If you build it thay will come

[MrArose13]

Hollow/Chamber temp. -

 

[MrArose13]

Neck- 5 piece flame maple walnut neck gaboon ebony fret less finger board with maple fret lines.





This will be a 34” 5-string, set neck through body. I haven’t done anything like this be for so we’ll see how it goes, so far so good.

There’s a lot to do today so as always happy building

 

[MrArose13]

It’s me again.
I know it’s been a while, but life keeps it’s its own schedule. On top of still trying to organize my shop (a little back story, I moved about 2 years ago now and I’m still trying to get the shop in a comfortable working order.) one of the things that has happened since my last post; I had been using a bench top drill press (thankfully a cheap one) with Stew Macs’ fret pressing calls to press frets, and the drill press broke. So with some unknowing help from you guys on TB,( Ok, talk me into a fret press system old thread good info ) I now have a 2 ton arbor press for the job (Thanks Guys) . I have managed to make a small bit of progress here and there, so let’s get in to it.
Well someone actually bought my prototype of this model (the” rose stem “) so some adjustments were made from the feedback of use. Nothing drastic, just a shave in some spots to make it more ergonomically comfortable; None the less, with the template adjusted we move on. 4-S… the body has been cut, and fret dots inlayed, waiting for FB radius (not to mention I’m STILL waiting for hard ware and PU).

 

[MrArose13]

5-S… well… I almost scraped it. When I cut the excess off the back of the neck, the ban saw blade drifted making it thinner than desired. I went ahead and carved it out to see what I had and it’s still useable but it couldn’t be any thinner. So the specs are: 35” scale neck through 5 – string, 24 frets, 1 3/4“ at nut, 2 3/4” at 24th fret, neck thickness at 1st fret 0.800, neck thickness at 12th fret 0.875. Over all not bad, just real thin at the head. Someone will like it, who knows I might like it more than I think I will. I am considering a new set of wings for it though.

 

[MrArose13]

Next up is the 34” scale 5-S chambered/semi hollow, I got the accent veneer under the finger board glued up, as well as the accent veneer under the body end of the neck.






The set neck through pocket is set up and ready to rout.

The last bass in this batch will get its’ own thread soon (I hope), as well as my wooden knob refinement (which I should finish in the next couple weeks). Working today, more updates soon. Till then, and as all ways, happy building.

 

[MrArose13]

But wait, there’s more.

I worked on the 4-S and the 5-S hollow/chambered basses today. On my 4-S, the progress didn’t photo well, sorry. I routed the body to final shape and started the heal transition.

On the 5-S (where I spent most of my time), I routed my neck through set neck pocket with a 2 degree pitch (I like having body angle).

To do this, I tapered some MDF at work by double side taping it to a larger piece of MDF and add a 4/32” shim at one end; I also shimmed the middle to keep the pressure even and ran it through the drum sander. Ripped it in half on the table saw and it look good. Then I clamped the neck to the body lined everything up and double side taped the tapered MDF to the body tight against the neck, triple check my measurements, and then removed the neck. Check the measurements again and (apprehensively) started to rout. I admit, I was so nervous I constantly checked the measurements. In the end it went well enough to consider doing this again.

I took these pic half way through.

 

[MrArose13]

Now to tell you how I did the neck. Well I probably should have told you about the neck first, but… I simply measured my top thickness, (which is just under 1/4") marked it on the side of the neck, and hogged it off with a dado blade on my table saw leaving it slightly proud of final thickness (this gave me my pocket depth by the way). And now I have a nice tight fit and will rout it level once the neck has been glued in. but there is more work to be done be for glue.

 

[MrArose13]

One more from the back

 

[miziomix]

Looking good!

 

[MrArose13]

Looking good!

Thanks Miziomix. They’re coming along, slowly but surely.

 

[MrArose13]

written 7/25/12

Well, after a long brake from actually building guitars to revamp the shop… the shop is more comfortable now. Complete with new floor plan, 2 stage dust collection (utilizing a thien top hat style separator) allowing my modest ¾ hp wall mounted dust collector too vac my entire shop, and a [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]. There are a few more improvements I plan to make when the time and money presents its self (there’s always room for improvements and upgrades). For now, I’m much happier with the shop and ready to get back to building basses, and… a few of those other guitars too. :hype:

Regretfully, I didn’t have a camera for any of this. ^^ I’ll up date pics later.

My thien top hat


My drum sander


pics up.

