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Build II - Paradox MJ5 - New design!

#423
Find yourself something barrel shaped that has the same radius to that which you want, tape sandpaper to it and sand in a concave radius to a laminated piece of pine. This probably means breaking into your neighbour's garden and furiously rubbing your wood against their water butt. This is best done in private with your own personal barrel, boiler or whatever.

Either that or build a temporary router sled to rout a radius. Since you can't do this directly to your workpiece thanks to the slots and inlays, you can carry this out on a long block of wood to make a convex radius and then do the same procedure above to transfer this to a second block in concave. This does run the risk of cumulative error and increasing tolerance however, so plenty of checking at all stages as is obvious.

The third option is to use a small block plane to add the radius in coarse form for subsequent tuning using the small sanding block, however this will again not work since you have already slotted and inlaid the board. Perhaps useful to note for future builds? (hint, make more since you obviously have the talent and capability)

I have made my own sanding blocks from pine before which I regarded as single use due to the wood's tendency to move out of whack. I intend on making myself a full width/length set of blocks from laminated Birch this autumn, perhaps stealing time on a CNC to do so. Sorry this doesn't help you now, however *it might help you more when you start making more and more instruments*.

To be fair, there is no reason the existing block can't do the job as long as you do full length single direction strokes, regularly mark up the board with a pencil to observe progress and check it with a straightedge and dead flat sanding stick. I never finish my radii using a radiused block, just dial in the majority of the work before tuning it out with a flat thing. If you can reliably measure both a radius and a straight line then you're already 90% of the way there.

Is my subletly showing? Certainly not from my wanderingly aimless and poorly formed posting. :ninja::ninja::ninja::ninja::ninja:
 
#424
Thanks Prostheta, but to be honest I know all alternatives, even more than you state, but they all take more time and money, which I do not have or like to spend. I did my research fairly well on this topic and just ventilated my displeasure about the non-matching block I've bought. I do not really need suggestions at this point, because I discussed it extensively elsewhere and I want to stick to the building diary with this thread.

By the way, do you have a build thread our some finished work to show? Just being curious because you always chime in with lots of tips, seems you have a lot of experience.
 
#425
I wouldn't say I have a lot of experience....apart from that which I learned by doing things incorrectly :-D
There are no build threads on here as of yet, as I am pretty awful at documenting my work whilst I am doing it....whether than be the tunnel vision of being a man or my Aspergers, I have no idea.

I tend to try and offer what I can purely because I am currently extremely limited in what I can build since we moved to here from England.

I'm a "professional hack". My creedo is that I only make mistakes once, and I will be perfect when I have made every mistake feasible. Like a crash test dummy of sorts.
 
#426
roberthabraken said:
Thanks Prostheta, but to be honest I know all alternatives, even more than you state, but they all take more time and money, which I do not have or like to spend. I did my research fairly well on this topic and just ventilated my displeasure about the non-matching block I've bought. I do not really need suggestions at this point, because I discussed it extensively elsewhere and I want to stick to the building diary with this thread.

By the way, do you have a build thread our some finished work to show? Just being curious because you always chime in with lots of tips, seems you have a lot of experience.
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Hey Robert....'tis the weekend and it is about time you posted a bit more progress plus photos of the "finishing line beer" or two!

I have created a new thread here purely since you asked. I haven't really involved myself in the TB community till this point so I place the blame squarely on your shoulders for this one.:D
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f57/aria-sb-black-n-gold-tribute-build-875518/
 
#427
Prostheta said:
Hey Robert....'tis the weekend and it is about time you posted a bit more progress plus photos of the "finishing line beer" or two!

I have created a new thread here purely since you asked. I haven't really involved myself in the TB community till this point so I place the blame squarely on your shoulders for this one.:D
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f57/aria-sb-black-n-gold-tribute-build-875518/
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Lol, great :smug: ! The more contributions, the better :D. Your work looks very nice I must say, and of course, I subscribed.

