I'd go with sanding then to be safe, although personally I'm pretty bad at keeping it level with sandpaper, no matter what sanding blog or technique I use.
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The Hossenfeffer II Build
- Thread starter Gilmourisgod
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I have a fair hand with a belt sander, probably bandsaw the headstock angle, get close with the belt sander, then hand-sand. I’ve seen a lot of curly maple necks on TB, is that how other people deal with this? The back of the headstock will be a PITA, but I’ll get it eventually. I do have a block plane I use occasionally, I keep it razor sharp, but it’s not really long enough for a headstock.
After a good bit of agonizing, I decided this grain orientation best exploited the crotch walnut flitches that were so generously gifted to me by @Rôckhewer The pieces were a near-bookmatch, but just wide enough for the body wings. In a perfect world I probably would have cut away some of the lighter ascending grain on the lower bout to create an equal amount of light and dark wood above and below the neck beam, but I didn't have enough extra width, the board edge is about 1/4" beyond the mask you see here. No complaints here! This wood is effing gorgeous.
The upper body wing about to go into glue-up. The crotch walnut was thicknessed to 1/4", and will be laminated to a piece of solid 1" thick plain sawn walnut to form the back and sides. The transition between the crotch and plainsawn walnut will be covered by an ivory PVC binding strip, .060" x .25", same at the headstock, which will also be bound. The plainsawn walnut is nothing special grain-wise, but had the admirable quality of being free, dumpster-picked 1" thick stair treads, poached from a construction site I worked on. Unbelievable what people throw away. I got three treads, but only one with a solid piece wide enough for the body wings. The others are three piece laminates.
And the lower body wing:
Clamp Armageddon. I gotta pick up some of those deep-throw HF clamps. The wood vise is doing half the clamping, but I wasn't taking any chances. Pulled this out of the vise last night and squared it up. Looks perfect. I belatedly realized I forgot to cut wiring channels into the plainsawn slab, but I can still just do a routed slot along the edge that meets the neck beam. D'oh!
Anybody got a good source for ivory-colored plastic binding? I mistakenly bought some "cream" colored binding from Stewmac, thinking it would be cream colored. Nope, looks more like "flesh colored". Godawful, who likes this stuff? Stewmac has "ivoroid" binding, which is real celluloid. You pay $6 for the binding and a special $32 fee to ship it as flammable material! I found a few Chinese sources on Amazon, but it could be crap.
The upper body wing about to go into glue-up. The crotch walnut was thicknessed to 1/4", and will be laminated to a piece of solid 1" thick plain sawn walnut to form the back and sides. The transition between the crotch and plainsawn walnut will be covered by an ivory PVC binding strip, .060" x .25", same at the headstock, which will also be bound. The plainsawn walnut is nothing special grain-wise, but had the admirable quality of being free, dumpster-picked 1" thick stair treads, poached from a construction site I worked on. Unbelievable what people throw away. I got three treads, but only one with a solid piece wide enough for the body wings. The others are three piece laminates.
And the lower body wing:
Clamp Armageddon. I gotta pick up some of those deep-throw HF clamps. The wood vise is doing half the clamping, but I wasn't taking any chances. Pulled this out of the vise last night and squared it up. Looks perfect. I belatedly realized I forgot to cut wiring channels into the plainsawn slab, but I can still just do a routed slot along the edge that meets the neck beam. D'oh!
Anybody got a good source for ivory-colored plastic binding? I mistakenly bought some "cream" colored binding from Stewmac, thinking it would be cream colored. Nope, looks more like "flesh colored". Godawful, who likes this stuff? Stewmac has "ivoroid" binding, which is real celluloid. You pay $6 for the binding and a special $32 fee to ship it as flammable material! I found a few Chinese sources on Amazon, but it could be crap.
Allparts has cream, parchment and rippled cream, which I think is what they’re calling ivoroid.
I haven’t bought any from them for a while but it was good stuff then.
Welcome to Allparts Music Corp. - Guitar, Bass, and Amp Parts Supplier
I haven’t bought any from them for a while but it was good stuff then.
Welcome to Allparts Music Corp. - Guitar, Bass, and Amp Parts Supplier
I've purchased chinese "celluloid" before which turned out to be poor quality plastic. I'd highly recommend steering clear of that route. Those body wings look gorgeous.
My experience with cream colored parts is that the shade can be all over the place. Even purchasing "cream" from the same supplier is a crap shoot. I bought some cream binding and cream pickup rings from Allparts a while back, and the pieces I got were noticeably different shades.
Hey @TundraMan , are you the same guy who does the Tundraman tutorials? I have read ALL of them multiple times, particularly the painting ones. Nice job spreading the joy, if that is you!
Well unless someone else is impersonating me, then yes I am the same TundraMan.
But I doubt anyone is impersonating me. If someone would go through all the trouble they'd probably impersonate someone more interesting and better looking.
Thanks!
- Apr 18, 2008
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Aw dang! Mine turned out great.... 
Ha! Yeah, I saw what @ctmullins did for wire routes, and then plain old spaced on it. I figure I can cut a slot along the edge between the two pups, then maybe a short drill channel into the control cavity. I eyeballed a long drill job on a previous one piece mahogany body, but it was a nail biter. This is what happens when you get hot to work on something when a sliver of free time pops up.
Now that you’ve ordered the binding, I do remember taking white binding and using Colortone honey amber dye, just a couple of drops in denatured alchohol to match some old, yellowed binding on a neck I was fixing for a friend. Could try that, if all else fails.
Hopefully, the cream will be what you want though.
Hopefully, the cream will be what you want though.
Mockup with neck beam. I have yet to taper the beam, hoping I can get away with a straight template bit on the beam sides, no curly grain on those faces. The dark marks on the walnut are residue from the crappy "carpet tape" i used to hold some gluing cauls down. Never again! The stuff is impossible to get off without solvents, gotta find something better that leaves no residue. Suggestions? Once the neck beam gets tapered, I'll drill for dowels to pin neck beam to wings. I like to do all the pup and bridge routes while everything is square so I have a nice wide base to work on.
Having spaced out on routing for wiring channels before gluing the caps on, I cut this channel to connect the two pup routes, this will daylight into the control cavity too. I'll have to do the scary drill method for the bridge ground. I have one of these Stewmac control cavity template sets, seems to fit nicely, so I ran with it.
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I'll use the cover (installed on another bass) as a template to make a matching walnut cover. It will match grain orientation, but won't be continuous grain. Nothing special about the back so that seemed good enough.
Having spaced out on routing for wiring channels before gluing the caps on, I cut this channel to connect the two pup routes, this will daylight into the control cavity too. I'll have to do the scary drill method for the bridge ground. I have one of these Stewmac control cavity template sets, seems to fit nicely, so I ran with it.
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
I'll use the cover (installed on another bass) as a template to make a matching walnut cover. It will match grain orientation, but won't be continuous grain. Nothing special about the back so that seemed good enough.
I saw someone post this the other day. I haven't tried it myself yet, but it looks like a promising alternative:
Probably me, I post that whenever I can to free people from the nightmare of double sided tape. I never use 'accelerator' and instead use the extra time for repositioning.
I actually tried that for long sanding strips for my fret leveling beam, it works, but anything involving more than a whiff of CA glue irritates my eyes and sinuses pretty badly. Stewmac has some tape that’s probably excellent, but badly overpriced.
One of my favorite Bugs cartoons, despite the unfortunate mis-spelling. It's "Hossenfeffer", everybody knows that!
