Subbed, I'm glad I found this thread. Great pictures.
I'm off to check out some of the other Big B builds.
I'm off to check out some of the other Big B builds.
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Walnut wishes, and six string dreams
- Thread starter Big B.
- Start date
I love the spots along the edge to allow the nails for the gluing line up. I'm not sure I've seen this before and its more than a little brilliant. I'm going to have to snatch that technique for my own builds.
Clean beautiful work as always...I second that combination of colours and grains, well done, it's really nice and subtly understated but blows you away with detail when looked at closely. I really want to have a go at the settings on your camera though Brandon - it looks like you work in a perpetual sunset... 
I wish I was clever enough to be the guy that thought of it but its an old trick that can be very widely applied. Andrew Drake in particular makes great use of this technique using toothpicks as well.
I really want to have a go at the settings on your camera though Brandon - it looks like you work in a perpetual sunset...
Yeah, my shop is pretty subdued when it comes to lighting and the phone camera is touchy. Unfortunately its going to get even now worse because I'm stuck using an even older camera this week.
Thanks to everyone else for the compliments and for following along.
Now that the body is well on it's way it's time to get some work done on the neck. As I've mentioned in the past I personally dont care for headstock volutes to strengthen the neck joint. To make up for the lack of a volute I route the carbon fiber support bars to run through the neck joint and out to the headstock face.
Unfortunately at this point I lost several pictures from my phone showing the process of gluing in the carbon rods so we will have to take that as written. After gluing, the rods protude slightly from the scarf joint and are surfaced flat to the face of the headstock.
Next I take the 3/8" thick headstock plate and resaw it into halves.
Again, we dry clamp the plate in place and drill guide holes in the corners.
Apply some glue, set the guide nails, and clamps are applied.
Once glued, the walnut layer is still way too thick so I use my jointer to surface it down to veneer thickness. Next we add a layer of maple veneer to be the base for the headstock logo.
For the top headplate veneer, the blank needs to be thin so I can carve in the logo. The piece is too small for me to feel comfortable running through a planer or wide belt sander so I went back to our powermatic tablesaw at my work.
First, I used double sided tape to attach the piece to a chunk of leftover walnut.
I set the blade just over half the height of the workpiece and use a stiffening plate with the blade to minimize deflection.
First I run one side and then flip the workpice end to end to cut the opposite face. With such a nice saw you cant even see an uneven line from the 2 passes.
Next up I apply a paper copy of my logo to the headstock with CA glue.
I then use my dremel router base, various files and sandpaper to cut the logo into the face plate. After the logo is sanded clean, the faceplate is applied and you can see where we are headed.
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Drake Custom
Commercial User
- Aug 24, 2010
- 440
- 1,082
- Disclosures
- Builder/Owner:Drake Custom Bass Guitars
Great work as usual. Love the laminations. I too have been using them quite a bit lately as it has a pin stripe look to it that I believe adds greatly to the appearance of any instrument.
I am Jealous of the Walnut as well. I don't find much of that quality of figuring in Walnut very often, but when I do I go into debt to buy it all.
I am Jealous of the Walnut as well. I don't find much of that quality of figuring in Walnut very often, but when I do I go into debt to buy it all.
Thanks so much Andrew. That limba topped 5 of yours has me stopping in for a look now and then too.
I know what you mean about the walnut. I was really lucky to find an entirly figured board like this. At best I usually find about 2 to 4 feet at the butt end of the board where the root ball would have been.
Now that the neck is prepped, only two things are left before shaping. One is installing the truss rod, which we will be handling in a later post. The second is milling and prepping the fingerboard. I finally decided that to match the neck I wanted to use a quartersawn maple fingerboard. Now, if you've ever tried to find "quartersawn " maple at a lumber yard you will know that its quite rare to find unless you are dealing with instrument wood suppliers because the quarter sawing method yields less material and is more time consuming than regular flatsawing. The trick to finding figerboard sized pieces is to look for the most flatsawn 12/4 or 16/4 board you can find as the edge of a perfectly flatsawn board will usually be nicely quartersawn.
And here we are.
Found this little beauty at my local lumber yard. About 65 inches long and in the area of 4 inches square and you can see, even through the rough, that the quartersawn side will not be disappointing.
A pass over the jointer and we can see what we are dealing with.
Next the surfaces are milled square and we go to the trusty powermatic saw to rip some fingerboards free. I cut the fingerboard blanks at about 5/16' thick.
For four inch thick hard maple thats a mighty clean cut.
I take two rips off the edge of the board which leaves me with four fingerboards and a 4" wide by 2 1/2" board quartersawn for necks and such.
Now its just a matter of choosing the prettiest blank at the ball and taking her to the tablesaw.
Using my fretting setup the template is mounted to the board with double sided tape and placed against my sled.
Once slotted we have a 35" scale fingerboard. Next I use the fretting blade to freehand the cut down the taper of the board and a router to trim it flush. I often use a tapering jig on the tablesaw to taper fingerboards but hard maple sometimes has a tendency to tear out on the bottom and the router avoids that.
Next I mark the position markers...
and then I sand the end of the board to something a bit more attractive.
In an effort to keep this bass to just maple and walnut I dispensed with my usual black and white veneer markers and instead sawed up some walnut to veneer thickness to be sandwiched around a piece of maple veneer.
After gluing we are left with a nice sandwich than can be further sawn into strips. I find the small fretting blade to be better for these jobs as the larger blade tends to destroy small pieces like this.
Once the markers are complete I take the board back to the tablesaw and use my mitre sled to cut the slots until they are wide enough to tightly hold the veneer markers.
