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First build bass for my daughter

#81
monkeyking said:
I absolutely love the inlays. I had my doubts about the 12th fret, but that is just plain stunning! I also really like the random aspect of the fret markers.

Overall, this is a really great build. Love the design, woods, approach, and the goal. The3 "christening" will be a great way to embarrass her years from now when she's surpassing your playing level.

Thanks, for sharing your progress with us and I'm looking forward to seeing this completed.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I realize that the 12th fret is not everyone's cup of tea, but I still wanted to give it a try. I wanted to have something unique and I think I got it. and I do think the "randomness" of the markers was a good decision. I'm really happy with it! :hyper:

If she does get into playing bass she will easily surpass my playing level, so you're right I'll at least have that story to tell!


James Mobius said:
beautiful work, can't wait to see it finished and hear your kid playing it!
Click to expand...

thanks!!
 
#84
Well, it's been a while, I'm progressing quite slowly on this. for a couple of months I had no time to make any progress at all.
I started about 2 years ago already... so I'm trying not to get too anxious.
So I've worked on the neck pocket, and the neck joint was almost perfect, but the neck was not perfectly aligned. sanded a bit more, until it was too much. Had to add a piece of wood to the neck, and started sanding again, until it was almost perfect again.
This took me too long, and was one of the most frustrating things in the process... the aim was to get it perfectly aligned and at one point it seemed almost impossible...
the deviation was really really small, I could have lived with it for sure, but the idea is to work on the skills to get this done right.
So when I finally got to a point where I was happy (or rather to a point where I didn't feel like working on my skills any more :hiding:) I let it be. It still has a small deviation, of about 1 or 2 milimeters. (the center of the fretboard is not perfectly aligned to the center of the bass body)

Not wanting to frustrate myself any more with this, I went ahead and glued the neck to the body. Sorry, I have no pictures here.
It would have been more practical to finish the neck and then gluing it (I still need to shape it and fret) but I did not want to look at the inside of that joint anymore. This will not be a problem.
 
#85
I also worked on the peghead. Basically, tried to get the tuners aligned to the strings, and marked where they should go.

After this, I had to slightly modify the peghead design, so that all the tuners look alike, otherwise, without the modification, one of the tuners would have looked longer than the others.

pascua2012044.jpg


not much to be seen on that picture, but there you go. the inlay design will change position as well of course.
 
#87
jbossolo said:
Excelente labor, hermano. Tu hija va a tener un instrumento unico. Gracias por compartir tu obra con nosotros.

Jose (Puertorriqueno en Texas).
Click to expand...

Muchas gracias por tus palabras Jose!!!

Additionally, I have been working on some templates, for the control cavity and its cover.
Control cavity cover:
DSCF2159-1.jpg


This is supposed to be in line with the inlay design. I'm planning on doing this with a piece of walnut left from the top. Not sure if it will be appropiate, I'll see once it's done.

Also routed for pickups:
pascua2012045.jpg


It went well, except for a bit of tear out in one of the final passes:
pascua2012049.jpg

Amazingly enough, a bit from the tearout ended up inside the soundhole cavity of the body, so I was able to rescue it and glue it back:
pascua2012050.jpg

I don't think I did a great job at that, but I'm not too worried, I'm sure I can work better on that.
 
#88
I still need to do some final shaping to the pickup cavity, at first they didn't quite fit.
So I've been doing some sanding with several objects:
pascua2012057.jpg


till I got a very tight fit.
pascua2012061.jpg

DSCF2164-1.jpg

It's still actually too tight, so there's more sanding needed.

I also realized that I did not take in account the cables beneath the pickups when calculating the depth of the cavity, so I might have to do something about that as well.

Hope to have more updates next week... thanks for watching!
 
#89
Hey...an update! great :)

I like that headstock and the inlay you're planning on doing. I also like - a lot - that cavity cover. Beware of the pointed end though, when you route the countersunk.

** A very tight fit will get in the way with the p-up height adjustment, especially if it's tilted and especially/2 if you lacquer it. Leave some space around and you'll be happy.

very nice :)
 
#91
miziomix said:
Hey...an update! great :)

I like that headstock and the inlay you're planning on doing. I also like - a lot - that cavity cover. Beware of the pointed end though, when you route the countersunk.

** A very tight fit will get in the way with the p-up height adjustment, especially if it's tilted and especially/2 if you lacquer it. Leave some space around and you'll be happy.

very nice :)
Click to expand...

Thanks Maurizio!
yeah, I thought about the pointed end of the cavity cover... I'm not sure if I'll be able to make it as pointy as I want to. I will first route the cavity, see what comes out, and then shape the cover accordingly. It might end up rounder than what I'm planning for.

