If you build it thay will come

[MrArose13]

From here, I took it to the table saw to cut them down to size.

 

[MrArose13]

A pic of the pick-up bottoms.

Now for that pesky body angle.

View attachment 235014

I then used the wedge slice from when the body angle was created for the tops of the covers. Thus, continuing the laminated neck over the pick-ups.



The pick-up cavity template is also now finished.

 

[MrArose13]

The electronics cavity cover matches up well I think, just a little left to do on that.



Still a lot of little things left to go and let’s not forget fretting. Then do a full mock up be for finale sanding. So I’m getting close, but still have a lot of work to do.
Next time I’ll be routing the pick-up cavities, drilling holes for pots, and finishing up the pick-up covers, electronics cavity cover, (which will be magnetic), and contours. Wow the list goes on.

Well... that’s it for now, till next time, happy building

 

[MrArose13]

Saturday was very productive, I started out with a 220 sanding on my pick-up covers then stuck them out in the sun for a bit to bring out the purple in the purplehart. Meanwhile, I set up my pick-up cavity template and with my trusty plunge router and a top bearing pattern bit… I began to make some holes. Now, I spent a lot of time making this template, measuring, test fitting, measuring, test fitting, I even drilled the bridge mount holes in the template to use the bridge mounting screws to line everything up and hold it in place, not to mention pick-up placement relative to the bridge. There was a little play, in my first mock up so some double side tape was involved. In the end (sweat dripping from my head, eyes wide with anxiety and anticipation) all was well.

Pic time



It’s always fun to find the wiring channel, it almost like opening a present.

 

[MrArose13]

You know I had to drop the PU covers in to see how that looked; I’ll show you that in a minute.

Moving on, next I drilled for the electro socket output jack. Got this jig idea from Ryan Martin’s you tube, (great videos!) I think I’ll make some adjustments for next time, but it works quite well. Thanks Ryan!

Front


Back

 

[MrArose13]

Next on the done list, I drilled the rest of the holes for wiring (control cavity to bridge PU + control cavity to bridge ground).
Finally, time to break out the rasp and files for some sculpting. At the end of the day we have pics.

PU route with covers.



The whole bass wetted with mineral spirits.

 

[MrArose13]

Sunday, I got some unplanned time in the shop.

I got right to fretting, no reason to put it off anymore. I guess you can call me a cheater; I got a 2 ton arbor press for this not too long ago and IT’S NICE, quick, efficient, a real joy.



Once the frets were all pressed in, I clipped the excess off the ends, filed them flush, and beveled them. I’ll do a level crown and polish latter. After that there was some time to start sculpting the back. Another few weeks and it will be ready for finish.

Till next time, As always… happy building.

 

[MrArose13]

So another work day has ended for me, I started the day with the tummy cut. I use a grinder with a sanding wheel to rough it in, and then go to the rasp, (coarse and medium), files, and sand paper. I can’t seem to get good pics of the contours, but I tried, and this is what I got.

 

[MrArose13]

After that I drilled for the pots, I decided to go with a classic volume tone blend set up (at least as of now I think that’s what I’ll do) this is after all a nice, straight forward, 4 string. Three holes and… done. No pics of that, (sorry) I didn’t think you wanted/needed to see me drill a hole. A little more shaping with sand paper and my favorite block, (a pink eraser) done, and I’m happy to say this bass is ready for final sanding. Where looking at another 2 weeks (= 4-6 days) of sanding, and 2 more weeks of finish, then this one is ready to play.



With the “RS-4” so near completion, the plan is to finish it off and get back to work on the other ones in between finish cycles. So there will be more of the RS-5 and the RS-NTH5 soon. After looking at the time stamps… I just might keep this thread going for a few years.

Hope you guys are digging the thread, talk to you soon, happy building.

 

[MrArose13]

So, just a little bit for you today.

I had/have some work still to do on the cavity cover for this RS-4; I personally like to put a backing plate on my wood covers. I feel this helps control wood movement and provides some shielding. What we have here is a 3/64” thick piece of sheet aluminum cut slightly larger than the cover, two cut off of 1/2'” ply wood covered in wax paper, good-ol two part epoxy, and of course, the wood cover.



To prep the aluminum, I first sanded it with 80 grit on my orbital sander. Then wiped it clean with acetone. A generous amount of epoxy is spread on and the aluminum backing and wood cover are then pressed together. Now I sandwich the cover assembly between the wax paper covered ply and slowly applied presser at 3 points (as evenly as possible) trying to avoid the two parts from slipping, then add more clamps and tighten it all down in tell I get good squeeze out.



Its 5 min. epoxy (because that’s what I have on hand, need to buy some regular stuff. Although I think the quick set helped prevent it from slipping as much as usual.) but, I’ll leave that to cure till tomorrow, and it’s back to finish sanding.

Well folks, that was my work day… till next time, happy building

 

[MrArose13]

Hello TB it’s me again:

Well, I’ve been caught up with trying to get this RS-4 finished and suddenly realized a few things I had overlooked that might interest folks, such as: the completion of the cavity cover, wood knobs, truss rod cover, and my head stock logo inlay.

Cavity cover - After the epoxy had cured, the edges of the aluminum still needed to be cleaned up to final dimensions. This process started at the spindle sander to get as close as possible without bugering it up, from there, it’s all file and sand paper. (I found this interesting.) On this cover I thought I’d try a magnet to magnet application, (which I don’t think I’ll do again, we’ll see.) and oddly enough it seemed that once the magnets were installed in the cover they somehow reversed their polarity. I'm not even going to pretend to understand this, all I know is that I had installed magnets in the cavity ledge, then stuck the mating magnet to it and colored the side facing up with a sharpie to indicate cavity cover installation bottom. Press fit the magnets in the cover, put the cover in place on the bass and… it floats . Once I accepted this reversed polarity possibility it all worked accordingly. If anyone wants to explain, what, how, and or why this happened, please feel free to do so. It would be interesting to understand exactly what occurred.



