New bass in the works, shop pics, new press & more!

I got this dude in the works for a friend of mine. The body is spruce, top is book matched black limba, fingerboard is acrylic impregnated birdseye maple (top and fb from Larry), the neck is 11 piece wenge/maple/bloodwood, the headstock/heel/bridge/pickup covers are wenge and everything will be bound/faced with black fiber/maple/black fiber. It's a SF3 carve top hollowbody 4-string with wide spacing all around, a thin neck and shooting for about 7 pounds.


My shop was actually clean a few weeks ago so I got some pics of the updated arrangement. These pics go in counter clockwise order > Setup/Electronics zone > Sanding/Routing/Downdraft zone > Buffer > Jointer and De/Humidifier > Bandsaw and Edge Sander > Clamping zone > Lay about zone > Oscillating Spindle Sander, FB Slotting Saw, Drill Press, Disc Sander, Mini Lathe > Thickness Planer and Sander.


I posted this in another thread but I think it got buried. I built this little press thing with two Grizzly items. Now I'm just using it for small laminating tasks but in time I hope to figure out some kind of caul system so I can so body/top glue-ups and other large jobs.


One more thing for anyone that is interested in binding the face of their instruments, LMI is offering sheets of "fiber" material. It comes in black and white in a lot of thicknesses. My first experience with this stuff was in the very tiny b/w/b purfling used for the face of acoustic guitars but it works very well for any kind of binding. I'm using it now because it's a little less artificial than plastic (its a wood/paper product) but much easier to bend than ebony for complicated shapes, and is pure black without any grey streaks or white flecks like a lot of ebony seems to have.

PEACE

 

Its a shopfox downdraft table from Grizzly.

Secret of the clean shop... I take pics of my shop every 6-8 months which is just about how often I really clean it. At the moment the place is a mess.

 

I've got a flat 1/2" thick metal plate that matches the size of the granite slab right now. I haven't messed around with it much yet but I might try to find a rubber "pad" to mount on the underside like you are talking about or possibly just body shaped cauls out of something less spongy.

 

I think I'm packing about 450 sqft.

Here's some fingerboards I cut today. There's a long story behind this wood about it being brazilian rosewood found in a funny place and bought by my friend's dad 30 years ago. Once I got it cut and really saw the color (and smelt the dust) it ended up being bocote (pretty darn sure). Still pretty cool since this was the last board of an old stash and a gift to me.

Here's how it looked when I got it then how it looked after the sander with and without naptha:

 

Thanks for the love and hate!

I'm going down to Sam's Club to check on those shock floor pad things tomorrow.

Here's a guitar I am finishing up this week. Sorry, all I've got to work on for a while is guitars. The first one of many (all?) that will be hollow with no back panel. It's also my first being finished with McFadden's Polyester finish. Even with these stupidly heavy Planet Waves tuners and brass bridge the final weight will still be just 5.1lbs.

 

I'm running everything thing through the bridge pickup route. I learned how to do it at school for hollow bodies and archtops. I also watched my boss do it at my old job on a guitar we built for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. All of those instruments had f-holes which made it a little easier but I've already done a test run and it's still pretty easy to do.