Thanks for the tip on height adjustment. I guess I still have some more sanding to do on the pickup cavity before it's right!

miller_l said:
I've been following this one for a while now, and you've done a really awesome job. Just curious, what're your plans to finish the body/neck? I think an oil finish would look really nice!
Click to expand...

thanks Miller!
My initial plan was to give it a tung oil finish, which can be done by hand, hence my daughter could help me apply it, at least a couple of coats. (and I wouldn't have to sand so much more of the pickup cavity lol! :D )
Problem is I don't really have a safe place at home to let the bass dry between coats... so if I have to do it at my teacher's shop, I just might have it finished with laquer.
 
#92
Slowly moving forward!

I worked a bit on the headstock thickness, with a very simple method: first draw a line to thickness, then make several cuts with a saw, and afterwards continue with a chisel.
about halfway through:

004.jpg


006.jpg


and almost done.
007.jpg


008.jpg


Next I'll put the headstock into a thickess sander to finish it up.

I've also taken most of the excess wood on the sides of the neck. After this, I'll be fretting it, and then work on the neck's final shape.
I rounded out a bit around the neck joint, and I believe when finished access to uper frets will be really comfortable:
017.jpg


thanks for watching!
 
#93
Small update: yesterday I started routing the control cavity.

What I did, was first drill small holes from the front all through the body were I want the knobs to be. After that, I placed the template on the back using the drilled holes as reference to place the template in the correct position.

Here's a pic of the template and halfway routing:
bajo001.jpg


an by the way, hair shot:
bajo005.jpg
 
#95
pilotjones said:
I like your cavity cover shape. made to complement the rest of the bass's decorative design, cool.

It does look a bit small and inboard, though.
Click to expand...

Thanks Pilot!
I'm planning on making other details to complement the bass's decorative design, such as the wooden bridge in a similar shape and inlays in the knobs... and also to modify the soundhole's shape... we'll see how that turns out.

It's easy to see I didn't have everything sorted out when I started... the inlay design came about halfway through the build... all in all when it's finished I think it'll almost seeem like everything was planned in advance! :D

And yes, the cavity is small. I'll only have 2 pots and no preamp, so from the trials made they should fit. (tightly, but I don't think it'll be a problem).
(that's what you meant by small and inboard, right?)
If it ends up being too small, I always have room to make it bigger.
 
#96
this bass is already fretted, though I still need to cut the ends of the frets...
The frets I used are supposed to dutch made... they were way cheaper than the dunlops! I hope they are good... :ninja:
DSCF2197.jpg


there was no need to bend them, because they come in a roll, so that was a serious advantage.

First fret in the slot:
bajo006.jpg


The way I'm doing this, I'm applying some dust in the fret slots ends, then pressing the fret in, a couple of super glue drops on each fret's end, and then press them some more. That should keep them in place I was told...

I was in a hurry so no pics of the process, but here you go, build process glamour shot on the grass with autumn leaves:
DSCF2204.jpg

If I were a decent photographer, I bet that could have been a cool picture :D

And since I had no tools to continue with the frets, I decided to have some fun sanding down the contours of the heel and horns. I'm loving this, but still a lot to do!
DSCF2200.jpg


I think I might get carried away and the horns will end up a lot thinner than previously planned...

thanks for looking!
 
#97
It's great to finally see the whole shape of the bass! I've cut the countours of the headstock, and have started shaping the neck and working on the body contours a bit.

012-1.jpg


The headstock is right now a bit thicker than planned, but I'm thinking of leaving it as is, and work on the final shape with what I've got right now. I've added some wenge on the sides of the neck laminations to make up for the headstock width, and if I go as thin as planned, on the upper side of the headstock I'll "cut" the wenge in half, exposing the lighter wood. I think It'll look better if only wenge shows on both sides of the headstock. It needs to be a bit shorter though, I think.

015-1.jpg


I have also levelled the sides of the frets, though still there is some final sanding needed.
025.jpg


the neck is still too thick, but I think it'll look good and be very comfortable.
016-1.jpg


Can't wait to finish this... thankfully I'm moving forward.
 
#100
Ok, no update pics, but I have been sanding the body contours. I own a pedulla mvp, and it's mostly completely rounded over all around it's contour. I love the feel of this, and was planning on doing it for this bass, but I'm not totally convinced right now... at this point it almost feels like I could leave it as is...

I also was planning on an arm contour that would let the accent line and body wood show underneath... I'm not so sure about this either right now.

decisions... decisions...

any thoughts?
 

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