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Build II - Paradox MJ5 - New design!

#481
octaedro7 said:
Funny thing is that my experience is the opposite. Manual sanding of flat surfaces, going forward and backwards using blocks, has usually ended up taking more material from the extremes than in the middle, despite the rational explanation that the middle portion is sanded more times. The only explanation I have is the variability introduced by the arm movement. One direction only sanding produces more even results, but yeah, it' slower, particularly working with hard woods, it's kinda hopeless.
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Thats how it always is when sanding a radius. More material is removed from the edges, whereas you will lose little thickness from the fb blank at the middle. If your talking sanding a flat surface (like a neck blank) its because the sand paper is not properly attached to the block and sagging, producing a rounded edge as the paper conforms round the edge.

Prostheta is right about making sure you keep checking for flatness, I got a 0.5mm dip in the middle of my last board because I didnt check enough.

Builds looking great! Cool to see a mockup.
 
#483
m.oreilly said:
dang, robert, this is just the stuff. i love this bass!
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Thanks!! :D :bassist:

Meatrus said:
Thats how it always is when sanding a radius. More material is removed from the edges, whereas you will lose little thickness from the fb blank at the middle. If your talking sanding a flat surface (like a neck blank) its because the sand paper is not properly attached to the block and sagging, producing a rounded edge as the paper conforms round the edge.

Prostheta is right about making sure you keep checking for flatness, I got a 0.5mm dip in the middle of my last board because I didnt check enough.

Builds looking great! Cool to see a mockup.
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Thanks for the tip, I'll sure check my surface while sanding.

tZer said:
Man I really love this design! Great shapes everywhere and the craftsmanship is fantastic!
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Thank you very much! I kinda lost motivation in the last few weeks, but after another hour of sanding today I'm starting to get the feeling again. I switched to higher quality sandpaper (not very good, but at least better than what I was using before) and the result is stunning. In contrast to the previous sanding session, the fret slots and the complete nut slot actually filled up with dust in minutes. Whereas after an hour of sanding last time the centers of all slots where still completely clean.. I'm now almost finished with the 80 grit, got some small area around the higher frets that still needs to be rounded, but this sure is a motivator. Next time I'll switch to 120 grit when I am happy with the general curve and work my way up to higher grits. Can't wait to see how this turns out.
 
#484
I think that a lot of people subbed to this thread are very excited to see how it completes, myself included.

Usually these threads are filled with pointless buffing posts of "nice build man!" however this is truly a very nice design and seeing it completed to perfection is leaving a lot of us on tenterhooks! Hell, if we won Lotto this week I would be all up in your pad helping you get this sorted if only for my own sanity.

And beer of course. Lovely lovely beer.
 
#487
And some images to go with the progress made yesterday:

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That's more like it! You can see this sandpaper is much more effective, judged by the amount of dust piling up around the neck. It also leaves quite visible marks, so I have to switch to a higher grit soon.
 
#488
roberthabraken said:
And some images to go with the progress made yesterday:

That's more like it! You can see this sandpaper is much more effective, judged by the amount of dust piling up around the neck. It also leaves quite visible marks, so I have to switch to a higher grit soon.
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Looking good! How much experience did you have before this one?
 
#489
josiah goldfish said:
Looking good! How much experience did you have before this one?
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Thanks! My experience is one scratch built 4-string bass (the one in my avatar). It didn't have a radiused fingerboard or inlays. No binding, pickguard, veneer accent layers and just a 'square' neck pocket. So a lot less features and easier to build. The design wasn't as balanced as this is, so I'm learning along the way. I also got tips on my first bass from a luthier, points that I am going to follow for this bass.
 
#490
roberthabraken said:
Thanks! My experience is one scratch built 4-string bass (the one in my avatar). It didn't have a radiused fingerboard or inlays. No binding, pickguard, veneer accent layers and just a 'square' neck pocket. So a lot less features and easier to build. The design wasn't as balanced as this is, so I'm learning along the way. I also got tips on my first bass from a luthier, points that I am going to follow for this bass.
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Did you have any prior carpentry experience? I've done some woodwork projects before, do you think I'd be able to build a DB neck? I can't find a cheaper one for my EUB build. :S
Oh, and I have a lot of help on my build. I know a luthier and several carpenters
 
#491
How is your dyeing experimentation coming along Rob? I presume that you have the dyes by now. Your Macassar keeps reminding me how much of a PITA is was to sand after hollowing this body out:
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....and how many black Macassar bogies I kept blowing out of my nose in the shower, plus the feeling in my chest like somebody was sitting on my sternum....
 
#492
josiah goldfish said:
Did you have any prior carpentry experience? I've done some woodwork projects before, do you think I'd be able to build a DB neck? I can't find a cheaper one for my EUB build. :S
Oh, and I have a lot of help on my build. I know a luthier and several carpenters
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I did not have carpentry experience before building the bass, nor did I have any woodworking experience worth mentioning. The only thing I did was build numerous remote controlled aircrafts from balsa. But that's something at the other end of the scale... you have to be precise too, but that's about the only similarity.

So my answer would be, yes, you are able to build a DB neck. If you have patience, read alot (books, forums) and ask everything you're not sure of. Also, try every step before you work on the real deal. This takes longer, but it'll reduce mistakes by a great amount.

Good luck, share your build on TB and drop me a link :smug:

Prostheta said:
How is your dyeing experimentation coming along Rob? I presume that you have the dyes by now. Your Macassar keeps reminding me how much of a PITA is was to sand after hollowing this body out.

....and how many black Macassar bogies I kept blowing out of my nose in the shower, plus the feeling in my chest like somebody was sitting on my sternum....
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No, as I said I do have a very limited amount of time available. I share every step, so if it's on this thread, I did it and if it ain't, I didn't do it. :D

Yes the Macassar is heavy on your longs. I wear good protection and vacuum clean a lot in between.
 
#496
Bought some high quality 120g sandpaper, amazed by the difference it makes.. too bad the 180 and 240 I had lying around still where rubish, but oh well, I've made it up to 240g. This is the result:

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Not to bad if I say myself, but it does need a little bit of work before I can start with the binding and fretting.
 

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