Scary Neck Repairs: Two Wal Necks

[Hummergeist]

I'm no luthier but I want to chip in and say how interesting and inspiring this thread is. Thanks so much for sharing with such detail and clarity, it's a privilege to see you work.

 

[Bruce Johnson]

I'm no luthier but I want to chip in and say how interesting and inspiring this thread is. Thanks so much for sharing with such detail and clarity, it's a privilege to see you work.

Thanks! If you search back here in Hardware, Setup & Repair, under my name, you'll find that I've done a whole series of threads of this general theme: Doing major neck rebuilds on rare and exotic basses. Basses other than Fenders. Most of the threads have Scary in the title.

 

[Bruce Johnson]

Its powered by 9v battery. You can easily test they still work.

Is it okay to just put 9v right across the terminals? Or do I need to use a series resistor, like SteveCS is suggesting?

 

[sissy kathy]

Is it okay to just put 9v right across the terminals? Or do I need to use a series resistor, like SteveCS is suggesting?

Wouldn't they be wired in parallel; shouldn't your just be able to measure resistance?

Edit: NevERmind LEDs are diodes. They'd be like spark plugs, you'd measure an open until they weren't.

 

[mikeswals]

It shouldn't require anything in between just for a test.
My bass only has a switch, and a mini-pot to adjust the brigtness.
I just put my meter across the pins for the LED/neck joint, and read 9.11v with the switch turned on

 

[SteveCS]

The resistor reduces the flow to reduce the brightness. It won't change the voltage.

Allowing too much current to flow in an LED will cause instant and permanent damage. I would recommend starting with a resistor.

 

[JKos]

The resistor reduces the flow to reduce the brightness. It won't change the voltage.

Incorrect. The voltage will be reduced by the current times the resistance. V = IR. The resistor is used to limit the current through the LED.

Each kind of LED has a relatively constant "forward voltage" across a range of operating current. So battery voltage minus forward voltage divided by the resistance will give you the current. Or, (battery voltage - forward voltage)/desired current gives you the resistance value.

 

[Bruce Johnson]

It shouldn't require anything in between just for a test.
My bass only has a switch, and a mini-pot to adjust the brigtness.
I just put my meter across the pins for the LED/neck joint, and read 9.11v with the switch turned on

Okay, that tells me that Sims has already put the resistors in the neck. That would be the sensible thing to do, so that owners wouldn't burn the LEDs out while testing the neck alone.

And actually, I probably won't even test them. My work on the neck shouldn't have harmed the system in any way. And it's not my area of responsibility on the job. I'm not warrantying that the system will work when you get it back. I don't do repairs or installations on LED marker systems.

Some years back, I did a moderate R & D project for a client, developing a system to light up both side dots and cast acrylic surface inlays on necks. We got it to work reasonably well, but I bailed on the project after a while. The systems with multiple LEDs buried in the fingerboard were too troublesome, too many failures, and so expensive to repair. They weren't worth the trouble, in my opinion.

I also built a few systems using fiber optic bundles in the neck, lit by LEDs down in the control cavity. Those were more reliable, but they were a big pain to install.

Sims has developed out their system well, and I understand that they are pretty reliable. But I have no interest in working on them.

 

[Bruce Johnson]

Cleaning up the fingerboard on Mike's neck:

First I took all the pretty gold hardware off of the headstock. I don't want to scratch it. Some cheap masking tape on the front and back surfaces of the headstock. I also don't want to scratch them. The brass nut popped out of its slot without much violence. I used my larger fret pulling pliers to grip it and gently pried up. It looks like it was held in by two drops of CA glue. Good practice.

I lightly sanded the surface of the fingerboard with 220 and 400 paper on long hard rubber sanding blocks. The surface wasn't bad at all. I took off maybe 0.002". The reason for the sanding was mostly to see if there were any unseen lumps or dips. There weren't. That slight dip at the 3rd-5th was very shallow.

Then I polished up the surfaced with Light Grey and White Scotchbrite pads, on a firm rubber block. My favorite tools for polishing ebony.

