Thanks! I was pretty surprised when I found it.
That is one gorgeous piece of rosewood! I've never seen such color variation and the shade of the brown is so rich looking. Beautiful!
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Grizz's first bass build
- Thread starter Jonny5bass
- Start date
Not much more than another pic of a clamp forest but it was a productive day in the garage. I finished my router sled, leveled the two body pieces and got them glued up. Now I'm looking forward to making a template for the neck pocket and control cavity.
5 hours in the garage and I am super excited and reinvigorated to get this thing done, take what I've learned and move on to the next one!
Subbed.
I can't wait to see what it will look like when it is done.
BTW how much would you sell it for.
Just kidding never sell your first made, it would be like selling your baby.
I can't wait to see what it will look like when it is done.
BTW how much would you sell it for.
Just kidding never sell your first made, it would be like selling your baby.
Thanks Rolfskylark! That's quite a compliment! I wouldn't feel comfortable selling my first one since I still have so much to learn. Maybe my 4th or 5th if someone wanted them
I was finally able to get some work done on the bass. Last week I was able to get a day in the shop so I wanted to spend it making templates for the various cavities I need to get done. Well, I learned a valuable lesson. SANDING TAKES AWAY MATERIAL!! I thought I was being so clever drawing out the control cavity on the body template to make sure everything fit, then copying that to tracing paper, gluing the tracing paper to more MDF, using a skil saw to cut the rough shape and finally using a sanding drum on my handheld drill to finish shaping. After one little "oops" with the drum sander I figured, what the heck. It's only a template and it's my design so who cares if the shape isn't exactly what I drew up. So I went with that. Then I went to work on the outside dimension template for the control cavity and had the same thoughts. To make a long story longer, I spent my day in the shop making completely useless templates that didn't correspond to each other or the bass in any way.
So, I went back to the building encyclopedia of Luthier's Corner and looked at how other people did their templates. It never occurred to me to use files for some reason. In about 2 hours I had very nice templates made up. Lesson learned.
On to the real action! I used some forstner bits to hog out some material for the neck pocket, pick up cavities and control cavity. Sorry for the crappy pics but my phone is all I've got.
For some reason I am really nervous about the neck pocket. I keep thinking of how I'm going to get the layout right, sleep on it, then second guess myself. I think I'm making it too difficult in my head. I'm planning on tying a piece of string to a couple nails at either end of my fancy new melamine work surface. Then lining up the centers of the bridge and the neck and using the string to confirm my layout is straight, tracing the neck heel and going to work. I'm not sure why I have such a mental hang up about this step but it just seems like there are too many variables and it's not going to come out right. Any thoughts are always welcome.
Thanks for looking!
So, I went back to the building encyclopedia of Luthier's Corner and looked at how other people did their templates. It never occurred to me to use files for some reason. In about 2 hours I had very nice templates made up. Lesson learned.
On to the real action! I used some forstner bits to hog out some material for the neck pocket, pick up cavities and control cavity. Sorry for the crappy pics but my phone is all I've got.
For some reason I am really nervous about the neck pocket. I keep thinking of how I'm going to get the layout right, sleep on it, then second guess myself. I think I'm making it too difficult in my head. I'm planning on tying a piece of string to a couple nails at either end of my fancy new melamine work surface. Then lining up the centers of the bridge and the neck and using the string to confirm my layout is straight, tracing the neck heel and going to work. I'm not sure why I have such a mental hang up about this step but it just seems like there are too many variables and it's not going to come out right. Any thoughts are always welcome.
Thanks for looking!
Hopkins
Commercial User
Draw an accurate center line on your neck pocket template, and line it up with the center line you have drawn on the body. For future reference, I find it much better to rout the neck pocket in the blank before you draw your cut lines. This way you can make sure everything is centered.
It could be that I'm tired after a long shift at work but I'm not entirely understanding this. Do you mean that you route the template for fit, then draw it for centering?
This will probably make more sense after I get some sleep.
Hopkins
Commercial User
I am not sure what you are using for your template, but I assume you are making your own. Measure the template and carefully draw a center line on the template that you can match to the line on your body.
Notice how this template has a center line scribed into it
I'm using mdf and was planning on copying my existing whole body template and cutting the neck pocket into that. That way I'll have a body template with and without the neck pocket for future builds.
- Jul 1, 2005
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You may have trouble with your control cavity unless those holes are for micro switches or very tiny pots.
Hopkins
Commercial User
MDF Templates work the same way, instead of being able to see the line through the template, you just draw the line on the top, and use a square to continue the line down the edge to the bottom of the template.
I'm using an Audere classic preamp that comes with pots attached. They require a 7mm hole so I drilled some out on a template and they fit great so I was confident on drilling them. Not so confident on the placement but hey, you've got to break an egg to make an omelette.
I just looked at the pics I posted and I see what you meant now. The cavity isn't totally routed out yet but I did do a test layout on a template with the walls of the cavity drawn and they do clear just fine. The pots on the audere are really small. They are also an awesome company to deal with. I had a couple noob questions and they got back to me right away and were very helpful.
- Jul 1, 2005
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- 21,932
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- CataldoBasses: Designer/Builder ThunderBuckerPickups:Consultant
Had another productive shop day. I got the control cavity and pick up cavities routed, drilled for wiring and mounted the bridge.
All went smoothly except for one hiccup. I was a little too eager to see my work so I accidentally nicked the pickup cavity when I pulled the router out. Not sure how I'm going to address that one. Maybe some CA and sanding dust?
All went smoothly except for one hiccup. I was a little too eager to see my work so I accidentally nicked the pickup cavity when I pulled the router out. Not sure how I'm going to address that one. Maybe some CA and sanding dust?
Hopkins
Commercial User
That nick looks small enough that I would just round that sharp edge off a bit. It will look better than trying to patch it.
I was hoping for a tight fit since I won't be installing a pick guard. Maybe sanding it out won't show too much. I'll draw some lines to see where the pocket would end up after sanding.
