Might As Well Get Started.

There are probably a hundred thousand things I haven't thought of yet. I'm still reading and learning.
But I decided to see if I could make a template.

I went to Home Depot looking at MDF. I thought I was going to have to buy a whole 4' x 8' sheet. But they had a scrap of 3/4" MDF. I got a piece about 27" x 16" for $0.51





I put my B4F on it and traced around.







Cutting this with a keyhole saw.





That was getting old fast. So I decided to chop off some of the excess material with a circular saw. Not good for details, but hey.





Finally, my room mate found his sabre saw I'd asked him about. Now we're in business.







I'll try smoothing the edges with a sander tomorrow.

 

Thanks. Rather than trying to make plans on the computer and print them out and yada, yada, yada . . .
I thought that for a first attempt, I could get a head start by copying an existing design for the basic shape.

 

Hmmm. Thanks for the tip.
Don't know if Harbor Freight is open on Sundays or not. I got directions to one and need to make a trip up there to check out a few things.

Should I cut the pickup and electronics cavity into this template? Or should I use a seperate template for that? I don't have a P-bass pickup to trace. And I probably won't have one for some time. I'm thinking of getting the P pickup template that StewMac sells. I don't think I need the electonics cavity template. I can trace the cover from one of mine. But I'll need two sizes, one for the cover to recess into and another for the lip that the cover sits on. I'm not exactly sure how to do that yet. Suggestions? Special router bit? Bearing/spacer for a router bit? Or do I really need two seperate templates?

 

The first thing I did was draw a pencil line down the center of the board with a framing square.
Then I lined up the strap button on top of the line and tried to center the neck plate thing over the line before tracing. Is my line not showing up in the pictures? Or or you talking about something else?

But, the bass moved at one point during the tracing process. I had to reposition it as best I could over the existing traces before I could continue. (Yeah, I didn't clamp nothin'.)

So I need to re-establish the center line. I really want to lay a neck where it's going to go and stretch a string from the center of the nut to the far end of the bass.

 

I went to Harbor Freight yesterday evening and picked up a set of Chinese files. I also got a pack of assorted grains of sandpaper. And I just couldn't resist picking up a plunge router on sale for $40.

The template is by no means done. But I have smoothed the edges quite a bit with a wood rasp. And I re-measured and re-drew the center line.

 

Alder body blank and walnut body blank from Carvin.

Walnut moistened to show the grain.
I haven't decided yet which side is the top.

A


B

 

I think this is the way I'm going to go with it for the top.
Though, I'm still open to suggestions.

 

I was planning to attach the template to the body with two-sided tape I've got coming from Stew-Mac. But using screws would make it even more secure. Hmm, worth considering.
I hope to route the neck pocket before I cut the body shape. So I don't know if using the neck pocket for one of the screws would be good. It won't be right up against the template. But it might still work. I could put one of the screws where the pickup route will be. But that would mean I couldn't do the pickup route until later. I also have a P-bass pickup routing template on the way from Stew-Mac, and my router bits. That stuff should be here tomorrow.

 

Hmmm . . . .