The Hossenfeffer III Build

[Gilmourisgod]

I wonder what sort of wall thickness and infill it's printed with. I've been burned on purchases of 3D printed tool parts in the past where the part was way too flexy and weak for it's intended purpose because the seller printed it with thin walls and minimal infill, presumably to save cost.

It looks like at least 1/4" thick in the photo, should be plenty strong. What the hell is PETG?

Edit:
never mind, looks like a high strength 3D printing copolymer
All you need to know about PETG for 3D printing!

 

[Gilmourisgod]

After much suffering by mistakenly assuming LMI shipped me 10" dia. board (its 9.5" radius), I decided to step up my game and get a decent fret press caul and full set of brass inserts. I paid $50 for the set, its IDENTICAL to the one Stewmac sells for $70 + $10 S & H. As usual, it pays to shop around.

The first three frets (9.5" raidius pre-bent) I was able to leave in, wicking some water fine CA in and using the 6" dia. caul to prss the fret ends down. Worked perfectly. I did the rest of the board with 7.25" pre-radius frets glued in with a little medium viscocity CA in the slots. I'll use 7.25" frets from now on for 10" radius boards.

The drill press works fine for this, and I can lock the quill in the down position to act as a clamp while the glue kicks. I can't see any reason to buy a dedicated fret press, this works great!

Got the frets filed flush with the board edges and beveled to 30 degrees.

I put a single coat of Stewmac fingerboard oil on it just to keep any gunk out for the duration, I'll add couple more coats right at the end.

Next Up: making a Brass Nut

 

[Gilmourisgod]

Well THAT was a crappy couple of weeks lost, first Fun With Covid, then Snowmageddon on Cape Cod. the shop was well and truly snowed-in. No real progress to show, but I could use some advice:

This will be my first brass nut, and I've finally arrived at the point I can't put it off anymore so...

I had bought this Axemasters compensated brass Jazz bass nut a while back, but then realized it was too short for the job unless I had a fingerboard extension beyond the nut, which I didn't. Into the parts box it goes.

I got some 1/4" brass bar stock off ebay and cut this out, getting to rough radius using the "half-pencil" trick. I left top of nut about 1/8" above this line, hopefully that's enough extra meat I won't have to start over

I could just use the Axemasters blank as a guide to cut slots in my brass blank, but it occurred to me I don't really know if the spacing is "right", or if there IS a "right" spacing. A little internet scrounging has produced the following advice on spacing:

1. Cut the E and G string slot centerlines 1/8" from edge of nut each side, then do ether Even Centers or Even Spacing.

2. Cut the E and G slots so the string EDGE is 1/8" from the nut end, then space as desired. So that would be slightly tighter spacing

3. Same as above, but less space to nut end, around 3/32".

The even SPACES approach makes more sense to me intuitively, by what are other people doing? I don't have a fancy Stewmac string spacing ruler, but it's easy enough to do in Autocad. The bridge and neck width at the 12th set the string line to a certain extent, maybe I should just try to get an even string distance from board consistent, and cut the nut to make that happen?

 

[deff]

Well THAT was crappy couple of weeks lost, first Fun With Covid, then Snowmageddon on Cape Cod. the shop was well and truly snowed-in. No real progress to show, but I could use some advice:

This will be my first brass nut, and I've finally arrived at the point I can't put it off anymore so...

I had bought this Axemasters compensated brass Jazz bass nut a while back, but then realized it was too short for the job unless I had a fingerboard extension beyond the nut, which I didnt. Into the parts box it goes.
View attachment 4566573

I got some 1/4" brass bar stock off ebay and cut this out, getting to rough radius using the "half-pencil" trick. I left top of nut about 1/8" above this line, hopefully that's enough extra meat I won't have to start over
View attachment 4566574

I could just use the Axemasters blank as a guide to cut slots in my brass blank, but it occurred to me I don;t really know if the spacing is "right", or if there IS a "right" spacing. A little internet scrounging has produced the following advice on spacing:

1. Cut the E and G string slot centerlines 1/8" from edge of nut each side, then do ether Even Centers or Even Spacing.

2. Cut the E and G slots so the string EDGE is 1/8" from the nut end, then space as desired.

3. Same as above, but less space to nut end, around 3/32".

The even SPACES approach makes more sense to me intuitively, by what are other people doing? I don't have a fancy Stewmac string spacing ruler, but it's easy enough to do in Autocad.

Can you tell me where you found your brass for a nut blank? I just did two for two of my basses, one came out perfect and I'm too shallow on the other. I need to make another one.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

I got mine on Ebay, but I don't think it was this vendor. If I had seen this one a while back I would have bought it, I think my piece is 1/4" x 4" x 6" which I won't use up in my lifetime, and was kind of a PITA to hacksaw out one nut. if it's a standard nut size like a Jazz or Pbass, Axemasters sells pre-cut ones on Ebay, and they are pretty good. he has some marketing hype about using "musical bell brass", which may be piffle for all I know. Is that a Thing?

