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Hreiðmarr - The Scowling Dwarf ... ( Bubingas Maximus Rex)
- Thread starter Rôckhewer
- Start date
Hopkins
Commercial User
- Feb 28, 2015
- 2,922
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- Owner/Builder- RockHewer Custom Guitars LLC
- Feb 28, 2015
- 2,922
- 9,028
- Disclosures
- Owner/Builder- RockHewer Custom Guitars LLC
Thanks dude....
That's one of those deals where I must have tried to draw it on paper 20 times...never could get it how I wanted.
Finally on the last bass I just cut it big and dumpy , then carved it on the spindle sander till I liked it.
THEN I traced it so I would actually have a pattern.
Hopkins
Commercial User
Thanks.....
I like dogs.... Not a big fan of sad eyed hounds though.
Lol.... J/k....
I was just pointing out that I like Fender or Hot Rod style basses with solid colors, but still enjoy watching an exotic wood build thread when the work being done is clean. It is still ok to have different styles.
- Feb 28, 2015
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- Owner/Builder- RockHewer Custom Guitars LLC
Yes, you are correct. And thank you again for the compliment.
Of course it's ok that my bass "isn't exactly your style" Diversity rocks!
I was just making a stupid joke about your dog avatar as a comparable statement. Apologies
Hopkins
Commercial User
- Feb 28, 2015
- 2,922
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- Disclosures
- Owner/Builder- RockHewer Custom Guitars LLC
On to the fret board, which will be...(no surprise)... Bubinga. What can I say, it's my favourite species.
I re-sawed a piece of 4/4 that had a bit of what looks like spaltedness...(if that's a word) angled in from the edge, so the book match has a pattern that follows the taper coming to a point at the 4th fret.
I cut the fret slots myself with a 34" scale from Stew Mac, but instead of paying for an overpriced miterbox ... I built one. The saw stabilization bearings are parts we use for sliding shutter doors here at my shop. & the rails they are mounted to are adjustable up & down to accommodate different thickness boards.
I bought the saw from StewMac also...it works fine, but I absolutely hate the handle...my hand starts cramping halfway through a fret board...(carpel tunnel no fun).
So I'm going to make a kind of pistol grip unit to replace it.
I re-sawed a piece of 4/4 that had a bit of what looks like spaltedness...(if that's a word) angled in from the edge, so the book match has a pattern that follows the taper coming to a point at the 4th fret.
I cut the fret slots myself with a 34" scale from Stew Mac, but instead of paying for an overpriced miterbox ... I built one. The saw stabilization bearings are parts we use for sliding shutter doors here at my shop. & the rails they are mounted to are adjustable up & down to accommodate different thickness boards.
I bought the saw from StewMac also...it works fine, but I absolutely hate the handle...my hand starts cramping halfway through a fret board...(carpel tunnel no fun).
So I'm going to make a kind of pistol grip unit to replace it.
Last edited:
- May 1, 2014
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- Owner Melodious Resonance Constructs
You could probably go into business making these jigs.
Manton Customs
UK Luthier
Exactly!!
Covering up the eyes with the bridge... ( the left one is winking
But...something like the brass on that helmet would be perfect for a tailpiece like Alembic's "bird of prey" version.
You could still use one of the higher TOMs, you'd just need to angle the neck. 2 degrees or so is about the norm for a flat top guitar with a TOM, but you'd need to draw it up to be sure.
- Feb 28, 2015
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- Owner/Builder- RockHewer Custom Guitars LLC
Thanks MichaelI love the fret slotting jig! I want one!
.....make one! Actually if I had it to do over, I'd probably just spend the $165 at stewmac:
- Feb 28, 2015
- 2,922
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- Owner/Builder- RockHewer Custom Guitars LLC
No pic of gluing fret board or cutting the taper of the neck which I did on the band saw with 3/4" , 4 TPI blade... (much easier to make a straight cut on a wide blade).
So here's my process for shaping the sides & back of the neck if anybody's interested...
I don't even own a decent rasp, I'm sure I'll get one someday, but for now I do almost all my neck shaping with a RO sander & 80g disks.
I get the sides perfectly straight first by sanding to the original line I drew to taper the fret board.
(btw...i much prefer a ball point pen line over pencil. It's easier to read with dust present, and doesn't wipe off.
I fine tune the flatness of the edge with a trick from my time in the granite trade. Rub wax pencil on the edge of a straight edge & rub the straight edge against the surface, the color will transfer only to the high spots to show where you still need to sand. Once the color starts to transfer evenly, you're done. Then only a few strokes with a long sanding block yields a laser flat surface.
With the sides and back of the neck flat and square I'll draw some reference lines to start the radius process:
Then I'll sand a 45° bevel, make that flat, then two more bevels half as wide, centered on the points of the first. This makes three equal "facets" (on each side) . If I check the flatness of each of these, I don't need to worry about a "lumpy" surface at all.
