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Grizz's first bass build

#62
Well the toy box ended up needing a little over 20 hours of more work but it was a hit. IMG_2357.JPG

Let me start with a bit more good news until I move onto the, well, not so good. I got back to work on the bass this week and was able to make a neck pocket template and mount the neck to the body.

This may be long winded but maybe it will help someone or give someone else something to laugh at. The neck pocket template took me 3 tries to get a good fit. I'm not sure what was happening but I would draw my outline on the mdf using the neck and neck template I have, cut out the majority with a coping saw, then dremel almost all the way to the line and finish up with files and sandpaper. The first 2 times I did this the heel of the neck would not sit all the way down in the pocket. I tried working on the shape of the corners and before long ended up with something unusable. Finally I just took my second attempt and filled in the gap with painters tape, stuck it to another trimmed up piece of mdf and used the router with a template bit. This left me with a very nice fitting template.

After that I was able to drill pilot holes through to the neck for the screws and then used a 9/16 forstner bit to cut spaces for the ferrules. Apologies for the quality of pictures.
IMG_1081.jpg


Now for the other news...

A long time ago when I was working on this and hogged out material for the pickups, control cavity and neck pocket I must have gone too far back with the forstners.
IMG_1082.jpg


When I was doing the layout for the neck pocket template I triple checked how far back my route needed to go to maintain my 34" scale. I must have miscalculated months ago with the forstners. I did mount the bridge to double check once the neck was on and everything is spot on for 34". The neck seems to have a considerable back bow but I may have not tightened down the back screws all the way. Things were getting a little squeaky and I was pretty tired and nervous by that point.

Thanks for looking and feel free to chime in with advice, opinions, ridicule, etc.
 
#63
Jonny5bass said:
Well the toy box ended up needing a little over 20 hours of more work but it was a hit. View attachment 542060

My first build was pretty raw, I decided to bui
Click to expand...
Jonny5bass said:
Well the toy box ended up needing a little over 20 hours of more work but it was a hit. View attachment 542060

Let me start with a bit more good news until I move onto the, well, not so good. I got back to work on the bass this week and was able to make a neck pocket template and mount the neck to the body.

This may be long winded but maybe it will help someone or give someone else something to laugh at. The neck pocket template took me 3 tries to get a good fit. I'm not sure what was happening but I would draw my outline on the mdf using the neck and neck template I have, cut out the majority with a coping saw, then dremel almost all the way to the line and finish up with files and sandpaper. The first 2 times I did this the heel of the neck would not sit all the way down in the pocket. I tried working on the shape of the corners and before long ended up with something unusable. Finally I just took my second attempt and filled in the gap with painters tape, stuck it to another trimmed up piece of mdf and used the router with a template bit. This left me with a very nice fitting template.

After that I was able to drill pilot holes through to the neck for the screws and then used a 9/16 forstner bit to cut spaces for the ferrules. Apologies for the quality of pictures.
View attachment 542061

Now for the other news...

A long time ago when I was working on this and hogged out material for the pickups, control cavity and neck pocket I must have gone too far back with the forstners.
View attachment 542062

When I was doing the layout for the neck pocket template I triple checked how far back my route needed to go to maintain my 34" scale. I must have miscalculated months ago with the forstners. I did mount the bridge to double check once the neck was on and everything is spot on for 34". The neck seems to have a considerable back bow but I may have not tightened down the back screws all the way. Things were getting a little squeaky and I was pretty tired and nervous by that point.

Thanks for looking and feel free to chime in with advice, opinions, ridicule, etc.
Click to expand...


Are you going to make a pickguard? If you do you can cover up that mistake with it. You can maybe make something to go from the front pickup just to the neck in some kind of creative way. Just an idea.
It is looking good.
 
#64
stevecaronna said:
Are you going to make a pickguard? If you do you can cover up that mistake with it. You can maybe make something to go from the front pickup just to the neck in some kind of creative way. Just an idea.
It is looking good.
Click to expand...
That is something I hadn't thought of. I was trying to keep the wood showing but maybe I could do a contrasting wood of some sort. I just can't bring myself to paint it.

Funny side note, I saw that gorgeous Smith in your avatar and I started this whole project because I had to sell my Smith. I figured I'd never be able to afford one but I could learn to build something like it. Little did I know I should've just bought 2 Smiths for how much I've spent on tools and parts and, and, and... I don't regret any of it though!
 
#65
Jonny5bass said:
That is something I hadn't thought of. I was trying to keep the wood showing but maybe I could do a contrasting wood of some sort. I just can't bring myself to paint it.

Funny side note, I saw that gorgeous Smith in your avatar and I started this whole project because I had to sell my Smith. I figured I'd never be able to afford one but I could learn to build something like it. Little did I know I should've just bought 2 Smiths for how much I've spent on tools and parts and, and, and... I don't regret any of it though!
Click to expand...