This is what a fine piece of Macassar ebony looks like, sanded and polished.

I wiped on a single coat of Stew-Mac Fingerboard Oil. It doesn't absolutely need it, because it was coated with something similar at the Wal factory. But the extra coat helps me inspect the fingerboard surface for scratches, and it's a little extra protection. It will also make the ebony a bit darker and shinier.

I'll let this cure for an hour or two, and then I'll take both Wal necks over to my ebony buffing machine.

 

[Bruce Johnson]

Buffing out the fingerboards on Mike's and Alex's Wal necks:

There's a special trick to buffing up an ebony fingerboard. The sawdust from sanding ebony is actually a fine abrasive powder. And the Stew-Mac Fingerboard Oil is a decent glue that hardens with heat....

So, the trick is to use a clean soft cotton buffing wheel. Don't put any kind of buffing compound on it. Run it against an ebony fingerboard which has been sanded and coated with the Stew-Mac oil. With the residue still on the surface. The wheel will pick up that residue, and some of the remaining ebony dust from the grain, and it will bond to the cotton fibers. It becomes a buffing wheel, charged with ebony dust as the abrasive. And it does a beautiful job polishing the ebony up to a nice semi-shine.

Here, I've got a 4" x 2" Sewn Cotton buffing wheel, mounted on one of my benchtop Jewelry Buffers. This machine is dedicated just to buffing ebony fingerboards. I do a lot of them here. The wheel is fully charged with ebony dust.

That's Mike's neck. Just a few minutes of buffing, along the direction of the grain, not much pressure.

I buffed out both Wal necks fingerboards. That's Alex's neck in the front and Mike's in the back.

They are both ready for some new stainless frets!

 

[ModuMan]

When you mentioned taking the necks over "to my ebony buffing machine" I thought you were kidding, but no, it's an actual Ebony Buffing Machine! With science and everything! Could probably market that.

Those fretboards look great.

 

[Bruce Johnson]

When you mentioned taking the necks over "to my ebony buffing machine" I thought you were kidding, but no, it's an actual Ebony Buffing Machine! With science and everything! Could probably market that.

Those fretboards look great.

No real need to market it. You can do it yourself very easily. Buy a cotton buffing wheel and an arbor kit, and chuck it in an electric drill. Use the technique I described above, charging up the wheel with ebony sawdust and Stew-Mac Fingerboard Oil residue. When you are done buffing up your fingerboard, put that buffing wheel in a plastic bag and save it for the next time you need to clean up an ebony fingerboard.

I have my Ebony Buffing Wheel mounted on a stationary machine because almost every bass I build here has an ebony fingerboard. I've cut and polished hundreds of them.

 

[Bruce Johnson]

Cutting the frets for both Wal necks, in case you are curious how I do it.....

Of course, I've built a special rig for cutting fretwire to length. On that back wedge holder is a roll of new stainless fretwire, from Jescar. The wire feeds through the small black shear and stops against a rotary cam wheel. Set the wheel, pull the lever, and the wire is snipped off to an accurate length.

The shear is from the 1930's, made by Buffalo Forge. They were known for their giant multi-ton shears and metalworking machines. They made this cute little miniature shear only for a few years. A rare antique machine. I found it on ebay and restored it nicely. It's fully functional and works beautifully. I gave it this job in my shop, it's my fretwire cutter.

I made up the rotary cam stop wheel from aluminum plate. Drew it up in AutoCad and cut it on a rotary table on one of my milling machines. It's designed and normally set to cut frets to accurate length for flush fit on my AMB-2 Scroll Bass necks. For these two Wal necks, I had to re-adjust it for the 5-string width. I cut the frets to 1/8" over length, to overhang off the sides.

The process of snipping them wasn't exciting enough to photograph. It took less than ten minutes to cut 2 sets of 24 frets. Here they are in the rack.

This is Jescar's 37080-S fretwire, their smallest classic fretwire size, in stainless. Not as small or narrow as banjo or mandolin wire, but close. It's the wire I prefer for all my basses.

