dreaming about buying a jointer / thichkness planer and bandsaw.

 

[roberthabraken]

Sorry to keep you all waiting for so long, but the slow pace is killing me too.. last weekend I finally had time to work on the bass for a little longer, but, of course, I got ill.. oh I hate stomach flu.

Well, today I threw a rail jig together to plane the peghead veneer down to 2 mm. And so I did. No complications this time, but no pictures either (cell phone battery died). I routed it from the top using the enlarged router base plate I made for the scarf joint jig. Looks good and can't wait to proceed with the neck.

Next I'll plane the headstock down before glueing the scarf joint. After that the veneers and then onto the rods.

 

[roberthabraken]

So, this are the parts that'll become the headstock, including the previously thinned down flamed maple piece, matching the top of the body:

I made a quick planing jig to thin the headstock down from 20 mm to a tad under 13 mm:

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Came out great! The total thickness of the sandwich is 15.61 mm, so I have about 0.1 mm left to sand off during the shaping to get at my desired 15.5 mm headstock thickness:

 

[tZer]

Lookin' good!

Between you and Pilot Jones, man, I am getting all sorts of jiggy to start my next build!!!

Gotta keep watching you guys and living vicariously for a while. But you guys make it really hard to not buy up a load of wood and start making sawdust!!

 

[T-34]

tZer, don't end like me, I am now stocked with enough wood to build 3 or 4 basses without even starting to draw the first one

 

[whodom]

So Rob, what's happening with your body after ~2 weeks? Worse, better, or no change?

 

[roberthabraken]

Lookin' good!

Between you and Pilot Jones, man, I am getting all sorts of jiggy to start my next build!!!

Gotta keep watching you guys and living vicariously for a while. But you guys make it really hard to not buy up a load of wood and start making sawdust!!

Thank you, it's nice to inspire . And I *loved* your last build, so I wouldn't mind...

So Rob, what's happening with your body after ~2 weeks? Worse, better, or no change?

Well, visually it seemed to get better, but actually, there's no measureable difference. So I'd say, two months after gluing, it's stable.

 

[roberthabraken]

And then, we wait...

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[roberthabraken]

And the result, seems a nice joint:

So I marked the center and layed out the templates on it:

This is how the headstock will look, I like it a lot myself!

But on the other side the glue line didn't look as good as I'd hoped. Although the pieces fit well, at the edge the glue line isn't as invisible as it could be. I decided to carry on, I do not think it's a problem structurally, but I hope it turns out better when shaped. But I do think it's a pitty, I prepared this one rather well, but oh well.

I removed some material for inspection:

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And cleaned up the face of the headstock part of the neck, over here the joint looks perfect. Seems I need to plane the surface better before gleuing next time, I guess:

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Now onto the rod channels....

 

[Ol'Bass'ead]

Thats one of the reasons I put the headstock on top. Not only does the joint disappear (pretty much) after shaping the neck, but the fingerboard strengthens the joint. But yours looks just fine, and should, like you say, be structurally sound.

 

[roberthabraken]

Thats one of the reasons I put the headstock on top. Not only does the joint disappear (pretty much) after shaping the neck, but the fingerboard strengthens the joint. But yours looks just fine, and should, like you say, be structurally sound.

Thanks for the tip and the confirmation about the strength. For some reason, the way I did it felt easier to hide because the seam won't become a part of the neck carving, but I'll take it in consideration for next time. By the way, I will lock the joint with the veneers on the front and the veneers will be sandwiched by the neck and the fingerboard at the nut.