If you build it thay will come

[MrArose13]

Beautiful!

Quick question, how do you keep your purple heart from splintering? I had that problem a little on my build and I can't seem to figure it out. I did everything according to grain to I wasn't catching any grain ends. I don't understand it. Fresh bits and all

splintering where/how? please elaborate.

 

[curbowkid]

I routed the area where the fretboard joins to the body, it splintered the purple heart fretboard. I made sure I did it so the cutter heads on the router wouldn't catch the end grain and it still splintered/peeled up slivers

 

[MrArose13]

do you mean the end of a FB, (last fret)?

when I rout purplehart, wenge and other splintering suspects, I'll clime cut the exit path first. sometimes I'll wick thin supper glue (CA glue) around problematic areas (and wipe it off as quick as i can to keep it level) before cutting. Also, I try to sand these woods as much as possible instead of cutting them, but sometimes, I have to glue the splinters back in place and clean up with sanding. Hope that helps, not sure I full understand the question.

 

[curbowkid]

do you mean the end of a FB, (last fret)?

when I rout purplehart, wenge and other splintering suspects, I'll clime cut the exit path first. sometimes I'll wick thin supper glue (CA glue) around problematic areas (and wipe it off as quick as i can to keep it level) before cutting. Also, I try to sand these woods as much as possible instead of cutting them, but sometimes, I have to glue the splinters back in place and clean up with sanding. Hope that helps, not sure I full understand the question.

Yea that's it. I never thought to give it a quick super gluing. And yea I've had to glue back in 3 splinters nothing to major but still. Thanks! I dread the day I work with wenge

 

[MrArose13]

There is a learning curve with wenge, but once you get use to it its not bad, I love the stuff and when you sand it to a polish, it's so smooth. You'd never know it was a splintery (Is that a word? I'm using it) wood

 

[curbowkid]

I LOVE wenge as a neck and fretboard wood. I just haven't been able to work with it yet.

 

[lbridenstine]

View attachment 290879

When I do my finger groove, I wrap sandpaper around a ½” dowel and take a little off the cavity wall (somewhere between 45° and 90° _\| ) and undercut (or in this case sand) the cover in a similar fashion attentively not to put a dip in the cover out line. I feel this method gives a low profile to the finger groove while serving its function.

Thanks for the pictures and info. I ended up making a bigger groove on the wall/ledge of mine and I already had oil on the cover, so I didn't do anything there, but I like the idea of undercutting it. I'll have to try that next time.

 

[MrArose13]

Yep... you know it... sanding, sanding, sanding.

keeping you posted, happy building..

 

[MrArose13]

Wow!
I thought it had just been a few weeks since I last updated this thread… I thought wrong, HA. . Well finish sanding the bear wood on the 4-S is done and I've moved on to oiling the whole sha-bang. As a matter of fact, I’m about 1 day (in my case, dew to shop time, maybe 3) away from finale assembly. I've began fretting the RS-5 and getting back on track with the RS-H (hollow/chambered). That’s the up-date for now folks… till next time here’s the pics… of the RS-4...

I couldn't resist doing one with the PU covers…

Happy building

 

[Musiclogic]

Looking very cool Andrew

 

[MrArose13]

Looking very cool Andrew

Thanks JC, .. It’s a little more subdued in comparison to the LXL body but they can’t all be crazy, Some times less is more they say. I will have a hard time giving this one up. I say that every time I finish a bass though.

 

[Musiclogic]

Well when you get to my age Andrew, you get happy the faster they leave...LMAO. I'm actually exxpanding in the first part of 2013 to help get them out quicker and up the repeatability of the necks.

The LXL is a different animal altogether, this bass in ths thread is going to be sweet

 

[miziomix]

Wow!
I thought it had just been a few weeks since I last updated this thread… I thought wrong, HA.

LOL...I know that feeling....

Nice build Andrew! The cavity covers are sweet

 

[MrArose13]

Well when you get to my age Andrew, you get happy the faster they leave...LMAO. I'm actually exxpanding in the first part of 2013 to help get them out quicker and up the repeatability of the necks.

You’re right about that JC, I will be happy when they leave the shop quicker. I would LOVE to hear more about how you’re upping the repeatability of your necks. I’ve been trying to figure out how to make mine more consistent and repeatable myself. I have a few jig ideas, but haven’t put anything to practice yet.

LOL...I know that feeling....

Nice build Andrew! The cavity covers are sweet

HA, HA, HA…, but we keep coming back right. Thanks Miziomix.

Little update:

I polished… I buffed… I dinged.. .:scowl:. The fix is in, but it has put me behind a few more days. As if that wasn't enough… the counter bore in my PU-cover screw holes where slightly too small for the screw heads. To fix this, I used a metric tap as a reamer, although this worked well, in the process of fixing this I scratched the neck PU-cover... Nothing that can’t be fixed fortunately, so I hope to finish this one by the weekend.

