New headless build… might be a long thread :-)

[Barticus]

FINALLY! I got a solid 2hrs of project work time in today, so more Human CNC progress with carving the finger board 26” radius, cutting the neck down to size and trimming the neck end and fitting the nice custom 45mm brass headpiece!!!

Can’t wait to finish my neck carving contraption so I can carve the neck and route the neck pocket, and maybe even some fret slots? can you say Father’s Day relaxation??

I think it is finally starting to look like a bass!

 

[Snert]

carving the finger board 26” radius

Odd radius. Is that what the Spirits are? I've never bothered to check.

fitting the nice custom 45mm brass headpiece!

Is that the one from your Irish friend?

 

[Barticus]

Odd radius. Is that what the Spirits are? I've never bothered to check.

Is that the one from your Irish friend?

Odd?
Standard on all of my Warwicks and I prefer pretty flat so stole that influence.

Yep, that is the ‘Irish headpiece’ he’s also made some adjustments to the design based on my feedback and there are 2 more in the mail to me now, hopefully will arrive mid week.

Also in discussion about getting some brass bridges built for the next round of Barticus builds

 

[Snert]

Standard on all of my Warwicks and I prefer pretty flat so stole that influence.

I didn't know that was a Warwick radius either. Never owned one.
I prefer flatter too with my BTB being 950, and my SRs being a but more Kate Upton at 300 or 400mm.

Yep, that is the ‘Irish headpiece’ he’s also made some adjustments to the design based on my feedback and there are 2 more in the mail to me now, hopefully will arrive mid week.

Great looking forward to you being 100% so I can order some next month.

 

[Barticus]

and my SRs being a but more Kate Upton at 300 or 400mm.

ROFL

Yeah I tend to string-bend a lot and flat finger boards are more friendly to my playing style. The Warwick 6 string basses are 46” so super flat!

 

[Barticus]

Why is it so hard to find free time to work on this stuff? My neck carving contraption is finally built and ready to go!

It’s not pretty but it’s very solid and functional … and it cost about $40 to build

• Bearings $20
• Bolts and springs $15
• Handle $5
• All wood, lags and washers were left over from other projects.

The carriage is designed so I can easily remove and swap out with different cams on each end for different neck profiles. I already have a couple of neck profile cams designed, I just need to laser cut and test… this is actually the fun part now that I have finally have the box constructed. I’m going to try an asymmetrical neck profile too, very thin.

One of my sons came out to see the progress while I was finishing up, loved the design and asked if we can do a guitar version of the zebra body for him… YES was my instant response, and that’s the nicest endorsement/compliment I’ve received thus far and on Father’s Day! He’s the other PRS player in the family

 

[Barticus]

I have figured out the cams, I think... these will be easily replaceable for different neck profiles, the one is asymmetric and will be pretty thin.

I got rained out this afternoon so haven't been able to run my test material yet but there's still time left if the weather passes over me today, my garage is about 110 so that's a no go

 

[Barticus]

Yep it works!!!

and that’s asymmetrical man!

 

[Barticus]

I built my fourth and final jig today, this one is for truss rods and carbon reinforcement rods.

1. Body scalloping
2. Finger board radiusing
3. Neck carving
4. Truss rods and carbon reinforcement rods

My next build for SBO 2022 should go much faster since I’ll be able to focus on the instrument build vs Engineering my tooling on the fly. It was fun to figure it all out, but glad those pieces are done and ready to build some more basses now!

1. 
   
2. 
3. 
4. 

 

[RichterScale]

If you could go ahead and post detailed build plans for that, before you get a patent, that'd be great.

 

[Barticus]

If you could go ahead and post detailed build plans for that, before you get a patent, that'd be great.

So my son (the electrical engineer) is checking all of the pieces out and says “those are all really cool, but I thought you were getting a CNC?”

I’m like, uuuhhhhh… learn the manual process ALWAYS before automation

 

[Barticus]

I made more progress after work this evening. I finished the truss rod slot with a chisel to carve out for the end and drilled the access hole in the headpiece end. VERY snug fit for the truss and the carbon rods.

Then did the rough carve on the neck with the jig.

Then did some additional rough shaping of the ends and the rough carve on on the volute. Finish sanding is going to be fun!

I’ll tighten up the end with the hunka-brass during final sanding. This is my first carved neck, so super happy with how it’s progressing, and love the look. The asymmetrical neck shape feels amazing and it is SSOOOOO thin, and the volute makes it feel like any headed neck. I’m going to do something cool with the body, neck and ramp finishing too that will tie that ocean blue neck in nicely.

Followed by a neck pocket in the body. I plan to shape and thin out the body around the neck pocket do it will feel nice up around the 24th.

So we’re starting to look like a bass finally!!!

I’m feeling the pressure to complete this one so I can get started on my SBO single cut.

 

[Barticus]

Finished the neck with shaping and finish sanding (crazy thin) and did final sanding on the Ebony fingerboard. The neck pocket is also completed at depth so now I can finish the other body routes for controls and bridge.

My frets finally showed up today so slotting frets tomorrow and hopefully finishing the neck.

 

[MPU]

What is that neck material?

 

[Barticus]

What is that neck material?

Crazy huh?
Rockwood

 

[Barticus]

I think the turtle won the race right?

Final sanding done on neck and body so finally ready for tint tomorrow I also drilled and fitted the recess strap locks, love those.

Fret board is ready for slotting and I did some testing with the laser to cut them, but need more testing to ensure precision of locations before cutting this one and 2 more.

 

[Barticus]

Blueberries anyone?

Very happy with the new paint gun, worked flawlessly.

 

[BishopJP]

That color scheme is great!

 

[Beej]

Nice job on that colour fade, that looks really, really good!

 

[Barticus]

Neck mounted, strap locks inserted and finger ramp dry fitted.