Fretless five competition: Mad scientist edition

[MarcMurder]

I hate you....
Why can't I make basses like this, never the less make bases...
Your my hero please disregard my previous statement

 

[Big B.]

Lab Journal #11: Back in the saddle again and its time to rout the truss rod slot. You will notice that the headstock veneer has already been glued in place. Before gluing it to the neck I glued the veneer to a piece of curly maple and wenge veneer to add some accent stripes under the veneer. My clamping technique is like my designs. Create as you go.

With a square neck blank it would take about 10 minutes to rout the truss rod slot on the router table. Unfortunately the waves require routing with an edge guide. I struggled for a while to find a good way to clamp a guide and then it came to me. I found a template guide that measures 3/8" from the edge of the guide to the center of the bit.

I glued a strip of 1/4" thick plywood to the neck blank 3/8" off of the center of the truss rod slot.

Using the plywood strip as a guide I routed the slot slightly deeper than needed and ran the blank through the planer one time to clean off the excess glue left from the plywood.

A little carving around the nut and the truss rod takes a seat permanent seat.

Here you can see a pic of the headstock profile. Not the final design but close. Like I said before I dont connect well with design and computers so I usually just lay out the final shape on the blank headstock. Before I started building my own basses I was a lifelong Roscoe guy and I love the lightweight and classy look of their headstock. This design is certainly inspired by, but not copied, by that design.

So far so good. Everything is well within experimental controls and the test subject is responding as I hoped. Coming up: fun with fingerboards.

 

[miziomix]

Coming up should be the shaping of the neck, coz THAT's what we're waiting for here!!

 

[Big B.]

Lab Journal #12: Time for the fingerboard. Normally I would cut the neck to it's final shape then glue on the fingerboard, slightly oversize, and trim it flush with a router. Since I still have a solid neck black to work with I am going to precut the fingerboard to it's final shape and actually use it as a guide for cutting the neck profile with a router. To cut the fingerboard taper I am going to use a trick from my commercial woodshop days. This is a variation of a jig that I use to cut multiple identical parts on the table saw, but it can be modified for many uses.

I will start with a plywood board. Rip the board to width and leave the saw set where it is.

Draw the taper on the fingerboard and set it on the plywood with the cut lines even with the edge of the board.

With the fingerboard held in place, nail or screw 1 long block of wood against the edge of the fingerboard and then a short block to hold the back edge of the fingerboard.

Now, with the table saw still set to the width of the plywood, run the plywood through with the fingerboard set in the blocks, leaving the edge cut exactly along the cutline.

Turn the fingerboard around, move the block, and repeat the same steps for the other side of the taper. This leaves you with a perfectly tapered fingerboard.

Since the fingerboard is cut to size I can go ahead and install the position markers now. I laid the fingerboard against a fret template and marked the major fret positions at 35" scale. This bass was originally going to be a 6 string till this competition came along so I have decided to go with a 29 fret board to give me the range of a six. The one issue with the Pale Moon is that the side of the fingerboard facing the player is light colored. My main bass for the last fifteen years has a maple board with black dots and in low light situations the black dots get lost and finding positions gets much more difficult. Also, a black dot might just blend in with the figure of the fingerboard. This bass will be used in orchestra pits and other low light environments so I need a marker that will stand out.

I sandwiched a piece of maple veneer between pieces of black fiber veneer.

I then cut matching notches 3/16" deep with the band saw and then squared them with a file. I used CA glue to glue the markers into place and sanded them flat. I think these will work perfectly.

I decided to go with something a little more festive for the 12th and 24th fret so I sandwiched a thicker piece of maple between 2 of the original markers.

And installed the 12th fret:

And the 24th fret. Here you can see the extended fingerboard. The pencil line represents the 24th fret.

Finally, since I ran out of fiber veneer I glued three very thin wenge strips under the fingerboard to leave a black accent line between the fingerboard and neck. Trim them to the fingerboard and it is ready to be glued.

