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Multi-Build

#21
dremy2006 said:
Awesome stuff...all eight of these basses are for ur personal use?
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Well, when it was originally going to just be 3 or 4 basses, I figured I'd keep a couple that I liked, and whatever I didn't want I'd unload one way or the other (I have lots of musician friends that I'd like to see playing something better than the entry level crap they have). Now that it's exploded to 8, who knows. I'm not even sure if all of them will even get finished - I might decide there are certain wood combinations I just don't like, or whatever. We'll have to see. Some might end up for sale - if my wife has anything to say about, 7 of them will be for sale :hmm:
 
#22
Over the long Memorial weekend I was able to get a little more done (as usual, not as much as I had planned, but progress none the less).

All of the truss rod channels are routed. In the past I've used the truss rods from Grizzly or Guitar Parts Central, which as far as I can tell are identical. This time I bought a bunch of TRs from Martin Keith (Keith Guitars). They are very similar in design to the Grizzly/GPC TRs with just a few tweaks. They're also a little longer, which meant I had to make a new routing jig, which wasn't a big deal since I could use the old one as a template... just had to make the new one an inch or so longer. I also had to pick up a new router bit as my old 1/4" bit was toast.

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I also started gluing on the headstock veneers. First I had to sand a curve on the back side of the volute, which was done with a handheld belt sander (which was clamped into my bench). All of the necks will have the back of the headstock veneered to hide the scarf joint, and most will have the front of the headstock veneered to either match the body, or contrast with the fingerboard. This is my first time veneering headstocks, and while it's not particularly difficult, it is definitely time consuming. As others have demonstrated in the past, to glue the veneer to the back of the headstock at the curved part of the back of the volute, you need to make a "caul" to match the radius of the curve. I found some peel-n-stick foam that's about 1/8" thick that I lined the caul with that works nice to help fudge for contours that don't exactly match the caul.

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I'm also about half-way through slotting the fingerboards. I've been doing about 2 a day so I don't kill my arm. I also took a little time to sharpen my StewMac fret saw which helped dramatically cutting the slots. I'm tempted to take it to a professional to have it sharpened properly, as it's not a very smooth cut right now, but it definitely cuts much faster than it did before. Still, slotting that Ziricote, Wenge, Maple and Bocote is a workout. This would have been a great excuse to get the power slotting system from StewMac or LMI, but I'm cheap.

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This is my fret slotting jig. It's kind of stolen from the StewMac design, but works surprisingly well. I screw the jig down to the bench, and then clamp the fingerboard in the jig while sawing. I get good clean, perpendicular cuts every time.

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There's still a stack of necks needing more veneers, and more fingerboards that need slotting, so that's going to keep me busy for a while. I'm really itching to get past this stuff so I can finally get the bodies and necks cut/routed to final shape to get a better sense of how these basses are going to look.

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#24
It's been a couple of weeks since my last update, but I finally have something to post about. Between the hot weather and work, I haven't had much time to spend working on the basses, but the past couple of nights I've been able to spend some time in the garage and make a little progress.

All of the fingerboards are slotted and the last one is being glued on right now. All of the headstocks are veneered, and tonight I spent a little time rough cutting the other 7 necks to shape. This is where things start to really get interesting, as this is the point where you can finally start to see how things will come together and get a better glimpse of the end product.

Here are the necks rough cut to shape:
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And here's a rear shot where you can see the veneered headstock back sides:
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And one more showing the headstock veneers in a little more detail:
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As I mentioned before, this was my first time doing headstock veneers. To be honest, it's kind of a pain. Fortunately they all turned out well, but it's quite time consuming. I admit it looks nice, but I'm not convinced it's worth the extra effort :hmm:

If I'm lucky, tomorrow night I might have time to get the router table set up to start trimming the bodies and necks to final shape with the templates. I suspect trimming them all will take a couple of nights as you really have to take things slow when cutting some of these woods (... I learned tonight that ziricote really is as brittle as people say... that neck might end up with a bound fingerboard :( )
 
#26
Just another quick update. Tonight I started trimming the bodies and necks to final shape. I use double sided carpet tape to stick the body/neck/headstock template to the blank, and then run it through the router table with a template flush cutting bit. My bit is getting dull and burning the wood - I think tomorrow I'll be picking up a new bit.

