Summer Build Off 2022 ThumbRay

[AudioTaper]

Here is my opening parts pile for the Summer Buildoff 2022, partial build category.
The body will be Musicman Stingray-ish with a Lakland Skyline 4-string neck. The wood is red maple and is thick cut. There are two big pieces (complete with center cracks ) and one even thicker alternative piece, just in case. I might screw one up, or maybe I'll get two bodies out of this pile.

I'll break down the rest of the parts soon....

Edit: dubbing this build the ThumbRay. Because I dont really have anything better. See the pickups post below for some insight to the name.

 

[AudioTaper]

The neck is a Made in Korea Lakland Skyline with a maple board and what looks to be black plastic dots. It came with Hipshot Licensed HB6 tuners. My go-to is the USA Hipshot HB6, but these will do. I also added a roller string tree

To compliment the chrome Hipshot tuners, I bought a Hipshot B-style bridge from the scratch and dent store on ebay. It barely has anything I would call a scratch, there are some handling smudges from me but its in great shape. I may or may not use the Gotoh BB-04W battery box, but I intend on making it 18V. Neck bolts are stainless parts left over from the WBO

 

[Reedt2000]

Been waiting to see how those slices work out. Sub'd

 

[AudioTaper]

Future knobs

Look at that grain glow in the crappy garage lights!

If they look as bad as the last ones I tried, I'll just buy some.

 

[ARandGenUsrName]

Future knobs
View attachment 4728399
Look at that grain glow in the crappy garage lights!
View attachment 4728400

If they look as bad as the last ones I tried, I'll just buy some.

What went wrong with your past ones?

 

[AudioTaper]

What went wrong with your past ones?

I couldnt get them to the size I wanted without damaging the bushing/set screw. It's mostly a lack of the correct tooling.

 

[AudioTaper]

Pickups!
These EMG X-series will do nicely. I'm planning a non-standard pickup arrangement, so the MMCSX will go in a 'bridge' position like a Stingray, while the LJAX goes in a far bridge position like a Thumb.

If I'm not satisfied with them, I may swap them out for this set from Nordstrand. MM is a BigBladeMan and J is a J-Blade. These were for another project that I'm probably never going to finish if I keep entering these Buildoffs.

 

[AudioTaper]

Electronics!
This will be fun. I'm not at all sure which preamp to use, so I'm going to have a prewired harness ready to go to swap out between a few choices.

3-band
-Nordstrand 3B
-Custom Passinwind Electronics V3.2 that I assembled. It was supposed to go in another bass, but I just have to try it out.

2-band
-Aguilar OBP2
-Uncle Fluffy Stingray (board from Passinwind Electronics) Its missing a few parts, I'll get those in soon.
-Passingwind Electronics V1.2JB

Connectors!

 

[AudioTaper]

Origins of the wood.
The red maple used to be in my front yard. It had some issues, so we had it taken down. They agreed to leave the trunk, cut into 8ft sections.

My little saw could barely reach through

Making planks

Router planing

Then I wrapped it in craft paper and put it in my basement for awhile. Since I wanted to use it in the Summer Build Off, I used my garage oven to dry it out the rest of the way. It sat at 75C for probably 20 hours total over the past month.

 

[AudioTaper]

For the body shape, I printed out a EBMM Special (because it's also 22 fret) and used my light box to project the silhouette onto craft paper. I got the 34"scale marked (see where the tape is) and everything lined up before I traced it.

Then I traced it out onto 1/2MDF (repurposed from old shelf that was in the dumpster at work) and made a few modifications to better line up with the Lakland neck. Mostly extending the area where the upper horn curves down into the neck. (Pics of that to come)

 

[TFM94]

Origins of the wood.
The red maple used to be in my front yard. It had some issues, so we had it taken down. They agreed to leave the trunk, cut into 8ft sections.
View attachment 4730590
My little saw could barely reach through
View attachment 4730591
Making planks
View attachment 4730592
Router planing
View attachment 4730593
Then I wrapped it in craft paper and put it in my basement for awhile. Since I wanted to use it in the Summer Build Off, I used my garage oven to dry it out the rest of the way. It sat at 75C for probably 20 hours total over the past month.

It's always great to read about luthiers cutting down and milling their own lumber for their builds. It makes the build so much more "complete", tree to instrument so to speak. Those are two nice pieces of maple, I'm sure they'll make a great body blank.