Often I only put markers on one side of the neck only, and sometimes I'll mark the 12th and 24th frets on both sides, but for this bass I decided to do complete markers on both sides of the neck just for something a little different.
Once the markers are glued in they are sanded flat.
So thats where we are as of now. My next move will be to make up some markers for the 12th/24th frets and to route in the trussrod. Thanks as always for following along and we shall meet again...
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Now that a bit of time has lapsed I have a few more pics for your viewing pleasure. When last we spoke the fingerboard was shaped and the smaller position markers had been installed. Next up are the larger markers for the 12th and 24th frets.
Other than the walnut and maple the only other color on the bass will be black hardware and an african blackwood nut. For consistency I sawed a small strip of blackwood and sandwiched it between 2 of the smaller position markers.
Next I set the fretting blade to cut a bit deeper and widen the slots to allow the marker to fit.
Then they are glued in and sanded flush.
In cutting the fret slots I noticed that I mistakenly trimmed the fingerboard a tad short at the nut end. Using my fret template as a guide I Added a layer of walnut and maple to create the proper length and add a festive look.
For the sake of entertainment I decided to add a layer of walnut between the the maple fingerboard and neck. Since I dont have any thin walnut on hand I just glued the fingerboard to a block of walnut.
Once dry I ripped the board free on the tablesaw and trimmed the walnut to the fingerboard with a flush trim bit. Then I ran the fingerboard through the planer until the walnut was the desired thickness. No pics yet but you'll see it later.
Nextup I routed a channel for the truss rod and glued on the fingerboard. To align the board I drilled two small holes through 2 fret slots to use as an alignment points with small nails.
Then using two straight boards I clamped the fingerboard in place.
Sorry about the bad pics. I'm using an old phone camera and the light in my shop doesnt show well.
Once dry we have something that resembles a bass neck.
Using the router I straightedge the neck to the final width and cut the headstock shape with a jigsaw. A slight bit of spindle sanding will smooth out the lines.
And here we can see the walnut layer between the neck and fingerboard.
Thats all for now. I'll be back soon with more progress pics.
Other than the walnut and maple the only other color on the bass will be black hardware and an african blackwood nut. For consistency I sawed a small strip of blackwood and sandwiched it between 2 of the smaller position markers.
Next I set the fretting blade to cut a bit deeper and widen the slots to allow the marker to fit.
Then they are glued in and sanded flush.
In cutting the fret slots I noticed that I mistakenly trimmed the fingerboard a tad short at the nut end. Using my fret template as a guide I Added a layer of walnut and maple to create the proper length and add a festive look.
For the sake of entertainment I decided to add a layer of walnut between the the maple fingerboard and neck. Since I dont have any thin walnut on hand I just glued the fingerboard to a block of walnut.
Once dry I ripped the board free on the tablesaw and trimmed the walnut to the fingerboard with a flush trim bit. Then I ran the fingerboard through the planer until the walnut was the desired thickness. No pics yet but you'll see it later.
Nextup I routed a channel for the truss rod and glued on the fingerboard. To align the board I drilled two small holes through 2 fret slots to use as an alignment points with small nails.
Then using two straight boards I clamped the fingerboard in place.
Sorry about the bad pics. I'm using an old phone camera and the light in my shop doesnt show well.
Once dry we have something that resembles a bass neck.
Using the router I straightedge the neck to the final width and cut the headstock shape with a jigsaw. A slight bit of spindle sanding will smooth out the lines.
And here we can see the walnut layer between the neck and fingerboard.
Thats all for now. I'll be back soon with more progress pics.
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You sir are now my GURU. I will be copying your methods, and i can't wait to get started. Very nice, clean bass, you made it look so easy, i'm sure it is not. Oh, and great pic's too.
This thing is absolutely beautiful already-cant imagine what it will look like when its done.
Want one!
Want one!
Thanks Pete. I've found that the larger markers just don't look right unless they are cut a bit deeper into the fingerboard as well.
Please do. All the techniques I show are for the sake of education, so by all means please take advantage of them. I certainly took advantage of the knowledge of those who I learned from. All I ask is that my designs are not used for customer basses or any basses that may be sold. I don't mind if its a personal bass as long as you give credit where credit is due.
Hopkins
Commercial User
Brandon, your picture taking is just as terrible as mine is
I just wish my work was as clean as yours is. Great looking build man.
I just wish my work was as clean as yours is. Great looking build man.
Brandon, your picture taking is just as terrible as mine is
I just wish my work was as clean as yours is. Great looking build man.
Yeah, a photographer I aint, but the old phone I'm using as a camera isn't making me look any better. (And by the way, I'm just going to offer an an apology to all of you for todays pictures.
) Thanks for the kind words, man.Been making continual progress on this one and I've got the pics to prove it. Now that the neck and body are built, the neck pocket can be routed. First, I place the neck on a piece of mdf and attach some strips around it with screws.
After sanding the screwholes flat I use a jigsaw to remove most of the material, then I finish the template with a bearing guided router bit.
The next task is to make the sharp corners of the neck match the round edges of the neck pocket. First I clamp a piece of mdf to the back of the neck and use the router to make the mdf match the neck.
I then trace the neck pocket template's corners onto the neck template, and take it to the spindle sander to match the template.
I just now noticed that I didnt take any pics, but next I reattach the neck template to the neck and round the end of the neck to match the neck pocket with the router.
Now that the templates are done, the neck pocket template is attached to the body with double sided tape.
Now, using a bearing guided, bit I route the neck pocket in several passes. I made one small nick in the edge on the first pass but it's tiny and will repair easily.
Now I can really see what the finished product is going to be.
So there we have it. Next time we'll radius the fingerboard and bang in some frets.
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