I probably should have thought of that. I’ve posted a thread over there now. Cheers.
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SBO 23 - The Long Black
- Thread starter Alex Xander
- Start date
I probably should have thought of that. I’ve posted a thread over there now. Cheers.
Body wing number 2 is out of clamps and roughly shaped.
I went a bit deeper with the chamfer on this one, so the bass side wing will get another going over.
By virtue of its name, this bass is supposed to have a full ebony neck. I still have to pickup said ebony, which is a whole week away, so in the meantime, I started preparing another neck blank. This is Queensland blood wood, silver ash and jarrah. Whether I use this neck on this build or not, it sure is a beautiful colour. On a related note, I absolutely love having a good bandsaw. Being able to cut my own thin strips/veneers is great.
It's not as good a match in terms of colour with the wings as ebony will be. What does everyone think?
I went a bit deeper with the chamfer on this one, so the bass side wing will get another going over.
By virtue of its name, this bass is supposed to have a full ebony neck. I still have to pickup said ebony, which is a whole week away, so in the meantime, I started preparing another neck blank. This is Queensland blood wood, silver ash and jarrah. Whether I use this neck on this build or not, it sure is a beautiful colour. On a related note, I absolutely love having a good bandsaw. Being able to cut my own thin strips/veneers is great.
It's not as good a match in terms of colour with the wings as ebony will be. What does everyone think?
It's a great looking neck blank, but yeah, doesn't jive as well with those wings. I think they will look stunning on an ebony neck. High contrast will be awesome.
i built a bass out of red oak once - body, neck, everything. It had a steel reinforcement bar in the neck - not truss rod (didn't need one). It balanced, but yousah, was it ever heavy. I was in my 20's, and in a band where we ran around on stage a lot. One time, out singer finished a line, and in dramatic fashion, jumped back from his mic. I was, at the same time, moving forward, and the bass headstock caught him squarely between the shoulder blades, with the bass lined up squarely behind it. We recorded that gig, and you hear an "ugh", followed by no vocals for a while, while he worked on getting up from the floor and catching his breath.
Oak is heavy stuff - use it sparingly if at all.
Those lacewood wings are gorgeous! I could go with the Kingsblood neck myself..
I think you're right, but I'll see if my patience holds out.
I've built several basses out of wood as heavy or heavier than oak. The weight genuinely doesn't bother me if the balance is right. I'll try not to use them as a weapon against singers, though.
Thanks!
As for using the neck, it almost becomes a question of how much darker it becomes over time. Having no experience with the wood, I don't know if it will go brown like purpleheart, or retain the rich red like red gum does.
I loved the blood wood enough that I couldn't not use it. At the same time, this whole build started because of my purchase of some sweet ebony.
The answer - one build becomes two!
One will be fretted, the other fretless.
It turns out I have just enough of the bloodwood to make a body for the second bass, but it will require some careful planning.
A problem arose when I discovered that the neck blank wasn't long enough for the 39" scale. My solution was to attach a nice piece of Honduran Mahogany with a scarf joint.
This will all get thicknessed with a router sled once it comes out of clamps.
It's a fairly ordinary illustration of what I'm doing, but the finished neck will be bloodwood laminate until the last 5 inches, then the last 5 inches and volute will be mahogany, and then the headstock will be the same bloodwood laminate at the rest of the neck. This has taken a lot of thinking in order to minimise waste.
I have a set of Nordstrand big singles on the way for the second bass, and already have a set of Newtone 39" scale round wounds on hand.
So, dear Talkbass friends, the only question now is which bass gets what hardware and electronics.
Frets
Fretless
Piezo bridge
Nordstrand magnetic pickups
Newtone roundwounds
Octave4plus flatwounds
I'm thinking of staying true to the original idea of the piezo on the fretted bass with flatwounds. It was the reason I invested in a very expensive set of Octave4plus strings, but piezo, flats and fretless has a certain allure which I find difficult to avoid.
Thanks for looking. Any comments are appreciated as always.
The answer - one build becomes two!
One will be fretted, the other fretless.
