New Build - VR-1 Ranger Bass

[Rickett Customs]

Yes, Chip was a great teacher and still is. Even though he recently moved to a different city, I still talk to him often by email or phone, usually when I have yet another question. He has become a good friend.

Clif

That's a good friend to have

 

[SGD Lutherie]

Remember, psychotiger, you oil the wood to fight the acid from the fingers; lemon oil just adds citric acid.

Lemon oil doesn't contain citric acid (lemon juice does), but it does contain limonene, which is a liquid hydrocarbon, so it is a solvent and will remove oils. It's also a skin irritant. Certainly not what you want to use for a fingerboard oil.

That's a nice looking body! Very noble cause too. We had a '72 P bass at my high school, which someone ended up taking home and never bring back by the time I graduated.

 

[psychotiger]

That's a nice looking body! Very noble cause too. We had a '72 P bass at my high school, which someone ended up taking home and never bring back by the time I graduated.

Thanks! Wow, a '72 P? Was it ever recovered? That's aweful. :scowl:

 

[SGD Lutherie]

Thanks! Wow, a '72 P? Was it ever recovered? That's aweful. :scowl:

No. My music teacher had suggested I take it home for the summer, along with the Conn Double B Flat tuba I used to play. It was my senior year, so he was basically saying "keep them because they will be better off with you!" But I didn't. It was a rough town and school. I should have though.

It was a sweet bass... sunburst, rosewood fingerboard and tortoise shell pickguard. Still had the original flats and the covers on. 1972 was my freshman year, so I was there when they got it. That and a silver face solid state Bassman amp. That sucker was loud. You could turn it up to 10 and it would hardly break up.

I wanted that bass, or one like it, until I saw my first Rick 4001. That ended that infatuation and started another one.

 

[psychotiger]

Well, I was getting real cocky thinking this build was going so quick and easy that I must have really honed my skills. Then I pressed and tried to go too fast resulting in a twisted neck blank. After resawing, I planed the wood to spec immediately. Should have waited a few days to let the exposed wood dry. I made a sled and using the planer got the twist out. It is beautifully coplanar.... and too thin to use as a neck blank. Anyone need a hard maple shelf? Then while I was cutting the fret slots in that nice ziricote fb, I got into a philisophical discussion with my son, lost focus, and... that 15th fret slot looks awful funny. I did not seat the template and made the wrong cut. After using the jointer to remove the slots, the fb is 1/64th shy of 1/4 inch so I should be able to still use it. Vowing to do better than the weekend I just wasted, I have made another neck blank. This will be a maple-mahogony-maple lamination. I will give it a few days then plane it in smaller steps.

The Glue Up:

Thanks for all the advice and support,

Clif

 

[headlikeahole]

Did you think about putting like a 1/4" slice of something between the maple and the fretboard so you could still use it for a neck?

 

[psychotiger]

Did you think about putting like a 1/4" slice of something between the maple and the fretboard so you could still use it for a neck?

Yep. I just thought this would look better. I was thinking of taking some mahogony to 3/8ths thickness and gluing it to the "fixed" neck blank. I still may do that and decide which to use on this bass depending on looks. Combining maple and mahogony will mimic the body and hopefully be appealing. Also, this second blank I believe will be more stable.

Clif

 

[psychotiger]

Slow going lately. This neck is somewhat experimental, for me at least. It's a 3-piece laminate with a 6 degree back-angle of the peghead. No scarf joint. I resawed some mahogony veneer and laminated that to the peghead in such a way that the veneer will just fall under the top of the fingerboard. Hope that makes sense. At this point, I am a bit ambivalent about it. However, the truss rod is installed and the fingerboard fret and nut slots are cut. Gluing the fb on is next. Also need to come up with a clever truss nut cover.

Thanks for looking and for all the advice.

Clif

 

[P_Bass_Manny]

This looks like it's coming on really well and it's always nice to see selfless acts for the good of the community (damn commie )
I'm looking forward to see it progress.

When you mentioned the truss rod failing a few posts ago, what did you mean, and how did you test it?

Manny,

 

[psychotiger]

This looks like it's coming on really well and it's always nice to see selfless acts for the good of the community (damn commie )
I'm looking forward to see it progress.

When you mentioned the truss rod failing a few posts ago, what did you mean, and how did you test it?

Manny,

Thanks, Manny! The truss rod "failed" in that the flat rectangular piece of metal you can see in the last pic that makes contact with the underside of the fingerboard appeared to have been bent and then re-flattened prior to being welded onto the rod. I always test the rod by clamping it in a vise and turning the nut. When I did this, the failed rod produced a "skewed" curve instead of the even curve we would expect to see. This would have put uneven pressure on the neck during adjustment and could have distorted the neck profile accordingly. Is "welded" a word? Hope that made sense.

Clif

 

[P_Bass_Manny]

Thanks, Manny! The truss rod "failed" in that the flat rectangular piece of metal you can see in the last pic that makes contact with the underside of the fingerboard appeared to have been bent and then re-flattened prior to being welded onto the rod. I always test the rod by clamping it in a vise and turning the nut. When I did this, the failed rod produced a "skewed" curve instead of the even curve we would expect to see. This would have put uneven pressure on the neck during adjustment and could have distorted the neck profile accordingly. Is "welded" a word? Hope that made sense.

