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Fretless five competition: Mad scientist edition

#121
Thanks for all the compliments guys. This bass was a bit of a risk that is now looking like a reward instead.

I hate to break the news that carving the neck will be one of the last things I do before finish prep begins. When I sculpt my bodies I like to work by feel so none of my bodies come out with the same contours. That being the case I prefer to wait until the body is shaped so I can blend the neck into the body. Also, having a flat neck makes it a lot easier to clamp while working on it. I am glad to give up the trouble of cutting a neck pocket and heel, but working with a neck thru once it is assembled can be very irritating. Being able to clamp the neck easily allows me to position it to be worked on more easily.
 
#123
Like Jessica Alba, I'm starting to believe you might just be evil in a nice package...

jessica%20alba.jpg
 
#129
Ok, here's one place where I'm getting confused:

Compbuildpics150.jpg


Unless I can't see the full thickness of the neck blank, or you have something else planned, the neck from the body to the headstock looks pretty darn thin to me.

I'm not a woodworker, I'm just trying to learn something here.
 
#130
AltGrendel said:
Ok, here's one place where I'm getting confused:

Compbuildpics150.jpg


Unless I can't see the full thickness of the neck blank, or you have something else planned, the neck from the body to the headstock looks pretty darn thin to me.

I'm not a woodworker, I'm just trying to learn something here.
Click to expand...

Right now the neck is 13/16" in thickness without the fingerboard. Once the fingerboard is attached the neck will actually need to be thinned a little during carving. Looking at the picture I see what you are saying. Most bass necks get thinner as they get further out to the nut. Since I have no neck heel to worry about the neck will be a consistent thickness from end to end. I find this makes the upper register more comfortable. Also since the neck is running up against the square body the difference looks drastic. With some carving and rounding the difference wont be so apparent.
 
#131
Big B. said:
Right now the neck is 13/16" in thickness without the fingerboard. Once the fingerboard is attached the neck will actually need to be thinned a little during carving. Looking at the picture I see what you are saying. Most bass necks get thinner as they get further out to the nut. Since I have no neck heel to worry about the neck will be a consistent thickness from end to end. I find this makes the upper register more comfortable. Also since the neck is running up against the square body the difference looks drastic. With some carving and rounding the difference wont be so apparent.
Click to expand...

That makes sense now, thanks again.
 
#132
Lab Journal #17: All right, straight to the woodchips we go. Now that the bass is in one piece I picked out a body from my stack that I really like the shape of and used it as a routing template for getting the bass to it's final shape.

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Now that we have a shape I can start on the control cavity cover. The original body wings were glued up a bit thicker than needed and before I glued them to the body I took a slice from the bottom wing to use as a matching cover.

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I carefully aligned the grain of the blank to the body and clamped it down.

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Flip it over and trace the shape onto the blank. Ignore my one stray line. It will be erased.

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Once the shape is traced and the cover shaped decided the blank is cut to shape on the bandsaw.

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Since this piece has no real strength on the glue lines I decided to glue a piece of veneer to it for stability and looks.
You can see the glue line where I had to glue the blank together after it came apart in my hands. Once the veneer is on it is very stable.

Compbuildpics162.jpg


A quick trip to the router table and the cover is now it's final profile.

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Once the cover is shaped I marked the lines on the body. Since it is a shallow cut I just freehanded the router near the line and sanded the lines to fit the cover.

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Once in place the grain lines up perfectly. You gotta love it when a plan comes together. ;)

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Now that the cover is done it is a great time to cut out the electronics cavity. I despise routing cavities into finished bodies so I prefer to make the cavity before the top goes on.

With the cover shape laid out on the top of the bass the cavity shaped is drawn to match.

Compbuildpics168.jpg


The body goes to the drill press and the cavity is roughly drilled out with a forstner bit.

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Using a template traced from the drawing on the body the final shape of the cavity is routed out cleanly.

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Now that the cavity is laid out I will use the router to run wire channels to the pickups and one to the bridge. It is likely that I will choose electronics that dont need to be grounded but I like to run a channel just in case. Once the pickups are routed the channels will be exposed and the wire can be fed through. I dont like drilling at angles through an expensive workpiece so this method makes me a little more at ease.

Compbuildpics173.jpg


That is all for the moment. Back later with my favorite part: the top. Stay tuned.
 
#136
pilotjones said:
This would make me very worried about the neck.
Click to expand...

The neck doesnt have me concerned. Each laminate in the neck has the same glue coverage that a laminate would have in a normal straight neck. The issue with the control cover is that the gluing surface is less than 1/4" for each laminate. Even a 2 piece glue up like my bookmatched headstock veneer will break apart easily at that thickness and width.
 
#137
Lab Journal #18: Time to post pics of my favorite part of any build; fitting and gluing the top. Until the top goes on it just doesnt feel like a bass to me. After some nebulous measurement and markings I finally confidently marked the top to fit around the neck.

Compbuildpics174.jpg


Once the top is marked a trip to the band saw gets us close.

Compbuildpics175.jpg


After a few minutes with a thick cabinet scraper and a small sanding block the top is ready to be glued on.

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Now that everything is kosher the beast goes into the clamps...

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And comes out a bass. Well, a lot closer at least;)

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Now the fun part. Trimming the top to match the body. Here is a close up of the accent lines under the top. :hyper:

Compbuildpics184.jpg


Damn, I love that thick slab of Ziricote. It rings like a bell when you tap it and just looks so good. Sure makes my job easier. :D

Now that the top is on it is a good time to work on the neck heel. First, we bring back the router and straightedge and remove the excess material up to the body.

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Since the fingerboard has 29 "frets" the heel on the back will be cut away further into the body than I normally would. Instead of trying to fit a template over the body I just drew a close line with a sharpie and freehanded the pocket in about three pass with a 1 1/8 " straight bit.

Compbuildpics185.jpg


I initially left the neck thicker in the heel to allow for some thickness taper but I think I am going to cut it down to the same thickness as the rest of the neck. For the moment the pocket is rough cut but tomorrow that should be taken care of. Thanks for tuning in and we'll see you on the flipside.
 

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