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WBO 2022 - Luna's Last Opus

#41
20220218_211005.jpg


My local lumber yard, Yukon Lumber of Norfolk. VA came through with this massive slab of purpleheart. It took some convincing but they cut me a slice off of the 12' board.

Dimensions of the piece I got are 24" L x 19" W x 2" H. A good bit wider than what I need but I plan to use the cutoffs for a Mayones Cali 4 type mini-bass sometime in the distant future.

20220218_145444.jpg


These Wenge planks were also gorgeous and massive but they didn't want to slice them up for me. I've got about 4x more wood than I can use for a single bass at this point anyways...

If you're in the Hampton Roads area, or in VA, NC or other surrounding areas they are easily the best exotic hardwood supplier I've yet to come across.
 

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#44
Finally got around to gathering up all the wood in one place:

20220221_170551.jpg


Not pictured is the neck wood. The padauk piece I originally had planned to make a two-piece body from is one possible option. But weight is a concern.

20220221_170727.jpg


Any one here ever done a padauk neck?

I can't seem to find a whole lot of concrete info about what sort of tone to expect from it. It does have some beautiful, straight grain (and I've got enough to make several bolt/set necks or a few neck thru blanks). The alternative is some walnut with maple and/or purpleheart stringers.
 
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#46
SpaceJockey said:
Any one here ever done a padauk neck?

I can't seem to find a whole lot of concrete info about what sort of tone to expect from it.
Click to expand...
Tone ends up being a 4 letter word in this context and will start a string of arguing and useless comments that won't help you in the least.
There are many threads that discuss it, but this was the first one that pops in my head and I'm fairly certain that Bruce discusses his neck construction techniques. I would start with determining if padauk has the ideal structural characteristics for a neck and then look at how to cut it and orient the laminations. I've seen it used as stringers, but haven't seen a solid padauk neck (yet). Hopefully someone has and can report how it behaves, how stiff, flexy, heavy, etc.
About That Quartersawn Maple.....
 
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#48
TerribleTim68 said:
I mean, it's gotta be okay. Washburn built all those Nuno Bettencourt signature series guitars out of padauk. They had padauk bodies and padauk necks -
[This invalid link has been removed]

In other news, I'm cheering for ya'. But holy cow, one month left and you're just now posting the wood pile pic? :eek: :eek: :eek:
I can't handle the stress!!!
Click to expand...

Nice, I will check those out
I am getting a little stressed (okay, maybe a lot) but I do plan to cheat a bit with a CNC mill. at least for roughing out the body shape.


RichterScale said:
Tone ends up being a 4 letter word in this context and will start a string of arguing and useless comments that won't help you in the least.
There are many threads that discuss it, but this was the first one that pops in my head and I'm fairly certain that Bruce discusses his neck construction techniques. I would start with determining if padauk has the ideal structural characteristics for a neck and then look at how to cut it and orient the laminations. I've seen it used as stringers, but haven't seen a solid padauk neck (yet). Hopefully someone has and can report how it behaves, how stiff, flexy, heavy, etc.
About That Quartersawn Maple.....
Click to expand...

yeah you are probably right on the tone thing. too many variables to make any generalizations...
and thanks, I will have a read through that thread.
 
#53
SpaceJockey said:
Both the sides and the back. I guess my question is, how thin can you go with a chambered body in any given area before you have to worry about the structural integrity?
Click to expand...
Depends how brutal you intend to be, whether it’s in a load-bearing area, etc. The top on my Epiphone Jack Casady bass is a bit less than 3/16", with a centre section between the bridge and neck that is maybe 1/2" thick. If you’re going to do any significant carving/contouring the limit is more like how precisely you can work to avoid accidentally punching through.
 
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#54
Reedt2000 said:
I'd think you can go pretty thin as long as there is a solid center block taking the stress of string tension. Even a 1/4" thickness should be pretty strong and only risk getting damaged if it takes a hit. I might go at least 3/8" or 1/2" just to be safe.
Click to expand...

Max Bogosity said:
Depends how brutal you intend to be, whether it’s in a load-bearing area, etc. The top on my Epiphone Jack Casady bass is a bit less than 3/16", with a centre section between the bridge and neck that is maybe 1/2" thick. If you’re going to do any significant carving/contouring the limit is more like how precisely you can work to avoid accidentally punching through.
Click to expand...

