Triple Bucker 4 string build

[Will_White]

The birch definitely looks cooler then the oak, and turns out it's stiffer too, I was able to clamp down the oak plank 1.3cm and I could only clamp the birch and oak laminate down .95cm same thickness.

Here's pic of the test laminate after I routed part of it at angle to see how it looked and responded.

Neck blank with registration holes drilled ready for glue.

 

[charlie monroe]

You may want to rethink the footgear in the shop.

I'm not a plywood snob. I can't wait to see what the neck looks like fully carved.

 

[Will_White]

You may want to rethink the footgear in the shop.

these photos were taken after I was done for the night after I went and got a camera

I'm not a plywood snob. I can't wait to see what the neck looks like fully carved.

That makes two of us, I was going to try to ebonize the oak after carving but the birch has just enough tannins to make it look muddy so it will be just a few coats of tung oil like on the test piece above.
Added: I found an example of a birch neck
Gibson.com: Gibson USA SG Zoot Suit

 

[wraub]

Really looking forward to seeing this carved/shaped and tung oiled. Those SGs don't do it for me really.

 

[Will_White]

Really looking forward to seeing this carved/shaped and tung oiled. Those SGs don't do it for me really.

I think if you had the option to choose your colours it could look cool but yeah they look pretty horrid.

 

[wraub]

I agree with that.

Again, really looking forward to seeing the tung-oil.

 

[charlie monroe]

Did you check out the Black and Orange? The inner most black ring is way too thick and clumsy for me, but they are on to something.

 

[wraub]

I prefer the black/orange and black/natural myself, but I agree the inner section could be diminished with nothing but good results.

 

[Five String]

Sub'd

 

[Will_White]

I prefer the black/orange and black/natural myself, but I agree the inner section could be diminished with nothing but good results.

If it was natural in the center on the black/natural and I was half way decent on a guitar it might be something I'd consider.

Any-who made a little more progress.
On a whim I tried some rit dye on a piece of scrap and I'm really liking how it turned out, here's a picture of it after a couple wiped on coats of water-based miniwax polycrylic, if it looks good tomorrow I'll see if I can get my spray gun going and try to spray a couple coats.

I also drilled the registration holes in the body sheets, and used those to trace the newly finished body template onto all of them.

I traced the body onto the back of the top plate so it's in reverse of the others.

 

[wraub]

That purple looks amazing.

 

[mapleglo]

Very much liking the body shape and purple color on this. Sub'd.

 

[Will_White]

Working on cutting the body out, I got the wire channels and chambering done. my plan appears to be working perfectly, registration holes keeping everything aligned even though I'm cutting the pieces individually,

Added: kind of regretting agreeing to help my wife babysit our friend's daughter instead of going to band practice and saturday night service. In other bass related news I got the main pick up routes done, which took longer then expected but came out really nice, I need to figure out the best way to route the wings for the pickups but I think I'll wait until I have them in hand to do that. I also accidentally named it Grape Gorilla, last night my wife said something about going out to see my other girlfreind the grape ape, and my retort was that it was a gorilla. It seems to have stuck.

 

[Will_White]

Got the body cut out, (edit: came in at 5 lbs even)

I still have to get the neck ferules, threaded inserts, truss rod, and a whole bunch of clamps for the neck so I can't do much more with it for a little while.
I also built this once I was done for the night.

 

[Will_White]

I got the neck blank glued up last night, I'll get pictures when I get back from the coast and remove it from the clamps. I ordered the truss rod, humbucker routing templates and case hardware from stewmac so it'll be here sometime this week.

 

[Will_White]

Progress has been slow on this bass lately, I finally got my order from Guitar Fetish of with 2 of the pickups, blank tele plate, neck plate, and jack plate, UPS decided they couldn't deliver it to my house so I had to pay an extra 5 bucks for them to deliver it to my work (which is actually closer to them). I finished up the pickup routes with the stewmac template and have been working on smoothing out the sides of the body. I got a really nice piece of 1x2 figured maple from home depot of all places, so I'm going to make a new neck blank with that instead of the oak. I think the paleness of the maple will work better with the birch ply. Now for pics.

The bridge pickup isn't the actual bridge pickup I'll be using, but it's the same type. The Black on Chrome Crunchy rail bridge pickups were back ordered it is on it's way now.

 

[Will_White]

I got a fair amount done tonight, got the control cavity holes in the top and got the top glued up. The Crunchy Rails Bridge pickup, TBX tone pot, and the two rotary switches came in I ordered knobs too but I think they are going to be to small. I'm going to upgrade to a Hipshot A style bridge and Ultra Lite tuners so those will take a couple weeks to get here.

 

[Will_White]

Out of clamps, got most of the top flush, I need to figure something out for inside the horns, I don't have a spindle sander yet.

Also, I forgot to mention this in last night's post, I slightly simplified the wiring plan, just a series/split/parallel for neck and middle, north/series/south for the bridge then a fat switch for the neck and a bass cut after the bridge/middle selector.

 

[Beej]

Wrap a dowel in sandpaper and you don't need a spindle sander. Well, unless you want to sand much more efficiently, accurately and easily...

 

[Will_White]

Wrap a dowel in sandpaper and you don't need a spindle sander. Well, unless you want to sand much more efficiently, accurately and easily...

I used sandpaper glued and wrapped around a large drill bit and chucked it in the drill press, that worked ok but it didn't last long, I got most of the inside lower horn cleaned up that way.