WBO 2023: Stormbringer, or, the Elrickenbacker

[Kevorargh]

I have the second Corum books and collected the comic adaptations of a fellow Elric series, the first Cirum books, and the Hawkmoon books. Warrior on the Edge of Time is a great Hawkwind album. A friend of mine did a D & D campaign using the Lords of Chaos and Order from Moorcock's books. Good luck on your build!

 

[wintremute]

Dude, you totally need arcane runes as inlaid fretboard markers. Or stickers under the finish. But it needs the runes, preferably in blood red.

Back in the 80s, the metal band my friend and I put together was called Mournblade. Long time Moorcock fan.

I have almost all of the parts for my newest Hotrodded bass, and I have already name it "Mournblade". I am now inspired to get back to work on it.

 

[mrperkolator]

Dude, you totally need arcane runes as inlaid fretboard markers. Or stickers under the finish. But it needs the runes, preferably in blood red.

Back in the 80s, the metal band my friend and I put together was called Mournblade. Long time Moorcock fan.

or put LEDs under the runes and fill with cloudy red tinted epoxy. Run wires under fretboard and put a connector to a 9v battery somewhere in the body. Would look real cool. Not my vibe, but it would look cool.

...probably could get close with lots less hassle using epoxy that's got the red colored glow in the dark stuff mixed in.

 

[JFlo]

I cut the walnut into pieces for the top section. I jointed them and a piece of bloodwood and glued them up. That's all I could do tonight.

And tonight's accompaniment:

 

[JFlo]

I got the other slice of the body jointed and glued up. I did some preliminary planing on the top slice and rough cut a new template since I'm going to do a bolt on neck. Turns out bloodwood is much harder to work than walnut!

And tonight's accompaniment:

 

[neptoon]

Love the Elric Saga, great books! Lemmy spent some time with Hawkwind, so I appreciate the multiple crossovers!

 

[JFlo]

Slow progress today. I routed and sanded the template. The panel I glued up for the bottom half of the body bowed pretty bad so I made a router plane jig and flattened it. The two halves are glued up. It's gonna end up a little thinner than I planned, about 1-3/8". I will use threaded inserts and machine screws to secure the neck, so hopefully there will be enough meat in the neck pocket.

And straight from the author himself:

 

[JFlo]

Here's a week full of mistakes...I'm gonna need some help from you kind experts. First, my body sandwich glue up was a spectacular failure. Foolish to assume my planer was a good enough weight. I had to plane the boards again and re-glue with proper clamping.

Then I ripped and glued up the maple for the neck.

The next day I planed one surface and routed the truss rod channel. So far so good.

But when I mocked it up with the template I realized I made the neck a couple inches too short.

My goal was for the neck to extend into the body so there wouldn't be a heel at the upper frets. At 35" scale, this only gives me about 1-3/4" of neck into the body. On top of that, my body gluing goof has left me with a 1-3/8" thick body.

Here's where I need help. I figure my options are:
1. Make a new neck (gotta get more wood, extra time).
2. Leave a heel extension sticking out of the body (is the body thick enough or is it going to break off? I expect the neck to be about 3/4" thick at the heel not including the fb).
3. Go with 32" scale. I'm not crazy about this since I planned on this being BEAD.
4. Wisdom from the wise council of luthier elders?

 

[JFlo]

Also I just found this piece of padauk in my stash. Would it be against the rules to use this for a new neck?

 

[BishopJP]

Also I just found this piece of padauk in my stash. Would it be against the rules to use this for a new neck?

Once the Build-Off officially begins, you can use whatever you want, whenever you want.

Not wise or elder enough to advise on the neck issue, though.

 

[Reedt2000]

There are plenty of 32" scale 5 strings these days so not entirely out of the question. You could always go 33.5" scale, that should give you plenty of contact w the body for a solid neck joint. Or you can add a top, thickening the body and trapping the neck letting you extend your scale.

 

[JFlo]

There are plenty of 32" scale 5 strings these days so not entirely out of the question. You could always go 33.5" scale, that should give you plenty of contact w the body for a solid neck joint. Or you can add a top, thickening the body and trapping the neck letting you extend your scale.

I would like to keep the body top as is because the middle strip of bloodwood will match the fingerboard. I might go with the 33.5" scale.

 

[Reedt2000]

I would like to keep the body top as is because the middle strip of bloodwood will match the fingerboard. I might go with the 33.5" scale.

Make your top out of the same materials as the body, or just a bloodwood center with wings of something else.

 

[Will_White]

I may not be looking at it right but it looks like you have plenty of room for a 35" scale neck, if you're concerned about body thickness you could do a glued in set neck. That's how most Rickenfakers do it.

 

[Beej]

Maybe look at moving your nut line or zero fret line further up the truss rod to the very end. Looks like there's room to push it to 3/8" ahead of where it is. That will gain you a little at the body end. Then just hide that in a slight reshaping of the neck to headstock transition and maybe length of headstock.

Combine that with moving the neck a little deeper into the body, say joining at the 22nd fret and that may be enough to give you a good deep joint. Like @Will_White says, there's room on the body for the bridge to go further back, so it's just finding the space with a few small compromises.

 

[JFlo]

The slow boat to Imrryr sails on...I played an all day festival on Saturday so didn't get much time on my project. I finagled the layout and will be able to do 34" scale. I cut the headstock angle, planed and slotted the fretboard, then glued it to the neck.

I drew a neck template on MDF but ran out of time as I went to see Quasi last night. Luckily they played one of my favorites:

 

[JFlo]

Progress! I glued wings on the headstock and drilled the tuner holes.

Then I used templates to route the neck and headstock. I might do a veneer layer on the headstock to cover my saw goof.

Then I radiused the fingerboard with a sanding block. It wasn't too bad with a 20" radius. It was actually easier than using the router jig I made. I left it at 320, might hit it again later.

I rough cut the back of the neck and called it a day.
Today's soundtrack has nothing to do with Moorcock. I was listening to David Lindley all day. RIP.

 

[ctmullins]

I'm late to this thread, sorry. 34" will work for B E A D, but I agree with @Will_White ; you could have done 35" easy. In your photo with the ruler your nut was right around 36.25", so you had more than an inch of additional neck to shove into the body.

 

[JFlo]

I'm late to this thread, sorry. 34" will work for B E A D, but I agree with @Will_White ; you could have done 35" easy. In your photo with the ruler your nut was right around 36.25", so you had more than an inch of additional neck to shove into the body.

I think that photo is deceptive because of the wide angle lens. There is a faint pencil line on the side of the neck that is lined up with the 35" mark on the ruler. I wasn't confident with less than 2" of neck heel attached to the body so I cheated the nut as far forward as possible. I'm still going to end up with the saddles pretty far back. Now I know better for next time.

 

[ctmullins]

I think that photo is deceptive because of the wide angle lens. There is a faint pencil line on the side of the neck that is lined up with the 35" mark on the ruler. I wasn't confident with less than 2" of neck heel attached to the body so I cheated the nut as far forward as possible. I'm still going to end up with the saddles pretty far back. Now I know better for next time.

Ah, I think I can see that now. There is quite a bit of lens distortion!

Carry on!