Crazy concept, looking forward to see it go forward. I'm just thinking of the finishing. If you plan on using lacquer, you're going to have to sand it all around..
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Glitchenbacker, Experimental Entirely Lasercut Bass
- Thread starter gmjhowe
- Start date
Heh, design a crazy bass, get lots of interest eh?
A little something to keep you all on the edges of your seats.
A laser cut sample of 12mm thick ply, the actual layers of wood that make it up are about 2mm thick. How deep is a Ric normally? I was thinking 3 layers making it 36mm deep, then by the time I have the top acrylic layer it will be 39mm deep.
A little something to keep you all on the edges of your seats.
A laser cut sample of 12mm thick ply, the actual layers of wood that make it up are about 2mm thick. How deep is a Ric normally? I was thinking 3 layers making it 36mm deep, then by the time I have the top acrylic layer it will be 39mm deep.
This presents three problems you would have to overcome.
1. Fret slot widths are extremely critical. .001-.002 too narrow, and the neck will bend back when fretted; .001-.002 too wide and the the fret will not stay in, unless you glue it in. So, you will need to do fretting test pieces to see.
2. You will have to figure how to remove the glue squeeze into the slots when mounting the slotted layer to the solid layer.
3. If you use this method you will find it necessary to do so on an un-tapered (still rectangular) neck. If you had a a tapered top piece with the slots also in it, this would mean there are 42-48 narrow little bridges holding it together at the sides, highly likely to be broken by the time you handle, glue, align, and clamp.
This is a pic of my phone case.
The variation in height is even more than you can make out in the photo. If the laser power or time were increased in order to burn those capillary tubes down to .070 or so to clear a fret tang, it would have also burnt clear through the soft parts between the tubes.
Now, maple is not bamboo, but maple has other complications--along with the capillaries running longitudinally it has the growth rings running tangentially, plus medullary rays running radially. So, you must test to see what the heck happens. And you can expect it to react differently depending on grain orientation (flat/rift/quartered) of your samples.
All the laser-etched plaques and photo frames I've seen have this kind of roughness in the etched areas, but one may not notice because those area are just "the dark part" and are easily ignored. Until you look closely.
This method can't work. First, it would require a method to apply consistent sideways pressure while applying the main downward clamping pressure. Second, that would still not guarantee that there is proper pressure on the barbs of the fret tangs. Third, there would be a cumulative position error with each glue-up, and by the time you got to the body end of the neck, the frets would be in the wrong place.
Totally, I have done fairly precise things on the laser cutter before and that was before we got a better more precise laser cutter.
Yes, I reckon if I go with a hole all the way though, I could actually glue and clamp it all at the same time, frets included.
I have done a lot of fairly delicate work, yes it can break, however if one is careful it should be fine. If it does break though, fairly quick to laser cut another!
This is a pic of my phone case.
The variation in height is even more than you can make out in the photo. If the laser power or time were increased in order to burn those capillary tubes down to .070 or so to clear a fret tang, it would have also burnt clear through the soft parts between the tubes.
Now, maple is not bamboo, but maple has other complications--along with the capillaries running longitudinally it has the growth rings running tangentially, plus medullary rays running radially. So, you must test to see what the heck happens. And you can expect it to react differently depending on grain orientation (flat/rift/quartered) of your samples.
All the laser-etched plaques and photo frames I've seen have this kind of roughness in the etched areas, but one may not notice because those area are just "the dark part" and are easily ignored. Until you look closely.
This method can't work. First, it would require a method to apply consistent sideways pressure while applying the main downward clamping pressure. Second, that would still not guarantee that there is proper pressure on the barbs of the fret tangs. Third, there would be a cumulative position error with each glue-up, and by the time you got to the body end of the neck, the frets would be in the wrong place.
I have etched hardwoods before, I have never observed a large amount of unevenness. Slightly rough, but fine otherwise.
As I said originally even though its referred to as an 'etch' its actually a cut, just a cut without enough power to go all the way through.
Why not make some of the cuts into the body deeper and wider and 'fill' them with acrylic? Then you could have the bass body appear shattered beyond what physics should allow it to stay in one piece. Just a thought.
So, not only did I recently get my Ash and Acrylic bass playable, but I also got another fretted bass back that I had lent to a friend.
Having learned on, and enjoyed playing a fretless bass I am left thinking I don't need another fretted bass.
So to that end, I had a go at a fretless design. I had wanted to have a go at a fanned fretted neck, maybe that will just have to wait until next time?
Fretless does leave me with a lot more freedom to do something creative with the fingerboard.
Having learned on, and enjoyed playing a fretless bass I am left thinking I don't need another fretted bass.
So to that end, I had a go at a fretless design. I had wanted to have a go at a fanned fretted neck, maybe that will just have to wait until next time?
Fretless does leave me with a lot more freedom to do something creative with the fingerboard.
You can still go multi-scale with a fretless. Inlay lines (dots, etc.) where the frets would have been if that would help with positioning. Maybe even incorporate the markings into the overall fretboard design.
I agree that going with a fretless may give you a good palette and artistic real estate on the fretboard like you said.
There are tons of things you can do here. I don't want to impose on your artistic space, so I'll just pass along a couple fonts that look like good baselines for creating a pixelated and glitched-out word (like what you were rendering):
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Hmm. I gotta say that, whether you go fretted or fretless, one of the things that worked so well for me with this design was how well it blended with the multiscale aspect.
Hopkins
Commercial User
I would not go multiscale if you decide on a fretless bass, it will just make it very hard to get proper intonation. If you decide to go fretted, I think your first two ideas will probably work. I think the first idea would be the easiest to pull off.
Yeah, fretless is nice and all, but I see no real need for multi scale fretless. Because a fretted instrument has a much larger margin for error you can get away with the multi scale, to a large extent it is more ergonomic, with the smaller fingers having more room to be spaced out when the fingers are 'stacked' on top of each other.
Thanks for the font suggestions, I actually work as a graphic designer during the day. I am starting to think I should do a glitched version of the Rickenbacker logo. Perhaps @mapleglo has a version of it as a vector?
Thanks for the font suggestions, I actually work as a graphic designer during the day. I am starting to think I should do a glitched version of the Rickenbacker logo. Perhaps @mapleglo has a version of it as a vector?
I had a sneaky suspicion about you. I also am a graphic and multimedia designer. Rock on!
Then again, there's no reason not to try it, you can always fret it later on.
I did the same with a DIY 35 inch scale six string bass, after having found out my muscle memory just could not adjust to the minute difference this inch makes I fretted it and never looked back.
I'm going to enjoy seeing how this bass will develop.
Sweet, you wanna know the best bit? I can export my designs from illustrator as DXF, which is what most laser cutters use.
You are not just looking at a mock up, that's the actual thing drawn 100% and to scale in illustrator ready to export.
Sweet, awesomesauce.
Thanks!
You are totally right. It makes sense to make it a 35 scale fretless, I can then easily convert it to fretted. If I leave enough room and design it well it could even become a fanned fretted.
Illustrator is my weapon of choice as well; I do almost all of my designing with it. I recently also just got into AutoCAD and that's a pretty slick program that really has some advantages over Illustrator that are certainly worth checking out if you ever have the time. The bass project I've got in my hopper was drawn completely with AutoCAD, which is my first such project.
I use illustrator for my design work as well. I used to do some graphic design professionally, but have since moved into banking. Yuk.
Anyway, have you thought about the marked area here:
and how that may interact with your leg if you play the bass while sitting down?
Anyway, have you thought about the marked area here:
and how that may interact with your leg if you play the bass while sitting down?
