First build...Here goes nothin

Hello,

Well after much reading and thought I hope to begin my build process in the next couple of weeks. I have a 6' chunk of 10/4 curly maple and hope to pick up a piece of wenge, a piece of mahogany, and a piece of walnut for the neck possibly this weekend or early next week. The first task is to get the neck blank all glued up.

I do need some expert advice though. It seems to me that the thickness of the neck is one of those details that there isn't a hard fast rule for. So here is where I am at. The bass I play is a Ken Smith 5er (not mine..on loan and a whole nother story) and I LOVE the feel of that neck...who wouldn't? My issue is that they are extremely thin, while I know that they use graphite reinforcement, I don't know where to start when it comes to the shape and how thin is feasable. Any thoughts?

Here are a couple of renderings that I have done over the last couple of days:


The Back side:


And the "3D" View:


After kicking around a bit I did find that the stewmac and LMI truss rods are both almost a half inch deep. So the neck I had designed won't work because that is how thick it is. For now my thought is to bump the thickness up to .75" and see what that feels like. Is that reasonable or do I need more material "below" the trussrod? Or could I get away with less?


Thanks,

Loren

 

Cool Thanks for the info. Typically I play standing up but I will definitely look into that curve. That part of the body is the part that has been the "problem child" so it's not surprising that I'll need to look a little harder.

Any other comments about the shape? I am totally new and trying to be a sponge when it comes to gathering as much information as possible.

 

Thanks everyone, as far as the neck goes I think I'm on the right track. Do you think that the extra CF rods are necissary?

On to the important business, I went shopping yesterday and got two pieces of wood:




From the left to right, walnut, wenge (a piece of birdseye maple sitting on top for a possible inlay) and curly maple. I've had the maple for about a month.

Here is a close up of the curl in the maple:



I'll Probably start the laminate on Wednesday provided I can pick up a piece of mahogany before then. Here we go.....

 

I had tossed around the idea of using some of that wenge for the finger board, I guess I am still sitting on the fence a bit. I would like to see the grain a little clearer first for sure, I think that seeing it will probably help to make up my mind. The main thing that I think that is keeping me from going that way is that I am planning to use it in the neck lam and in the body lams as accent pieces. Would using it as a fretboard take away visually from the accents in your opinion?

Here is a better pic of the birdseye



I also just remembered that one of the shops that I visitied the other day had some pretty killer zebrawood that might look pretty sick with this inlayed as well:



Would the zebra wood hold up as a fingerboard?

Too many possibilities I think...What do all of you think?

Both up and down (should be refered to as level I would assume...no?) and left to right correct?

 

Sorry, I think I wasn't clear. The second picture is bacote (sp?). I was thinking of combining that with zebrawood.

 

I'll definitely be on the lookout

 

While I was picking up some mahogany for my neck last night I saw a piece of marblewood. I think it would definitely look fantastic but would it hold up? What makes up a good finger board?

Thanks,

Loren

 

dirk thanks for the advice....hmmm what to do....what to do

I feel like a three year old at Christmas, but don't want to jack up anything either.

 

So things went ok...not great but I think all of the mistakes I made were and are correctable. Everything is cut and ready to be glued up (hopefully over lunch)

So here goes:

Loren's not such a straight cut!



but machines can be great for helping to hide my inadequacies!





The foreman of the shop was great and helped to me to avoid some disasters, one of which is the stuff nightmares are made of. This neck is going to be way great though.

On to the next questions though. Is there a "middle of the road" or "common" radius that is used for fret boards?

Thanks everybody

PS sorry for the crappy phone pics but I couldn't help sharing!

 

Cool thanks, that's the ballpark I think I had originally thought about...too long ago to remember.