Ergonomic bass build "Twisted Sister"

[T_Bone_TL]

Plan for where you want your controls. Have seen a few where folks got excited on the thin parts of the body in the woodworking phase and then went "Hmmmm..." when it got to fitting the electronics in. I don't recall what you're planning for those; Should be fine if you plan ahead, rather than get to that point without having it sorted.

Who you callin' weird-looking?

 

[TFM94]

Plan for where you want your controls. Have seen a few where folks got excited on the thin parts of the body in the woodworking phase and then went "Hmmmm..." when it got to fitting the electronics in. I don't recall what you're planning for those; Should be fine if you plan ahead, rather than get to that point without having it sorted.

That's good advice, but I think we are very safe here. I am planning for a simple vol/tone control, both of which go on the treble (right) side. It's a single-pickup bass, so no switches needed. Something like this:

Who you callin' weird-looking?

That's exactly what it's gonna look like.

 

[T_Bone_TL]

Plenty of room, then. You could even dish around the knobs if you wanted that look, looking at the drawing.

 

[TFM94]

Plenty of room, then. You could even dish around the knobs if you wanted that look, looking at the drawing.

That's definitely an option. You mean like a PRS? I'll see how it feels first, then I decide if I want a recess or not.

 

[TFM94]

Weekend update! Before I'm starting with my summer buildoff project next week I wanted to get started on the body wings. I will still post occasional updates on this build during the buildoff, but it will take a back seat.

I started by resawing the ash wings. Since it's a Wenge/Ash 50/50 pancake body, each layer is quite thin, allowing me to cut both sides from one half of a 2-pice body blank. I think I will resaw the other half as tops for future projects.

I used a router sled with a wedge underneath the workpiece to flatten the top and back of each wing at the correct angle according to my previous sketch and rough-cut the shape.

Looks like a bass already, doesn't it? I'll rout the edges with templates next weekend. I also want cut the wenge pieces with my tracksaw outside, but a colony of wasps is having a summer buildoff of their own, right in front of my back door . I'll have to deal with them first.

 

[TFM94]

It's update time! This weekend is all about the wenge top.

So, I ordered a wenge neck blank about a year ago for this project. However, after some time in my basement it started to develop quite a few cracks, which makes it pretty much unusable for a neck. That's why I decided to use the maple neck you have seen in so many pictures in this thread.

I still wanted to make something out of it, so I decided to use it as a top - a multi-piece top, that is. The blank is quartersawn, so cutting it in strips reveals a pretty flatsawn grain pattern:

The upright piece is left over and has no cracks, so I might use it for a multilaminate neck at some point. Score!

Planing it square:

And gluing it up. This is the top body wing, the bottom wing is coming up tomorrow:

I used thin maple veneers in between the pieces. It should work well with the maple neck. With the crazy grain pattern it's impossible to hide the joints anyways.

 

[TFM94]

Here we go, both pieces glued up and generously cut into shape. Next up is planing and thickness/tapering.

 

[J Posega]

The maple laminates are icing on the cake. Wenge is such an underutilized top wood, glad to see it gets a chance to be in the spotlight here.

 

[daveman50]

The maple laminates are icing on the cake.

Or, the frosting in the layer cake!

 

[TFM94]

The maple laminates are icing on the cake. Wenge is such an underutilized top wood, glad to see it gets a chance to be in the spotlight here.

It is totally underrated, and flatsawn it makes a wonderful pattern for a top. It's quite heavy, though, so I am considering some light chambering from the back.

 

[TFM94]

Twisted Sister build: Season 2, Episode 1: The one with the top

Alright, after a looooooong break for the summer build-off and a short break from lutherie afterwards, let's get back to business. The neck had plenty time to settle and I will soon do the finishing touches on straightening the radiused fretboard, but today it's time to work on the body.

Back in spring I wasn't sure in wich order I would carve the top and back angles (for the profile see post Ergonomic bass build "Twisted Sister"), but now I decided to rout the body shape into the flat wenge top first, then glue the top on the already slanted back pieces, trim the swamp ash back flush with the top, and then cut the taper into the wenge top. This way all sides of the body are perpendicular to the glue joint of the body sandwich, which should result in a tiny bit of pleasing symmetry (in a bass that is generally lacking symmetry of any kind).

So today I routed the outline of the wenge top:

and here is the current layering situation with the (still oversize) back pieces:

The wenge pieces will later be tapered toward the ouside, similar to the ash pieces.

I'm still undecided wether or not I want to do any chambering, and there's still the possibility to include a wenge/maple veneer layer between the top and back. Then again, the top glue-up will be awkward enough with all these angles, perhaps the veneers would make things too complicated.

