Five string single cut - oak content

[Five String]

Having been the smart aleck I felt I should do something constructive: https://crownforge.net/2017/05/26/making-your-own-bog-oak-axe-haft/[URL="https://crownforge.net/2017/05/26/making-your-own-bog-oak-axe-haft/"]Crown Forge Custom Blade Art by Eric McHugh Making Your Own Bog Oak Axe Haft[/URL]

May or may not help.

 

[Jisch]

That's cool!

 

[Bass Hida]

I'm also interested in oak instruments. I know it's a pain to work with, but I've seen some gorgeous stuff made out of oak and pine which is another wood people get warned to stay away from. The bass in the photo is gorgeous, can't wait to see how yours turns out.

 

[Jisch]

The great thing about having a bad memory and buying wood when I find a good piece at a good price is that going through the wood in my attic is sometimes like Christmas. On my bike ride this morning I was thinking about the neck and how I would construct it. My normal neck through with headstock version is to make a neck blank that's 2" or so thick. I use the cutoffs for either bolt on necks or my wife uses them in cutting boards.

The nice thing about headless necks is I can just make a 3/4" thick blank, add a little to the body area and I'm done, very little waste. Of course you can do the same with a kerf joint, so that's what I'm going to do here. I did a kerf joint on one bass, but it was more of a repair than in a build. It will be a good thing to learn and practice.

Back to my attic, I was looking around and found a 5.5" x 1" x 8' long piece of birdseye maple that I bought at some point, I didn't know I had it and surely don't remember when I bought it. It has a price tag on it of $44, so I'm using probably somewhere between 25 and 33% of it for this build so under $20 for neck wood. I'll have to figure out something to put behind it on the body, but that's not a big deal. As a bonus that ends up making the heel look nice.

I'm going to make the neck out of two pieces with a black laminate stripe down the middle, it should look cool. Today I just cut the two pieces of wood, I'll glue them together once the laminate gets here. No rush. See I can do this, though it's taking a lot of effort to not obsessively work on it. These pieces will need to be planed down, they are too thick right now.

I made a new sanding block this morning, this afternoon I rewired my latest five string. The nut slots on my eight string need some adjusting, maybe I'll work on that next. It's about 110% humidity outside with showers so the cool basement sure feels great.

 

[Beej]

No rush. See I can do this, though it's taking a lot of effort to not obsessively work on it.

Who are you trying to convince?

I actually love how you can build something in the equivalent of 10 minutes of my own working speed of 40 hrs per instrument.

 

[Jisch]

No one really believed that "waiting on the laminate" thing, right?

I was looking around and found a leftover piece of wenge that is the perfect length, so I decided I'd cut a couple strips and use that. I cut a thin strip of maple to go in between. So instead of a 3 piece neck, this will be 5 piece, and I think this looks a lot better too.

 

[Beej]

There's the Jisch we know and love!!

 

[Jisch]

I got the neck out of the clamps, hand planed one side flat, then ran it through the sanding planer. Looking good!

I drew out the cutting plan on the side of the neck and got ready to cut the drop for the top with the router sled. This one is a bit weird because the top and the neck blank have to be exactly the same height considering the fretboard goes all the way down. I'm going to make it exact with the router then mark off the "no sand" zone in the middle where the fretboard will go.

 

[Jisch]

I got the drop done for the top, it came out good, boy I stressed about getting that right. I can't feel any difference in height between the front of the neck and the top, just they way it should be.

Speaking of stress, cutting the scarf joint was concerning me. I drew it on paper and had it figured out, but not having done one before it was still worrisome. After watching a ton of videos on line, my main concern was how to cut it.

I started making a jig for my table saw, but after recently reading that "table saw safety" thread and thinking about the cut, it freaked me out. It was complicated by the fact that my blade isn't tall enough to cut through the neck. When I get that feeling I step away from the saw.

I decided to use the bandsaw and follow this video: #28 Cutting the Scarf Joint - Eric Schaefer Guitars

I cut a piece of scrap into the same size as the neck and did some practice cuts. Honestly the practice cuts didn't go all that well. At a certain point I just decided I'd go for it. While I didn't do any measurements I figured I could do a bolt on if it came to that, but I really didn't want to do that.

The cut went ok, better than the two test cuts. After planing and sanding it was perfect. Whew. I put a couple dowels in outside of the neck taper to hold the joint from slipping while I glued it. After getting the cut done I planed the headstock down to 3/8". I am surprised I remembered to do that, every other time I've planed down headstocks I end up balancing the instrument or neck blank up in the air, which never feels good.

Next will be the truss rod slot.

I'm traveling for the first part of this week, so I won't be doing anymore before Thursday.

 

[Jisch]

I got back from CA last night, I pulled the neck out of the clamps, it looks good but not perfect. I won't know for sure until I cut the neck taper, I think it's good enough.

