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Fretless HalfStatus
- Thread starter MPU
- Start date
Yet another example of crisp, clean work using advanced materials. Always a pleasure to see the outcome of your builds.
I had a small resonance at nut (E-string slot needed a few passes with nut file) and while I was at the shop filing it I sanded the neck end a bit more rounded. Osmo oil/wax is very easy to touch up, just sand to 400, finish with grey Mirka abrasive pad and wipe a thin coat of Osmo. Tomorrow I scuff it with grey pad again and wipe another coat and it’s done.
When building a bass, I completely agree. But when I play a bass, if I think about every note for even a couple of seconds, I have a problem....
I think you are really onto something interesting with this neck construction design, Marko. Bravely moving the technology forward! You could potentially make a neck like this with no truss rod or metal reinforcements. Light weight, stable, and with just the right amount of stiffness. With some R & D, you could figure out the stiffness to give the neck good tonal properties, and allow it to pull into the right relief curve. And with this type of construction, you could build it consistently.
Nice work!
To add to the lightweight aspect of this build technique, I am pretty sure that a hardwood core isn't even necessary. A lot of composite structures are built with with very lightweight filling, for example foam, honeycomb filler or balsa. I think with a balsa core the neck would be even lighter and you had even better stiffness control because the stiffness would be dictated mostly by the cf layup, not the core wood.
Isn't that more or less how the original Steinberger necks were constructed? CF layup filled with insulation foam?
Last night we had a rehearsal. HalfStatus played and sounded good. I was really suprised how easy it was to play fretless and not sound out of tune all the time. Fret markers really made a difference, I couldn't have played fretless without them. All in all, very nice bass in every way.
I was thinking the same thing; redwood or spruce would be very light but also very stiff as a core in this context. There could even be a harder sub-core to provide a more durable sleeve for the truss rod. A sort of core-within-a-core so that the wood immediately around the truss rod would be less likely to compress.
The mahogany I used was very light. Not balsa-light but not much heavier.
Looks good, feels good, sounds good and is a lot easier to make than carbon skin neck. What more should I want?
That's the way Ken Parker builds his archtops' necks: with a douglas fir (or some other kind of spruce) core, cf structural layer and an outer layer of some fancy wood for aesthetics. I don't remember how he instals the truss rod though.
I love how this bass turned out. I'm planing something similar to those fret markers for my next fretless build.
I've made a few fretless basses for myself and others, all with plain ebony boards and side dots. That was a long time ago though, haven't had a fretless to play in a very long time. Fixed that now, making another fretless for myself but can't remember what dot patterns I used to prefer. I know I liked them where the fret would be, and I used copper wire to make the dots.
For this bass I have some 3mm copper bar, thinking of the regular 3-5-7-9-12 pattern, with a double dot at the 12th. Or maybe brass dots with a single copper dot at the 12th. I have plenty of brass stock, I can make any size dots I like.
I'm undecided, looking for suggestions...
For this bass I have some 3mm copper bar, thinking of the regular 3-5-7-9-12 pattern, with a double dot at the 12th. Or maybe brass dots with a single copper dot at the 12th. I have plenty of brass stock, I can make any size dots I like.
I'm undecided, looking for suggestions...
That’s certainly the most common arrangement on unlined, fretless necks. With the dots positioned where the frets would be.
Yes, that’s the most common arrangement. For my own instruments I like to have a dot at 1 and 13 also.