As Miziomix said, next comes the neck shaping. I have been working in the lab and I have finally found a solution for carving the neck out of this giant blank. I have to admit, working with the fingerboard and headstock veneer on a solid neck block is far easier than trying to work with a neck that is close to shape. Until next time my friends, sleep calls with mad dreams of world domination...

 

[sixway]

Subscribed just to see what the hell is going on!

 

[roberthabraken]

You amaze me!

Those position markers are out of this world! In combination with the pale moon, that 24th marker and the fingerboard ending... stunning! I want to be able to come up with such great ideas. Also, execution is great, very clean.

This thing keeps getting better and better! Carry on .

 

[kcandme]

Big B,
You are a very nice man.
The presentation of your build is like a fine performance in any genre.
Magnificent.

Thank You for sharing

 

[NateS]

this. is. beautiful.

cant' wait to see the end of this.

 

[Heathen]

Sub'd. Looks fantastic!

 

[pilotjones]

Nice tip on cutting the taper.

And nice markers. You must have a bandsaw with at least a 14" wheel.

 

[Rip Topaz]

I love those markers. Forgive me if I steal that idea in the future. This build is quickly becoming my favorite at the moment.

 

[Rickett Customs]

Nice side markers.

 

[Big B.]

Nice tip on cutting the taper.

And nice markers. You must have a bandsaw with at least a 14" wheel.

Thanks Pilotjones. I use a Rikon 14" that has a 13" height capacity for resawing. Very nice saw as long as you keep it regularly set up. Even with the 14" wheel I barely had enough capacity to get to the 12th fret marker.

The taper jig is one of the most useful jigs I know of. It can be adapted for hundreds of different uses. At my old job I used to build a lot of custom shaped cabinets, particularly ADA vanities for handicapped bathrooms. :scowl: These jobs sometimes required in excess of 50 or 60 repetitions of the same part and with 2 or 3 three of these jigs set for the different cuts it made things much quicker and safer. With stop blocks attached to your outfeed table you can also do multiple non thru-cuts as well. I was the guy in the shop with jigs hanging in every square inch of my work area.

 

[15000volts]

i think i'm in love with this bass

 

[pilotjones]

I was trying to do something similar for my fret markers, but had hit an impasse. thanks for giving me some new ideas.

 

[FretFree]

Sweet build... Looking forward to how it all comes together!

 

[iamlowsound]

Too bad you cut the headstock tilt already, if you hadn't you could have done something similar to myself (post 8 http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=690281&highlight) for getting the neck to the proper thickness. Although doing it that way with a scarf joint would have messed up the waves. Maybe you can still do something similar?

lowsound

 

[AltGrendel]

Satin chrome!
Thats so much more classy than gold.
And it would nicely contrast the Top Woods.

Agreed.

 

[Big B.]

Lab Journal #13:

Adventures in neck shaping part one, the rough times.

It has now come to the point that the bulk of the material needs to be removed from the back of the neck. Again I will turn to my trusty friend the router and my 2" x 1 1/2" pattern bit.

Warning: Some of these cuts are removing a lot of material with large diameter bits. Be sure to use small depth changes and dont try to hog off more material than is safe. Trying to take too much material with a bit this big is a quick way to lose a workpiece or a finger.

I am shaping the neck from the 12th fret to the beginning of the headstock leaving the back of the neck 3/4" thick. I clamp my trusty straight edge to the blank and proceeded to rout in small passes.

After going as deep as possible on one side I remove what excess I can with the bandsaw and put a flush trim bit in the router table to remove the rest of the material.

Once the back of the neck is routed I will use the same technique to shape the back of the headstock as well.

Once I flip the blank and trim it on the router table I am left with a very clean headstock angle.

Now that the angle is finished I can cut out the headstock and sand clean.

And the back side.

Until I have glued on the body wings this is as far as I will shape the neck. I believe I have had enough wood chips and router scream for one day. Now it's time to go and practice symphony music. I need to prepare Beethoven 3, Scheherazade and Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet this week. Guess it's time to take off the lab coat and rosin up the old bow...

 

[adam.beauchene]

Lab Journal #13:

Dude. That is incredible. You got my vote in this contest. I'm just finishing on principle now.