Brass Flat Bar Stock 1/4"X 1" X 6" Knife Making Handle Bolster C360 Extruded | eBay

 

[deff]

Well THAT was a crappy couple of weeks lost, first Fun With Covid, then Snowmageddon on Cape Cod. the shop was well and truly snowed-in. No real progress to show, but I could use some advice:

This will be my first brass nut, and I've finally arrived at the point I can't put it off anymore so...

I had bought this Axemasters compensated brass Jazz bass nut a while back, but then realized it was too short for the job unless I had a fingerboard extension beyond the nut, which I didn't. Into the parts box it goes.
View attachment 4566573

I got some 1/4" brass bar stock off ebay and cut this out, getting to rough radius using the "half-pencil" trick. I left top of nut about 1/8" above this line, hopefully that's enough extra meat I won't have to start over
View attachment 4566574

I could just use the Axemasters blank as a guide to cut slots in my brass blank, but it occurred to me I don't really know if the spacing is "right", or if there IS a "right" spacing. A little internet scrounging has produced the following advice on spacing:

1. Cut the E and G string slot centerlines 1/8" from edge of nut each side, then do ether Even Centers or Even Spacing.

2. Cut the E and G slots so the string EDGE is 1/8" from the nut end, then space as desired. So that would be slightly tighter spacing

3. Same as above, but less space to nut end, around 3/32".

The even SPACES approach makes more sense to me intuitively, by what are other people doing? I don't have a fancy Stewmac string spacing ruler, but it's easy enough to do in Autocad. The bridge and neck width at the 12th set the string line to a certain extent, maybe I should just try to get an even string distance from board consistent, and cut the nut to make that happen?

Also I think compensating for the thickness of the string is important in spacing. While exactly even is probably really close. Even puts the distance between the smaller strings something like .050 further apart. It may not seem like much but I think compensating is a better idea.

 

[Gary_M]

Well THAT was a crappy couple of weeks lost, first Fun With Covid, then Snowmageddon on Cape Cod. the shop was well and truly snowed-in. No real progress to show, but I could use some advice:

This will be my first brass nut, and I've finally arrived at the point I can't put it off anymore so...

I had bought this Axemasters compensated brass Jazz bass nut a while back, but then realized it was too short for the job unless I had a fingerboard extension beyond the nut, which I didn't. Into the parts box it goes.
View attachment 4566573

I got some 1/4" brass bar stock off ebay and cut this out, getting to rough radius using the "half-pencil" trick. I left top of nut about 1/8" above this line, hopefully that's enough extra meat I won't have to start over
View attachment 4566574

I could just use the Axemasters blank as a guide to cut slots in my brass blank, but it occurred to me I don't really know if the spacing is "right", or if there IS a "right" spacing. A little internet scrounging has produced the following advice on spacing:

1. Cut the E and G string slot centerlines 1/8" from edge of nut each side, then do ether Even Centers or Even Spacing.

2. Cut the E and G slots so the string EDGE is 1/8" from the nut end, then space as desired. So that would be slightly tighter spacing

3. Same as above, but less space to nut end, around 3/32".

The even SPACES approach makes more sense to me intuitively, by what are other people doing? I don't have a fancy Stewmac string spacing ruler, but it's easy enough to do in Autocad. The bridge and neck width at the 12th set the string line to a certain extent, maybe I should just try to get an even string distance from board consistent, and cut the nut to make that happen?

That is going to look killer! I normally use about 1/8" to the outside edge of the E, and around 3/32" to the outside edge of the G... So a hybrid of option 2 and 3.

 

[RichterScale]

The method I'm attempting is 0.1" from the edge of the string on both sides.
So, I measured 0.1" + half the diameter of the string to get my distance from the edge to the center of the slot.
Then, equal spacing on center for the strings. It looks off to the eye, but I agree that for feel, equal spacing OC makes a little more sense. Also, it eliminates a little room for error in measuring and cutting slots, etc. And I'm a big fan of eliminating room for error in any amount.
So, I have a .095 E string and a .040 G string.
The center of the E slot will be .147" from the edge and the G slot will be .120" from the edge. That should get me to 0.1" of the board showing passed the string edge on both sides.
Make sense?

 

[ctmullins]

Edge. Definitely edge. You don’t want the fat string too close to the dropoff.

 

[adje]

If you want to know what Alembic would do, the specs for my 6 string say edge allowance at the nut .15" on both sides, and .324" center-to-center string spacing - on a 2" nut, so fairly tight. Their thinking is that the fingers of the fretting hand land on top of the strings, so center-to-center spacing at the nut, and at the bridge the fingers should travel the same distance between strings, so edge-to-edge spacing there.

