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Fretless five competition: Mad scientist edition
- Thread starter Big B.
- Start date
Have a beer or two while watching a couple episodes of Orange County Choppers, Then just get out the GRINDER!
Lab Journal #34: No huge mad scientific breakthroughs to report but I do have some requested pics of the entire bass with strings on.
Thats all for now.
Thats all for now.
Looks mad!! It seems your fb and string spacing at the nut are wide compared to the size of the headstock, but I think it works. Looks comfortable to play too.
I don't think I could cope with a fretboard that visually interesting, personally. I'm used to rosewood, ebony or maple, or just all black epoxy. but I'm an artist, painter/illustrator, and think visually, I don't need lines on a fretless neck, but without frets, and with those loopy tiger stripes, I think I might go mad. (moreso I mean.)
Surprisingly, the fingerboard is not as distracting as I thought it might be. In fairness though, I dont look down a lot when I play and when I do I really only see the side of the neck. I could certainly see how it would bother some people though. I am really pleased with how well the position markers stand out from the rest of the fingerboard.
The width of the nut/headstock looks particularly funny in those pics but the headstock is definitely on the tiny side. Weight wise I dont have an actual measurement but I would say probably 10-12 lbs. or so when complete but it feels like all the weight is in the body, not the neck. Sounds a little heavy but with the strap buttons drilled as they are the bass hangs perfectly in playing position (for me, not Jason Newsted
) with absolutely no neck dive. IME a 12 lbs. bass can feel lighter than an 8 lbs. bass if the 12 lbs. bass balances better than the 8 lbs. bass.
Thanks guys for all the kind words and look for more in the next day or so.
The width of the nut/headstock looks particularly funny in those pics but the headstock is definitely on the tiny side. Weight wise I dont have an actual measurement but I would say probably 10-12 lbs. or so when complete but it feels like all the weight is in the body, not the neck. Sounds a little heavy but with the strap buttons drilled as they are the bass hangs perfectly in playing position (for me, not Jason Newsted
) with absolutely no neck dive. IME a 12 lbs. bass can feel lighter than an 8 lbs. bass if the 12 lbs. bass balances better than the 8 lbs. bass. Thanks guys for all the kind words and look for more in the next day or so.
- Aug 21, 2008
- 10,386
- 252
- 68
- Disclosures
- Owner, SGD Music Products
Drake Custom
Commercial User
- Aug 24, 2010
- 440
- 1,082
- Disclosures
- Builder/Owner:Drake Custom Bass Guitars
Awesome! Simply awesome. It looks as if you will be finished before the deadline. Start rehearsing your award speech.
Wow! When looking at the whole thing in strings, it looks like mostly Fingerboard. Incredible, to say the least.
Lab Journal #35: Good day to you fine TB'ers from a very tired (and hungover
) mad scientist. Had the pleasure of playing a fantastic show with the burlesque I am music director for last night, and when the performers want you at the after show hang, Man Laws require that you make it happen. Anyway... enough of my good times. I put the CA coating on the fingerboard a couple of days ago but havent had time to make a post because I was busy writing out charts for the gig.
The first order of business was to tape the finger board off from the rest of the bass. I cant think of many more annoying things to remove from a finish than rogue CA.
Once the neck is taped off the first coat of CA goes on. I have never done a CA coating before so I took some advice from Drake and used paper towels to spread the glue across the board. Make sure you do it as quickly as possible. I would also suggest using a mix that is designed to have a longer wet time. Also keep in mind that large amounts of CA can get quite warm as they are drying on a rag that is about to be stuck to your fingers. :scowl: (dont be an idiot mad scientist, use gloves) Here is the first coat. Decent coverage but you can still see some dry spots here and there.
The key is to keep the coats very thin but to use enough glue to cover the board. By keeping it thin you avoid raising humps and lines that have to be sanded out later. After about 4 coats I felt it was thick enough to start to wet sand with 800 grit paper between every coat to cut down any buildup. With just a light sanding the finish starts to gain some nice luster.
