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Tutmarc audiovox model 736: where are they?
- Thread starter beebassdude
- Start date
Showboats
These two are ready for final finishing. Right now, what you're looking at is a thick base coat of poly sanded smooth to 320. I used no grain filler, I'd rather just use a few extra coats of poly. I apply each coat as soon as the previous one gets tacky, so they all dry into one layer, like lacquer. A week in the hot attic and the goop is nice and hard. Sanding gets rid of the residual grain pull-through, all the nits and gnats, and a couple of spots where I got a little too happy with the sprayer. I sanded through in one spot, and simply re-stained it, it will be invisible. A careful thin final coat will give a smooth finish which can be polished-up to a high gloss.
Note the pickguards. Each one takes a full sheet of material. In fact, each pickguard is the size and shape of my first Tutmarc, which is a pretty faithful copy of the original. These will get mini humbuckers and tune-o-matic bridges. For the bridges, I made a template and a bushing puller, and got a set of metric drill bits. They are a perfect fit. You can also see the long screws in the strap button holes. These work with the neck handles and my painting stand.
Speaking of necks, I've barely even started on those. This is going so slowly. I have these two bodies, and 5 others, and two other projects that I work on alternately when I can.
These two are ready for final finishing. Right now, what you're looking at is a thick base coat of poly sanded smooth to 320. I used no grain filler, I'd rather just use a few extra coats of poly. I apply each coat as soon as the previous one gets tacky, so they all dry into one layer, like lacquer. A week in the hot attic and the goop is nice and hard. Sanding gets rid of the residual grain pull-through, all the nits and gnats, and a couple of spots where I got a little too happy with the sprayer. I sanded through in one spot, and simply re-stained it, it will be invisible. A careful thin final coat will give a smooth finish which can be polished-up to a high gloss.
Note the pickguards. Each one takes a full sheet of material. In fact, each pickguard is the size and shape of my first Tutmarc, which is a pretty faithful copy of the original. These will get mini humbuckers and tune-o-matic bridges. For the bridges, I made a template and a bushing puller, and got a set of metric drill bits. They are a perfect fit. You can also see the long screws in the strap button holes. These work with the neck handles and my painting stand.
Speaking of necks, I've barely even started on those. This is going so slowly. I have these two bodies, and 5 others, and two other projects that I work on alternately when I can.
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I'm envious how much more clean your bench looks when compared to mine. Any consideration in using a strap button jack mounted at the butt?
Please don't use a strap button jack, I find them to be very awkward getting a strap to fit and stay on, I much prefer a separate jack and strap button.
I decided to go with my original impulse - chrome side jacks, for a nice uncluttered pickguard and a bit of extra shiny. The original Audiovox had just one big black volume knob, mine will have a concentric volume/tone and a pickup switch. That's reasonably modern, and simple, I'm tired of wiring up monstrosities. Also, I want it to be reliable, as getting into the electronics for repair will require removing the bridge. If the jack goes bad ( don't they all? ) it is easy to fix without disturbing anything else. So I sharpened up my 7/8" Forstner bit, and made a surprising pile of sawdust.
Look at all the templates here.
Well, I clean up before I take a picture. That workbench is actually a nice piece of furniture that I have in the house. Home Depot gave it to me, cuz they like me. I added drawers and stuff, and a vise, to make a big heavy-duty desk. I try to keep it nice. My 'work' workbench is out in the garage, a giant monster that I assembled out of roofing rafters that someone threw away in the woods. It has several vises ( visi ? ) drawers, shelves, bins, a stand for working on bicycles, and lots of electric outlets. When it is fully loaded, I can't budge it. That's where all the heavy work gets done. Another thing that is really useful is a folding table, for when you need more space to work, but don't need it to be very solid.
Finally starting to look like something
Here is one of the masonite bodies, with pickguard and neck fitted. The body is looking very plain in just base coat. The neck pocket is standard Stratocaster, just a bit narrower than a standard Fender short-scale bass. On the floor is a bin full of rough necks and parts. Some are guitars, and some are basses.