 

[Beej]

If you want to know what Alembic would do, the specs for my 6 string say edge allowance at the nut .15" on both sides, and .324" center-to-center string spacing - on a 2" nut, so fairly tight. Their thinking is that the fingers of the fretting hand land on top of the strings, so center-to-center spacing at the nut, and at the bridge the fingers should travel the same distance between strings, so edge-to-edge spacing there.

That just went into my Compendium of Interesting Lutherie Tidbits. Thanks!

 

[Gilmourisgod]

It took me all day to get not much done, but I've reached the excuciatingly careful portion of the program. I reaized that modeling stuff in CAD only gets you so far when the actual bass is the sum total of all my tiny errors, so I scrapped the measurements and got the E and G strung up to see where the strings "wanted" to be at the nut.

First installing tuners

Then stringing the E and G. Turns out this bass "wants" to have 1/8" space in from nut edges, and it's consistent up the board. Photos have some parallax, but trust me, it's 1/8" whole length of the neck.

The bridge is almost absurdly adjustable, including string spacing, but I landed at a nearly perfect straight-line pull from the string anchor to bridge, so I'll just let the string tension place the saddles and then lock them down.

Marked the nut and realized, finally, why people like those fancy nut-making vises with thin jaws that lift the nut up: it's hard to file something that short in a vise... How do other people do this?

Used my expensive Stewmac nut files for the first time. Not overwhelmed with praise, they clog easily in brass and arrived with some light surface rust and chipped paint straight from Stewmac. Sigh. Maybe they'll grow on me.

These slots are just rough cut, as the whole nut is still way high.

It occured to me I should check the string height at the bridge.. Yikes! With a straightedge sitting on the unleveled frets, and the bridge as low as it will go recessed into the body, the straightedge JUST touches the bottom of the saddle slots. The intonation screws are literally touching the body. I mis-measured somepace, hopefully the intonation screws will end up just above the body plane by the time I dial it all in. Evene a 1/32" would be nice. I am Hopeful, otherwise I'll have to file some clearance slots for the screws, which I really dont want to do.

I polished up the nut because.. I'm a Primate who likes Shiny Things. The top of the nut is still rough, probably have to file it lower once I have the nut action set.

All taped up and ready to go into the Neck Jig for fret leveling, but unfortunately, I'm out of time. Why are Shop Hours seemingly 1/2 as long as Regular Hours?

 

[41hzthunder]

Really looking good! I know what you mean about the sum of all errors and just having to take a practical approach. Awesome work!

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Looking good. I have a small vice that I made some “extension” jaws for. Looks ugly but works pretty well.

 

[ctmullins]

Marked the nut and realized, finally, why people like those fancy nut-making vises with thin jaws that lift the nut up: it's hard to file something that short in a vise... How do other people do this?

I’ve never done a brass nut, but the Tusq nut blanks I usually hold with a wood clamp and hack away at. Although I just realized I have one of these Vice-Grip sheet metal thingies that seems like it might work….

With a straightedge sitting on the unleveled frets, and the bridge as low as it will go recessed into the body, the straightedge JUST touches the bottom of the saddle slots. The intonation screws are literally touching the body. I mis-measured somepace, hopefully the intonation screws will end up just above the body plane by the time I dial it all in. Evene a 1/32" would be nice. I am Hopeful, otherwise I'll have to file some clearance slots for the screws, which I really dont want to do.

Actually, that’s perfect. That’s exactly what you want. Typically with a setup like that, once the instrument is finished and strung up, the correct bridge height will be a mm or two higher than minimum. Good job!

 

[Gilmourisgod]

Hmmmmm….. I bet those vice grips are cheaper than a nut vise….. have to keep my Cheap Luthier Eye open for a set at HF or some other tool I can re-purpose.
I OCD measured the bridge really carefully and drew it into my plans, but totally spaced on the intonation screws. I think I’ll just get away with it. Yeah…. I meant to do that.

 

[dwizum]

For nut slot filing off the instrument, I use a drill press vice with a narrow shim under the nut. The shim is maybe 1/16" shorter than the jaws, so the nut just gets grabbed by the very tops of the jaws and is held up nicely to be worked on. Drop the shim in, close the jaws down, drop the nut on the shim, tighten the jaws, all set.

 

[T_Bone_TL]

An adaptation of a shop-made saw filing vise (nut-sized, of course) might work -

Close Grain: Building A Lie-Nielsen Saw Vise

This one I don't get why they bother with the clamps - make it right and the "normal" vise right next to it will do all the clamping you need:

Jig Journal: Shop-made Saw Vise | Popular Woodworking

 

[Gilmourisgod]

Just stumbled on this ho-made nut vise, looks pretty simple. Two hand plane irons would work pretty well for the clamps....

 

[Gilmourisgod]

Jiggety-jig

yada-yada (long winded explanation of neck jigs, deleted for time)

WAY too many hours later... Dull frets...bad. Shiny frets... Good! Happy!

Next up, WAY too many hours of tedious detail sanding, which I will not inflict upon you.