Rozitis Custom 6 Fretless Build

[bachlover]

My custom 6 build starts today! I'm having it built by a local luthier/player/technician, Steve Rozitis (www.calgaryguitarrepair.com), so I was able to get it at a great price ($4200 Cdn. all in) and an equally great turnaround of aprox. 3 months. Steve has been doing repairs on guitars I own, and I could tell from our 1st meet that guitars/music is just a part of him and I know that I'll have a dream bass at the end of the process. Here's what's "on paper"
- 35" scale
- 7 piece flame maple/mahogany neck (NT) with 3 graphite reinforcing bars, 2 trussrods
- poly coated bird's eye maple fretboard
- alder body/quilted maple top/bottom
- Hipshot "A" style bridge (all hardware gold plated)
- Gotoh GB 720 tuners
- Nordstrand Humbucker pups neck and bridge positions
- Audere 18v preamp 4 band eq
- switching for active/passive. single/duo coils for each pup, series/parallel wiring between pups

Pics will be added as the build progresses. So far all I have is the top/bottom quilted maple. Here it is, the pics really don't do it justice:

 

[bachlover]

Got the 1st pics already! Here's another reason I'm getting it done at such a smokin' price. Steve uses cheap labor that works for food.

 

[devo_stevo]

Nice maple. Got a picture of the design. I'm curious.

 

[bachlover]

Nice maple. Got a picture of the design. I'm curious.

Here's what we're looking at for body style:

 

[bachlover]

Here's a shot of the BEM fretboard material. On the left, 3 of those flame maple slats will serve as neck layers:

 

[vmabus]

Nice woods!

 

[bachlover]

Thanks!

 

[BioWeapon]

Didn't know there were any luthiers doings customs in YYC - subbed!

 

[Feral Feline]

Man that's some gorgeous maple. I've always preferred "curly" maple 'cause it looks like flames more-so than "flamed" maple (which maybe looks like a series of single flames shooting straight out of a blowtorch, definitely not the warm curly licks of flame from a campfire in a cow-pasture in Kananaskis).
So, "Go (Curly) Flames!"

Also, in regards to your other thread about neck laminates. I've heard said that multiple laminates can contribute to a stronger stiffer neck that is less likely to warp.

You'll need a custom SwampDonkey tubey bass amp to go with this build, but first you'll have to convince Chris to build a bass model SwampDonkey.

 

[bachlover]

Great, something new to GAS over....

 

[devo_stevo]

Nice. I like that body style the best of all the Alembics.

 

[Feral Feline]

And the headstock style?

 

[bachlover]

And the headstock style?

I was going to go with Warwick style (like my 6 fretted) with the tuning pegs angled but after posting the Alembic for devo
-stevo decided that that is a better style for the body shape (I guess you'd figure the people at Alembic would get it right). Steve agreed and tells me he's got his own headstock design that's very similar that I might want to consider. Here's the Wick stock:

 

[FC Bass]

Imho this is the best looking style for the Rogue 5, could easily be adapted to a 6 string version I guess (4+2)

 

[bachlover]

Imho this is the best looking style for the Rogue 5, could easily be adapted to a 6 string version I guess (4+2)

Thanks for this - it's exactly along the lines of what we're thinking, including carrying on the top/bottom veneer to the stock.

 

[bachlover]

This brings up a good point, though. I'm hoping we can find some design that will enable 3+3.

 

[bachlover]

All the pieces of the neck have been milled, sawn, and sanded. I wanted to model the neck on my Warwick Thumb NT 6:

I decided that the bubinga/wenge was too heavy, so decided to go with the flame maple/mahogany layers. Steve finished the mahogany layers today. He used the most lightweight mahogany that he had. Like the maple, it has been stored uncut here in Calgary for at least 4 years for maximum stability:

Here is the 4 mahogany, 3 flame maple layered neck (clamped not glued) along with the bird's eye maple fretboard:

 

[bachlover]

My man Steve was pretty busy yesterday; 1st off the lamination and sizing of the neck. Here's the 7 boards glued before clamping:

Clamped:

Glued:

Thicknesses planed to final dimensions:

Voila! Check out the tight glue joints!

He then got a start on gluing the quilted maple top on the alder body. 1st piece of alder being cut and planed:

Finally, the piece of quilted maple being glued and clamped to the top:

 

[bachlover]

Steve was able to glue the maple caps to the top and bottom over the weekend (4 in all). My Nordys and preamp came in yesterday and the Nords look fantastic, I can hardly wait to hear what they sound like! Here's a shot of them on the top, and a shot of the bottom placed alongside the neck for a rough idea of what it'll look like.

 

[bachlover]

Got some of the hardware earlier this week...........mmmmmmm.....shiiiiiny. Here's the preamp and tuner that we'll be using: