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First Build - And May My Mistakes Be Minimal

#142
image.jpg

Almost finished my body template of 1/2" MDF. Roughed with bandsaw and sanded down with ROSS. There are some ripples still so I figure to use a sanding block tomorrow, unless there is a better way to finish. I'm all ears! :)

image.jpg


Not sure what I want to do with headstock... Hard for me to match the "open book" Aria design.

image.jpg
 
#146
PDX Rich said:
View attachment 588243
Almost finished my body template of 1/2" MDF. Roughed with bandsaw and sanded down with ROSS. There are some ripples still so I figure to use a sanding block tomorrow, unless there is a better way to finish. I'm all ears! :)

View attachment 588242

Not sure what I want to do with headstock... Hard for me to match the "open book" Aria design.

View attachment 588244
Click to expand...
Check out Prosthetas Aria Pro neck build. there might be something there to help you with the headstock.
 
#148
We'll call that a practice template. Turns out, I didn't have Inkscape set up properly and it decided to print the image slightly larger than I wanted. I have corrected the image and it prints properly now. I'll get more bandsaw and ROSS practice tonight! :D

While the spray glue is setting up between paper and MDF, I'll use the belt sander on the old template to work on my technique.

In the meantime, when I get a chance today, I will most certainly check out Prostheta's neck build!
 
#150
PDX Rich said:
We'll call that a practice template. Turns out, I didn't have Inkscape set up properly and it decided to print the image slightly larger than I wanted. I have corrected the image and it prints properly now. I'll get more bandsaw and ROSS practice tonight! :D

While the spray glue is setting up between paper and MDF, I'll use the belt sander on the old template to work on my technique.

In the meantime, when I get a chance today, I will most certainly check out Prostheta's neck build!
Click to expand...

My crappy inkjet prints things a smidge too small, so I always have to print my templates at around 100.2%. I print them out with a 1"x1" grid, so I can make sure it prints at the right size. The grid also makes it easier to align the printouts to tape them together.
The practice MDF body can still come in helpful, for cutting pickup or neck routing templates.

About headstocks, I can never seem to design one that doesn't look awkward, so I usually end up stealing an existing design. Another reason I like to build headless instruments!
 
#151
193212.jpg


Pickup is en route!

The pickup has four conductor shielded wire.
Here are wire colour codes:
Coil1: Red hot, blue to ground
Coil2: Yellow hot, green to ground

Coils in series: Red to pot/switch, blue and yellow soldered together, green to ground
Coils in parallel: Red and yellow to pot/switch, blue and green to ground.

This, combined with the electronic wizardry by Prostheta, should make for quite the interesting sound! :D
 
#154
NND? Brass nut arrived today from Japan. Great! 40mm is pretty tiny, which should work well with the design. Sid note: epoxy to join brass and ebony? Not close to that step yet, but it'd be nice to know!

Good progress today, as shown above. I rough cut the new MDF body template since my one from last night was a bit oversized. Corrected the issue in Inkscape and good to go. I'll belt/spindle sand the new template to shape thursday evening.

After that, I can make some marks on the neck blank, take some wood off of it, and cut the scarf with a table saw plus taper jig.

This is getting exciting! Well, for me at least.

On a side note, my woodworking class starts tomorrow night. Yay!
 
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#155
PDX Rich said:
NND? Brass nut arrived today from Japan. Great! 40mm is pretty tiny, which should work well with the design. Sid note: epoxy to join brass and ebony? Not close to that step yet, but it'd be nice to know!

Good progress today, as shown above. I rough cut the new MDF body template since my one from last night was a bit oversized. Corrected the issue in Inkscape and good to go. I'll belt/spindle sand the new template to shape thursday evening.

After that, I can make some marks on the neck blank, take some wood off of it, and cut the scarf with a table saw plus taper jig.

This is getting exciting! Well, for me at least.

On a side note, my woodworking class starts tomorrow night. Yay!
Click to expand...
Are you teaching?
 
#158
I am still trying to figure out my next build. I have so many possibilities and designs running through my head.

In the meantime I will probably build a pickup testbed to work out pups and electronics. A few years back I got a cheap bass through Evil-bay. It looked reasonable online and I was going to use it as a refinish project only. When I got it it was unplayable, shimmed everywhere with soft plastic, broken bridge, useless pup, heavily filed neck, broken tuners even bent and rusted screws. Literally nothing was useable as was. I got in touch with the seller and told him I would be sending it back. He said I should just keep the bass and he would send the money back. I'll use that and rout out between the bridge and enlarge the electronics compartment to test different components. It will still need ample repairs and a new bridge and tuners just to be minimally playable. I won't consider this a bass, I'll consider it a tool. I can still use it to test tuners, bridges different nuts and frets. I am not expecting this to be a "player".
 
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#159
That's a good idea! Take some of the guesswork out of a "real" build, as far as electronics go. Pickup positioning is a huge factor, so when working outside of the usual P, J, P+J, etc configurations, it would certainly be nice to know what you are getting with a greater degree of accuracy.
 
#160
PDX Rich said:
That's a good idea! Take some of the guesswork out of a "real" build, as far as electronics go. Pickup positioning is a huge factor, so when working outside of the usual P, J, P+J, etc configurations, it would certainly be nice to know what you are getting with a greater degree of accuracy.
Click to expand...
I have been wanting to do this since the eighties after seeing a Rail bass and realizing how much the position of the pickup effects the tone.
 
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