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Short scale Eight string?

#61
I've been thinking about how to fasten the tuners in. I am worried about the strength of the glue and the back of the hole being able to support the tension of 8 strings, it is a 32" scale, so that helps a bit. You can see in the above that the triangle would be glued to the top plate as well as to the bottom of the bass (i.e. where the strap button would go). That bottom piece is only about 3/8" thick, it has a crack in it and I really wanted to remove a bunch of that material.

While riding my bike this morning I thought of a totally different approach, rather than gluing in a triangle of wood I could route slots in either side of the opening and drop a steel rod in. I'd file a flat spot on the steel rod and either tap it or drill through and put a nut on the back to hold the tuner L bracket on. I am way more confident that this would hold the tension of the strings. Curious what others think about this?

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#62
I was talking to a friend who is an engineer about this - he suggested the rod will want to turn, which will complicate things. I was looking at it and I think I can add these two options together and I'll be good - run the rod through the center of the triangle. I put a rubber band on so I could pull on it and verify what the triangle wanted to do - which is to pull up toward the top of the bass, which should be fine. I'm still interested in opinions if anyone has one - I think this rod is overkill though I can probably use something with a smaller diameter.

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#64
It's probably more paranoia than anything else - but I am worried that the triangle won't be strong enough to hold the string tension. The rear of the bass is not going to add any support here, the triangle is going to get it's support from the bass top - which is 5/16" thick. My original plan had more room behind the triangle, so I was thinking I needed to add more support. My engineer friend said that shouldn't be a problem, so maybe I making this more complicated than I need to.

I was thinking last night that I could install the triangle without the rod, if bad things start to happen, I can always cut them out with a router and go to plan B if necessary.
 
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#66
Jisch said:
I got the control cavity routed out today. I'm throwing away these non-carbide tipped router bits, they are terrible! Have to order some better ones.

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Click to expand...

I use Whiteside bits when I can. If I'm already at Home Depot, and don't feel like making a trip to the wood store, I'll buy the Diablo bits. I actually think they are a little more expensive, but they are pretty good bits too. I have a Bosch bit as well, and it seems to do fine.
 
#68
Maybe mill or file a flat section on each end of the rod, and mill or rout a corresponding notch/mortise in the body that would contain/trap the rod via the flats. (if that makes sense)

It'd be a more direct connection for both the bridge piece and the metal/body connection. (man, that's more slashes than a GNR convention)

Alternatively, maybe use a wider, flat piece of stock to attach the bridge pieces to, easier to attach them securely and an easier piece to install than the rod.
 
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#69
The fretboard came in today. Whew, what a beautiful piece of wood! I somehow completely mis-measured where the 24th fret would be on the neck blank - thinking back I can't even remember what I did to calculate it, but it was obviously WRONG. Luckily I didn't cut anything and it's wrong in a good way. I'm pretty excited about how this thing looks right now. I wish the fretboard was a tad wider, it's 2.6" at the widest, so I guess that will be the width at the bottom of the board. I suppose I won't be doing any popping or slapping on this one, so I don't necessarily need it wider.

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#70
Sometimes the simplest solution is the best.

After thinking up all kinds of complexity, I'm going to just drill out a piece of hard maple and glue it onto the neck blank. If I put the ball ends against the neck blank wood, the bottom of the string will end up just below the top of the fretboard (before fretting the fretboard), so this should be perfect to put pressure on the nut. I'll put a cover over it to hold the balls down in the holes, which will also give me an opportunity to put something cool up there (however small it will be). I'll get on this today and hopefully be on my way with the neck shortly thereafter. I hope a similar, simple solution presents itself on the other end of the strings. I'm more than a little worried about the tuning solution.

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#71
My first attempt came out ok. I might try for one more to see if I can control the string channels a bit better, the bit I was using in the dremel caused some issues. I should probably try and use a file so the channels are representative of the string size. I used the same bit for all strings. I also got some drift with the initial holes. There would be a cover over this that is screwed on from the front, so it would be tight against the balls on the strings.
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#72
I had to make this headpiece/string holder longer as I didn't consider the wraps on the strings with my last one, I needed another 3/4" of distance between the terminations and the nut. I made a new one. I tried harder to make sure the drill didn't wander and I used a drill bit in the dremel to make the tunnels for the strings. I know this looks pretty crappy, but it's much better than the other one. Next I need to clamp this (actually I'll probably clamp the short one) to a 2x4 and bring a string up to tension to see if this and the tuner works. Cross your fingers!

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#73
It lives! sort of. I have the tuner about 32" away from the string holder. Everything worked great, I see no reason this won't hold, I guess there's a chance the stress of eight strings could create a problem, but the pressure should be pulling against the hole, not up.

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I will need to drill out the tuner and put in a #6 or #8 cap screw, this has a phillips in it now - there's no way that will work, I didn't have any problem getting it up to pitch, but over time it won't work out. I was surprised how little distance it took to take the string from relatively floppy to pitch, I think the tuner only moved a 1/4" or so. The screws in there now are super fine thread, so to move that tuner 1/4" took quite a few turns on the screw.

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