Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Project: THUNDER-BACKER
- Thread starter rojo412
- Start date
He's such a joker. Haha! He slips up and pronounces it correctly when they get to talking about the Doug Wimbish bass.
Trimmed up the board:
Drilled the side dot holes:
Filled them with glow powder and super glue, let it cure, then milled it all flat again:
Just FYI: Luminlay charges about $30 for about a 2" tube.
The glow powder and super glue were less than $0.50 for what was added to this neck.
This may not glow as long or bright per charge, but I guarantee Luminlay doesn't glow 60 times longer or brighter.
Drilled the side dot holes:
Filled them with glow powder and super glue, let it cure, then milled it all flat again:
Just FYI: Luminlay charges about $30 for about a 2" tube.
The glow powder and super glue were less than $0.50 for what was added to this neck.
This may not glow as long or bright per charge, but I guarantee Luminlay doesn't glow 60 times longer or brighter.
Last edited:
Love the glow powder and super glue. I got some small bottles with needle tips at the hobby store, makes it easy to add just enoughe right into the marker hole.
I bought the tips a while back and they fit on dollar store super glue bottles. Changed my world!
The headstock was something I was REALLY worried about. With the angle and thickness not cut, but the wings glued on, this was a ball of nothing I could really work with. So I had to figure out the way to do this right...
First thing was, cut the outer shape. Maybe not the best move, but I was already in kind of deep, so this was easy enough. Using progressively higher cuts with the pattern bits I had, it came to shape.
From there, the move was to make the top face of the headstock flat. I spent a lot of time thinking about it and finally came up with a solution, using the failed "neck machine" I built wrongly. It was a good box for running a router with a big base plate over though...
Milled it down pretty nicely until it was just right...
So now it has a flat face, the headstock breaks at a 9.3 degree angle, and I can now shape the back to thickness and do the volute.
The facet carving is right behind that.
I better get started on those wings, too!
This week is a tough one because it's my wife's birthday Saturday, plus I need to get more Xmas shopping done. But the fact that I've made this kind of progress with all of that in play... makes me pretty happy how effectively this is coming together.
First thing was, cut the outer shape. Maybe not the best move, but I was already in kind of deep, so this was easy enough. Using progressively higher cuts with the pattern bits I had, it came to shape.
From there, the move was to make the top face of the headstock flat. I spent a lot of time thinking about it and finally came up with a solution, using the failed "neck machine" I built wrongly. It was a good box for running a router with a big base plate over though...
Milled it down pretty nicely until it was just right...
So now it has a flat face, the headstock breaks at a 9.3 degree angle, and I can now shape the back to thickness and do the volute.
The facet carving is right behind that.
I better get started on those wings, too!
This week is a tough one because it's my wife's birthday Saturday, plus I need to get more Xmas shopping done. But the fact that I've made this kind of progress with all of that in play... makes me pretty happy how effectively this is coming together.
Last edited:
I used a really crude "box" to achieve the same result, getting the back face parallel to that was the hard part. Nut looks a tad.... tall yet. 
Darren, weren't you planning to play some slide bass with it, Morphine style? 
Darren, weren't you planning to play some slide bass with it, Morphine style?
Is that what it's going to come to?
In for a penny, in for a pound... Guess I better go pick out a slide, yeah?
Got tired of thinking of this as a stick, so it was time for the wings to appear.
As others have noted, I need to install some dowels to make these pieces like the awesomest 3-piece Lego project ever. I kinda need to devise how to do that perfectly, but I'm on the case.
Also waiting for pickups to show up. When they get here, I can truly plot out the center section and this will rapidly take shape.
As others have noted, I need to install some dowels to make these pieces like the awesomest 3-piece Lego project ever. I kinda need to devise how to do that perfectly, but I'm on the case.
Also waiting for pickups to show up. When they get here, I can truly plot out the center section and this will rapidly take shape.
Finally! Holiday hullaballoo has subsided and I had time to get back in the shop.
The first task was to mill down the thickness of the center to match the wings. Using various techniques involving some rails and a router plate/sled thing, I managed to do it kinda like this:
Once they were close, I lined everything up, made some 1/4" dowels sharp, drilled into the wings, put the dowels in, pressed the points against the center beam, drilled the center beam, sanded down the points, and now I can put the wings into their places for temporary work and assembly:
I'll have to figure out what needed to be done before glue-up, but that should be easy enough with more planning.
Oh, and the pickups showed up here, too!
Tuners are en route, likely need to do some mock-ups and plotting, but this is about to start looking like bass pretty soon.
The first task was to mill down the thickness of the center to match the wings. Using various techniques involving some rails and a router plate/sled thing, I managed to do it kinda like this:
Once they were close, I lined everything up, made some 1/4" dowels sharp, drilled into the wings, put the dowels in, pressed the points against the center beam, drilled the center beam, sanded down the points, and now I can put the wings into their places for temporary work and assembly:
I'll have to figure out what needed to be done before glue-up, but that should be easy enough with more planning.
Oh, and the pickups showed up here, too!
Tuners are en route, likely need to do some mock-ups and plotting, but this is about to start looking like bass pretty soon.
Mmmmmm.........mahogany. I think I'm going to do a similar heel adjust on my current build, you did a nice clean job of it.
Last edited:
Thanks @Gilmourisgod! They make so much sense down there.
What doesn't make sense will be doing the truss rod cover on the headstock now... but even less sense would be NOT having it there because it would look weird without one.
(Pretty sure Darren won't take it off to adjust it though
. Maybe I'll hide something in there for him.)
As much as having the wings with the outline helped picture things better, I'd say this makes everything even MORE evident:
(sorry about that ugly mug reflected in the bridge
)
What doesn't make sense will be doing the truss rod cover on the headstock now... but even less sense would be NOT having it there because it would look weird without one.
(Pretty sure Darren won't take it off to adjust it though
. Maybe I'll hide something in there for him.)As much as having the wings with the outline helped picture things better, I'd say this makes everything even MORE evident:
(sorry about that ugly mug reflected in the bridge
)
Have you seen the heel adjust that Scott over at Bonehead Guitars does on his? He said it isn't his original design, he stole it from someone, so feel free to rip it off.
Basically he does the "wheel" between frets -
Basically he does the "wheel" between frets -
I'm going to do a heel adjust cover, haven't decided if it will be brass plate like Alembic uses, or literally a cutoff from the neck beam for a wood cover....
