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Holly and Ebony Rick

#81
On the plus side, Ric inlays are probably the easiest there are. For the recess you only need two straight lines, and they both run fully out the sides (assuming binding after). Then, as long as the blocks themselves are cut at the right angles, you get to cut them overlength and slide them in tight from one side leaving zero gap, and trim off the excess after.
 
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#82
Gilmourisgod said:
Scoops
Are you using the standard 3/8" thick Ric fingerboard depth? Even using full width inlays by 1/8" thick, you still have a solid 1/4" of fingerboard thickness under the inlays. In order to work with the stock Ric bridge, the fingerboard on a 4001/4003 is nearly 1/2" above the plane of the body.
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For the Limba, I'm using a Hipshot headless system. I'm thinking that when my final neck assembly stack up thickness comes to the be @.040" above the face plane, I'll be good to go. So standard Rick measurements with respect to this part of the discussion dont apply here.
 
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#83
pilotjones said:
I would not do that. It means that you have air gaps clear down to the main neck beam, you're missing the continuous fingerboard wood that is normally there below the level of the bottoms of the frets. This means that the neck will be likely to be significantly more flexible, since the beam stiffness is proportional to the cube of the cross section. So for example, if you lose 10% of the wood thickness of the neck that might have been provided by that FB wood that would normally be below the frets, the stiffness will only be 0.9^3 = 73% of what it "should" be. Yes this is neglecting the contribution of the frets, but that is entirely dependent of the accuracy of your slot widths and the thicknesses of the fretwork tang.
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I get what you are saying, but this is a 5 piece laminate construction. It's like it's got stiffness rods in it already. I'm gonna go for it.

When I glue it up, I think I'll be able to show how there will be no/minimal air joints as you suggest. Kinda got it figured out how this could work to meet your criteria. Easier to show in pics (later) Not sure of the total flex factor this type of FB construction will resolve/introduce.

I guess we'll find out
 
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#84
Will_White said:
You would have to make it impossible for the triangle to shift otherwise it could throw off intonation, I would atleast glue it to a substrate then glue it to the neck.
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Thanks Will

Will,

Thanks. This gave me the trick I was looking for.

When I laminate tops, I often use "very light" prepared staples to prevent anything from shifting. Usually tack in 2 places. I'll do this on the Limba. It's soft enough so it will work well, and it will keep the marker in place.

The staple could become an issue if rework is required
 
#85
Scoops said:
I get what you are saying, but this is a 5 piece laminate construction. It's like it's got stiffness rods in it already. I'm gonna go for it.
Click to expand...
Careful about this. Contrary to some popular belief, laminating a neck does not increase its strength. (Think about it -- if you took an ordinary maple neck, lasered out a few .0005" slots and filled them with glue, the stiffness of the neck would not go up.) If anything, laminated necks get stiffer because people are replacing some of the maple content with stiffer woods such as purpleheart, wenge, pau ferro, bubinga and ebony.
When I glue it up, I think I'll be able to show how there will be no/minimal air joints as you suggest. Kinda got it figured out how this could work to meet your criteria. Easier to show in pics (later) Not sure of the total flex factor this type of FB construction will resolve/introduce.
Click to expand...
If you use Will's suggestion, and make the entire assembly so that the air under the frets is a minimum, you should be ok. You will have to do your glue-up piece by piece, with a thin, removable spacer in the gap to simulate a fret - almost like doing a lined fretless. You'll have to do a test or two to get the right thickness spacer, as proven by the test piece fretting well. The difference between a .023" slot and a .025" slot can be significant.
 
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#86
pilotjones said:
Careful about this. Contrary to some popular belief, laminating a neck does not increase its strength. (Think about it -- if you took an ordinary maple neck, layered out a few .0005" slots and filled them with glue, the stiffness of the neck would not go up.) If anything, laminated necks get stiffer because people are replacing some of the maple content with stiffer woods such as purpleheart, wenge, pau ferro, bubinga and ebony.
If you use Will's suggestion, and make the entire assembly so that the air under the frets is a minimum, you should be ok. You will have to do your glue-up piece by piece, with a thin, removable spacer in the gap to simulate a fret - almost like doing a lined fretless. You'll have to do a test or two to get the right thickness spacer, as proven by the test piece fretting well. The difference between a .023" slot and a .025" slot can be significant.
Click to expand...

Pretty sure this is a fretless
 
#90
pilotjones said:
Oh, sorry, I missed that. In that case, be sure the blocks are making full contact and you should be fine.

I guess I never think of Rics as fretlesses.
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No Issues.

To be honest, I like the design of the Ric bass. What I end up with in terms of sound may have nothing to do with what a Rick sounds like. Clips of fret less Ricks I've heard, don't sound like Ricks. I'm actually considering fretting one of these 2 and getting Rick electronics just to get that Rick Sound

As a side note, sometimes I get easily distracted. The Limba build is a perfect example. Once I got the building blocks together for the Holly build, i realized I wanted to get a better skill set together, so I decided to make the Limba. What I learn from building the Limba will be used directly on the Holly. Some of Holly build will be in parallel with the Limba build, but I suspect I'll focus on the Holly, after I get the Limba built and functioning.

I would also like to thank @Gilmourisgod for his help!
 
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#91
Update:

Cut the TR channel and will be fabricating the FB triangles. I'll be cutting the piece of Limba as shown by the lines on the wood. I'm looking to get the triangles so that they are sequential on the FB.

Cheers and thanks for looking
Rick25.jpg
 
#92
Good evening

Did a little work on this today. Cut the Limba pieces for the FB markers. I'll be putting them in sequentially, although, by the time I get to the second octave, I don't think it will make a difference. I'll be using the section of each piece as indicated by the pen, which is pointing at the center line of the markers.

Cheers

Rick26.jpg
 
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