Question Re: Adding Top to only Part of a Body

[hrbassji]

I recently decided to build my first bass body and found a body blank to use. It is 3 pieces: swamp ash, black limba, swamp ash. I like the look of the black limba and want to leave that as a visible center block. But I also want to a darker top, like walnut or wenge, on the ash wings.

How would you do this? Could you shave down the ash wings only, add the tops to the wings, and then plane the whole blank to level. Then go ahead and continue with the body. Could this be done?

My other thought was just to separate the wings with a table saw and make the wings with the tops separately. Once that's done, glue the three pieces back together, possibly with body stringers to make up for the lost width from the table saw cuts.

What are your guys' thoughts? Should I just say screw it and put a top across the whole body and be done with it? Thanks!

 

[funkinbottom]

I've only built two basses from scratch so I'm no expert, but any of the methods you mentioned seem very doable. Obviously a top over the entire body would be easiest, but doesn't sound like that is what you want. If I was wanting to do that, I would probably make a router jig and take the wings down and laminate top and plane blank back to level. I see no reason that either way wouldn't work, but just doing the wings as opposed to cutting re-glue etc. seems like a lot less work. But I'm just one of those go for it kinda guys. If I screwed it up, the I would plane the whole thing down and put a top over the entire body, shrug my shoulders and figure it was meant to be.

 

[hrbassji]

Thanks for that. I was wondering how to shave down the wings, and router was the only doable thing I could think of too.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

It’s definitely doable. If you’re good with hand tools you could plane the wings down with a good plane and a rabbeting plane close to the center. I have a couple of router planing jigs and that’s probably the way I’d go along with some additional stops to make sure I only router plane where I want to.

You could add a top to the entire body but that will change the relationship to the top of the body where the bridge mounts and the depth of the neck route. Your neck will end up too low for the string height. You’d want to take down the top of the body by the same thickness as your top of fill in the neck pocket by the same thickness.

 

[funkinbottom]

Yeah router and homemade jig. Not exactly sure how I'd make the jig. I've made a few. But as I told you, I'm an improvise and go for it guy, seems like a it's a different way each time. Considering it's still a blank, I would probably be inclined to use a top bearing bit and make the jig so the inside part of the jig could line up right on the joint of the limba. I think that makes sense??

 

[hrbassji]

Yeah, my thought is that since it’s still a blank, just plane the whole thing. Then router the wings, but use a straight edge guard to make sure the line for the limbs is as straight at possible. My thinking is as long you work from the outside, the blank itself will be flat leading to a flat cut for the router.

 

[MPU]

Yeah router and homemade jig. Not exactly sure how I'd make the jig. I've made a few. But as I told you, I'm an improvise and go for it guy, seems like a it's a different way each time. Considering it's still a blank, I would probably be inclined to use a top bearing bit and make the jig so the inside part of the jig could line up right on the joint of the limba. I think that makes sense??

That’s how I would do it.

 

[micguy]

That's a relatively straightforward router job - a straight fence to limit the travel, and you can route one "wing" down by a fixed amount, move the fence to do the other side. Then glue on your "top" pieces, and route the wings to the level of the center - if necessary. One other thing you can do is route the wings a bit deeper than you need for the top pieces, and you have a raised center, like on a T bird - really easy to do.

 

[Bruce Johnson]

Yes, I agree that the simplest way to do this would be with a router and quick fixture. Use a blocking board as a guide to steer the router in a straight line along one side. Rout the stepped surfaces on either side, glue the new top boards down, and use the same fixture to level the whole top.

Around here, we call that type of operation Router Planing. Here's a big long thread all about Router Planing, with examples of fixtures from most of us:

https://www.talkbass.com/threads/router-planing-fixtures.1267460/

 

[Thumpin6string]

A stupid question. Why not just stain the wings or if you are going to clear coat, use a brown candy only over the wings? It is amazing the look you can get using the candy. Just add coats until you get the look you want. You can also put a clear down first and then, using fine line tape, mask the wings to look like a darker top. Once it is clear coated, you'd never know it wasn't a darker wood on top of the ash wings. FYI, I have been refinishing guitars and basses for over 20 years.

 

[STRMan]

This is the same kind of thing I thought of. I'd stain the ash to get the look I wanted, then clear coat the whole thing.