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Second Build - TT68's Diva inspired Fretless

#42
Yeah like I said, routers on your side of the pond seem to be a different beast than over here. The cheapest nastiest router you can buy here will come with a detachable fence like that, and a plunge base.
 
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#44
RichterScale said:
I'm telling you, watch that vid I linked to, that @Rôckhewer pointed me to in my thread.
I used to always look at band saws as basically a large coping saw, only useful for cutting shapes. Even the one at work, that I fixed up, I only used that thing maybe a dozen times over 17 yrs. I never really liked band saws because of the wavy cuts and bendy blades. I didn't even know what resawing was. It was as simple as watching that vid, a new blade and a few adjustments on the saw and I see the saw in a whole new light. I'm even considering purchasing a nice 14-20" in the future (when I have a decent shop space on ground level).
Anyway, even with zero experience resawing, with the right setup and blade, everything worked perfectly on the first try for me. So, I'm now pushing that vid on anyone the says "band saw".
If I can do it, certainly you guys with more exp working on instruments and band saws can do it.
Click to expand...
It's a great video, with tons of good info. But a couple parts made me laugh. He was VERY adamant that "no band saw should have drift". He's incorrect. The ShopSmith band saw doesn't have crowned wheels/tires, therefor there is literally no way to get the drift out of it, you have to adjust for it. Even ShopSmith themselves will tell you "Yes, our band saw has drift, you have to adjust for it".
 
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#46
So.....I got to pondering this one (as I always do) and I started wondering about weight already. This body is mostly wenge with a little purpleheart and a tiny bit of maple. Wenge and purpleheart aren't the lightest. The neck is also wenge and purpleheart. That's a lot of wenge and purpleheart. :eek:

So then I started pondering chambering and maybe even semi-hollow body construction and what a Diva would look like with an F hole. In my journey down that rabbit hole I came to the other realization that the more you chamber it, the less sustain you'll have and the semi-hollow aspect is gonna lose come definition to the bottom end. This is a bass, not a guitar. Bottom end is literally its job, sustain would also be nice.

Thus the conundrum. What's everyone's thoughts on weight vs the realities of sustain and bottom end definition? I'm not worried about a 7-7.5lb bass, but I really don't want something super heavy either. I know some of you chamber pretty heavy. Have you noticed real differences in the chambered basses vs solid body? Or is all this just folk lore we tell young luthiers to scare them at night? :cautious:
 
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#47
I really doubt chambering has any effect on amplified tone if the bridge and pups are all mounted to a solid wood “spine”. You might a hear hair more in amplified sound with chambered, which is nice for practice. Obviously a full hollow body is a different matter. After reading all the Tonewood debates, I’m pretty convinced that the relative softness/stiffness of whole system makes more difference than the wood used, but that’s an unprovable opinion. Some basswood bodies are super-light, but ring like bell, go figure. With an electric instrument, I think 90% is the electronics and strings, with the remainder the neck first, body second, so I build them stiff and pleading to my eye. So far they sound good to my ears, but that could be entirely random accident. Build it so it looks good, remains reasonably stable, and balances, and you WIN in my book.
 
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#50
ctmullins said:
Neck-thru, right? Chamber the body wings as much as possible. Keep the center spine solid, but consider reducing the thickness of the bass to 1.5” or even 1.25”.
Click to expand...
Yup, neck-thru. And yeah, it's gonna be pushing 1.5" thick anyway, just because of the thickness I will have left on my blanks after I get them planed flat. My bandsaw skillz su-u-u-uck. :roflmao:
I'm actually considering putting a veneer between the purpleheart and wenge just to add back some thickness and maybe add some more definition between those colors. I dunno, maybe.
 
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#52
Seriously though, I still have a lot of wenge left and was thinking of using quite a bit in the next bass, so I'm thinking about weight too.
I'm thinking about chambering in the wing areas, but one thing I'm concerned about is making it neck heavy.
I guess a scale and some math might get involved.
 
#53
TerribleTim68 said:
I tend to agree that "tonewood" isn't a thing. Electronic pickups and amps have more to do with tone than the wood used.
Click to expand...
:eek:o_O
Thou art an heretic!.. iconoclast!... blasphemer!
A schismatic dissenter denouncing the holy word...er...wood! :confused::spit:
....
I don't know if we can be friends anymore. :(:p
 
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#54
TerribleTim68 said:
So.....I got to pondering this one (as I always do)
Click to expand...
You wanna see some silly "pondering"?
Go to post #37-39
Hreiðmarr - The Scowling Dwarf ... ( Bubingas Maximus Rex)
The bass is bubinga & maple with a wenge core.
I minimally chambered it like this.
Screenshot_20210604-213136_Chrome.jpg

Just an extra symmetric cavity.
.... it's NOT A heavy bass.
 
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#55
To most of it, I say bah, bah I say! I've chambered the living bejeezus out of some of my instruments...like leaving 1/4" for the side walls kind of stuff, and they still sustain "normally" (i.e. like a fender). Especially if the bridge and neck are both very solidly mounted to the body and the frame is stiff. If you have the bridge mounted to a hollowed top, then yes, the vibrations will be absorbed the relatively softer top resulting in less sustain. But again... in an electric instrument, sustain is helped greatly by amplification and of course...gain. :D Sustain is also helped by technique, I can make a note sustain for a long time by gently doing a little vibrato in time to the beat. It's very difficult to hear unless you're listening for it.

I think this whole discussion (sustain, resonance, etc) gets confounded easily by our own cognitive biases. :D

Toneholz is a whole 'nother discussion that introduces all sorts of other cognitive biases once you fall down that rabbit hole too... :smug:
 
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#57
So I purchased this set of leather paint from the Amazonians -
20210613_205535.jpg

These are from Angelus, the same people that make the leather dye that Derek over at Big D Guitars uses for all his stains. My understanding is that the stains are spirit based and these are water based, and quite a bit thicker. I'm hopeful that I can thin them with water and get them to work in the same manner, gonna take some trial and experimenting.

Has anyone used these before? Comments?
 
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#58
I'm going to take a wild guess and make assumptions which will be totally unhelpful. Figure there's a 50/50 chance I'll get it right.
I'm guessing the paint is formulated differently than the stain. Meaning it has a different type of pigment and it's designed to lay on top of the leather (and remain somewhat flexible, like a fabric paint), whereas a stain is designed to penetrate the leather or wood. I'm thinking that even watering it down, it still won't penetrate like a stain, but I'll bet you can still get a unique result that can be cleared over.
It might be good for a colored grain filler (I forget what that's called).
Like you said, do some experiments. You might come up with something cool.
 
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