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Fretless five competition: Mad scientist edition

#181
miziomix said:
ps: I'd be a bit worried about the reliability of magnets when a cover is cut that way. The edge is right where the player's body touches the.... er...body.... and friction might accidentally pull the cover out.

My current build has a cavity cover very similar to the one you're making http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showpost.php?p=10111930&postcount=81 and I've been thinking long and hard about this very issue. I move quite a bit when I play and the future owner might move even more than me. I think I'm gonna go with screws. But hey! what do I know? ;)

The build is looking very good! :)
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Thanks Mizio! Yes, this was actually the first thing I noticed when I put the plate on with the magnets. There is about 1/8"-1/16" of "wiggle" with the magnets. I will either use another magnet or a small dowel and set it standing proud of the cover with a matching recess in the cavity ledge. This should act as a sort of "locating pin" to keep the cover from slipping.

I generally dont move a lot when I play so for me I doubt it would be an issue but it is something to keep in mind for different people. Just fooling with the plate it seems it would take a lot of pull to make the cover slide off sideways.
 
#182
Lab Journal #21: Another day, another dollar, and another set of pics for your viewing enjoyment. First things first. The control cavity cover has a slight side to side wiggle so I drilled some 2mm holes and used CA glue to glue in some small panel nails.

Compbuildpics220.jpg


I clipped the nails off to about 1/8" or so and rounded off the top with a file. I put little white paint on each nail and placed the cover over it to mark drill points. Using the 2mm bit I drilled small holes in the cover just big enough to fit snugly over the nails. The nails become locating pins and the cover is nice and solid.

Now on to the fun part: shaping the neck and heel. Since the neck was near it's final shape the majority of the work is just rounding off the edges. My small handplane made pretty short work of the edges:

Compbuildpics222.jpg


Once the neck is rough profiled a bit of work with the orbital sander gets rid of the rough.

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This is my favorite part of the neck. The shape of the laminates is stretched by the carving and creates some interesting shapes.

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And the headstock:

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The neck is almost done but the last bit of carving will wait until hardware and strings go on to see how it feels when properly setup.

The next step is to smooth out the neck heel. I initially made the cutaway freehand with a router so the walls are still slightly uneven. I clamped a piece of 1/2" plywood over the body and routed it flush to the heel pocket with a flush trim bit. You can see in the picture how uneven the edge of the plywood is.

Compbuildpics230.jpg


The template goes to the spindle sander and gets smoothed out to a nice curve.

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Once the template is smooth it is clamped back to the body and the cavity is trimmed to the template with a top bearing pattern bit. Here is a pic of the smooth cut:

Compbuildpics232.jpg


I used a roundover bit to round the edges and after a little work with the orbital sander the body is now done except for a good bit of sculpting and shaping. I have no real plan for shaping the body, I am just trying to remove weight while giving the instrument a streamlined shape. I dislike hard edges on instruments and prefer my edges to be more elliptical shaped than the common roundover.

Compbuildpics223.jpg


And by popular demand I present you with pics of back of the body and neck:

Compbuildpics229.jpg


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That's all for now my TB friends. Back again soon with more pics as the body gets sculpted. Thanks so much for following along and I hope you enjoy the show.
 
#186
miziomix said:
Sexy! the neck side looks great. But....mmm......No plan for shaping the body? :( I actually hope you're going to do some heavy contour on that body ;) especially around the neck joint. It would really do justice to this build.
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Sorry, I wasnt very clear. :) There will be definitely be some heavy sculpting going on, I just dont have a plan for how to go about it. With each individual instrument I like to just let the grain of the wood and the feel of the bass be my guide as opposed to going for a certain shape.

Kuso, the body is 1 5/8" thickness.
 
#199
Thanks guys. I am glad everyone is enjoying the build. I generally work in a "stream of consciousness" sort of way but having to document this build has been interesting because it forces me to slow down and consider each step and it's cumulative affect on the bass.

Grant, the neck is 2 1/8" at the nut and 3 1/8" at the "24th fret". Somewhat wider than some five strings. Even though I am a 6 string guy I like my fives to feel more like a 4 string in spacing and feel than a 6 string. The A type bridge I ordered is 18.5 string spacing but I will most likely adjust it out slightly as the bridge allows.

Altgrendel, a fretless jazz neck would look really sweet. Making a separate neck or body like this would be a hell of a lot less work than doing a neck through. I also think that with a pickguard, especially a nice wooden one or black one, a Fender style laminate body would look great without a top.
 
#200
The most impressive thing about this is the neck to body laminate match which gives it a really cool flow. It's still too busy for my taste, but is visually impactful. This back makes you look no matter if you like it or not. Thank god it's the back, it makes me dizzy, I keep thinking "Rod Serling" everytime I see it...LOL. Looking good B
 

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