It's hot and humid here today, I went for a bike ride this morning. It wasn't very comfortable. We had to keep the speed down to avoid overheating. We have a hybrid water heater in the basement that sucks the heat out of the air and puts in into the water and it also dehumidifies so our basement is nice and cool and dry on a hot day like this.

I got the truss rod slot done, one wiggle, I should clamp a board into guide the neck so it doesn't kick out like that. Oh well, no one will see it and it has no impact.

Here's the right orientation of back wood and I got the pickups in, I'm going to make an oval shaped cover for this. I'll have to trim down the cardboard flanges to do that.

And as you can see there I marked out some chambering and the control cavity. I started with the control cavity side (thankfully!). I checked the depth of the forstner bit, then went to town on the treble side. Imagine my surprise when the bit came through the bottom. Ugh. I think I checked the depth but didn't set the stop. How stupid. Not a huge deal, but I'm so glad I didn't do the bass side first, that would have meant adding wood to the back.

So I made a cover out of MDF, it's bigger than I wanted it to be, but it will be fine. I started by attaching the cover to the body and running a bit around the outside of it.

Of course I'm doing this backwards, I superglued in these blocks to keep it from wiggling while I ran the bearing bit around the template.

Then I stuck the template down on a piece of oak and put an offset in the router, which should have given me the perfect fit cover. Should is the operative word here, I don't have a lot of experience with these offset inserts apparently I mis-measured as the cover ended up being about 1/4" too big. I made a template of the hole with paper, cut the cover down and finished it off on the oscillating drum sander. It's a good fit. The cut I made on the body is pretty shallow, I might have to use screws to hold the cover on instead of my usual magnets unless I do something fancy.

I found a perfect piece of wenge to glue to the back of the neck in between the wings. Wenge always looks cool when you carve it for a neck heel. It will go well with the wenge stripes in the neck as well.

I decided the body was too narrow, I don't have a pic, but I made it wider on the wings. I'll get the wenge on the neck trimmed up flush, then start working on that oval pickup cover. I also have to do neck taper too.

I haven't decided on wood for the fingerboard. At the present time I'm thinking of dying the oak black (as above), and using some maple for the fingerboard. I'll leave the ash on back natural with no dye. With the carving you will be able to see the ash from the front. The pickup cover would probably be wenge with a maple stripe.

I'm not sure on any of that yet, but getting close.

 

[Remyd]

Looking forward to watching this one come together. You are a really impressive artistan

 

[Jisch]

Looking forward to watching this one come together. You are a really impressive artistan

Thanks for the kind words!

This is my least favorite part of a build, too many pieces to keep track of. I love the next part where everything gets glued together.

 

[Jisch]

I used a router to plane off a bit on the back of the neck. The neck will be about .7" thick, it started off almost an inch.

I was really close to cutting the scarf joint apart yesterday based on the edges where you could see a glue line. Of course it would have been a lot easier to cut it while everything is square. I am so glad I didn't cut it off, it's really good, you can see the glue line, but I can't imagine getting it better than this.

Satisfied with that I moved on to cutting the neck pocket in the top. I used my paper method - basically tape three pieces of paper against the neck, mark the center line and transfer that over to the top.

I cut close to the line with the bandsaw then finalize it with a file. Pretty tight fit. The blade on my bandsaw broke when I was cutting the top - strange as it's probably the softest/thinnest wood I've cut in it, it broke on the weld, must have been something wrong with it. It made a nice big bang, but no harm done.

I also trimmed down the top, but I didn't take any pics of that.

Before I glue the top on I need to make a pickup cover. This one will have a single pickup, I'm doing an oval cover, I think that looks a lot better than a rectangle if it's interrupting the fingerboard. I started off making one that was big enough for the pickup as it stands. The problem with an oval is the longer it gets, the wider it has to be. incorporating the ears on the pickup meant it was way too big. So I did the thing and cut the ears off the pickup. I bought this one used so it's not like I have a warranty anyway.

With the length cut down I could make a smaller oval. I think I got this right, but it will take some finalization after I get it glued up. You can kind of see the body cut out shape here. I messed up a bit on the lower horn in that I adjusted it on the ash, but I adjusted it in such a way that it is outside the perimeter of the top, one more edit needed, I guess. This is not unusual for me, I am always editing the shape right up until I start final sanding.

The cover will be wenge on the top and birdseye maple for the sides. I cut out the wenge top, drilled out for the cavity in the maple, then cut the oval shape. The pickup slid in like I knew what I was doing here. I'll need to secure the pickup in the cover, but I've done that before, not a big deal. I try really hard to not mess around with pickups too much, those tiny wires are easy to break (ask me how I know this).

I also cleaned up the bass side chamber, no one will see that after the top is on, but it was messy and I didn't want to leave it like that, and more chambering is less wood/weight.

