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skeletonized body

#21
swarfrat said:
Suggestions, comments?
jpskel-png.850609
Click to expand...
That looks like a perfect body to create a sliding pickup function where you can change the pickup location... Want it brighter? Slide it towards the bridge, etc.
 
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#23
It's a bass. 5 strings, 34-37" scale length (undecided), strung with either tapes or chrome flats, 0.45 - 0.132 , p-pickup. Even the little one for my kid is still a bass. (rubber string u-bass, still at concert pitch for a bass guitar)
 
#31
swarfrat said:
Kicking around ideas for my next build. It'll be a tight spaced 5-string P-bass, strung with tapes. When I hollowed out my son's bass body, the idea to do a skeletonized body occured to me.

I'm also thinking about making my first neck, using a slotted 35" massacar ebony fingerboard from LMII. But I may chicken out and just throw an SX 5-string neck on. Here's what I'm sketching for the body. The p-pickup is supported, but it's trimmed flush in this sketch. The rails from neck pocket to bridge are a bit on the thin side for doing anything inside like I've shown here. I could easily increase the size of the member connecting the rails to the body, and mount conventional controls there, but I'm kinda liking controls mounted on an internal edge like I have shown here:

This one will probably be built from 8/4 poplar. I'd love to do walnut, I'm just not sure about wasting that much walnut (if I were to route it all out from a full size body), or how it'd look if I were to glue up segments to avoid turning all that walnut into dust.

Suggestions, comments? View attachment 850609
Click to expand...


Comment, what do you plan on doing to assure its not neck heavy?

Don't think I'd leave anything open between tailpiece and neck joint, would think you'd be giving away a lot of strength.

Love the idea of lighter.
 
#32
It's as much art as it is lightening, though the lightest possible long scale bass as engineering challenge is interesting. I plan to make the upper horn as long as necessary, but I can also add some counterweight at the butt. Torque matters there too - 1lb @ 24" is as effective as 2lbs at 12". Making it headless could help with both counts. (removing weight at the headstock, and adding it to the butt.

There's a new headless tailpiece on ebay that looks like a step in between the "Overlord" cheap ones and the higher priced units, but the string spacing appears to be 20mm - I could possibly live with a 4 string, but I need something in the 16-17mm spacing range. The ABM single string headless looks interesting but they're kinda pricey.
 
#34
Being dismayed by the cost of decent headless hardware in 5 string, I started rethinking the "tuners at the butt" arrangement. According to Premier' Guitar's article, this is one of Ned's original prototypes:
Nov14_PG_CLM_Bass-Bench_photo1_WEB.jpg



It seems to me that you can solve the problem of excess winding length by just taking advantage of it and making it the longer scale length (with D'Addario ELS I could go to 38" on a traditional EBG string) You can protect the tuners from bumpage by rotating them ears up (the opposite direction of what NS did on the Omni), where the tuner winds around the horiztonal post ala classical friction pegs.

Edit - Apparently Hondo of all folks did it -the Hondo Flash. 4 lbs, WOW
DSCN2039.jpg
 
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#37
If I go the headless route, it severely limits my options on string spacing (and the 5th string aint exactly easy to find). Best route so far appears to be
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But they don't appear to sell the headpiece. I can buy a whole Steinberger Spirit XT-25 and throw away the wood for less than Allparts wants for the Hipshot system.
 
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#38
Mulling over the bits about weight, balance, torque, and amount of material remaining.... Flipping one of the worst designs for balance might actually be a starter. Left handed explorer body drilled right handed. The lightening cuts can also serve to shift the mass way out the lever arm towards the endpin (leave some meat in the last 2-4" of body). While flipping it over turns that useless toggle switch holder arm into a functional lever for the strap button. And it's a big body with a lot of wasted surface just waiting to meet up with a router.

With a lot of body removed, doing a neck through in red oak is sounding interesting.
 

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