Carl Factor 6 Fretless

[Jisch]

I got the covers out of clamps and trimmed up, they need a little finishing, but look good.

New neck blank glued up.

and pickup holes roughed in.

 

[Jisch]

Control cover cut out, it came out great.

 

[Jisch]

V2 of the neck came out of the clamps, looks great, and thickness is perfect. The top with the glue will get cut off. I cut the truss rod slot as well (on the other side).

 

[ctmullins]

Walnut and maple just look so nice together!

 

[CatchaCuda]

I'm sure it needs to be rather sizeable, but the clamped up blank looked YUGE! Something about the picture, though the broom should have told me it wasn't a railroad tie.
Looking good

 

[Jisch]

The neck at the 24th fret is 3.68" wide, so it's a wide neck for sure, 18mm spacing on the bridge. I should really have a staging area for pictures, instead everyone gets to see my messy shop (I have help from my wife in making messy too).

 

[rwkeating]

What glue are you using for the multi-piece neck? I've used Titebond Original and fortunately there are only a very few spots where "creep" has popped up. It is very subtle, but gives me concerns when I think about making another multi-piece neck.

 

[Jisch]

I was supposed to be on a plane on my way to Florida this morning, but late last night I got a call that the meeting was canceled, so I got a few minutes in the shop this morning. I got the wenge and padauk neck back plates cut. The padauk was especially fun as it was cut out of a 3" thick piece of wood. I love the look of freshly milled padauk though. These will get glued to the back of the neck blank and will show through the back. They'll be featured in the neck heel carve. On this one I'm using thicker pieces of padauk and wenge for a bit more drama.

 

[Jisch]

What glue are you using for the multi-piece neck? I've used Titebond Original and fortunately there are only a very few spots where "creep" has popped up. It is very subtle, but gives me concerns when I think about making another multi-piece neck.

I use Titebond III. I've read others say this is not the best glue for building with as it doesn't dry as hard as other wood glues, and being waterproof means you can't steam joints apart. I bought a gallon of it a year or so ago (almost time to reorder), because it's the glue my dad uses and my first 6 or 7 builds I did at his shop. I find no creep or shrinkage and have had zero joint failures. I lost a lot of my original builds in a fire, but I have a neck here that is 4 or 5 years old and I can't see or feel the glue lines. If it's going to fail, creep or shrink it should have happened by now.

Probably more than you wanted to know, but I'd have no problem recommending Titebond III based on my limited experience, I really haven't used other kinds of glue.

 

[Jisch]

I got the accent pieces for the back of the neck glued together.

While that's drying I started working on the fingerboard. Beautiful piece of wood

I planed out a few chip outs, cut it square to its maximum width, marked and scribed the fret locations on the back. This is much easier to do when the board is square than trying to accommodate the taper of the fingerboard. I did this with pencil the first time around and by the time I got to cutting for the side markers, most of them had disappeared.

Check, double-check, recheck.

My wife is using the cutoff from the neck to make a baguette board.

 

[Jisch]

How could I forget, I also made the binding for the fingerboard. Wenge is not good in the sanding planer. It clogs the paper so easily, that's expensive and unnecessary overhead.

 

[Jisch]

I finalized the pickup holes. Even though they should be identical, I marked each one and an orientation and made the holes perfect for each one. They are perfect right now, so when the covers are final sanded they should fit well.

I glued up the wenge/padauk to the back of the neck. I'll cut the accent piece flush once it's dry.

And last I measured this a hundred times and cut the taper on the neck. I'll check it again in the morning before gluing the binding on. I measure, add, measure again, add again, I'm probably going a bit overboard in that regard, but this one isn't for me.

 

[Jisch]

Neck blank with the padauk and wenge glued up. Unplanned trip to NYC today, so no more progress until tomorrow.

 

[Jisch]

I cleaned up the sides of the padauk/wenge accent. I left them a little big when I glued them on. This joint will be visible from the back of the instrument so it has to be perfect, I felt that would be better to trim it up after it came out of the clamps rather than trying to make it perfect during glue up. It looks good, I'll fine tune when I'm ready to glue the wings on (and no I didn't use the file to square it up).

Then I routed the drop into the neck blank

Looking good.

Obviously there's a lot to do still, but next I'll cut the neck pocket into the top and route for the pickups in the neck blank. Then we'll get into some glue ups that start to make this look like a bass instead of a pile of wood.

 

[ctmullins]

Looks really clean, nice job!

Is the lower bout asymmetrical, with the upper half farther from the centerline than the lower half?

 

[Jisch]

Looks really clean, nice job!

Is the lower bout asymmetrical, with the upper half farther from the centerline than the lower half?

yes, the upper bout (bass side) will be carved to expose the anigre, so the walnut will be about equal in size on both bouts, but the anigre will stick out further. I hope that makes sense.

 

[JVando]

You'll be able to land aircraft on that neck!

 

[Jisch]

You'll be able to land aircraft on that neck!

Need to add LEDs :-D

 

[Jon Clegg]

Need to add LEDs :-D

With pitch detection to tell you if you're sharp or flat.

 

[Jisch]

With pitch detection to tell you if you're sharp or flat.

Now there's an idea!!!! tuner built into the side with LEDs whoa.