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My six taking shape...

#21
I was making little sanding blocks out of the MDF cutoffs and gluing strips of 80-grit to it for the rough shaping. The curves were already built in, and all I had to do was lay the pieces flat on the table and sand the curves. Really helped, having the radii matching, especially in the upper horn curve. I'll give the sanding bow a try though- great idea! I'm on my way up to Kingwood to go make sammiches today! I'll post pics as I get them done.

BTW- I laid it out, and my bridge won't let me do more than a 1/2" omega unless I go with a 33" scale. I want to keep it at 35", so no cutout on this one. Maybe on my next one I'll plan it out a little different. I s'pose I could use a different bridge, but I really want the piezos on this one...

Any ideas for the headstock? It's gotta be a 3+3. All submissions will be considered...(hint, hint) :D
 
#22
Well, my sammich-making session got called off. My friends wife is having health problems, and had a really bad night- he might have to take her for surgery earlier than thought. :( She's battling an infection, unrelated I think, and the docs wanted it to be gone before she went under the knife. So he has my wood at his house, and we'll be ready to go once the current situation resolves. Hopefully in a week or two, I'll have scads of new pics for y'all.
 
#23
Well, I finally made a little progress, thought I'd share...
Got the body wings glued up and my fretboard slotted (thanks budman!) and cut out the body wings. Found a few little peccadillos with my patterns, but sanded them out. Here's a few shots of what's up...from my camera phone (sorry for the poor quality, but you'll get the gist of it).
 

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#30
No, not yet- I have yet to lay out the fiber optic runs in the neck. That may happen next weekend, I had to cut and run to make it to a last-minute gig. Made it with 15 minutes to spare, from all the way up in Kingwood to Galveston, stopping to get my rig and change clothes...got the call at 7, gig time at 9! So far I have to lay out and cut the top wood, then design and drill the headstock, then the fiber runs in the neck, then glue on the fretboard, trim it, install frets, level, rout the cavity for the LED/Fiber terminus and battery compartment. Then lay out the control cavity, rout the pickups, rout the bridge (piezos' wire runs) and test-assemble it. Adjust as necessary, then disassemble and finish. Almost halfway there.... :eek:
 
#32
It's a Gotoh bridge with piezos. Each one has it's own wire, so I have 6 wires to put into the area beneath the bridge and down to the control cavity. The back panel is a 12 degree dovetail on the edge, going to probably fit it with magnets to hold it on. Quick battery changes that way, and getting to the pre to adjust it will be equally easy. If the magnets don't work out, I'll still have the option of a single screw to hold it safely in place.

Hammy, I've been playing bass since Jan 20, 1984, and in that time I've played lots and lots of basses. The production bass that comes closest to what I want is my Brian Bromberg 5. Now, some have had features I've liked, but all have had drawbacks. I'm just taking my favorite bits of all the instruments and combining them into what I hope will be my dream axe. I assembled most of the wood over the course of a few months, and went with combinations I know work well together. I thought about doing an ebony fingerboard, but couldn't justify the cost. Wenge has been used for a long time on Warwicks, but I loathe their feel. This one will be smooth as a baby's butt. I went with the wildest figure I could find, since after the top woods, the thing most people are drawn to is the fingerboard. I originally started off wanting myrtle burl for my top, but the piece I got was too void-filled. Pretty, but I don't know how to stabilize it. The fears I had about neck-shaping I put to rest by rationalizing it this way- It's only wood, if I screw it up, I'll learn about how not to do it, and get it right the next time. The profile I'm shooting for is asymmetrical, but not overly so. The fancy stuff is just crap I see in my head, then try to figure out how to accomplish it. Some of it is aesthetically-driven, like the backplate. I don't like the look of a cheap plastic cover on the back of an otherwise gorgeous instrument. I don't have to take the cheapo way out, so it's matching wood. I love Pedulla back plates, but not all the screws. So I dovetail it in, and use either magnets or a single screw...

And yes, Hammy, it's my first made-from-scratch, original design. I guess I've been playing for long enough to know what I want, so I gotta go for it. Helps that my buddy is an experienced woodworker with about a bazillion and two tools...plus, he's an engineer- if I get stuck, he makes me draw it out to evaluate what it is I want to accomplish. Makes seeing potential pitfalls easier. Plus, I'm learning a whole lot on the fly!
 
#33
Bassic83 said:
Hammy, I've been playing bass since Jan 20, 1984, and in that time I've played lots and lots of basses. The production bass that comes closest to what I want is my Brian Bromberg 5.
Click to expand...

Nice job! It's coming along very well. When I first saw your templates with your neck stock, I thought it looked a little familar. It does remind me of Brian Bromberg's. That's a very nice design you came up with and I wish you the best!

JB
 
#36
teej said:
I've been looking for an answer to this question forever! Actually, since I saw this bass on Warmoth's gallery:

What kind of piezo? Make, model, etc.
Click to expand...

Also, besides Gotoh, ABM does this kind of bridge, too - but I can't seem to find those pics of it again...
Anyway, here's the site address: http://www.abm-mueller.de/
There are some more, too, I just dont remember right now...
 
#39
Very nice looking project, the top is one hellishly beautiful peice of wood. Looks like its going to be a astheitically brillient bass, and with the piezo's and wood combo it sounds like it will sound as good as it looks (could of been worded better but nevermind).

Thanks for the message, and the body on mine will be orignally (no profiling) 1" walnut 3/8" burl maple, so with the profiling I am hoping to cut that down a bit in the profiling aspect. Pitty I am waiting on people to reply before I can make a final design as it all depends on what i can get but I think I'm sticking with my wood selection now, if it doesn't sound good, I'll learn from it, and I have a second neck for it if I screw one up as I'm making a bolt on.

I'll be keeping an eye on your project to see how good it turns out to be :)

Zet.
 

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