Here are a couple of pics in progress from coat to coat.
In all it took about 12 coats to get the finish built up to my satisfaction. After the final coat I wet sanded with 1000 grit, 1500 grit and then topped it off with some auto swirl remover to make it really shine.
I absolutely love it and will be doing all my fretless boards this way in the future unless a customer specifically asked for a raw or oiled board. Since this pic was taken the entire bass was sanded, put back in the finishing jig and sprayed, which I will post pics of later. It looks like this bass really will get done on time (excuse me while I) but it will definitely be last minute. At this point I dont do my own wiring so I have a time scheduled for it the afternoon of March 31st if that tells you anything. 
Thanks again for tuning in, my head hurts, and I think I may go back to sleep. 
) mad scientist. Had the pleasure of playing a fantastic show with the burlesque I am music director for last night, and when the performers want you at the after show hang, Man Laws require that you make it happen. Anyway... enough of my good times. I put the CA coating on the fingerboard a couple of days ago but havent had time to make a post because I was busy writing out charts for the gig. The first order of business was to tape the finger board off from the rest of the bass. I cant think of many more annoying things to remove from a finish than rogue CA.
Once the neck is taped off the first coat of CA goes on. I have never done a CA coating before so I took some advice from Drake and used paper towels to spread the glue across the board. Make sure you do it as quickly as possible. I would also suggest using a mix that is designed to have a longer wet time. Also keep in mind that large amounts of CA can get quite warm as they are drying on a rag that is about to be stuck to your fingers. :scowl: (dont be an idiot mad scientist, use gloves
) Here is the first coat. Decent coverage but you can still see some dry spots here and there.The key is to keep the coats very thin but to use enough glue to cover the board. By keeping it thin you avoid raising humps and lines that have to be sanded out later. After about 4 coats I felt it was thick enough to start to wet sand with 800 grit paper between every coat to cut down any buildup. With just a light sanding the finish starts to gain some nice luster.
Here are a couple of pics in progress from coat to coat.
In all it took about 12 coats to get the finish built up to my satisfaction. After the final coat I wet sanded with 1000 grit, 1500 grit and then topped it off with some auto swirl remover to make it really shine.
I absolutely love it and will be doing all my fretless boards this way in the future unless a customer specifically asked for a raw or oiled board. Since this pic was taken the entire bass was sanded, put back in the finishing jig and sprayed, which I will post pics of later. It looks like this bass really will get done on time (excuse me while I
) but it will definitely be last minute. At this point I dont do my own wiring so I have a time scheduled for it the afternoon of March 31st if that tells you anything. Thanks again for tuning in, my head hurts, and I think I may go back to sleep. 
adam.beauchene
Commercial User
That's sharp, B. Can't wait to hear this beast!
I've done the CA treatment on some smaller pieces, knobs and backplates and such, but never a fingerboard. One thing that I learned the hard way is that a piece of cotton t-shirt, saturated with fast CA, smokes and gets really hot. Like, fire-hazard hot. Did you experience that with paper towels?
I've done the CA treatment on some smaller pieces, knobs and backplates and such, but never a fingerboard. One thing that I learned the hard way is that a piece of cotton t-shirt, saturated with fast CA, smokes and gets really hot. Like, fire-hazard hot. Did you experience that with paper towels?
Musiclogic
Commercial User
- Aug 6, 2005
- 6,505
- 73
- 60
- Disclosures
- Owner/Builder: HJC Customs USA, The Cool Lute, C G O
Yep, be careful; Cotton + CA = extremely exothermic reaction
(one of the pieces of information I have taken in from my boredom induced searching of wikipedia
)
Just read through the whole lot... I'm in love. I've always been more of a standard image guy, Fender's and what not, but this thing... I'll be dreaming of all her details no doubt!