Hard to see, but now I have a coat of pearl over the base paint. I need to sand off the edge of the pickguard for a dark stripe. A thin black burst around the body edges, and white tape binding should look sharp.
Here is one of the masonite bodies, with pickguard and neck fitted. The body is looking very plain in just base coat. The neck pocket is standard Stratocaster, just a bit narrower than a standard Fender short-scale bass. On the floor is a bin full of rough necks and parts. Some are guitars, and some are basses.
Hard to see, but now I have a coat of pearl over the base paint. I need to sand off the edge of the pickguard for a dark stripe. A thin black burst around the body edges, and white tape binding should look sharp.
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Neck and Neck
Here is a guitar neck fixed in my neck routing jig. I just cut a 1/2" square channel for one of the steel bars. A $5 piece of steel from Home Depot will make two of these. I degrease it, and then scratch it up good on the belt sander. This is how the Martin company did truss rods many years ago, before it became impossible to market a guitar without an adjustable truss rod. I did some calculations, and this square tube turns out to be 37% stiffer and 12% lighter than a pair of 1/8"x1/2" steel rods ( like a Danelectro. ) It is also easier to install, with just one centered channel instead of two offset angled ones.
Here is the rod being glued in. I used regular wood glue. It will grab well enough at the scratched steel, and when the neck is done, the rod will be completely encapsulated in wood. No messy epoxy, this is good enough. Sixty years ago, Danelectro was building necks like this with hide glue, and it worked just fine. Many of those necks are as straight today as the day they were made. The clamps are there because the wet glue tends to swell the wood, causing the neck to cup. Once the glue is dry, it is no longer a problem, and this neck will stay dead straight until the wood rots away.
The bending stresses on a guitar or bass neck are actually quite small, the problem is that in the long run even the strongest wood will not withstand a bending force without deflecting. That is where the steel comes it - steel is hundreds of times stronger than wood, and will stay straight under these circumstances forever. I find that a guitar can be set up to play quite well with a dead straight neck, so that is how I build them. Any adjustment can be made by shimming the heel, and usually none is needed.
The strength of this neck is now essentially the strength of the steel bar. The greatest danger is making the back of the neck too thin, so that the rod pulls through the wood. As this is 3/4" lumber, I should have about 1/4" of wood behind the truss rod. I wouldn't want to make that any less than 1/8". I like chunky necks anyway.
For a fixed rod like this to work, it has to flex a tiny bit to generate the internal stresses that will resist the bending force. The resulting deflection is too small for me to measure. At the same time, it can't flex too much, so it really needs to be over-strong, and I don't think anything less than 1/2" will do. An adjustable truss rod can be pre-stressed. As none of these stresses come anywhere near the limit of the material, an adjustable rod can therefore be smaller than a fixed one, lending itself to a thinner neck.
However, construction requirements also come into play, so the height savings are less than you'd think. Most double-acting truss rods are about 5/16" in height. My best design is 3/8". The thinnest rod I've seen is a Rickenbacker, about 1/4". But Ric rods are only single-acting, and are notoriously delicate, such that they generally have to be installed in pairs. I would never build a truss rod like that.
The Audiovox basses will get more-normal adjustable rods, as a small amount of front bow is desirable on a bass. My experience is that a short scale bass must have a double-acting truss rod, as the string tension is not enough to guarantee that the neck will bow forward on its own, I have seen ones that need a little push.
For the basses, I am using standard Chinese double-acting truss rods that I shorten to fit. To do that, I saw most of the way through the rod, leaving just a tiny neck to keep the pieces aligned. Then I braze the two pieces together and cut away the excess, and finally grind the end smooth. It's much easier than building a rod from scratch, all you need is a standard acetylene torch and some high-strength silver solder, not the kind plumbers use.
