Second build!!

[BenHanby]

Cheers guys! I am certainly going to remove quite a bit of material from the top, im basing it off the nut height, e.g. it needs to be atleast below that.

 

[pfox14]

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!

Do not use Gorilla glue. Titebond is the best glue for wood.

 

[BenHanby]

Cheers for the recomendation, I am affraid i have already done it with gorilla i will see how it turns out! i will use tite bond next time!

 

[HaMMerHeD]

Polyurethane glue is fine. It creates a lot more mess to deal with afterward, but it bonds and holds just fine.

In the future, for your own sanity, titebond is probably a better choice.

 

[BenHanby]

Hi there just a quick update, its been a while! I haven't had massive amounts of time to work on the bass between uni and stuff.
I have tapered and shaped the neck a bit, i have also sorted the headstock. I did some shaping on the body too.

 

[Brett Zeppelin]

Lots of potential here. I like the lines. A nice design subtlety that I'm seeing is the S-curve on the end of the fretboard.

I have read the other posts in this thread and saw that you are not going to paint it now. I think this is a good design for a rocking paint job, and I was kind of looking forward to a deep navy for this guy, like what we saw in your first post.

 

[BenHanby]

I'm torn between the natural and navy i have another bass in the pipeline and i think im going to stain that a deep blue ill upload it here if i ever get any of these finnished!
Cheers for the interest

 

[GrafZeppelin]

Judging by the sketches it looks like you're not going to do an armrest contour? It seems a little "backwards" to bevel the entire body except for where it matters from an ergonomic standpoint.

 

[BenHanby]

Sorry it took so long for my reply! I am hoping to put a more subtle curve on this section of the guitar something like in the image below, sorry this wasn't made obvious in the sketches. I am also going to put some cut ins in the back of the bass one to aid acess to the higher frets and one so its more comfortable on the body.

 

[BenHanby]

It's been a while..... Some major progress with the bass has been made though! (Quite picture heavy) I have glued it all together routed cavities (and made a cover for the back cavity) and radiused the fretboard. I have started shaping the neck into the body and other body parts, This will take me a long time as will finnishing the bass.
Fretboard Radiusing

Internal wire cavity

Shaping of the rear

With a couple of strings as a dry run

Cheers for reading, as always any comments/ tips are always welcome.

 

[BenHanby]

Progress has been fairly slow, just finnished my final year. I have managed to put some fret markers in with ash vaneer and standard wood glue. I am coming to the point where i need to finnish the fretboard and am looking for any suggestions on peoples favouirite epoxy. I did consider leaving it however the fretboard became visibly worn with a small amount of playing.

 

[BenHanby]

I used a nice couple of coats of yacht varnish on the fret-board and have been oiling the rest of the bass with danish oil, its looking quite nice. However just as I am preparing to begin setup/ installation I have come across the issue of grounding to the bridge. I have read around and seen that it is mainly done for noise reduction but could lead to potential safety hazards. I was just wondering weather anyone could dispel a few myths for me before I instll everything without drilling into the control cavity.

 

[Will_White]

I used a nice couple of coats of yacht varnish on the fret-board and have been oiling the rest of the bass with danish oil, its looking quite nice. However just as I am preparing to begin setup/ installation I have come across the issue of grounding to the bridge. I have read around and seen that it is mainly done for noise reduction but could lead to potential safety hazards. I was just wondering weather anyone could dispel a few myths for me before I instll everything without drilling into the control cavity.

On the bridge ground, its used in just about every electric bass or guitar, if it was a real safety hazard I think people would of come up with something to fix it by now. Whether you use it or not I think drilling for a bridge ground and running the wire into the control cavity is a good Idea, to save your self work in the future. Plus buzz is annoying, I usually try to do everything I can to eliminate it.

 

[BenHanby]

Makes sense, cheers for the rationale! I will drill the hole into the cavity.

 

[delta7fred]

Makes sense, cheers for the rationale! I will drill the hole into the cavity.

You will probably find that your bass is pretty noisy if you are using standard electromagnetic pickups (until you touch the strings) without a bridge ground. Piezo is fine without, can't vouch for any others but I suspect lightwave is ok without.

 

[yoshi]

Not sure what pickups you are going for, but I recently used some EMG P6 (p style pickups for six string). It stated in the instructions that it didn't need grounding (actually stated not to ground them), and they sound great. Didn't do any sheilding on the pickup route or the cavity either and no hum.

Also, it only required 2 solders to attach the battery/controls. Very good product at a great price (around £70). Plenty on ebay buy it now too. Details: Invalid Link Removed

 

[BenHanby]

I have a couple of Artec soap bars I believe, It is a temporary thing, as long as the bass plays well once I have it set up I will save for a nice set Cheers for the help guys!

 

[thebassbuilder]

Why not just drill a hole from the bridge section to the rear pickup cavity. It will take 2 minutes and then you will have it if need be. You recessed the bridge it looks like, so that will give you the room to get the drill bit in a nice flat angle to do this. Then just route the wire through the hole and then through the bridge pickup wire hole as well.

 

[BenHanby]

Turned out the way that I placed the rear cavity made drilling into it from the bridge recess relatively easy

 

[BenHanby]

Finally finished, well mainly (I may make a few changes as I become more comfortable with it) but here are a few pics

I'm pretty happy with the way this has come out, making it has taught me allot and my next one will b better! I would also like to thanks everyone for the suggestions and tips along the way