Second build!!

[BenHanby]

I am currently in the process of designing a new bass and ordering parts+ wood.
Some info:
35" scale
46mm nut (equal spacing)
Ash through neck (wood already purchased)
Lime body/attachments
maple finger board
I have done a full scale drawing and plan to do another ( just to make sure) ive attached a concept drawing and a small scale one.

I was also wandering weather it would be a good idea to use stiffening rods as well as a truss rod, i don't know if it would be too stiff with the ash neck.
As always any criticisms are welcome and always come in handy.
Cheers
Ben.

 

[Beej]

Cool design - have you thought of building a full scale mockup out of mdf or something? The design you have there would be excellent for a guitar, but in a bass configuration, especially with 35", the nut will be long way off to your left. Designs that locate the bridge closer to the end of the body and the upper horn reaching the 12th to 10th fret are sometimes a little more comfortable to balance and play...

 

[BenHanby]

Thanks very much for the advice, i think i may cut up a picture and see how it goes. I just had a look at the cost of mdf and I'd be silly not to have a go at a mock up, I could even use it as a jig if it turned out all right. Cheers for the advice!

 

[djtecknick]

I like the design too! Do you not have a wood supplier that is local? I really don't like to think about ordering wood online. I like seeing/touching/smelling/licking my wood before I buy it. Plus if you start buying wood from a supplier frequently, they usually give you a really good deal! The last bass I purchased wood for, I spent $100 and I have enough wood to build 2 basses, and that's with wenge, padauk, hard maple, and cocobolo fretboard. So as you can see it really pays off to get to know your local exotic wood suppliers.

 

[BenHanby]

Thank you very much! I have ordered the ash for the neck (there is enough for 2 through necks I think) for £90 from a local supplier I think I will return there for the other woods too, I'm definitely glad I got it from a shop instead of on line .
I just have to get the nut and machine heads and I'm done as far as hardware concerns, I've done a full scale drawing slightly modifies that i will upload a picture of soon.
Cheers

 

[BenHanby]

Today I constructed a couple of blanks/ templates out of MDF, I am pretty pleased with the shape and design of them, I think I will ultimately use them to model the final piece on.

p.s. i used a band saw to cut the pieces out, i think i may use a jigsaw for the next one.

 

[BassNoobSuomi]

Lookin' sexy already!

 

[BenHanby]

Thanks very much

 

[BenHanby]

I'm going to cut up my ash plank ( so i can laminate the pieces), i was just wandering what kind of glue people would recommend, i was thinking maybe Titebond or gorilla glue. Any responses will be appreciated. Cheers!

 

[BenHanby]

Yesterday I used the table saw to part my ash plank into 4 2 inch width sections.

Following this I passed the plank sections through a thicknesser to make sure the planks were flush with each other when I glued them together.

After this the glue was applied followed by adding the clamps tightly to the piece.

That's it for this weekend, i will hopefully get the truss rout done next weekend and maybe even take the neck down to thickness.

 

[Beej]

How's the grain orientation in those neck lams? I can't see the ends in the picture...

 

[BenHanby]

Its not bad, you cant see it on one end (manufacturers paint) it was the best config we could get (i.e. the gain on the middle piece was going in the other direction to the grains on the other two).

 

[BenHanby]

I haven't had much time to work on the bass recently, I have put the laminated section through the thicknesser it looks quite nice (I'll post some pictures up later). I however have contemplated a pick guard along the lines of the following image:

I was mainly just wondering what you guys though of these images
Cheers
Ben.

 

[BenHanby]

Today I went and bought a piece of sapele for the wings on the body (£12 quid bargain!).I cut it in half and sent it through the thicknesser along with the neck lam to get get them to the final body (and neck at body depth). I also took some off the width of the neck to get it closer to the final width.

Next steps are to cut the neck depth and angle the headstock, followed by truss rod routing and neck tapering.
In the mean time I'm going to have a practice with the router and jigsaw on some mdf, cheers, again any comments are appreciated.

 

[BenHanby]

Over the past couple of days I have been building a MDF just to check my dimensions, the following is the result:

hopefully we will turn this pile into wood into the finished article:

Today we used a band saw to cut out the body wings and also used the thicknesser to take the neck block to final width and depth, as well as thicknessing the wings:

Dad having a go!

And finally:

I no longer want to paint the guitar so I'm not sure how I will finish it. As per usual any comments are appreciated.

 

[BenHanby]

Hi, it's been a long while (lots of uni work). I have got a bit of work done on it this guitar with my dad. I have finished band-sawing the body and have started to sand it on a barrel sander.

Neck wise i have cut the neck part of the through neck to depth and cut the scarf joint.

I also bought some tru oil and was raring to give it a go, the following piece of wood shows one coat of tru oil on the sapele.

As always any comments/ suggestions are welcome!

 

[BenHanby]

We got allot of work done this weekend we managed to rout the cavity using a table mounted router (i will put up some pictures soon).

Again any tips or hints are appreciated !

 

[BenHanby]

It's been a while, with uni and whatnot but we have managed to finnish the fretboard, put the fret lines in and shaped the end. We then glued it to the rest of the neck.
Rough rosewood plank

Marking fret-lines on

PAX fret saw

Epoxy aryldite

Glued together

Setup

As usual any comments or tips will be greatly appreciated!

 

[MPU]

I hope you are either planning to take some wood off the top or have some angle on neck vs body. Otherwise you'll end up with very high action.

 

[6stringpanda]

Nice work!