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Build II - Paradox MJ5 - New design!

#62
octaedro7 said:
Why don´t you just extend the neck until the neck pickup ala F-bass or Jerzy?
You can keep the JB look by making the extension under the pickguard and leaving the fretboard visible as your original design.
Click to expand...

Actually, that was my plan B, but since that would create a neck pocket with only two walls (the pickup doesn't count imo), I think it produces a less solid joint. I drew the neck as it runs under the pickguard but not entirely to the pickup, but that would only give me a square inch or so extra neck pocket surface, so I decided to take the bet..
 
#63
Small steps, but I don't have a lot of time and since I'll have to wait for the wood for another three weeks and the parts aren't in yet either, I can take my time on these important steps.

Cutting the master neck template:

007-cutting-master-neck-template.jpg


Almost finished master templates - still have to make the pickguard template and the cavity templates (pickups, neck pocket and control cavity):

008-master-templates.jpg


Ready for routing the final neck template from plywood with my very basic router table:

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Works like a charm! Here's the (unsanded) neck template:

011-neck-template.jpg


I know it's not much, but I'm doing all I can... next up some more templates and jig stuff I guess.

:smug:
 
#67
Time for an update on design and specs.

This is how I hope it will turn out:

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I renamed it to Paradox J5 due to dropping the multi-scale part of the design / build.

Specs are:
  • Swamp ash body with flamed maple top, separated by a thin wenge accent layer
  • Macassar ebony fingerboard
  • Hard rock maple neck, probably with U-channel truss rod and two graphite rods
  • Angled back headstock, same veneers as body
  • White pearl pickguard
  • All chrome hardware and knobs
  • Aluminum Hipshot A-style bridge
  • Extra light Gotoh GB350 tuners
  • Delano JMVC FE pickups, wired passive

That's about it for now, I've ordered most parts about a week ago and the wood is ordered as well. I cannot wait to start and I am very excited about this build!

:bassist:
 
#68
One thought on the headstock. My hs on my last build was smallish, like yours appears to be and I found having the tuners so close to be a bit of a drag when tuning. Not a deal-breaker, but it is a little annoying to accidentally de-tune one string while tuning another.

You have a very cool design going! I really like it!
 
#70
tZer said:
One thought on the headstock. My hs on my last build was smallish, like yours appears to be and I found having the tuners so close to be a bit of a drag when tuning. Not a deal-breaker, but it is a little annoying to accidentally de-tune one string while tuning another.

You have a very cool design going! I really like it!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip. And you're right, they are close. First, they were slanted and further apart. I changed the orientation later in the design process.. but I think I'll take the bet. Took me a long time to get a good looking hs shape and besides that, I want it to be as small as possible without looking out of proportion.

pilotjones said:
Looks nice!

What pots are you using? It looks like, with the pickguard that narrow by the first pot, you'll have a fairly narrow body rout, and be constrained to using small-bodied pots.
Click to expand...

I didn't plan for small-bodied posts, but I wanted to route from the back, regardless the fact that I use a pg. I will then make the flamed maple top rather thin on this place, so I can mount regular pots. This way, they also keep the pg in place without having to use screws on the small part of the pg.
 
#72
octaedro7 said:
Really looking nice Rob!
Have you planned to depress the fretboard part that goes beyond the 24th fret? Double thumb technique may suffer otherwise (although is nice to have something that stops your thumb to go too deep down the strings, but not as high as the own fb level).

:bassist:
Click to expand...

Thanks Gonzalo! :) I thought about that, but I'm not sure it will look right with a bound fingerboard. If the model becomes a success and I will make more of them, I will do it on the fretless version for sure :cool:
 
#73
First of all, I did some more template stuff, finished the headstock template which came out very nice and still working on the master template for the pickguard:

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Then, I got this idea today when driving back home from work...

Trace the neck template with a copy bit to create an oversized neck pocket template:

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Clean up the dust.. and you'll end up with this:

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Make a plug exactly 3 times the router bit's thickness:

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Attach it to a board of MDF, drill a hole through it and clamp it around the router bit on the router table:

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Attach a new piece of MDF to the oversized neck pocket template and do some routing again:

017-neck-pocket.jpg


And I've made an inverse copy of the neck, being the neck pocket:

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So... well.. I think it came out quite nice for a first try, but it's not good enough for me. Maybe I'll try again, or maybe I'll try to adjust the neck pocket template to make it fit better.

