Summer Build Off 2024: Xena

[joover]

They say everybody needs to try P with flats, so I’ll build one from scratch.

Wish-list​

• Brucification: 3/8 brass Brucebars; 3/8 aluminum Bruceblock; 1/16 aluminum stiffening rods; 3-piece grain-conscientious neck lamination; weakened center area. I hope to throw in Bruce-style truss rod next time.
• ~34” multiscale (862mm-864mm). I want to practice building multiscale and follow FSO tradition at the same time.
• Homage to Zeta Prism bass. The body shape is an interesting twist to modern FSO. I’ve also considered Xenerism as a project name.
• Off-the-shelf bridge and tuners.

 

[tidbits]

This is a concept I’m really excited for. I really like how you’ve adapted the Prism shape.

What’s your body wood?

 

[joover]

Body will be chambered poplar with maple top.



I haven't decided on the finish yet: red top + black bottom or all red. All purple is another option. The piece of poplar I use has heavy green hue underside. So I'm considering cooking it in oven to get green out.

Maple neck. Wenge fretboard.

 

[joover]

Let me just say that baking didn't produce expected results. Poplar green didn't turn brown, yet light grain got "well done". The worst part was boards warping and twisting. I had to plane down more than I was hoping for to get boards level again. Regardless of the setback, my creative juices kept flowing, and I've decided to resaw boards to make a matching drop bottom for the body. Guess what. Boards warped and twisted again So I've ended up with ~28mm thickness and no drop bottom.





After carefully evaluating my options, I went lumber shopping. Attempt to buy more poplar materialized in me buying cherry. Some time later (and after yet another reevaluation), I remembered that I have a leftover 8/4 piece of African Mahagony. The piece is good enough for half of the body block or two full drop tops/bottoms. I should also note, that parting ways with recently acquired cherry didn't feel like a viable option at the time..

Here is another lumber stack photo



My current plan is as follows:
- Use african mahagony top / bottom and poplar body
- Start another build with cherry body and maple top
- Keep design the same for both builds, except, perhaps, pickups and bridge (tbd)
- Wenge piece from the first photo seems good enough for two fretboards
- Technically, maple neck blank is long enough for two necks. In practice, this would leave no room for error. I'd have to come with alternative headstock process for one of the necks. I'll proceed building "almost" two necks.

I don't want to create another build thread just yet, as I'm confident in my ability to screw up.

Meanwhile, maple top is clamped and waits for cherry body to be glued up.

 

[Dave Higham]

34” multiscale (862mm-864mm

???

 

[joover]

???

The goal is to practice making a multiscale bass 862mm to 864mm results in ~1deg angle, which is ok for off the shelve bridge.

 

[Max Bogosity]

This is like malicious compliance for luthiery.

 

[Gervais Cote]

As a p bass freak, I’m really anxious to see the final result here………….looks very promising !

 

[ddm0502]

The goal is to practice making a multiscale bass 862mm to 864mm results in ~1deg angle, which is ok for off the shelve bridge.

If your goal is multiscale with a normal bridge, you could probably make a 20 to 30 mm difference if you make the bridge the perpendicular point and put the widest spread at the nut. There's no rule in multiscale construction that the perpendicular point needs to be somewhere in the middle of the neck.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

The goal is to practice making a multiscale bass 862mm to 864mm results in ~1deg angle, which is ok for off the shelve bridge.

I don’t have pictures on my phone but if you look a couple of pages back in my thread the guitar I’m working on is multiscale and most of the offset is at the nut / 1st fret which means a straight 6 saddles on a plate bridge would have worked. I already ordered individual bridges before I realized that but it would have worked.

 

[joover]

if you make the bridge the perpendicular point and put the widest spread at the nut

great idea. I didn't pay much attention to it back while doing the design. I was thinking about making the vertical fret in between 6 and 7, like Dingwall. I'm afraid it's too late now to make changes (by which I mean I'm too lazy to make changes now)

 

[joover]

I've reached the point when I have two of everything. Now I need to make one of something out of it.

On the family photo below you can see mahogany + cooked poplar + mahogany on the left and cherry + maple on the right.
I've glued up 3-piece "\\||//" necks for both. Neck veneers hide epoxy glue lines. Both neck will have aluminum stiffening rods.



Next step is to laser cut templates and make neck scarf joints.

 

[joover]

Body core routing was largely uneventful. 944g

Creating a template with small cutouts was a bit of a challenge at first. I cut templates out of 5mm plywood with a laser cutter. Small pieces tend to jump out and interfere was laser head movement. Covering non trivial area of the plywood stock with good double sided tape seemed wasteful. So, I've used general purpose double sided tape. It was extremely messy and hard to cleanup. Would not recommend to a friend. Meanwhile, 3m 77 spray adhesive worked really well. Pieces didn't fly out, parts were easy to separate, surface remained sightly tacky, but usable without extra cleanup.

Here comes the first Brucification feature! 3/8" (9mm) thick aluminum bridge block. Veneer covering aluminum is less than 0.7mm thick.


Due to earlier hiccups, the body core ended up thinner than I was planning for. I've made top and back 2mm thicker to account for it. Before gluing up the top I've concluded that extra top thickness will eat into usable thread length. Idk why, but I was convinced that I will end up with 2mm of thread. In fact I would have had 15.8-8-3=4.8mm of thread. I've planed the top down to 6mm. Gave amazon basics clothes vacuum bag a try for the glue up and enjoyed the result.


Gluing up the back was the next logic step. I've used 3/32" pins to aligning by control cavity position, which made a vacuum bag not an option.

And then, after routing out the back, it became clear that 6mm top combined with 8mm back looks off.


I've planed those pesky 2mm down. Body is currently at 1702g or 3.75lb.




In conclusion. Attempt to increase body thickness resulted in the same body thickness and a lot of extra work

 

[zorgzorg2]

Nice build! Can I ask about the vacuuming? Did the clothes bag hold the pressure well? I was tempted to buy some and try, but I thought they would be way too bad to hold even pressure for a long time, or they would puncture with sharp wood edges...

 

[joover]

Nice build! Can I ask about the vacuuming? Did the clothes bag hold the pressure well? I was tempted to buy some and try, but I thought they would be way too bad to hold even pressure for a long time, or they would puncture with sharp wood edges...

I've used bags once and have no prior experience with the method. Bags hold vacuum for 4+ hours, but deflated over night. I did poor job to remove sharp edges, yet bags held ok. The bag seemed perfectly usable afterwards.