Then I just work points of those facets making six facets half again the size & the radius is darn near finished. I can now switch from 80g to 240 (yeah, I know that's a big jump) because now I'm going to be rocking the sander & just removing the corners of the facets. If I did that with 150g there's a good chance I would horribly ripple the surface, destroying all my methodical work. (which truthfully only takes me about 30 min. to get a perfectly straight radius on each side).
Proper lighting is key to making this approach easy. I clamp a lamp to the bridge end of the neck when I put the neck in the vise.
So here's my process for shaping the sides & back of the neck if anybody's interested...
I don't even own a decent rasp, I'm sure I'll get one someday, but for now I do almost all my neck shaping with a RO sander & 80g disks.
I get the sides perfectly straight first by sanding to the original line I drew to taper the fret board.
(btw...i much prefer a ball point pen line over pencil. It's easier to read with dust present, and doesn't wipe off.
I fine tune the flatness of the edge with a trick from my time in the granite trade. Rub wax pencil on the edge of a straight edge & rub the straight edge against the surface, the color will transfer only to the high spots to show where you still need to sand. Once the color starts to transfer evenly, you're done. Then only a few strokes with a long sanding block yields a laser flat surface.
With the sides and back of the neck flat and square I'll draw some reference lines to start the radius process:
Then I'll sand a 45° bevel, make that flat, then two more bevels half as wide, centered on the points of the first. This makes three equal "facets" (on each side) . If I check the flatness of each of these, I don't need to worry about a "lumpy" surface at all.
Then I just work points of those facets making six facets half again the size & the radius is darn near finished. I can now switch from 80g to 240 (yeah, I know that's a big jump) because now I'm going to be rocking the sander & just removing the corners of the facets. If I did that with 150g there's a good chance I would horribly ripple the surface, destroying all my methodical work. (which truthfully only takes me about 30 min. to get a perfectly straight radius on each side).
Proper lighting is key to making this approach easy. I clamp a lamp to the bridge end of the neck when I put the neck in the vise.
Last edited:
- Feb 28, 2015
- 2,922
- 9,028
- Disclosures
- Owner/Builder- RockHewer Custom Guitars LLC
As to my earlier statement that this would be a "hybrid" build...
I'm considering it a cross between a solid top neckthru and a deep set neck due to the fact that instead of the neck being between two separate wings directly under the top plate, I have cut the relief of the neck at the body way deeper so that it fits halfway into a dado at the bottom of the body core. So the neck will be visible from the back and the only "wings" will be the two 3/8" back plates.
I had this really cool 4/4 wenge plank come into my shop, that was about 16" wide & 10ft. long...a monster of a board.
But the cool part was the grain pattern that was very symmetrical, it had a dark stripe down the center & straight grain on either side. A glance at the end grain confirmed my suspicions... This piece was cut from almost dead center of the trunk! I had a mental image that if I aligned the heart / the core of this board with the neck of a bass...the grain pattern would act like a parabolic mirror and focus the sound waves back to the center...the neck, the axis of symmetry...
Pure unfettered harmonic convergence!!
I'm considering it a cross between a solid top neckthru and a deep set neck due to the fact that instead of the neck being between two separate wings directly under the top plate, I have cut the relief of the neck at the body way deeper so that it fits halfway into a dado at the bottom of the body core. So the neck will be visible from the back and the only "wings" will be the two 3/8" back plates.
I had this really cool 4/4 wenge plank come into my shop, that was about 16" wide & 10ft. long...a monster of a board.
But the cool part was the grain pattern that was very symmetrical, it had a dark stripe down the center & straight grain on either side. A glance at the end grain confirmed my suspicions... This piece was cut from almost dead center of the trunk! I had a mental image that if I aligned the heart / the core of this board with the neck of a bass...the grain pattern would act like a parabolic mirror and focus the sound waves back to the center...the neck, the axis of symmetry...
Pure unfettered harmonic convergence!!
- Feb 28, 2015
- 2,922
- 9,028
- Disclosures
- Owner/Builder- RockHewer Custom Guitars LLC
Anybody buying this ^?
c'mon...hyperbolic parabolic sound wave focus...that's a thing... Right?
c'mon...hyperbolic parabolic sound wave focus...that's a thing... Right?
- Feb 28, 2015
- 2,922
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- Owner/Builder- RockHewer Custom Guitars LLC
Ok, so here the waveform telegraphic focus core module
(or W*T*F core) is installed and glued into place:
(or W*T*F core) is installed and glued into place:
Last edited:
- Feb 28, 2015
- 2,922
- 9,028
- Disclosures
- Owner/Builder- RockHewer Custom Guitars LLC
