Fretless 6 string

[byronkowalski]

Hi all, this is my second build, its an (unintentionally) Carl Thompson inspired bass.
Specs are;

6 String Lined Fretless
34” Scale Length
Bolt on Neck

String Spacing:
at nut; 8mm
at bridge; 17.5mm

Body Composition:
15mm core of walnut
2 X 5mm layers of ash
10mm front and back of bocote

Neck Composition:
10mm central piece of maple
2 x 15 mm strips of walnut
2 x 5 mm strips of maple
2 x 20mm strips of sapele
cocobolo fingerboard
bocote headstock veneer
double action truss rod
2 x 6mm diameter carbon rods for extra strength

Hardware:
Hipshot ultra-lite machine heads
Hipshot A-style bridge

The body will be heavily carved, where the second lines are, to give a stratified effect as the laminations are revealed, the headstock will be veneered with the same bocote as the body and will be similarly carved.

So far ive got a neck cut and one layer of ash glued to the walnut.

Any questions, comments, suggestions are welcomed

On with the pictures.

Link Removed
Link Removed
Link Removed
designs
Link Removed
Link Removed
neck
Link Removed
the 2 ash layers of the body
Link Removed
Walnut being glued
Link Removed
first body lamination

 

[Smilodon]

Are you sure that headstock will hold?

There isn't much wood at the top part of the headstock, and most of the wood that is left is removed when drilling the hole for the tuning pegs.

 

[roberthabraken]

Also, your tuners wil stick out more than usually and may not even fit that close to each other. Don't want to spoil the fun, but I would advice a little mockup here first.

I like your body design btw, very cool!

 

[byronkowalski]

I think There'll be enough, at least i sincerely hope so. im pretty much commited to at least trying it at this point

 

[roberthabraken]

I think There'll be enough, at least i sincerely hope so. im pretty much commited to at least trying it at this point

Is there enough room for the tuners to fit next to each other?

 

[byronkowalski]

I did a mock up earlier in desiging using drawingsof the machine heads based on hipshots dimensions, and my tech drawing of the headstock design, and they fit then. But now im questioning it again, Ill check again when i get back to the workshop, which unfortunately wont be till next week, and if they wont, some clever remedy will have to be found,

P.s. thanks for quick replies, probably shoulda started this thread while i was still designing

 

[byronkowalski]

Also i could use some advice on the neckpocket as ive never made one before, is the theoretical neck pocket i have marked on the body design valid/ feasible. The idea is to have 5 bolts in that pocket.

 

[roberthabraken]

Also i could use some advice on the neckpocket as ive never made one before, is the theoretical neck pocket i have marked on the body design valid/ feasible. The idea is to have 5 bolts in that pocket.

Absolutely, mine is a lot smaller. This should work very well.

 

[JoeDeF]

Link Removed

If I were going to use that headstock design, I would thin the headstock core a bit and laminate carbon fiber sheets on both sides of the core, sandwiched between the core and your headstock veneers. Also, I would epoxy a strip of metal (brass?) along the long straight diagonal. Those would both help your design to be more stable, and might even look cool (I like the idea of a sleek, straight brass bar as contrasted with the mostly very curvy lines of your design).

If you have trouble fitting the tuners in as your design currently stands, you could keep the straight-line string paths you have now by reducing the angle of the the straight edge, so that it is a little closer to parallel to the run of the neck.

 

[Big B.]

The B and E strings generally arent the highest tension strings. I actually think with the laminations that will probably work fine as long as the tuners fit.

 

[byronkowalski]

So today i glued the second layer of ash to the walnut. Its clamped up doin its thing tilltomorrow.

I also checked the machine head spacing using a tracing from hipshots site, and to all appearances they will fit quite happily on there.

 

[byronkowalski]

So the ash is joined to the walnut and ive begun some preliiminary neck shaping. Waiting for truss rod and fingerboard to arrive so at a standstill for a few days.

Link Removed

Link Removed

Link Removed

 

[James Mobius]

interesting design, that upper horn seems a bit outscaled, could be neck heavy, but ya gotta experiment!

 

[byronkowalski]

some pics of wood.

first the bocote ill be using for the front and back, then the cocobolo for the fb


Link RemovedLink Removed
Link Removed

 

[byronkowalski]

fingerboard is slotted and cut, almost ready for gluing to the neck, however im still lacking a truss rod cause fedex lost them on me, very very annoying, ah well on with the show.

Link Removed
Link Removed

 

[byronkowalski]

so i managed to veneer the headstock, i had some real trouble making trhat veneer work, i had to bend it to match the curve on the headstock. Hard work but it worked out pretty good in the end.

Unfortunately i still havent got my truss rod, thank you very much fedex. so progress is somewhat impeded until then, but i have the last bits of wood so i can finish putting the body together and start carving soon.

Anyway, pictures...

Link RemovedLink RemovedLink Removed

 

[byronkowalski]

This will be the bocote top, didnt end up as thick as i would have liked, only around 7 mm, i may add an extra layer to the body to make up the extra thickness, we shall see

Link Removed

 

[Musiclogic]

Awesome bookmatched Bocote

 

[byronkowalski]

Awesome bookmatched Bocote

Thanks! im really happy with it.

 

[byronkowalski]

So after spending the last few days gluing up the rest of the body laminations, today i cut the shape out on the bandsaw, thickness of the bocote isnt exactly even but ther wasnt much i could do about it. Very happy with how its coming along, looking forward to starting carving next week.


front
Link Removed

and back
Link Removed