Singlecut semi-hollow body

[Jisch]

I will admit there are times moving too fast gets me in trouble, but I'm going through a pretty good insomnia spell right now, so I'm getting some quality "thinking time" between 4 and 6 in the morning. When I get to the shop in the morning I've get every step planned out.

 

[Jisch]

In this ultra-connected world it's rare for stuff to show up early, but I got my Bart today. I don't care how it sounds, it looks perfect in this build. Ha, I actually care a lot how it sounds, but based on the description I think this will be a good match to this instrument. I filed out the edges of the hole during a conference call, the mute button FTW.

I'm not sure how I'm going to go about carving things. Looking through the cutout, the top is too thick, I would love to do some carving on the top, but I think it's too thin for that, somewhere in the middle. I might just forgo any carving and just carve out the area right under the cutout so it looks thinner than it is. Something to think about tomorrow morning, I guess.

 

[dwizum]

I might just forgo any carving and just carve out the area right under the cutout so it looks thinner than it is. Something to think about tomorrow morning, I guess.

That was my first thought too. You could even just bevel the back of the cutout to as fine an edge as you wanted.

I love the way Barts look. Good thing they sound nice too. Probably my favorite brand.

 

[Jisch]

Out of the clamps, ok, I'll say it again, I got good glue up. I was concerned about this one considering I had to clamp in two directions.

Then I got it all cleaned up.

I have to clean up the chamber on the bass side and put some shellac on it to seal it. I can now route the pickup cavity too.

I'm trying to figure out the round over/carve strategy so I know what to do inside the top by the hole. I'm thinking a completely round profile that exposes the walnut, the challenge then will be having the walnut strip be consistent all the way around, sounds challenging.

This will end up being a really light instrument, it's airy light right now, obviously there's a lot more to be added to it, but compared to other basses at this stage I know it's going to be light.

 

[Jisch]

I cut off the fingerboard, nothing fancy, just a little angle

I decided not to do any top carving and just carve the inside to make it appear thinner from the top. I'm not sure this shows it well

Then disaster struck. I was going to cut the top of the top horn off, I went to pick up my hearing protection and the top fell off the bandsaw and cracked.

it'a clean break, I think it will be ok.

As I'm typing this I'm holding it together as the glue dries, I'll have to see what happens.

I also got the side dots installed

It's a beautiful day here, I think I'm going to go have lunch then glue the fingerboard on and go for a bike ride.

 

[Jisch]

Fingerboard glued up.

 

[Beej]

Coming along! Funny, I've been following your builds for years and you still produce 2 instruments in the time I can design one...

 

[Jisch]

Thanks @Beej I've been doing less designing on the fly, but I still do adjust things as I go. So while you're designing, I'm fixing design "mistakes" on my builds.

I got the ears glued on, I also glued up some knob blanks, but I don't like the way they look, I'll probably do something else. I think I'll just stack some cherry/walnut.

 

[Jisch]

A few small, but necessary things done this morning.

After seeing that redwood top break I felt like I need to give it a bit more support. I glued a piece of maple to the back under the crack

and glued in a ledge against the neck, there was a small ledge there already, but I wanted more gluing area.

I honestly don't know what this will look like. I plan on putting a coat of epoxy on the top, maybe I'll do that prior to gluing it up. I think the wood surrounding the break will darken up and hopefully only the crack would be visible. If not then I can either cut the crack out and put in a section of contrasting wood, or start over again with the other half of the bookmatch I have. I'll make that decision later. This is what the front looks like (it hasn't been sanded or anything).

I want to put a piece of black laminate under the redwood, and also below the redwood on the headstock. I'm down to my last bits of laminate. Cutting very carefully I have just enough (I'm within a few square inches) to do the body, so I went ahead and put it underneath the headstock veneer and glued that up.

I'm traveling for work this week and the parts are supposed to be here on Tuesday for the commission, so I'll get a few hours on this build this afternoon, but it will get largely put aside when I start the new one.