 

[sissy kathy]

It looks very similar to a Beverly Shear, different shape to the base though.

 

[Jeff Scott]

The shear is from the 1930's, made by Buffalo Forge. They were known for their giant multi-ton shears and metalworking machines. They made this cute little miniature shear only for a few years. A rare antique machine. I found it on ebay and restored it nicely. It's fully functional and works beautifully. I gave it this job in my shop, it's my fretwire cutter.

It's so nice to see vintage equipment still in use, today. The custom black & white photo lab/ commercial photography business I was at had lots of vintage gear in the darkroom and in the shooting studio (even a fully working multi-line wallmount rotary phone).

This is the 1955 Saltzman 8x10 enlarger that got lots of use.

 

[Bruce Johnson]

It's so nice to see vintage equipment still in use, today. The custom black & white photo lab/ commercial photography business I was at had lots of vintage gear in the darkroom and in the shooting studio (even a fully working multi-line wallmount rotary phone).

This is the 1955 Saltzman 8x10 enlarger that got lots of use.
View attachment 5230514

Cool! Classic 1950's machine design and construction. Companies that were formed up during the war years, finding various peacetime products to manufacture. Photo studio equipment made to survive nuclear war!

 

[Bruce Johnson]

For any of you who didn't know, my hobby/obsession is collecting and restoring antique industrial machinery. And then using them to build basses! I have about 35 tons of machines right now. My favorites are the machines from 1900 to 1935.

You can see most of my collection over on this thread:

https://www.talkbass.com/threads/inside-the-secret-underground-laboratory.1305212/

 

[ctmullins]

I love that you measure your collection of antique machines in tons!

 

[Bruce Johnson]

I love that you measure your collection of antique machines in tons!

Yeah, if I listed them in pounds, it would be too many digits. Off the top of my head, I have 3 machines over 3000 lbs, 4 in the 2000-3000 lb class, about 10 in the 1000-2000 lb class, about 30 500-1000lb, and about 70 under 500lb. Plus all the tooling and parts and special tools to work on them....

 

[Bruce Johnson]

Putting the frets in the two Wal necks!

Here's all the needed tools: An industrial syringe loaded with LMI Luthier's Glue, fret slot cleanout tools, a rack of pre-cut frets, and Mike's neck.

I start by cleaning out any last sawdust particles out of the slots with the tools and and compressed air. I was especially careful on this neck, not to touch that embedded wire for the Sims LED system.

I use the syringe to lay down a thin bead of LMI glue in the slots. I did 4-6 slots at a time, allowing a few minutes for the glue to sink down into the slots. If you are wondering, the main reason for the glue isn't to help hold the frets down. It's there to completely fill the slot around the fret, sealing it up against moisture. An important step in keeping a neck stable in varying weather conditions.

I pull the frets out of the handy rack one at a time, set them into the slot, and gently tap the ends down in with a small hammer. The fretwire was pre-rolled to a 6" radius before cutting them to length. That's why they are arched up in the center. This is important.

With that group of frets tapped lightly in position, I pivot in my chair over to....my arbor press. Which I've rolled up nearby for easy access. I've snapped the 12" radius plastic shoe into the foot attached to the ram. Center each fret under the shoe and pull down gently. Not a whole lot of force needed if everything is fitted correctly; maybe 100 lbs.

When that group is pressed in, I inspect them closely to make sure that they are all fully seated all the way across. Then, back over onto the bench to do the next group.

And there's all the frets installed in Mike's neck. No problems, they went in easily and securely.

Then the same thing for Alex's neck. 24 shiny new stainless frets. Don't worry about the small amounts of glue squeeze-out on some of the frets. After the glue is dry, they pop right off with no marks. Another reason for coating the fingerboard with the Stew-Mac oil before fretting.

It took me about an hour to put in all the frets on both necks. I'll let them dry overnight, and then do the trimming, leveling, crowning and polishing.