Lab Journal # 1: Hello, hello, my luthier's corner friends. I see a few people have jumped into the fray already with some nice builds and I figured I would go ahead and get this experiment underway before the new year gets here. This competition is a perfect opportunity to try out an idea I have been cooking up in the laboratory for quite some time.
For two years I worked in a commercial woodshop that went through large quantities of nice lumber for making mouldings. It was quite common to find lots of long, thin rips off of 8/4 boards of maple, cherry, walnut, mahogany and so forth. (Not to mention entire boards of curly maple that would have been thrown out because it didnt run well in the machines or match the other mouldings, but that is another story.) Over my time there I collected a generous stack of the drops with the intent of using them for neck stringers but my pile grew out of control.
To begin this build I ripped curly maple, cherry, walnut and mahogany: Mostly african but I smelled (and tasted) a few pieces of spanish cedar and sapele in there.
All ripped to just over 3/16" to be sanded smooth.
The strips will be glue up in a repeating pattern of mahogany, maple, cherry and walnut.
Of course this was not enough to keep me entertained so I decided to throw a twist into the project. I built a curved form to use as a press when gluing up the laminations. I will glue the strips four at a time until I have enough glued up for a neck thru five string. Here is a picture of the mold.
It is made from three layers of 3/4" mdf. Here is a picture with 4 strips pressed together (no glue) to get an idea what it will look like.
and a close up.
This bass will also feature a solid top (no laminates showing through) and matching headstock veneer with a wenge accent stripe. I have not yet decided what to use as a top but these are my two main candidates for the moment. Both of these pics are from instruments in progress but the cuts are sequential and will look very similar. These tops are wet to help show the grain more clearly.
Madrone burl: Reasonably hard and dense. Similar to maple in workability. From a 7 string guitar.
And my current favorite, Camphor burl: softer and lighter than the madrone but somewhat more difficult to work with. Grain is somewhat fuzzy but looks stunning when finished. Smells like fresh cinnamon when cut. 10 string double course body.
Not the greatest pic but you get the idea.
I am leaning towards the camphor because I have 3 sets (and only 1 madrone set) but I have made no decisions yet. I have several other interesting tops laying around as well so perhaps I will post a few and see what the fine folks of TB think.
So there we have the beginnings. I will be out of town doing symphony gigs for the new year but I will be back soon with more build specs, pictures of a clean shop (my new years resolution:scowl
and the all important hair shot. Catch you on the flip side.
For two years I worked in a commercial woodshop that went through large quantities of nice lumber for making mouldings. It was quite common to find lots of long, thin rips off of 8/4 boards of maple, cherry, walnut, mahogany and so forth. (Not to mention entire boards of curly maple that would have been thrown out because it didnt run well in the machines or match the other mouldings, but that is another story.) Over my time there I collected a generous stack of the drops with the intent of using them for neck stringers but my pile grew out of control.
To begin this build I ripped curly maple, cherry, walnut and mahogany: Mostly african but I smelled (and tasted) a few pieces of spanish cedar and sapele in there.
All ripped to just over 3/16" to be sanded smooth.
The strips will be glue up in a repeating pattern of mahogany, maple, cherry and walnut.
Of course this was not enough to keep me entertained so I decided to throw a twist into the project. I built a curved form to use as a press when gluing up the laminations. I will glue the strips four at a time until I have enough glued up for a neck thru five string. Here is a picture of the mold.
It is made from three layers of 3/4" mdf. Here is a picture with 4 strips pressed together (no glue) to get an idea what it will look like.
and a close up.
This bass will also feature a solid top (no laminates showing through) and matching headstock veneer with a wenge accent stripe. I have not yet decided what to use as a top but these are my two main candidates for the moment. Both of these pics are from instruments in progress but the cuts are sequential and will look very similar. These tops are wet to help show the grain more clearly.
Madrone burl: Reasonably hard and dense. Similar to maple in workability. From a 7 string guitar.
And my current favorite, Camphor burl: softer and lighter than the madrone but somewhat more difficult to work with. Grain is somewhat fuzzy but looks stunning when finished. Smells like fresh cinnamon when cut. 10 string double course body.
Not the greatest pic but you get the idea.
I am leaning towards the camphor because I have 3 sets (and only 1 madrone set) but I have made no decisions yet. I have several other interesting tops laying around as well so perhaps I will post a few and see what the fine folks of TB think.
So there we have the beginnings. I will be out of town doing symphony gigs for the new year but I will be back soon with more build specs, pictures of a clean shop (my new years resolution:scowl
and the all important hair shot. Catch you on the flip side.
) comes out. If it works out it will be the posterbass for Titebond I.