Till next time happy building..

 

[MrArose13]

So since the last post, this RS-4 is bass-ically (HA, ) finished. When the potential buyer fell through (DISCLAIMER - it was a girlfriend issue, not product) I hung it up for the holidays. getting back to it, the truss rod had settled, this took a little more time than allotted, but these things happen and it's good now. Finished fileing the nut and so on, tuned it up and gave it a LOUD test drive. There is a lot of hiss and noise coming out of the pick-ups, so I'll be troubleshooting that today, I'm sure it's something simple like not wiring the output jack correctly (I have a bad habit of doing that, i don't know why) or it needs more shielding. that aside it sounds great, very funky, so it would make someone a nice 4-string slapper. Just a little more fine tuning and I'll be peddling it off to the highest bidder. Don't worry, I'll get pics up latter today

Till then, Happy building!

 

[Musiclogic]

Snags and Nags, another glorious day in the shop Andrew, have fun with it:beer:

 

[MrArose13]

Snags and Nags, another glorious day in the shop Andrew, have fun with it:beer:

LOL... it's 10: am here and I'm ready for a beer, is that wrong

Every day in the shop is fun, even the unproductive ones, hope you can do the same ..

 

[MrArose13]

I’m back…

my last shop day got a little frustrating and I’m sorry, I was too involved with the task at hand to take pics. What I did do… checked the output jack, well it wasn’t wired wrong, just in case, I flowed a touch more solder on all the lugs as well as the pot lugs. As I was reinstalling the jack in the guitar, I noticed the jack was touching the cavity shielding which was grounding out the signal. I trimmed back the shield tape and changed the orientation of the prong that touches the plug (I’m sure there’s a tec. term for this, but I don’t know what it is). After this, I plugged in to an amp… better… but still too much noise. I then decided I need to shield the pick-up cavities. As I began removing the pick-up screws, I was unhappy with the way the screws where threaded into the covers, stopping them from floating with height adjustments. While removing the pick-ups from there covers, I found my next problem. The lead wires on the bridge pick-up had begun to fray at the eyelets and this, I think, was the true culprit of the noise. I turned up the heat on my soldering iron cut the wire, striped it back, tined it, and with a couple quick touches it was reattached good as new. Since I had the pick-ups out, I continued to shield the cavities just to be sure. Up next, ream out the screw holes on the pick-up covers. Well… this didn’t go as easily as it should have, I felt that drilling them out would be too aggressive and I had already reamed them out once with a tap and that worked well. So, I opted for this method again, I say you learn something new with every build no matter how many you’ve done and on this one, with my first wood pick-up covers, I learned that the covers need to be just a bit wider. As I got about half way through the screw hole I heard a crack… :scowl: the bottom side of the cover split, I guess I was not taking the time the wood required, I continued to ream the hole out with one finger over the split so I could feel the wood move and adjust my force and speed accordingly. With the tap all the way through the screw hole of the cover and the cover in a mini vice, I sanded back the finish. With the tap holding the fracture open I dropped some CA glue on it and quickly removed the tap.Once the glue set, I chiseled off the excess and sanded it flush, cleaned it with naphtha and began reapplying the wipe-on-poly. This happened on three out of four of the screw holes at some point and was not a situation I wanted to deal with so close to being finished, needless to say I was not happy. Completion was in my sight so I dealt with it, but I still didn’t know if I had solved my noise issue.

Thankfully I got an extra day in the shop so first thing I did was sand and buff out the pickups. In the end, the only evidence of this horrible set back is 1 very small discolored fissure line (stabilized with CA glue) that sits down in the pick-up cavity never to be seen. But I know it’s there… ARRGHH…

 

[MrArose13]

Finally… reassembled and test driven and we get a whole lot of pics… My photography skills aren't great (wish lbridenstine lived close enough to do pic for me) and my camera sucks, but these pics where done in natural day light… and then manipulated to try to get the best detail and true colors, but you get the idea.

After perusing the stickys recently, I see that it is TB rules to have one build per thread and I’m not one to push my luck with things I like. So, I’ll be taking some of the previous info on the other builds that were started here with this one to a new thread.

With that, this concludes the Rose Stem 4 string (RS-4) build. I hope everyone enjoyed the ups and downs of the process and finds useful information to help move them along with their own projects and dilemmas.
I wish everyone the best and will be posting again soon, (real soon, Ha…) I now return you to your regular viewing.

Till next time, HAPPY BUILDING…...

 

[lbridenstine]

It looks good! I can't wait to see your next build.