I have to say that it is because I bought that Smith that I now have a shop full of expensive tools and you are right if I would have just saved the money I put in my shop I could have bought a couple more too. That is so funny. He sends a video, a factory tour. I watched it and thought I can do that and off to the races I went. I now have a room full of prototypes because my little 10 X 14 shop is not big enough to mass produce and I just can't decide on shape and size I want so I keep experimenting.
About your bass, maybe you can get a small piece of Walnut or even some morado for that pickguard.
 
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#66
After checking the neck tonight it's dead flat, just has an angle down that was fixed by shimming the neck a little over a 32nd of an inch. I think I'll be fine actually just lowering the neck pocket a little as I've got some room to play with string height.
 
#67
Finally some more updates on this! I installed the side dots on the neck but it was pretty bad so no pics. A couple turned out ok but a couple of them were too deep so I'll have to drill them all out, fill and try something else. I got the neck radiused and fretted but still need to shape the back of it. Today was a very exciting day since I finally took the leap and drilled for string ferrules and strung it all up under tension for the first time. And I only screwed up the placement of one ferrule! :laugh:

IMG_1102.jpg


It looks pretty bad in the photo but luckily not so bad in person. Here it is all strung up and purdy.

IMG_1112.JPG


The pic looks a little funny since my phone did some odd things with the panorama shot but you get the idea.

I lowered the neck pocket about a 32nd and still had to raise the string saddles sky high to get over the frets at the heel end of the neck. I triple checked the neck and it is dead flat but the neck pocket seems to be canted somehow. I'm thinking about routing it again with some small shims to make it a bit deeper towards the bridge.

One thing that has come up that surprised me is a very slight twist in the neck. Due to life this build has taken a very long time but it has allowed me to take some precautions with the neck like gluing the fingerboard, waiting almost a month, re-leveling everything, waiting a couple more months, radiusing, waiting, installing every other fret then 2 weeks later doing the others, etc. Only 2 weeks ago after fretting there was no twist but now after stringing it up for the first time under tension, there is a twist. Since I still haven't shaped the back of the neck I'm wondering how big of a deal this is. The fingerboard seems to be level to itself with only a slight cant in the headstock. Any input or ideas is always appreciated. Thanks for looking!
 
#68
I'd check two things off the bat: 1. is the floor of the neck pocket level from side to side, 2. is the back of the neck where it meets the body level with respect to the fretboard?

On the neck pocket where you had the forstner mishap, some creative inlay work can cover little things like that. Ask me how I know :rolleyes:
 
#69
Well I fought the twist in the neck for a while but it's now to a point that I think is acceptable. I had it clamped to a flat surface with some small shims to counteract the twist for about 2 weeks. Then after that I let it sit for another couple weeks to see if it would stay or spring back. Luckily it stayed so fingers are crossed that it will stay that way after shaping and stringing it up again. I figure that if it does twist again I at least got some good practice carving my first neck and can probably make another neck in half the time of the first. "Half the time", so maybe only a year or so...

Clamping the twist was pretty boring so no pics but I did my first bit of carving last night. Here is my little carving clampy jig.
IMG_1162.JPG


Just a 2x4 wrapped with a couple wypall's clamped to the bench. The head stock jumped around quite a bit when I started so here was the modified jig.

IMG_1166.jpg


It was a total guessing game for me on spacing of the facets for carving. I made sure to take notes so I can figure out what I like or don't. Or where I went horribly wrong. I got home late from work to a house that had been under siege by a couple woodpeckers so after dealing with that I was only able to get the first couple facets done on one side. Not sure how well it shows in the pic but here it is anyway.

IMG_1167.JPG


And the tools of wood destruction that got me this far.
IMG_1169.jpg

I thought I'd be using the shinto rasp a ton for this step but I didn't end up liking how it was going. Probably my technique. The first facet seemed to take forever but I also tried all the tools you see. Didn't like the shinto, went to the spokeshave. Spokeshave left what I equated to rough seas. Finally got going with the sureform and that's what I ended up liking the best. Then got down to the final line with a half round and flat file. Looking forward to possibly finishing the carve tonight. If I don't have another woodpecker-pocalypse that is...
 
#70
I got the other side of the neck roughed out tonight but too tired to do anymore. I did as much research as I could and checked out what youtube had to offer in regards to carving necks using facets. I'm not totally sure my measurements are going to get me where I want to be. Does anybody out there have any rules of thumb or ratios that you like to produce a certain shape? Thanks in advance for any ideas.
 
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#71
Ahhhhhhahahahaha! I feel like I've summitted Everest! I got the carving finished and sanded to 120. Here it is!
image.jpg


I was really nervous about carving my first neck and I had some discouraging moments but as I kept going my fears quickly went away. First I was really nervous about my measurements for the facets (and I actually ended up with a pretty chunky neck) but it worked out ok. Now I know how to lay it out better next time. Then I was kind of freaked out after the facets were carved and smoothed with my scraper because of all the peaks and valleys. I thought I'd really blown it. Then after about 5-10 mins with the trusty ROS, it felt great and smoothed out. No high or low spots and an actual shape!