I've also been following the DIY Lumber thread. I hope to work with my own lumber at some point in my life, too. However, for lack of a yard, trees, a chainsaw or a place to dry it, it's out of reach for now. I'll just hang around here and see what you guys come up with!

 

[Passinwind]

Electronics!
This will be fun. I'm not at all sure which preamp to use, so I'm going to have a prewired harness ready to go to swap out between a few choices.

3-band
-Nordstrand 3B
-Custom Passinwind Electronics V3.2 that I assembled. It was supposed to go in another bass, but I just have to try it out.
View attachment 4728641


2-band
-Aguilar OBP2
-Uncle Fluffy Stingray (board from Passinwind Electronics) Its missing a few parts, I'll get those in soon.
-Passinwind Electronics V1.2JB
View attachment 4728643

Connectors! View attachment 4728644

Wow, quite the selection there! My naming conventions have changed a few times, but since I rarely sell hardware it doesn't matter much. The two bander is boost/cut bass and mids, meant to work with a standard passive tone control for treble (cut only). Yours is a very early version but it should still work well and it's quite a bit nore frugal on battery consumption than the newer ones, FWIW. Your assembly work on the three bander is badass, seriously. You definitely have the right tooling for that job.

 

[AudioTaper]

Wow, quite the selection there! My naming conventions have changed a few times, but since I rarely sell hardware it doesn't matter much. The two bander is boost/cut bass and mids, meant to work with a standard passive tone control for treble (cut only). Yours is a very early version but it should still work well and it's quite a bit nore frugal on battery consumption than the newer ones, FWIW. Your assembly work on the three bander is badass, seriously. You definitely have the right tooling for that job.

I know you have told me its B/M several times and I would have figured it out when I went to install it. But for some reason I put it in the 2-band box and then just forgot. .... I'm blaming work. I should just not go in anymore.
Thanks for the compliments on the assembly. It helps to have a good board layout with the proper footprints

 

[G Giroir]

Future knobs
View attachment 4728399
Look at that grain glow in the crappy garage lights!
View attachment 4728400

If they look as bad as the last ones I tried, I'll just buy some.

I can't wait to see the final! That is BEAUTIFUL wood!!

 

[AudioTaper]

Body template with fret markers. Some of the lines look weird because theres a bunch of marker lines in the wrong spot ...

 

[AudioTaper]

The center of my big slab cracked, so I have to cut out 1.5" to get to solid wood

I think I'm going to need a bigger saw

The slab is almost 3" thick. I flipped it and made another cut. I'll have to clean up the edge before gluing anyway

 

[AudioTaper]

So after the cracks were cut out, if I glue the slab back together it's about 1" narrower than it needs to be. I guess I'll have to cut 1" out of the other slab and have a center lamination. I would use another piece of wood, but I'm not sure what's going to compliment this piece....

 

[TFM94]

Hmm, my suggestion would be a maple center piece with black veneers in between. With this crazy figuring you cannot hide the glueline anyways, so I would make it a feature. A dark center piece (walnut/rosewood etc) would work, too, but the veneers would be a bit more subtle.

 

[RichterScale]

I like the lighter center strip with dark, thin border veneer.
But I'm seeing a cherry or mahogany strip, to match the pinkish/orangey tones.
Or,....or,...
Can you spare 1.5" from either side of the slab? Or, 3/4" from each outer edge?
You could do a 1.5" piece of the same slab with black veneer border, or,
black veneer/ 3/4"/black veneer/3/4"/black veneer.

 

[AudioTaper]

Hmm, my suggestion would be a maple center piece with black veneers in between. With this crazy figuring you cannot hide the glueline anyways, so I would make it a feature. A dark center piece (walnut/rosewood etc) would work, too, but the veneers would be a bit more subtle.

I like the lighter center strip with dark, thin border veneer.
But I'm seeing a cherry or mahogany strip, to match the pinkish/orangey tones.
Or,....or,...
Can you spare 1.5" from either side of the slab? Or, 3/4" from each outer edge?
You could do a 1.5" piece of the same slab with black veneer border, or,
black veneer/ 3/4"/black veneer/3/4"/black veneer.

Great minds (or in @RichterScale 's case, twisted minds) think alike. I was thinking about and I may cut a 1-1/4" section out of the other slab and have 1/8" dark laminates. I'll see what I have and mock it up.