 

[TerribleTim68]

Good to see this back on track. I was wondering what had happened.

 

[MPU]

Those tapered sides are perfect for vacuum bag gluing. Something like [This invalid link has been removed]

 

[TFM94]

perhaps the veneers would make things too complicated.

You didn't really believe me, did you? Those who have been following my build threads should know that I tend to overcomplicate my builds. I had to follow my reputation as a madman and put some veneers in. One layer maple, one layer wenge.

Good to see this back on track. I was wondering what had happened.

Nothing really "happend", I was just very busy with my SBO build and needed some time off for other projects, band stuff etc...

Those tapered sides are perfect for vacuum bag gluing. Something like [This invalid link has been removed]

Yup, vacuum bagging is definitely a good way to do this. However, I decided against the vacuum bag because a) my vacuum pump broke during the SBO and it's still waiting for repair, and b) the Wenge veneer is the most stubborn piece of wood I've ever worked with. It splits very easily when cutting and I had to leave it oversize. It would have totally crumbled along the edges in the vacuum bag.

Instead, I went with some clamps. A dry clamp showed that the angle is not too steep and they stay in place nicely. Two dowels hold the pieces and veneers in place.

I already mentioned that the wenge veneer was stubborn, didn't I? It bought it rolled up, and it took me a whole week to get it flat without splitting it. I soaked it in water and then carefully flattened it between two sheets of MDF. I left it to dry like this over night, but it was still curved. I had to repeat it 5 more times until it was reasonably flat. Weird stuff.

 

[TerribleTim68]

Wenge.......concrete and hatred.
I love that stuff but man does it hate everything and everyone around. I'm working on a cutting board using various hardwoods in strips. Guess which strip keeps leaving splinters in my hands.

 

[TFM94]

Wenge.......concrete and hatred.
I love that stuff but man does it hate everything and everyone around. I'm working on a cutting board using various hardwoods in strips. Guess which strip keeps leaving splinters in my hands.

The end result is always worth the splinters, though... I'm sure the board will look great.

I took the top body wing out of the clamps today and routed the edges. I'm happy with the result, just needs some sanding. I'm glad to see some grain pattern even in the thin veneer strips. The bottom half will follow on Saturday.

 

[TFM94]

Raise your horns! Or maybe not.

I planed the body wing/neck beam joints today so that the wings attach to the neck beam at the correct angles. This allows me to temporarily attach the wings, which makes it look like a BSO already.

The horns, however, are giving me headaches. Besides being of different thickness, routing the horns is tricky because they join all kinds of angles surfaces. If I rout them with the body wing templates, they're gonna be angled inwards and won't join nicely with the neck. I would have to attach extra wenge pieces for the horns, too.

Looking at the temporarily assembled bass, I could probably get away without horns. I could blend the bridge-end of the body into a smooth, slightly offset shape and have a rounded transition instead of horns. The only caveat is that I have already routed the little cutouts for the horns in the body wings, but they're only routed to half-depth for now and not visible from the back. I could then rout a recess into the top for tuner clearance. A wenge or ebony veneer glued into the recessed area would cover up the little horn cutouts from the front.

Another reason for dropping the horns (no pun intended) is @Gilmourisgod's traumatic accident during his The Hossenfeffer III Build. I designed this before the accident, but ever since I thought that maybe the horns are more trouble than they're worth. The Hossenfeffer still turned out amazing, but I think I'd be a bit paranoid around any bass with horns.

See for yourself what it looks like for now, any ideas or comments are appreciated. Horns or no horns?

 

[Flamingo21]

Better late than never: I just joined this fascinating thread.

 

[TFM94]

Better late than never: I just joined this fascinating thread.

Welcome to the twisted world of torzal basses!

I celebrated the finnish independence day with some woodworking and managed to get the top contours routed for both body wings. Now they join the twisted neck blank at the correct angles and thicknesses, but I still have to sand out a few toolmarks. The bottom wing is just a straight wedge shape, but the top wing surface is twisted to follow the neck blank on the bass side. I flattened the top horn at a different angle, and a subtle contour is visible that separates the top horn from the rest of the wing. Maybe you can spot it in the bottom picture.

While working on the top I tried to find good angles to take a pic, but it's tricky. The wenge grain doesn't show the contours, twist, and bevels all that well. Here's what I got:

I'm currently evaluating a few WBO ideas. If I end up joining the WBO this year, then this project might get shelved again for the duration of the build-off. Until then I want to make some more progress, the control cavity is coming up next.

 

[TerribleTim68]

I've been (trying to) following this thread since the start...and I think I have a torzal brain now.