What happened? The blue tape around the plug was actually meant for adjusting possibility: at the first route the pocket was too tight, I peeled of a layer of tape and did another pass with the router. Still not large enough but almost there, so peeled another layer of tape of the plug... but there was only one layer left at that time and I thought: oh well, let's take it of completely. And now it's just a tad too large...

:rolleyes:
 
#75
Today I received pictures from the wood supplier, these are the pieces he picked before planing them to the size I ordered.

The swamp ash body core:

020-swamp-ash.jpg


And this is the macassar ebony fingerboard blank on the hard rock maple neck blank:

021-macassar-ebony-with-maple.jpg


That's gonna be a very good looking fingerboard!!! :cool:

Then I proceeded with the neck pocket. I added pieces of tape where it was too wide, until I got a tight fit:

019-adjusting-neck-pocket.jpg


I've glued a body and neck print to a piece of MDF. This will become the neck pocket and pickup cavities (master) template. I aligned the neck on it so it's perfectly in line with the bridge, clamped it to the table and fitted my neck pocket template around it. It then screwed the two boards together:

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Removed the neck, this is going to be the final neck pocket route:

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After sawing out the majority of the neck pocket and then routing it flush with my adjusted template I ended up with this *ridiculously* tight fitting neck pocket template:

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So this is very nice, but it still needs some rework, because I guess there's no room for a finish anymore... but as far as I consider, I'm on a roll !

:bassist:
 
#77
I just ordered additional hardware at StewMac, inlcuding this truss rod: Invalid Link Removed

I planned on doing a neck that's rather thin (20 mm on the first fret). Together with this truss rod, you have little material left around the rod at the nut. I attached a drawing of this intersection. The shortest distance from the truss rod to the edge of the neck is 3.0 mm..

do you think this is okay?
 

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  • neck-profile.jpg
    neck-profile.jpg
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#78
roberthabraken said:
I just ordered additional hardware at StewMac, inlcuding this truss rod: Invalid Link Removed

I planned on doing a neck that's rather thin
Click to expand...

I don´t get one thing...
This is the description of the truss rod you ordered:
"1177-B Bass 22-13/16" (579.44mm) For control of beefy bass necks. Can be installed for peghead or heel adjustment."
Click to expand...

Are you sure that it´s the right rod for a slim profile like yours?
 
#79
octaedro7 said:
I don´t get one thing...

Are you sure that it´s the right rod for a slim profile like yours?
Click to expand...

Well, it's providing strength as well because of the aluminum channel, is easy to install (straight channel) and the access cavity can be small. If you get a single action truss rod, you need to lay it down in a curved channel and the dual action rod has the allen nut on the lowest rod, making the access cavity very deep and creating stability problems at the nut-to-headstock transition. So I do not prefer to use the latter two. That's why :rolleyes:.
 
#80
Because I'm still waiting on most of the parts (especially the wood!), I am going to bore you guys some more with my template stuff... :scowl:

Still working on the pickguard template, sanding and filling the edges every now and then to get to the perfect shape as close as possible.

I sanded the inner sides of the neck pocket master template so that the neck template fits better. It now goes in and out well, still being tight, but not too tight anymore..

Then, onto the pickup cavity template. I screwed the first one up, but the second came out pretty okay. This is how I did it:

I made a CAD drawing of the cavities, being 1 mm wider than the pickups (equals 0.5 mm spacing around the pickups), with the centers marked of all circular shapes. Printed the drawing (and I had to scale it a few times to get it to the absolute correct size, due to the fact that my home printer has some deviation) and stuck it to some MDF.

I drilled the holes with my drill press, after marking the centers of the circles with a sharp pin, to act as a pilot hole:

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Which resulted in this:

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And then I used some straight piece of wood to screw to the template on all straight edges and routed the template flush with that on my router table:

028-pickup-cavities-template.jpg


Which, after some sanding, resulted in:

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(What might appear to be a sloppy result at the two bottom circles, actually is some paper that tore out during drilling)

I hope I can show you some real wood dust shortly...
 

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