Here are all the Audiovox necks, and a few of the pickguards that I've started to assemble. I am keeping the wiring deliberately simple. This design is pretty tight for controls, and I want to keep them out of the way so they don't get hit by accident while playing. The original 736 had just one big volume knob. I added a concentric tone and pickup switch, for a basic modern setup. The one on the left is a Fender Jazz bass stacked set; the middle one is straight Danelectro, and the one on the right is a hybrid.
Next up: mark out and drill 36 tuner holes. It is easier to do things batch-style like this. There is less setting-up, and it lets you get in a groove. But this seems like it is taking forever. I think I will concentrate on the two solid bodies, so I can finally have something finished.
These are coming along nicely, just about ready for final finishing. The decals are laser-printed on blank decal material and applied over a base coat of poly. They will get thickly overcoated with more poly, then polished smooth. You can get the material from a hobby shop or online, also available for inkjets.
Here is a guitar neck fixed in my neck routing jig. I just cut a 1/2" square channel for one of the steel bars. A $5 piece of steel from Home Depot will make two of these. I degrease it, and then scratch it up good on the belt sander. This is how the Martin company did truss rods many years ago, before it became impossible to market a guitar without an adjustable truss rod. I did some calculations, and this square tube turns out to be 37% stiffer and 12% lighter than a pair of 1/8"x1/2" steel rods ( like a Danelectro. ) It is also easier to install, with just one centered channel instead of two offset angled ones.
Here is the rod being glued in. I used regular wood glue. It will grab well enough at the scratched steel, and when the neck is done, the rod will be completely encapsulated in wood. No messy epoxy, this is good enough. Sixty years ago, Danelectro was building necks like this with hide glue, and it worked just fine. Many of those necks are as straight today as the day they were made. The clamps are there because the wet glue tends to swell the wood, causing the neck to cup. Once the glue is dry, it is no longer a problem, and this neck will stay dead straight until the wood rots away.
The bending stresses on a guitar or bass neck are actually quite small, the problem is that in the long run even the strongest wood will not withstand a bending force without deflecting. That is where the steel comes it - steel is hundreds of times stronger than wood, and will stay straight under these circumstances forever. I find that a guitar can be set up to play quite well with a dead straight neck, so that is how I build them. Any adjustment can be made by shimming the heel, and usually none is needed.
The strength of this neck is now essentially the strength of the steel bar. The greatest danger is making the back of the neck too thin, so that the rod pulls through the wood. As this is 3/4" lumber, I should have about 1/4" of wood behind the truss rod. I wouldn't want to make that any less than 1/8". I like chunky necks anyway.
For a fixed rod like this to work, it has to flex a tiny bit to generate the internal stresses that will resist the bending force. The resulting deflection is too small for me to measure. At the same time, it can't flex too much, so it really needs to be over-strong, and I don't think anything less than 1/2" will do. An adjustable truss rod can be pre-stressed. As none of these stresses come anywhere near the limit of the material, an adjustable rod can therefore be smaller than a fixed one, lending itself to a thinner neck.
However, construction requirements also come into play, so the height savings are less than you'd think. Most double-acting truss rods are about 5/16" in height. My best design is 3/8". The thinnest rod I've seen is a Rickenbacker, about 1/4". But Ric rods are only single-acting, and are notoriously delicate, such that they generally have to be installed in pairs. I would never build a truss rod like that.
The Audiovox basses will get more-normal adjustable rods, as a small amount of front bow is desirable on a bass. My experience is that a short scale bass must have a double-acting truss rod, as the string tension is not enough to guarantee that the neck will bow forward on its own, I have seen ones that need a little push.
For the basses, I am using standard Chinese double-acting truss rods that I shorten to fit. To do that, I saw most of the way through the rod, leaving just a tiny neck to keep the pieces aligned. Then I braze the two pieces together and cut away the excess, and finally grind the end smooth. It's much easier than building a rod from scratch, all you need is a standard acetylene torch and some high-strength silver solder, not the kind plumbers use.