Here's the first body and neck to be cut to final shape.
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And more closeups of the body, neck and headstock
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#31
Tonight I finished trimming up the bodies and necks with the router, pattern bit and templates. I also started to edge sand the bodies. I got through most of the bodies - just a couple more to sand, and then I also need to clean up the headstock edges at the sander as well.

Here are the bodies after being trimmed with the router before they get sanded:
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And here they are after being sanded - much nicer, and have a much better edge surface for rounding the body edges.
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And here's the stack of necks after being trimmed:
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After I get the rest of the bodies and necks sanded a bit more, I'll try to snap some pics of the bodies and necks together to show the different wood combos. Tomorrow I'm picking up a new drill press, which I'm excited about. My old drill press had about 1/8" of runout (not kidding), which made it pretty unusable for any sort of accurate work.
 
#34
jmorbita said:
VERY NICE!!!!!!!!
pics of the necks and bodies together!!

how are you enjoying this multi build process compared to building just one at a time?
Click to expand...

That's a tough one to answer. On the one hand, I think it is definitely going faster than building them one at a time. However, patience isn't really one of my virtues, so it's taking a lot of restraint to not just ditch the idea and finish one of the basses. I have a feeling once I start carving the necks that's going to be even harder, but I'm going to try hard to stick it out and do all of the woodworking at once. The only thing that probably won't be done until I finish each individual bass is the pickup routes, as that will kind of depend on which electronics I choose, which will be spaced out over time - I can't afford to buy all of the electronics and hardware all at once.
 
#37
I snapped a few pics of the front/back of each of the bodies and necks (as of right now, these are the bodies and necks that go together). The pictures aren't the greatest - I must have had it on the "suck" setting.

#1
Body: Padauk back, flamed maple core, bubinga top, single cut body, chambered (but still really heavy)
Neck: 5-piece flamed maple with padauk stringers, padauk headstock, maple and bubinga headstock veneers, and wenge fingerboard

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#2
Body: walnut back, flamed maple core, leopardwood top with bubinga accent, new dual cut away body
Neck: 5-piece walnut, flamed maple and bocote, walnut headstock with bird's eye maple headstock veneer, and flamed maple fingerboard

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#3
Body: padauk back, walnut core, zebrawood top with maple accent lines, older dual cutaway body
Neck: 9-piece walnut, bird's eye maple, and cherry with maple and bubinga accent lines, wlanut headstock, zetrawood and bird's eye maple headstock veneers, and ziricote fingerboard with maple accent (soon to be bound with flamed maple)

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#4
Body: flamed maple back, walnut core and spalted maple top, older dual cutaway body
Neck: 5-piece with flamed maple and walnut, flamed maple headstock with spalted maple and cherry headstock veneers, a bocote fingerboard with ziricote accent.

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#5
Body: Alder core with leopardwood top, new singlecut body
Neck: 7-piece with flamed maple and bubinga accent lines, bird's eye maple headstock wtih bubinga headstock veneer, bird's eye maple fingerboard with wenge accent

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#6
Body: Alder core, with walnut top and cherry accent, new dual cutaway body
Neck: 7-piece with walnut and maple accents, walnut headstock, with birdseye maple headstock veneer, and bird's eye maple fingerboard

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#7
Body: African mahogany back, flamed maple top and walnut accent, new dual cutaway body
Neck: 5-piece foamed maple with walnut stringer, flamed maple headstock with bird's eye maple and bubinga headstock veneers, and wenge fingerboard

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#8
Body: flamed maple back, cherry/walnut/cherry core, and spalted maple top, new singlecut body
Neck: 7-piece bird's eye maple, paduk and cherry with bubinga accents, cherry headstock with spalted maple and bird's eye maple headstock veneers, and ziricote fingerboard

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