 

[MrArose13]

Progress — the Rose stem 4-String (RS-4) has the headstock drilled for 3/8” Hipshot ultralight tuners, bridge located and mounting screw holes drilled and lower scroll cut, the “cord curl”. (RS-5) headstock drilled for 3/8” Hipshot ultralight tuners. Then there’s the set neck through, chambered fretless 5-S, (trying to explain this one is a mouth full). I decided to put some 32nd” walnut veneer on both sides of the tongue portion of the neck so once the top goes on it will be wrapped in walnut. I also glued on the headstock ears. Lastly, I made a template to rout the body end of the FB shape in to the top.

(Insert pics x2) – Walnut veneers – Template

Regretfully, I didn’t have a camera for any of this. ^^ I’ll up date pics later.

 

[MrArose13]

While radiusing the FB on the RS-4, things went a little wrong. (The Back story, I had made a nice little jig for locating and drilling side dots and had done so). As I felt I was getting close to time to change sanding grit, I noticed tiny specs of silver on the edge of the FB. (When building my jig I did not factor in the 32nd” or so of FB lose). Sure enough my shiny silver side dots were beginning to surface and it was too late to try to drill them out. Well… after a few minutes of frustrated thought, my solution was to cut them out and fill the saw kerf with some mahogany, maple, mahogany veneer. I think it went well, but you can be the judge.
Regretfully, I didn’t have a camera for any of this. ^^ but I do have this one now.

 

[MrArose13]

8/07/12

Saturday, I managed to get all of the hardware ordered and round over the body sides Of the RS-4 and radius the FB on the RS-5. In the shop on Tuesday (and I got my camera back), some more fine tuning of the heal transition, (the heal transition doesn’t photo well, I think it’s because my bodies are only 1 1/2” thick, but… it could be my photography skills) chunking out the control cavity and marking layout lines for arm and belly carves.



Tomorrow,s a shop day, so till then happy building

 

[MrArose13]

The finale bits of hardware for the RS-4 came yesterday evening , (this may be a little redundant, but…) here are some specs…

Rose Stem (RS – 4)

34” scale, 4 string neck through bass
String through body
24 frets
1 5/8” @ nut
2 ¼” @ 24th fret
Neck wood - purplehart, maple, sapele
Body wood - sapele, maple
Bridge - black hipshot A .75 spacing (19mm)
Keys - hipshot ultra light 2+2 black
Pick-ups - Seymour Duncan SJB-3 Quarter Pound Jazz Bass Set with wood covers.
Bourns pots
Electro socket output jack
Wood knobs
Finish- undecided (probably wipe on poly)

It’s time to get this one done.

Of course I couldn’t resist taking this pic it’s a little cheesy I know.


Thursdays are my shortest days in the shop and they get away from me quick. Well the actual work done today was a little more tuning of the FB and routing the control cavity,

test drilling for the electro socket, hunting for the right piece of sapele for control cavity cover, and pondering what knob format to use .

Would any one like to give there $.02 on the pot function format?

Option A) master volume – master tone – blend
Option B) neck volume - bridge volume - master tone
Option C) write in______________________________

That’s all for today, till Saturday … (You guessed it didn’t you) happy building

 

[MrArose13]

Sorry folks nothing pic worthy today.
My morning was spent comparing a multitude of pick-up brand measurements. Seeing as I plan to put wood covers on the Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounders, I wanted to make a pick-up cavity and cover that would facilitate a pick-up change, (should the unknown future owner want to do so). Once I got some numbers, it was off to the shop to build a jig which took the rest of my day and is about 85% done.

Join me next time when we finish the jig and turn the numbers in to templates…

IN…
Getting jiggy with it
OR…
A quarter pound under cover

Sorry I was watching some classic Bat Man . Till next time Happy building

 

[curbowkid]

Hey haven't heard from you in a while, gorgeous build!

 

[MrArose13]

Thanks curbowkid. I was just look at your bass, I must say dido. I finally had to take some time to redo my shop and it took longer than anticipated but I’m in full bass build mode now.

 

[curbowkid]

Very nice! I'm excited to see what else you put out

 

[MrArose13]

This past week was a lot of time consuming, yet, little things; my pick-up cover jig was built and the new covers are almost complete. The jig is probably over engineered but it works well.

The lower fence clamps up to a stationary fence to hold the wood in place. While the top fence with micro adjustability, locks down and holds the template.