Here are all the Audiovox necks, and a few of the pickguards that I've started to assemble. I am keeping the wiring deliberately simple. This design is pretty tight for controls, and I want to keep them out of the way so they don't get hit by accident while playing. The original 736 had just one big volume knob. I added a concentric tone and pickup switch, for a basic modern setup. The one on the left is a Fender Jazz bass stacked set; the middle one is straight Danelectro, and the one on the right is a hybrid.
Next up: mark out and drill 36 tuner holes. It is easier to do things batch-style like this. There is less setting-up, and it lets you get in a groove. But this seems like it is taking forever. I think I will concentrate on the two solid bodies, so I can finally have something finished.
These are coming along nicely, just about ready for final finishing. The decals are laser-printed on blank decal material and applied over a base coat of poly. They will get thickly overcoated with more poly, then polished smooth. You can get the material from a hobby shop or online, also available for inkjets.
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Is there any chance you might consider selling one of your repros? I have a small museum and have been collecting significant milestones in electric bass history, including a 1946 Williams-Hull (Ampeg) Bassamp, a dated 1951 Bassman, a dated 1953 Gibson GA-90, a 1953 Kay bass, an early B-15, 1959 Bassman and a 1961 Gibson GA-100. I would love to be able to add an authentically-made Audiovox to our collection. BTW, I am also looking for a 1953 Kay 615 and an early 50's Ampeg 800.
I'm Back
Here's the first Audiovox bass body. It is now finished to my satisfaction. Well, actually, nothing is ever finished to my satisfaction, but enough is enough. It is better than most of the Gibsons I see on the wall at GC. Mind you, most of the top will be covered up, so I only polished around the edges.
I was working on a bunch of these last fall, and as usual, the finishing became troublesome. I got aggravated and shelved the whole thing. I do this for fun, and when it stops being fun ...
So a thick base coat of poly got to dry all winter. Then we got a freakish warm spell, so I decided to smooth it down with 1500 and top-coated it. For that I used aerosol, and let it set up for almost a month before touching it. Finally, I used 2000 to knock down the orange-peel, followed by 3000 and 4000, then rubbing compound and lastly polishing compound on sponge pads on the random orbital. All of this stuff can be found at better auto parts stores. Oh, and a coat of Turtle Wax, to make sure the pores are completely strangled. Polyurethane is a bitch to work with compared to lacquer, but the result will last forever, whereas lacquer literally self-destructs.
To recap, the body is poplar, stained with whatever I had on the shelf, relying on poplar's horrible staining properties to turn it walnutty. I'm calling this one done, final assembly should a quick and easy, the only hang-up now is getting a few coats of shielding paint on. The twin guitar will follow soon after. These are not straight reproductions. I did one of those, and found it to be a lousy player. So I thought about what was wrong with it, and designed these.
Here's the first Audiovox bass body. It is now finished to my satisfaction. Well, actually, nothing is ever finished to my satisfaction, but enough is enough. It is better than most of the Gibsons I see on the wall at GC. Mind you, most of the top will be covered up, so I only polished around the edges.
I was working on a bunch of these last fall, and as usual, the finishing became troublesome. I got aggravated and shelved the whole thing. I do this for fun, and when it stops being fun ...
So a thick base coat of poly got to dry all winter. Then we got a freakish warm spell, so I decided to smooth it down with 1500 and top-coated it. For that I used aerosol, and let it set up for almost a month before touching it. Finally, I used 2000 to knock down the orange-peel, followed by 3000 and 4000, then rubbing compound and lastly polishing compound on sponge pads on the random orbital. All of this stuff can be found at better auto parts stores. Oh, and a coat of Turtle Wax, to make sure the pores are completely strangled. Polyurethane is a bitch to work with compared to lacquer, but the result will last forever, whereas lacquer literally self-destructs.
To recap, the body is poplar, stained with whatever I had on the shelf, relying on poplar's horrible staining properties to turn it walnutty. I'm calling this one done, final assembly should a quick and easy, the only hang-up now is getting a few coats of shielding paint on. The twin guitar will follow soon after. These are not straight reproductions. I did one of those, and found it to be a lousy player. So I thought about what was wrong with it, and designed these.