Lab Journal 36: Good morning TB. More pics to update while the test subject is strapped into the rack. Once the coating was finished for the board the shellac sealer was sanded over thoroughly with a high grit flexible sanding sponge and then it goes to the rack to be sprayed. My finish of choice is the standard McFadden nitrocellulose guitar lacquer. Unfortunately McFadden just went out of business but their formulas were bought and are now being produced by Seagrave. As far as I can tell there is no difference in the two brand names. That makes me smile because I think this stuff sprays on smoother and buffs out as nice as anything I have worked with. FYI I generally follow the 3 passes = 1 coat rule with 24 hours or so between coats.
Some pics after 3 passes:
6 passes:
And finally after 9 passes:
One of the headstock:
And the back:
All of these pics are dry so the sheen you see is actually the finished product (before the buffing of course). I had to remove and re-tape between coats as I was prone to get some slight overspray on the fingerboard. A rag with a touch of laqcuer thinner gets it right off.
These pics were taken tues., wed. and thurs. so by next thursday morning it will be ready to buff and polish (just barely) and the electronics will be put in that afternoon just in time for my final presentation pics. The sad thing is this bass could have been done a month and a half ago if I hadn't been struggling to afford parts through most of this build.
Just yesterday I received my knobs and preamp. Disappointingly, I was never able to find concentric knobs in satin silver other than the ridiculous hipshot knobs
so for the time being I am going with black knobs. Not my first choice but I will ultimately either find some satin concentric knobs or I will just switch the hardware out for all black.
The preamp is the EMG BQC control. I am not a huge fan of the EMG pickups but this preamp has some very nice features.
First and foremost it has a ton of EQ capability.
The pot with the circuit attached is the concentric midrange control and the other is a concentric bass/treble control. Since the EMG stuff is all designed to be active the volume and blend knobs need to be a different impedence for the passive SGD pickups. In addition to the mid control there are two 2 way switches on the circuit board that adjust the knee for the treble control to four different positions. With the easy access of the pop-off compartment cover this becomes very useful on different stages. You can see the two white switches in between the 2 sets of wires.
The BQC is also very quiet and clean. To my ears the EMG pickups themselves are somewhat sterile but with pickups with character such as the SGD's the BQC setup shines. Another great thing about this preamp is that it only takes a small amount of space in the cavity so I can still get 2 9v batteries in to run at 18v. This is starting to sound like an EMG ad so I leave you till next thursday with final presentation pics of the finished bass.
Some pics after 3 passes:
6 passes:
And finally after 9 passes:
One of the headstock:
And the back:
All of these pics are dry so the sheen you see is actually the finished product (before the buffing of course). I had to remove and re-tape between coats as I was prone to get some slight overspray on the fingerboard. A rag with a touch of laqcuer thinner gets it right off.
These pics were taken tues., wed. and thurs. so by next thursday morning it will be ready to buff and polish (just barely) and the electronics will be put in that afternoon just in time for my final presentation pics. The sad thing is this bass could have been done a month and a half ago if I hadn't been struggling to afford parts through most of this build.
Just yesterday I received my knobs and preamp. Disappointingly, I was never able to find concentric knobs in satin silver other than the ridiculous hipshot knobs
so for the time being I am going with black knobs. Not my first choice but I will ultimately either find some satin concentric knobs or I will just switch the hardware out for all black. The preamp is the EMG BQC control. I am not a huge fan of the EMG pickups but this preamp has some very nice features.
First and foremost it has a ton of EQ capability.
The pot with the circuit attached is the concentric midrange control and the other is a concentric bass/treble control. Since the EMG stuff is all designed to be active the volume and blend knobs need to be a different impedence for the passive SGD pickups. In addition to the mid control there are two 2 way switches on the circuit board that adjust the knee for the treble control to four different positions. With the easy access of the pop-off compartment cover this becomes very useful on different stages. You can see the two white switches in between the 2 sets of wires.
The BQC is also very quiet and clean. To my ears the EMG pickups themselves are somewhat sterile but with pickups with character such as the SGD's the BQC setup shines. Another great thing about this preamp is that it only takes a small amount of space in the cavity so I can still get 2 9v batteries in to run at 18v. This is starting to sound like an EMG ad so I leave you till next thursday with final presentation pics of the finished bass.