Wood knobs – well, I’m still not satisfied with my results so far. There not bad, they just seem a little off. I refined my jigs and glued up some more blanks for another go at it, for now this is what I got (there’s a few coats of tung oil on them).

 

[MrArose13]

Truss Rod Cover – this was an easy one, a while back I made a template for my router table to do this.



It’s a palm sized piece of Plexiglas, small piece of ¾” oak plywood for a spacer (to keep my fingers away from the cutting bit), 3/8” MDF cut and sanded to shape. The ply and MDF are glued together with a screw running though it all from the top. I later added a piece of plexy glued to the MDF to get a longer life from the template. Some double side tape holds the wood on while I do the flush trim followed up with a shallow chamfer.
And when it’s done I have…



A little hand sanding and a screw hole is all that’s left.

 

[MrArose13]

Last but not least…

Head stock logo inlay - The head stock logo inlay is a three piece medaling style inlay…

1) The outside ring, purplehart…
2) The (negative) inside circle, wenge…
3) The (positive) MOP skull profile…

Once completed it will look like this.




And just because I’m not one to break tradition… the hair shot, while filing MOP skull profile.



Alright guys you know the quote… till next time, happy building .

 

[pilotjones]

You should have flipped the magnets over before installing into the cover. After all, the cover is upside-down, or flipped, as it sits on the workbench for installation. If you flip the magnets, installing them with the sharpie marks into the depths of the holes, then when you turn the cover over to put it on the instrument you bring back together the pairs of faces that attracted in the first place.

 

[wraub]

Have to say, the body shape was a hard sell at first, but this has really developed into a nice looking instrument.
Nice work.

wraub

 

[suraj]

I just wanted to say, that's my favorite kind of neck heel transition on a neckthrough Really cool build..!!

 

[lbridenstine]

Can you get the magnets out? What I did was install them in the cavity ledge, then take a magnet between my finger and thumb a little over the ledge (I had just applied the epoxy and didn't want the magnets to come out from sticking them together) and feel which way started pulling, then flipped it over into the corresponding hole on the cover, which is basically what pilotjones is saying except I didn't think to use marker.

 

[MrArose13]

pilotjones

You should have flipped the magnets over before installing into the cover. After all, the cover is upside-down, or flipped, as it sits on the workbench for installation. If you flip the magnets, installing them with the sharpie marks into the depths of the holes, then when you turn the cover over to put it on the instrument you bring back together the pairs of faces that attracted in the first place.

Pj, your bass came out quite nice by the way… If I understand what you’re saying correctly, that’s what I did. I did this more than once before coming to my conclusion. Let me try to explain again, I glued the magnets in the cavity ledge carful to keep the magnetic pull the same direction. To insure magnetic pull between the bass and its cover, I let the loose magnets (intended for the cover) pull themselves together with the installed magnets. With the magnets still together I marked the top most face (the one not attached to anything) with a sharpie. The sharpie is now the reference point of what side to put into the hole/ bury into the cover, (unmarked side is the face side, show side, magnetic side, i.e. the side that stuck to the other magnet). When I did this the cover floated, but when I flipped the magnets so I could see the sharpie marked side, it worked (you can see the sharpie on the magnets still in the photo). Now, I Know the simplest of things can trick the mind and I am no exception to this, but I’m telling-ya it didn’t work the way expected. Maybe it had something to do with the aluminum plate or the epoxy or both, I don’t know . Thanks for the input, if I’m still not getting it try me again.

wraub

Have to say, the body shape was a hard sell at first, but this has really developed into a nice looking instrument.
Nice work.

Thank you Wraub, glad you found appeal to my unorthodox body shape. I’d love to hear more about the “hard sell”, would you elaborate please.

suraj

I just wanted to say, that's my favorite kind of neck heel transition on a neckthrough Really cool build..!!

Suraj, thanks, glad to see you’re digging it.

lbridenstine

Can you get the magnets out? What I did was install them in the cavity ledge, then take a magnet between my finger and thumb a little over the ledge (I had just applied the epoxy and didn't want the magnets to come out from sticking them together) and feel which way started pulling, then flipped it over into the corresponding hole on the cover, which is basically what pilotjones is saying except I didn't think to use marker.

lbridenstine, yeah, they came out many times, but it works now. It was the oddest thing, when the magnets were loose they snapped right on top of the others black sharpie up, but when I put them in the cover (black sharpie in the hole not to be seen, unmarked side showing) it repelled. I might try a few things tomorrow to satisfy curiosity and see if I get a similar result. It may have just been my perception and I simply got them flipped the wrong way, it wouldn’t be the first time.

 

[lbridenstine]

Hmm, odd. The only thing I can think of then is if maybe you put the magnets in different holes than the ones they attached to when you checked them? Some of them could be different that way, but other than that, I'm not sure how that would happen.

Maybe the aluminum? But I don't know why that would do it. I don't think it could be the epoxy, because that's what I used and it was fine other than smelling and leaving blue residue when I sanded it (?).

 

[pilotjones]

I don't see the aluminum as affecting it.

The two things I think of then are not all magnets the same direction combined with wrong magnets in wrong holes, as L just suggested, or magnets not lined up to face each other.