Next I'll cut the hole in the top for the pickup and route a clearance hole in the ash/neck underneath, then I can glue up the sides and start making fewer rather than more parts. I'm going to go up in the attic where it's about 1000 degrees and see if I can find my fingerboard. If you guys don't hear from me in a couple days send help.

 

[Jisch]

I wish I went outside before just now, it's really not that hot, I could have done a bike ride. Oh well, maybe I'll go tonight.

I found this board that I got for free from the wood guy, one of those "true up" cuts that leaves an uneven piece of wood about 3/8" thick. If you look at the rough cut wood you might think that the blade was skipping or something, but it's figuring in the wood. It's got some ambrosia in it and it's not white wood, but I think it looks really cool. I ran them through the planer to expose the figuring.

I have three options:

Option 1: whiter wood with decent figuring - you can just barely make out the figuring, but it will be prominent once I put CA on it.

Option 2 - more consistent figuring darker wood (right hand side of this board)

Option 3: figuring with the ambrosia in the board (left hand side of above board):

I think I can cut 2 and 3 out of that same board, I am going to try and do that for closer examination.

 

[Jisch]

I could only get one fretboard that was big enough out of that first one I can still use the clear one from the other board, if I decide to, but I like the weirdness of this one. It's got lots of flame and the ambrosia adds some character.

With the cover sitting in place

Then I rushed things a bit. The cover was clamped up for a couple hours, I couldn't help myself.

I got it all trued up and smooth all the way around, then I taped it to a board and ran it through the sanding planer to thin out the top. This is about as thin as I want it.

I figured out where I wanted the pickup (copied off the Stradi) and drilled out the neck blank and wings. Once I had it drilled I used the router to clean it up a bit. I went big so the cover could easily move in there. It is a bit freaky how much wood you remove underneath a pickup when you can see it like this. This one is deeper than most because the top is sitting at fretboard level.

I measured off the drop on the neck to locate the pickup on the top. Lined everything up and went for that cut. I cut it close with the jigsaw then brought it in with the oscillating drum sander. Once that's a tight fit I hold it up to the light and see where the resistance is and knock those spots down, you can see my marks on the top where it was tight, I sand between the hash marks. It moves smoothly in the hole, has a nice even fit and drops right into the neck.

Then I flattened out the side of the neck (small lump up toward the top) and glued up the bass side wing. I'll let this dry a couple hours then do the other side.

 

[Jisch]

I got the fingerboard trued up. I usually mark the fretlines on the back of the board, but that only works before the taper is cut. I carefully centered it and taped it to the scale, then used my fret miter box to cut a small slot in one side of the board. Then I pulled it out and cut angled slots for the fret markers on the side. They came out good. I have two that will need to be resawn/filled as the black laminate broke off small, no big deal.

Then I glued up the treble side wing.

I'm off to Paris tomorrow for work, I might get a few minutes in the morning, but not much more before next weekend.

 

[Jisch]

Out of the clamps, everything looks good. I cleaned up the edges of the neck, there was a bit of glue residue.

Usually at this point I'd cut the wings close to the final shape, transfer to the bottom of the top plate and cut the top plate. The oak top splinters really badly on the bottom side of the cut (which would be the top because my drawn line would be on the bottom) so instead, I'm just gluing up the top and I'll cut it from the top. It will surely be awkward in certain spots, but I'll make it work.

Use all the clamps.

Wow it's humid out, heading out for a bike ride before getting on the plane, sure to be a sweat fest.

 

[Jisch]

As expected it was hot as blazes out today, how hot?

(I guess that joke only works here in the US of A where we are valiantly clinging to the imperial system).

So humid too, not at all comfortable to ride, but we pulled out 2+ hours of riding, it wasn't all enjoyable, but enough was that it was worth it.

I got back home and pulled the bass out of the clamps when I got notification that my flight was delayed to the point where I couldn't make my connection, so the trip is delayed a day. That's going to make for a very painful day on Monday, but not much I can do about it.

I did get a few hours in the shop this afternoon, so there's some upside. I worked with my wife on the final shape then I cut it out. The only problem (and it's minor) is the location of the control cavity, I'll alter my carving plan to accommodate it. Anyway, I got the body cut out, smoothed with the oscillating drum sander and started working on some carving. Normally I don't carve the neck until the fingerboard is on, but I figured I could get more of the back carved if I knew how the neck would come in. It's very preliminary carving, but so far so good.

as stated before, you can hardly see the scarf joint (and yes my workbench is a mess from everything I did today!). I'm sure it will stick out more as I finish the neck, but I'm happy with it so far.

 

[Bass Hida]

Ah! I don't wanna wait until next week for an update! Have fun in Paris.

 

[Jisch]

The storms that caused my flight to be canceled ushered in less humid weather, and now I can ride this morning.

I got a half hour in before the ride, working on the heel transition and removing a little bit if wenge where it was proud of the body. A lot more to go, but it's getting there. I love doing this stuff.