The ground is frozen, time for a bike ride.

 

[dwizum]

Too bad about that crack. That's a tough call. I'd be tempted to leave it and see what it looked like finished, but since you do have that other half...

 

[Jisch]

Yeah, right now I'm inclined to try and make it work. We'll see.

 

[dwizum]

Or go all Kintsugi on that bass and emphasize the crack with a bright gold fill! I've always wanted to do that on an instrument.

 

[Jisch]

I got a couple more hours in the shop this afternoon (the ride was good, but still a bit of ice in the woods that made parts uh, interesting).

I guess I kind of forgot about how much carving I need to do on the back, so I started on that. First I had to get everything to the right level, amazing how much extra wood I left, I could have done a better job if I thought about things a bit further. Drill and router to the rescue.

I've got a ton more to do, but it's getting there.

Then I carved the neck

Then cut and drilled the headstock

I sanded down the top, I think this repair will be fine, I'm going to move forward with it. I'm sure the lightning bolt will be visible, but I will fill it in so it's flat with the finish.

I get on a plane early tomorrow and when I get back all the parts will be here for Carl Factor version 2, so there may not be much progress for a bit. I'll try to fit in some work here and there though.

 

[Jisch]

I got back from a whirlwind business trip (2 days in Montreal, one day in San Francisco) last night. Yes, I'm as tired as you would expect I am.

I got a few minutes to smooth out the neck heel

and I got the magnet holders glued in place, I went with a larger footprint inside the cavity and used wood glue, in the past I've done this after the top is on, so it's much harder to match the inside.

I also normalized the gap between the top and the walnut so it's consistent all the way around. This is key to the roundover exposing the walnut consistently. I'm going to try and get the top glued on after work.

 

[Jisch]

I glued up the top last night. It went well, I "decided" not to put the black laminate in between. By decided I mean that even though it was sitting right there on my workbench where I put it specifically where I'd see it when I was gluing up, I forgot about it. Tiredness, no doubt.

Anyway, the glue up went great, no gaps anywhere. Apparently I didn't take pics of it right out of the clamps.

I drew a line all the way around the top and side and used the shinto and farrier's rasp to connect the lines - similar to how you'd do a facet on a neck. After I got the facet done I rounded everything over. I guess I took pictures along the way. Incidentally this redwood is impossible to use a scraper on, it just pulls up the grain regardless of direction. I am sure it will have a negligible impact on the sound, but I've never sanded an instrument that resonates like this as it's being sanded.

I'm really excited about how this thing looks right now, I can't wait to get it strung up!

Obviously there's more to do to smooth it all out, but it's getting there. Then I put the magnets in the cover. I really need to get a drill bit that's flat on the bottom for this operation, I ended up having to use a round file, which was painfully slow, but it came out good.

Before I get too crazy with sanding I need to get the tailpiece done, I'll likely ding the body somewhere when I do it.

 

[Jisch]

I made a tailpiece yesterday, let's call it v1.0, I had problems with the drill bit wandering on me. On v1.1 I'm using the insides of the one I made yesterday, I cut off the top and back. I drilled two pieces of wenge in the drill press then glued them to the insides with the 45 degree angle on it. I think this will work, if not I'll start over again and make v2.0

 

[Jisch]

v1.2 of the tailpiece seems ok, it's not perfect, but I'll move forward with this and decide later if I want to update it. The spacing on the back holes is off, which sucks. hmm. It's a bit bigger than I anticipated, but I am worried about making it too thin and the strings pull through it. I'll mount this to the back of the bass via screws.

 

[dwizum]

Grain texture on the wenge looks great with the grain on the top.

What's the plan for the bridge?

 

[Jisch]

I'm going to make a floating/compensated bridge with an ebony string saddle.

 

[Jisch]

It seems that I've created a monster here. I bought "Deep Talkin" black nylon wound strings (they would look so cool), but they are not long enough, ugh. On the search for long scale flatwounds, I guess.