Thanks, that makes perfect sense. I appreciate the help fellas.
 
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#55
RichterScale said:
Tone ends up being a 4 letter word in this context and will start a string of arguing and useless comments that won't help you in the least.
There are many threads that discuss it, but this was the first one that pops in my head and I'm fairly certain that Bruce discusses his neck construction techniques. I would start with determining if padauk has the ideal structural characteristics for a neck and then look at how to cut it and orient the laminations. I've seen it used as stringers, but haven't seen a solid padauk neck (yet). Hopefully someone has and can report how it behaves, how stiff, flexy, heavy, etc.
About That Quartersawn Maple.....
Click to expand...

So I've spent the last couple days mulling over the information in the thread linked above and it helped clarify a few things for me.

Although the grain is pretty straight on the widest face of this padauk board, the grain at the ends is at a ~45° angle. If I'm understanding things correctly, this isn't inherently an issue if you plan to make a laminate neck. Careful cutting, selection and grain orientation of the pieces for use in the finished neck is still crucial.
 
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#56
I started having a closer look at some of the basses I own with multi-piece necks to help better visualize this for myself. Most of my basses have never developed any weird twists, with the exception of my Warwick FNA Jazzman

I believe part of the issue with this bass was improper storage. It was left standing up in a gig bag for at least a few years before I got my hands on it. (The full story is, my girlfriend's brother met an untimely demise and left behind a modest collection of instruments. His wife, unwittingly, stored the instruments in the un-insulated basement before deciding she wanted to be rid of them).

In any event, here is a pic of the Warwick's headstock.

20220223_213832.jpg


It's a 4 piece neck. I'm certainly not an expert on this subject but the nasty twist it developed, which resulted in it needing a truss rod replacement, could be due to an oversight when it was built. The two outer pieces have the grain oriented opposite to each other.
They also are arranged "cup down", opposite of what was described in that thread by Bruce Johnson. I'm not sure how much this matters as long as they are opposite each other.

But the two center pieces have the end grain at odd angles ot each other.

After several hundred dollars of work, it is playable again but not perfect.

Are 4 piece neck blanks common? I typically only see odd numbers of laminates in necks.

I'll be doing either a 3 or 5 piece neck blank for this build. Knowing what I know now, I need to have a much closer look at my woodpile...
 

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#57
I've worked out a plan for hollowing out the body, while still allowing a good bit of contouring. I will also add a veneer underneath the walnut top. That should hopefully help me avoid punching through while adding the contours.
LLObodychambers.png



I also did a cross-section analysis just to make certain

LLOcrosssection.png


Thanks to an old build thread by @Jisch, and the input of those above, I was able to come up with this gameplan. The neck will go through the body in a similar fashion to what they did in their build.
 
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#59
I made some small, but important bits of progress finally on this thing.
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to access the luthiery/workshop my friend owns as often as I'd hoped because i just have too much going on right now. Between the 3 bands i play in and launching a new business, I won't be finishing before the build-off deadline rolls around :(

But seeing as this is my first build, I don't want to rush things. This extra time has allowed me to refine the design.

Things didn't work out with the wood CNC mill at the local makerspace, so I went ahead and started making templates for the body the old-fashioned way, using 1/2" MDF.

The main body template was cut first.
20220310_133726.jpg

Then I used the bandsaw and router table to make a copy of it, to be used as the clambering routing template. The interior was then cut out using a scroll saw.
20220310_160443.jpg


And here are the two peices together.
20220310_170009.jpg


Still tons more work to do but it feels good to finally cut some shapes. I have basically zero woodworking experience so creating the templates was good practice.
 
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#60
After a long discussion with my luthier friend, I was finally able to settle on some wood choices.

Instead of using the entire purpleheart slab for the body, a ~1/2" slice will be taken off and used a back plate. The center portion of the body will be sitka spruce:

20220310_165741.jpg


Final body depth will be about 2". I took quite a bit of inspiration from Stradi, Veillette and Rob Allen when dreaming up this build.

And I don't have pics of it, but the neck will be roasted flame maple with walnut stringers.
 

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