Clif

Makes perfect sense, thanks.

I'm a pretty inexperienced builder and have only ever used set (non-adjustable) rods so it's good to learn how to test one of these!

Keep up the good work

 

[psychotiger]

Got the neck blank narrowed down to the approximate width of the FB blank. Once I centered the fb on the centerline, I used it as a template to router the neck blank in 4 places. I clamped small blocks into those routes and a stop at the end of the fb. I placed 1 inch width masking tape over the truss rod slot then spread glue. The fb was then slid under the existing clamps and the blocks and stop returned it to the centered position. Overlayed a piece of red oak and clamped. I'll give it a few hours to set up then remove the clamps. I will wait until tomorrow to do any more work on the neck so the glue can dry. I hope to have time to do some carving tomorrow!

Neck with blocks clamped to hold fb:

And with the stop showing:

FB glued up plus my favorite hat:

Life is good.

Clif

 

[psychotiger]

Head Stock designed:

 

[psychotiger]

Didn't get as far as I wanted to today but really I never do. I trimmed the neck to within 1/16th to 1/8th of the template using the bandsaw.

Then trimmed to the template with a trim router. After that I reduced the neck thickness close to the final thickness with the bandsaw.

It will be sureform and sander from here.

Thanks for looking.

Clif

 

[P_Bass_Manny]

That's a really interesting grain pattern on the fretboard.
I've always been slightly nervous about using such heavily figured wood for fbs. Have you had to fill the knots with anything to make it usable or was it flat to begin with?

Manny

 

[psychotiger]

That's a really interesting grain pattern on the fretboard.
I've always been slightly nervous about using such heavily figured wood for fbs. Have you had to fill the knots with anything to make it usable or was it flat to begin with?

Manny

Actually, those aren't knots. The grain pattern swirls in some spots which mimicks the look of a knot in the photo. The ziricote fb in the last pic looks like it has brownish red tones but that's the lighting. The actual color is more multi-gray to black like a storm cloud. I think I am with you in that I would be reluctant to use knotted wood in a fb. I would fear that the knots would loosen, crack, or come out as the neck was adjusted over time.

Clif

 

[psychotiger]

Got a little work in this evening. I had to reduce the end (heel) of the neck to the template. This part has always been scarry to me. I have ruined 2 necks in the past using a router to do this when the bit would bite. This time I used my brand new Robo-Sander ( http://www.luthiersfriend.com/robosander/robosander.html ) by Ken Picou. I have wanted to try one of these for a while then realized Ken was right here in Austin. I called him up, real nice guy. Drive over to his place and picked one up. He has a neat shop where he makes artful wood pieces. He had a music stand and guitar stand that were outstanding and elegant in design and function. Well, anyway, the robo-sander worked flawlessly. The neck heel needs just a bit more sanding to fit completely snugly in the pocket but it is satisfactory at this point.

I like the way the black hardware looks on the bass. I called the nice folks at Hipshot and they told me how to reverse two of the Ultralite tuners from E-side to G-side tuners as I changed the peghead design.

I hope to shape the back of the neck in a couple of days.

Clif

 

[psychotiger]

Got to work on the neck some tonight. I decided to use a new (to me) technique by starting out by shaping areas near the first and 12th fret. Then I would carve in between the two slots which acted as guides. Prior to this I would, as Chip Todd taught me, "Just carve away anything that don't look like neck." I'm not sure if this new technique saved any time. I would really like to figure out a jig of some sort for using a router - maybe from above like this guy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXQfB2GdKDk&p=9DF882353CC404A1&playnext=1&index=24

Anyway, here are some pics:

Implements of Destruction

The Heel:

The Neck ready for more carving:

And the Carved Neck:

Still have a lot of sanding and fine tuning on the back of the neck but getting there.

Thanks for stopping by. Any advice welcome.

Clif

 

[psychotiger]

My intension was to make this neck more chunky like a Pbass neck but have the width of a Jazz. After messing with it a bit, it feels more like a baseball bat as I near the nut. It has a nice modern C feel from frets 5-20 but from frets 0-4 it is more of a D shape. Thickness at the first fret is exactly 1 inch and at the 12th fret it is 1 1/8th inch. I think I will take a 16th to an eighth off and reshape it from there. This thing is a chunky monkey. Now where did I put that electric hand planer?

 

[psychotiger]

Been out of country for a bit interupting the build progress. Bridge is mounted. Neck drilled and bolted on with brass inserts installed. Body contoured and holes drilled for the wiring. I would have fretted the neck but forgot to order more fret wire before I left so I will have to wait for that to show up. Also forgot to order side dot material (on the way). Now I have a bunch of sanding to do then hopefully will start applying finnish this coming weekend.

With my son, a hellaguitarplaya in his own right.

Neck bolts:

More soon I hope.