About my progress..: well, I've started building a radius block myself, but I lost motivation very early in the process. For only 18 euro incl. shipping I've ordered one on eBay that should be wide enough (if the given measurements are correct). Now I only have to wait two more weeks before I can proceed with the neck. But I can do some work on the body until then... if I have time.. very busy at work and at home, very little sleep (due to my youngest child getting his first teeth).

So this thread will be on hold for a little while. With some renewed energy I might kickoff later next month.
 
#428
I know how you feel. My patience is somewhat limited due to the pressures of ensuring our son gets the best chop on the block in getting to Varala sports college here in Finland. Whilst his existing motivation is probably enough, as a parent you can never feel it is enough.

In the meantime I am sure you can drill some pretty sweet strap peg holes and document the process for us whilst drinking fine beer. Hint hint.
 
#429
Prostheta said:
I know how you feel. My patience is somewhat limited due to the pressures of ensuring our son gets the best chop on the block in getting to Varala sports college here in Finland. Whilst his existing motivation is probably enough, as a parent you can never feel it is enough.

In the meantime I am sure you can drill some pretty sweet strap peg holes and document the process for us whilst drinking fine beer. Hint hint.
Click to expand...

You're right... :smug: Actually, I'm drinking a Gulpener Lentebock right now (a spring bock / Maibock style beer from a Dutch brewery), just didn't feel like putting a picture up here, 'cause I have no progess to go with it. But anyways, cheers!
 
#431
Encouraged by some fellow TB'ers I picked up working on the body again. The neck, as well as both pickups, didn't fit yet, so those routes needed to be retouched. At first, I tried sanding the edges, but that came out to be completely impossible.

I worked out different ways of coping with this task in my mind, but making a perfect setup to re-route didn't seem easy. But today, I felt lucky and went for the eyeballing and working 'by feeling' way of building :rolleyes:....

So, I used the shifting-the-original-template-technique twice to reshape the neck pocket in several spots, and to my surprise, it came out spot on... wow!

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It doesn't sit in awfully tight, but I consider that a good thing, because now, there's still room for the finish. If I add one layer of thin masking tape to the neck, it doesn't fit anymore at all, so with the finish on, I think it's just perfect.

Onto the pickup routes.. that got me thinking for a while too, because I cannot use my guided router bits to widen up the corners, as the radius of those bits is too large. Sanding doesn't work and filing isn't providing consistent results either. But then, I got an idea: I used my Dremel with its router base and a very small router bit (+/- 2 mm) and let the shaft ride the template. I used the template-shifting-technique to widen up the routes, but also routed a few corners freehand.

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And after some nerve racking moments, the neck pickup fitted well in it's new home:

227-neck-pickup-fits-in.jpg


And after that, so did the bridge pickup. Being happy with the results, I just couldn't resist....

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Don't you just love it when a plan comes together? :bassist:

:smug:
 
#435
PDGood said:
Wow!!
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Darkstrike said:
Dang that's awesome looking!
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bassingeorge said:
Beautiful, and I don't want to sound to eager, but I would LOVE to see that top stained in the red your planning on! Am I right about the red...???
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Thanks, thanks :smug:. And yes, you're right about the red. However, I'm starting to doubt more and more because it looks very good as it is right now as well, but I have reasons for dying (building experience and preventing discolouring of the wood), so I have to stick to the plan.
 
#436
roberthabraken said:
Thanks, thanks :smug:. And yes, you're right about the red. However, I'm starting to doubt more and more because it looks very good as it is right now as well, but I have reasons for dying (building experience and preventing discolouring of the wood), so I have to stick to the plan.
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Red will look Awesome on this bass! It just goes with the overall modern retro look.
 
#437
bassingeorge said:
Red will look Awesome on this bass! It just goes with the overall modern retro look.
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Thanks for the encouragement, in my mind it'll be great, however, to start dying for the first time on such a project is a bit scary to say the least (of course, I'll practice a bit first, but still).

Was thinking about Clou Stain nr. 155, what do you think?

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#440
followed your build from the very beginning...im usually more a fender type of guy but your design is amazing...everything fits...the fingerboard...the pickguard...and of course the flamed maple top in red,

personally i think the pearl pickguard would fit better with clou stain nr 154.
 

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