It turns out I have just enough of the bloodwood to make a body for the second bass, but it will require some careful planning.
A problem arose when I discovered that the neck blank wasn't long enough for the 39" scale. My solution was to attach a nice piece of Honduran Mahogany with a scarf joint.
This will all get thicknessed with a router sled once it comes out of clamps.
It's a fairly ordinary illustration of what I'm doing, but the finished neck will be bloodwood laminate until the last 5 inches, then the last 5 inches and volute will be mahogany, and then the headstock will be the same bloodwood laminate at the rest of the neck. This has taken a lot of thinking in order to minimise waste.
I have a set of Nordstrand big singles on the way for the second bass, and already have a set of Newtone 39" scale round wounds on hand.
So, dear Talkbass friends, the only question now is which bass gets what hardware and electronics.
Frets
Fretless
Piezo bridge
Nordstrand magnetic pickups
Newtone roundwounds
Octave4plus flatwounds
I'm thinking of staying true to the original idea of the piezo on the fretted bass with flatwounds. It was the reason I invested in a very expensive set of Octave4plus strings, but piezo, flats and fretless has a certain allure which I find difficult to avoid.
Thanks for looking. Any comments are appreciated as always.
It will probably end up with quite an upright kind of sound if I go that route, but I have plenty of other basses to do the Jaco sounds.
I think you're probably right.
My first thought, for whatever it’s worth, is the peizo on the fretless but I absolutely get the appeal of a peizo only fretted bass to. I guess the short version is you probably can’t go wrong either way.
Here's some photos to illustrate what I was attempting to explain in my previous post.
Firstly, the mahogany scarf jointed on the end of the laminate
Next, the piece I cut from the back of the neck to get it to thickness is attached like a normal scarf jointed headstock.
The above joint needs a lot of finessing before its ready for glue.
Here's a side view
This bloodwood bass will be the fretted version. Not for any real good reason other than I got a little enthusiastic with the beefwood fingerboard for the other bass and cut it to shape. It won't be so easy to cut fret slots in it now, so fretless for that one, fretted for this.
Firstly, the mahogany scarf jointed on the end of the laminate
Next, the piece I cut from the back of the neck to get it to thickness is attached like a normal scarf jointed headstock.
The above joint needs a lot of finessing before its ready for glue.
Here's a side view
This bloodwood bass will be the fretted version. Not for any real good reason other than I got a little enthusiastic with the beefwood fingerboard for the other bass and cut it to shape. It won't be so easy to cut fret slots in it now, so fretless for that one, fretted for this.
The fretted neck blank is now almost complete.
The scarf joints look great, with barely a hint of a glue line. There's a bucket load of wood to be carved off here.
While from the fretboard side it looks like a very much out of place piece of mahogany, because of the scarf joints, the exposed part will get a nice crescent shape at each join.
Kinda like this, but longer and extending into the volute.
The pickups for the fretted bass have arrived, and on Friday I collect my big haul of ebony.
The scarf joints look great, with barely a hint of a glue line. There's a bucket load of wood to be carved off here.
While from the fretboard side it looks like a very much out of place piece of mahogany, because of the scarf joints, the exposed part will get a nice crescent shape at each join.
Kinda like this, but longer and extending into the volute.
The pickups for the fretted bass have arrived, and on Friday I collect my big haul of ebony.
I did some tidying up on the back side. This is about all I can do before I start the neck carve, but it's showing some promise.
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Good job. Jerry Rosa of Rosa String Works on YouTube did something similar to repair broken headstocks on at least 2 mandolins.
I forgot he did that on a Turser guitar to. It’s a long video and he has his own delivery style but here it is. There’s a couple of mando ones on his channel to.
Note: I didn’t watch through the whole video again but I’m pretty sure this one covers the repair.
Note: I didn’t watch through the whole video again but I’m pretty sure this one covers the repair.
What a great channel and a massive rabbit hole you've sent me down, Matt
Indeed. He doesn’t subscribe to the orthodoxy of orchestral instrument repair which seems to upset people.
