SBO 2022 - The Tailgate Trifecta

[NKBassman]

Phew. On my third coffee this morning and just cleaned up a big coke spill off the leather couch, so I'm a tad frosty.

Sounds… stimulating.

 

[TerribleTim68]

Just call it "rustic matched" and you can charge boutique prices.

 

[NKBassman]

Just call it "rustic matched" and you can charge boutique prices.

Hand-selected artisanal scatter-match.

 

[TerribleTim68]

Hand-selected artisanal scatter-match.

And then list it on your website as a $750 additional option.

 

[2groggy]

Hand-selected artisanal scatter-match.

Your word salad is missing a few favourites:

• Heritage
• Heirloom
• Patina
• Organic
• Emission-free
• Carbon-neutral
• Disruptive
• Unicorn
• and many more

 

[NKBassman]

Your word salad is missing a few favourites:

• Heritage
• Heirloom
• Patina
• Organic
• Emission-free
• Carbon-neutral
• Disruptive
• Unicorn
• and many more

Don't forget Plant Based and cruelty free .
/end derail

 

[TerribleTim68]

Don't forget Plant Based and cruelty free .
/end derail

• Vegan
• Gluten free
• Free range
• Fair market

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Locally sourced?

 

[AK4570]

Nah, can't be locally sourced... there's a shortage of walnut in Southwest Montana.

Artisanal though; that we might be able to pull off!

 

[AK4570]

I got the clamps and screws pulled off the drop-top glue up…

…put a fresh blade in the trusty Bosch jigsaw,

…then slowly and carefully freed the body from its surrounding woody confines.

Using a jigsaw necessitated staying far back from the line which required a not-insignificant amount of time devoted to sanding the body down to said line. But we got there eventually

I'm leaving the neck attachment zone a little oversized for now/until I route the neck pocket and then it will be trimmed up. Hopefully, once the body shape is finallized and before I route a roundover, I'll remember to trace it for a new template (...note to self)

 

[AK4570]

The next day was taken up in template making/truing up. I am using the Bitterroot Guitars 5-string P pickups for this build, so needed to roll my own on the template front. An interesting discovery was that Bondo begins to set in approximately 60-90 seconds at 5500 ft., 95 degrees, and 18% humidity… and I’m not sure which of those factors mattered most!

…I also needed a dab of body filler on the side of my 5-string neck template where my router got a little hangry and nabbed an extra bite.

They're not pretty but here's hoping they're effective. They are currently sitting under the topper in the back of my truck... otherwise referred to as "the curing oven."

I'll get them cleaned up and create master templates from them shortly...

Next up, neck making revisited!

 

[AK4570]

On another note, I'm considering using the curly maple offcuts from my neck blanks to do wood binding on the fingerboards (1 ziricote, 1 wenge). My concern is that the "binding" will virtually match the necks themselves since they were cut from the same board.

Should I forgo in light of the lack of contrast?

 

[Flamingo21]

That depends on what you want to see. When you play the bass, you're looking at the side of the neck. Do you want to see the binding as a separate entity?

Or are you more concerned about standing in the room and seeing the bass on a stand or hanger?

Or how the audience sees it, etc.

 

[ctmullins]

On another note, I'm considering using the curly maple offcuts from my neck blanks to do wood binding on the fingerboards (1 ziricote, 1 wenge). My concern is that the "binding" will virtually match the necks themselves since they were cut from the same board.

Should I forgo in light of the lack of contrast?

Heck no!

 

[Reedt2000]

On another note, I'm considering using the curly maple offcuts from my neck blanks to do wood binding on the fingerboards (1 ziricote, 1 wenge). My concern is that the "binding" will virtually match the necks themselves since they were cut from the same board.

Should I forgo in light of the lack of contrast?

I don't think it's worth it (IMHO) to bind with the same material. It will be a lot of work for a very subtle effect. If you're gonna go that route maybe a thin veneer of dark colored wood between the fingerboard and binding?

 

[NKBassman]

On another note, I'm considering using the curly maple offcuts from my neck blanks to do wood binding on the fingerboards (1 ziricote, 1 wenge). My concern is that the "binding" will virtually match the necks themselves since they were cut from the same board.

Should I forgo in light of the lack of contrast?

Maybe some bleaching or staining is in order first? Same wood but alter the shade a little. Plus the binding will at least contrast the fingerboard.

 

[ctmullins]

Here is curly maple binding on a plain maple neck, with a pau ferro fretboard. I think it looks pretty cool.

 

[Max Bogosity]

If the binding wood is the same as the neck but not the fingerboard, it might end up looking like the fingerboard is inlaid into the neck. That should look cool.

 

[AK4570]

I’m going to apologize in advance for my lack of pictorial documentation in this post. One of the upsides of tailgate “loothery” is that you never lack Vitamin D; one of the downsides is that your work is almost entirely dependent on the weather… today was one of those days.

I started the day by flattening the new neck beam.

Once that was accomplished, I decided it would be faster (and potentially more efficient) to cut both the new neck (for the 5 string) and the old, too short neck (repurposed for the Bass VI) by hand rather than set up a second generator and a table saw jig that would require me to bust out the handsaw anyway! A quick kerf with the dovetail saw and then wack ‘em the rest of the way off with the handsaw. Once they were both cut, I shaved them flat and true in my 12 degree router planning jig.

I selected a couple chunks of salvaged maple for headstocks and routed a 12 deg cut into them on the jig.

Since there’s a whole lot of learning and practice going on with these builds, I opted to do one of each type of scarf (one top, one bottom)… we’ll see how that works out for me.

No pictures of glue-up or preps for same because of the aforementioned weather. For those who are curious, I did beat the rain and got both necks glued, the “shop” cleaned up, and everything put away just minutes before the flood hit.

Not the best picture, but the end of the day found 2 scarfed and glued necks hanging out in the weight rack drying.

I’m still considering doing maple binding on the fretboards but we’ll see how much time I have left before the deadline...

 

[KidAmnesia]

I don't think it's worth it (IMHO) to bind with the same material. It will be a lot of work for a very subtle effect. If you're gonna go that route maybe a thin veneer of dark colored wood between the fingerboard and binding?

This could look nice. Maybe a bwb purfling between the binding and the neck?