Neck for Bass-Adrenaline

[Rickett Customs]

Leveled the frets....and recrowned them..

I start off by taping the fretboard and marking each top of the frets with a black paint pen. I use the radius block with 80 grit and lightly run it, until all the marks on the fret are gone.

When crowning, I mark them again and file off, until the mark is gone.

 

[__HM__]

Man, thats beautiful.. I need to start fretting.

 

[Rickett Customs]

Inlaying the "R" part of my logo.


First, the layout.....

we'll need to fix it down with some paste, clamp it in place and after about 20 minutes, score the edges with a blade (blade is a #12).

After scraping around all the edges (in the tight edges, you can also "stab", if you can't get the blade in the tight areas). I douse a bit of water in the area, to loosen the shell.
I then take a soapstone with a razor and scrape enough on the to rub in with my finger.

I adjust the height of the bit, so that it's right under the total thickness. Once I get the areas close to the "white edges", I fit it several times, so that I get a good fit. After the cavity is a good fit, I scrape the bottom, so that the routed area is uniform, otherwise, there may be a little piece in there that could potentially break the shell, when pushing it into the cavity. I pool a tiny bit of CA glue and press the shell in place and clamp it tight for a few minutes. Also before pressing, the back of the shell is ran across 800 sandpaper, to clean off any paste.

Now that this part is done. You'll notice that there's 3 different pieces of wood in this cavity area. dust from each type of wood and ca glue, I taped off each area, so that we're matching wood colors here.

And here's what it looks like (I went around the edges with a very thin brush, with black ink):

 

[DanSwain]

That inlayed logo looks really good Jason! This neck is really cool!

I know you like the large pictures, but this thread takes 2-3 minutes to load per page on my machine! Scrolling through is really slow too. Really, for the web you only need 800x600, or 1024x768 (at the most), as most websites tell the browser to resize the originals anyway.

 

[BassCycle]

Nicely done!

 

[Rickett Customs]

A few more top coats on the neck and it'll be good....


Now, to the pickups and pre..........

Because this is foiled in a few pieces, had to make them all one.
I soldered these spots, where the tape joined the other pieces. Once I did that, checked continuity with a meter. So, the spots were where the bridge sits, the bridge, neck pickup cavities and the points where they arrived into the control cavity. No wire used.

Mounted the pickups, attached the pots and put the knobs on..

Wired it up. I wrapped most of the wiring for each pot with electrical tape.

Soldered the ground for the jack to the cavity as well.

Put in the tele style jack.

 

[Rickett Customs]

After a few wet sandings, now it's going on smooth and shiny (or at least until I dull it down)...one last wet sanding to go and a few top coat and she'll be good to go.

 

[Rickett Customs]

Time to start with the micro mesh......

After taking out any surface imperfections with 800, I move on to 1,500....2,400.....3,200....3,600 on the back of the neck (not gonna buff the back).

Headstock, took it up to 12,000......

 

[BassCycle]

The extreme level of workmanship that you display is frikin scary.

 

[Rickett Customs]

The extreme level of workmanship that you display is frikin scary.

No way man........ extremely you jest

 

[Rickett Customs]

Satin-izing the back of the neck. Had to touch up one spot after these pics, but pretty damn near done with the finish now....

The back was done, by "misting" the final coat, then using 0000 steelwool lightly, to dull it up.

 

[dremy2006]

awesome stuff..!!

 

[Rickett Customs]

Nut slotted and put the strings on (not fully tuned up), now it's all small detail work from here on out.

 

[stepswork4me]

Very nice, brotha.

 

[giacomini]

Looking great!

 

[Rickett Customs]

Been awhile since I've posted here (I'm glad Adrenaline is a good sport about this)........ Alot of "life" stuff taken place, but getting better......

I did not like the Straplock buton on the horn, just didn't sit on enough wood for me, so here's what I did about it:

Cut some aluminum rod, to make up the difference.

Got the correct shape with a round file and used some CA glue and affixed a piece of veneer on the body end of the piece.

Now with it on, there's more area for the strap button to sit on........

The next item, will be more like a how to for a ramp. I wanted a non-invasive way and still have a nice solid ramp.

I glued 2 different piece together, wenge and mahogany. That way Chase can make the decision of which one he likes better.

I also wanted to put binding around it, so there's no regard to the mixmatched look.
I wet down the veneer and clamped it to the ramp, so it would dry bent.

Mahogany side

Wenge side

Ramp, with a piece of thin gauge aluminum (siding/gutter material).

Now the the Aluminum is trimmed, I bent it and made sure that it fit.

Used CA glue (plenty), to make it adhere good...

Here it is fitted. keep in mind, the pieces that sit inside the pickup cavity are made to sit at the treble end of the pickup cavity all the way, so it doesn't slide around. I bent the tabs inward to make it tighter and it's harder to move around now. Also started the tru-oil coats.

 

[Musiclogic]

looking great jason, ramp is a nice job also. Very cool idea.

 

[Rickett Customs]

Thanks JC,
I guess I didn't note, I used electrical tape on the underside, so that bottom of the aluminum doesn't rub on the finish of the body.

 

[Rickett Customs]

Putting a coat or two of tru-oil, then a few more coats of satin poly:

 

[Bass-Adrenaline]

Bump?

I know nobody cares as much about this bass as i do (except for maybe Jason lol) but its almost done and looks great!