I think I'm officially hooked on building now.
 
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#72
Today I got the string retainer put in (forgot to take a pic, sorry) and leveled the nut slot. I used one of my practice nuts and put some 180 grit PSA paper on it and went to town. Worked out pretty well.
IMG_1181.jpg


IMG_1182.jpg


As a little side note, when I installed the side dots on the neck I drilled a couple holes too deep and the dots were too low. I tried to fix it by filling with CA glue but either dirty gloves or sanding too soon made them pretty awful looking. So I ordered some of the 3 mm Luminlay blue material and it showed up today. It arrived relatively quickly for coming from overseas and to my very happy surprise they included some samples.

IMG_1183.jpg


I only ordered the 60 mm stick of the SB-30 and they even included some spare of that along with the other goodies. I will definitely not hesitate to order from them again.

Thanks for looking.
 
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#73
It was another productive day today where I made some good progress and learned some lessons. The goal was to get the tummy cut and forearm contour done. I managed to get the shaping done and some sanding. I took a play from Samantha Cay's build (I really need to figure out how to link things in these posts). She had a great technique of drawing the contour lines and then sawing between them to start. Pictures probably explain it better.
image.jpg

Then I wanted to remove as much waste as possible before going to the rasps and files. So I went at it with a chisel and mallet.
image.jpg

This technique worked great but the big lesson of the day is to leave more material than you think you should. Because of the angle I was holding the chisel it went a bit deep in a couple spots. Nothing too drastic and the sawed in lines really saved me but I did have to carve a bit deeper than I wanted to so that the deep spots blended in. I think it turned out really well and I'm getting really excited to hit the home stretch (a.k.a. sanding til my arms fall off) on this bass. Here's a couple shots of how it turned out.
image.jpg
image.jpg
image.jpg
 
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#74
Time for some more updates and giant pictures! I was hoping to have all the finish applied last week but I ran into a hiccup. Some time ago I had come across a couple different youtube videos where people applied a blue or black dye to figured maple and then sanded it back to deepen the figure. I tested this out on some of my scrap months ago with pretty poor results. After sanding back I was left with what looked like little pores filled with the black dye. I had to sand so deep to get the dots out that it ended up being a ton of work for no benefit. If anyone has any ideas of where I went wrong with this technique please let me know.

Now on to the hiccup. I wanted the bass to have a little more amber in it so I started finishing with 3 coats of Seal-A-Cell with light sanding in between. This is how it was looking.
IMG_1193.jpg

At this point I recalled the dye method to deepen the figure and I thought that since there was a "sealer" applied that any pores wouldn't be an issue. So I went for it with a thin coat of the blue dye and got this.
IMG_1195.jpg


After 4+ hours of sanding back I had the same problem which looked like this.
IMG_1205.jpg


So after many curse words, meltdowns and about a weeks time I decided to cut my losses and just dye the thing blue. I wanted to do a blue dyed bass in the future, but I guess this will be the one. Maybe I'll make another neck for it with the blue design elements I wanted to include. Well here is the big blue monster.
IMG_1209.jpg


I'm going to do another couple of darker coats around the edge to give it a touch of burst before applying clear to it. If anyone has any ideas why I had such a tough time with "pores" on maple (which I didn't think needed filling) please let me know. I believe one of the videos I got the technique from was an Obrien Guitars post. I'll see if I can find it and link it here. Thanks for looking!
 
#75
Hey wish I had some advice to offer, but I've never dyed anything before. Just wanted to say I'm a sucker for blue dyed maple and that is looking awesome!
 
#76
gsnad2000 said:
Hey wish I had some advice to offer, but I've never dyed anything before. Just wanted to say I'm a sucker for blue dyed maple and that is looking awesome!
Click to expand...

Thank you very much! I had a whole thing I wanted to do with inlays and veneer lines for a blue dyed bass but I guess I'll have to make that neck for this body. It'll have to wait a bit though, I just want this thing done so I can reorganize my shop space.
 
#77
I hear that. I had a similar, if very different, situation on my current build where the top I was going to use didn't work out, and that snowballed into building a neck and many other changes. Ah well, I'm chalking it all up to learning experiences and a good excuse to make more sawdust!
 
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#79
Here is the O'Brien Guitars video I mentioned:



And another:



And yet another:



Having just re-watched all these I think I did two things wrong (at least):

  1. I used blue instead of black.
  2. I sanded too far back for the effect to do anything.
Lesson learned. Now I have a blue bass. If anyone has any other thoughts, advice or input of any kind, please reply. Thanks for looking!
 

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