There's another storm brewing!

[pilotjones]

Wow! As the 700th msg on this thread, I'm obviously not the first to say this, but thank you for sharing such an incredible build with so much detail and entertainment along the way!! It took a couple days, but I made it thru it all, and like everyone else, can't wait to see how this comes out both visually & sonically.
As someone just assembling materials for his first build, this thread and the LC in general has been a wealth of knowledge and inspiration.
I think out of everything, your adherence to the "measure twice, cut once" maxim will stick with me the most. I know I'm guilty of sometimes jumping into steps without having thoroughly confirmed that the results will be what I want. Being willing to take days (weeks sometimes?) to see results on test pieces, drawing up flowcharts - great patience is obviously leading to a true masterpiece!
Thanks again, and can't wait til we can all hoist a beer to the Dark Storm's completion!

You're a trooper for getting through this whole thread... now if you really want to spend some time, try out the thread for the first bass. Lol.

It's funny people mention the flowchart, or pert chart. I actually needed it to get my thoughts together as to what was required before what, since on this bass things are interacting with each other so much (way too damn much). In particular, the blind-ended pre-slotted fretboard, the desire for a gloss fretboard, the fact that the fretboard runs full to the tail, and the bridge slots in the tail of the fretboard with string thru-holes that lead to a groove in the body that had to be routed before laminating the fretboard on, meant that that it was necessary to do some proper engineering planning. The additional benefit is being able to anticipate buying supplies with long lead times so that materials are available when needed.

 

[ctmullins]

Show off.

 

[Rôckhewer]

Quote from:
Dec. 9, 2012

As timeline goes, my hope this time is to be able to halve the construction time to one year. So, by the end of 2013. The only problem with that may be in doing finishing during the cold weather. We'll see

As long to some of us as the time span of 1 year would seem for a build....
Turned out to be just a tad.....overly optimistic eh?

Gotta hand it to ya though... talk about tenacity!
Not to mention the fact that it is not only one of the most amazing basses ever... but as woodworking projects in general go... it's frickin amazingly gorgeous, & in a class all by itself.
Cheers

 

[pilotjones]

Show off.

Ha!

Really though, I started off making a list of remaining steps on paper, and it got too complicated. So I figured I could do it in a spreadsheet and just drag the boxes around. Still too interdependent. So I finally said, #^#&@&$, gotta do it, gotta do work work at home, and downloaded freeware MS Project wannabees until I found one that was half functional.

 

[pilotjones]

Quote from:
Dec. 9, 2012

As long to some of us as the time span of 1 year would seem for a build....
Turned out to be just a tad.....overly optimistic eh?

Gotta hand it to ya though... talk about tenacity!
Not to mention the fact that it is not only one of the most amazing basses ever... but as woodworking projects in general go... it's frickin amazingly gorgeous, & in a class all by itself.
Cheers

Oh, sure, throw my own words back at me! Yeah, optimism R us. Wasn't counting on losing four months at the outset with wood that I couldn't make work and didn't really fit the original design, then didn't count on remaking the design so involved, didn't count on a hundred things in life that happened... thanks for the compliments, I'm just looking for light at the end of the tunnel.

The next one will be simple. (chants mantra) The next one will be simple. The next one will be simple. The next one will be simple. The next one will be simple.

 

[pilotjones]

Prepped a few more frets tonight. The ball ends are a pain in the butt, but I love the feel of them on the first bass, and I love the the look of them ever since I first saw them on pictures of a ¿Fleishman? bass. Plus there's no worry of sharp tips on the angled frets, especially considering the inward curvature at the sides of the fretboard.

The EVO frets look nice, almost enough to make me like gold hardware.

 

[Beej]

Seeing it again reminded me of how beautiful that bass is. Even if it takes another 5 years, count me in as a stalker...

 

[ctmullins]

Me too. I can slap together five builds in the time it takes PJ to do one, but his is way more than five times as awesome!

 

[Kustom_Thunder]

I absolutely love this bass

 

[pilotjones]

Thank you, everyone. It means a lot.

Mini-update incoming.

 

[pilotjones]

The close work in doing the fret ends is a pain in the neck, literally, so i'm doing a bit at a time. At least they are all fully sized and shouldn't need any trimming or end dressing later. I timed a few and they take me 25 minutes each fret. So at 20 $/hour that would be 208 bucks of labor.

Twenty-one down, four to go.

 

[Hugo Novaes]

Nice project!!! Waiting for more pics

 

[pilotjones]

Slow and Steady Wins No Race in Particular But Gets the Job Done


All twenty-five frets prepared.

Next up is installing the frets. I also started to work on the bridge saddles again.

I think I remember what I was thinking when I sized the saddles the way that I did. It definitely wasn't according to the original plan in CAD.

 

[pilotjones]

Ooooo Shiny


When I put the frets in the first bass using a nylon-faced hammer, I wished it had had more mass to it, and in fact I got two fretboard dents from bounces. This time I got out the steel one I made back in Intro to Manufacturing lab, sanded down the nylon face to smooth out twenty years of insult and injury. Then I started a'whackin'.

Precision wackin', of course. So now there's a bunch of metal things stuck in my bass neck.

I started from 24 and worked down to the zero. It's funny how much difference there is in length between them. And how they hammer in differently because of that plus the change in curvature. Before putting in each one, I buffed it with P4000 to make the middles uniform with the ends I had worked on already, and put CA in the slot.

I no longer have a fretless bass.


Then I got to cross four boxes off on my project chart. Hooray! Next up, bridge saddles, and fixing a dent I got on the side of the body. While not destroying the fret job.

 

[wraub]

Hot damn!

 

[ctmullins]

 

[HaMMerHeD]

w00!

Btw, I use an 8oz nylon mallet placed against the fret with my left hand, and a 12oz deadblow mallet in my right hand, with which I whack the nylon mallet to drive the frets in. It works pretty well. I haven't had any damage to either the fretboard or the frets with it.

 

[PDX Rich]

Gold EVO makes gold hardware appealing for those of us that traditionally disliked gold hardware.

This build continues to impress!

 

[pilotjones]

Hot damn!

Gold EVO makes gold hardware appealing for those of us that traditionally disliked gold hardware.

This build continues to impress!

w00!

Thanks!

Btw, I use an 8oz nylon mallet placed against the fret with my left hand, and a 12oz deadblow mallet in my right hand, with which I whack the nylon mallet to drive the frets in. It works pretty well. I haven't had any damage to either the fretboard or the frets with it.

Interesting. Somewhat like putting a piece of hard maple in between and using a regular hammer, which I had considered but didn't try. How does it work for you as far as moving along the fret, and keeping the two mallets aligned as well as at the intended position along the fret?

 

[HaMMerHeD]

Thanks!
Interesting. Somewhat like putting a piece of hard maple in between and using a regular hammer, which I had considered but didn't try. How does it work for you as far as moving along the fret, and keeping the two mallets aligned as well as at the intended position along the fret?

It works well enough that I haven't had any stray hammer blows damage the fretboard wood. Obviously one will need to be able to coordinate left-hand movements with right-hand movements. I don't find that particularly challenging, but I understand some people might.