Building of a 5 string...for Rocket!

[Gadow Guitars]

Yesterday we pulled the Alder body blank out of our drying room (we get all of our wood down to 6 - 9% moisture) and got it down to thickness....we will now get ready to glue this crazy 5A Spalted Quilt top to the alder base and get it in the glue press.

We also got the neck layed out and headstock vaneer glued on the neck blank....the next step is to rough cut the neck shape...drill our register holes, and get it on the cnc machine to cut the complete profile.

 

[Darkstrike]

Nice looking top!

 

[RocketMusic]

Nice!!

 

[LilRay]

Scribing. Looking good Mr. Gadow


God Bless, Ray

 

[COOL AND DEADLY]

subscribed!

 

[Gadow Guitars]

Here is the neck with fingerboard glued on...at this stage we allow the neck to rest, so that we let the tension of the wood settle in before we radius the fingerboard.

while the neck rests....we prep the back of the headstock for our bent rosewood lamination.

 

[Darkstrike]

Looking good, sweet piece of wood used for that fretboard.

 

[ubone]

Ryan I have a question regarding the scarf joint. Are you using dowels, single bisquit, or a pin for added support? Or is it all just good glue?

 

[Gadow Guitars]

There is only glue used on the scarf joint...that joint is actually stronger then the wood itself......then on top of that we add an Ebony veneer to the top and a Rosewood veneer to the back that becomes part of the volute.

 

[ubone]

Thanks for the answer Ryan.
I'll definitely keep watching the progress of this build.

 

[Gadow Guitars]

We let the neck rest for a few days...now its back to work!

Here is the bending jig that we use to bend the Rosewood laminate that we place on the back of all our necks...its basically a propane torch and some piping...pretty prehistoric.

Here is the Rosewood on the back of the headstock...this is wear we start to carve the neck.

...then its time to give the neck its magical feeling!...lots of scraping with a cabinet scraper and hand files.

We really utilize Modern and Old world techniques!

 

[Gadow Guitars]

body fresh off the CNC...now for the fun part of sanding!...and trust me, spalted maple hates to be sanded!

 

[Darkstrike]

Wow, this is getting to look great!

 

[JOME77]

Subscribed!

Great thread! This is going to be an awesome looking bass. Very sweet looking top.

Looks like I need to goggle Gadow Guitars .........

 

[JOME77]

I found the web-site in Gadow Guitars profile, but........

Hummmm ......where is the info on theirr web site on their basses?

Are they just starting to regularly build basses?

 

[RocketMusic]

Hey, Joe - Yep, Ryan is just getting started back building basses. He's also having a redesign of his website being done, so more info should be available at some point in the near future.

There are basically two models - the Classsic and the Custom. The Classic is the stripped down one (solid body, no top, etc), and the Custom is, well, custom Obviously there are a bunch more details to cover, but that's the big picture.

 

[Ryan L.]

So what are the specs on this bass? (scale length, string spacing, electronics, etc)

 

[Gadow Guitars]

So what are the specs on this bass? (scale length, string spacing, electronics, etc)

The 5 strings are 35" scale lenght...Barden pickups...and we are going to be starting to use Aguilar preamps.

 

[Gadow Guitars]

I figured it was about time to put some more photos of this stunning 5 string up.....We are sanding the body, and Greg wanted to add some vintage style block inlays to the neck, so we routed for the inlays.

 

[baltimore]

Man like everyone else I love these post!! Lovely bass!!