What's On Your Workbench?

[Gary_M]

And my new Amana router bit next to them -
https://www.talkbass.com/attachments/20220503_193352-jpg.4679986/
It's pretty small, I have concerns. We shall see.

Hey, congrats on the new toys! With the small Amana bit, just be sure you route cavities with a 1/2" bit first, then chase the perimeter with your small Amana bit to get into the tight radii. That way, you won't be stressing it... just like hogging out with Forstner bits. I do use small bits like that in pickguard material with no issues, especially in single coil routes, etc.

 

[TerribleTim68]

Hey, congrats on the new toys! With the small Amana bit, just be sure you route cavities with a 1/2" bit first, then chase the perimeter with your small Amana bit to get into the tight radii. That way, you won't be stressing it... just like hogging out with Forstner bits. I do use small bits like that in pickguard material with no issues, especially in single coil routes, etc.

Thanks! Mostly I'm looking for the extra depth from it, so that may be fun. My 3/8" top bearing bit isn't long enough and I can't seem to find one that has the extra length.

 

[RichterScale]

I can't seem to find one that has the extra length.

Just gonna dangle that one for the less mature among us?

 

[TerribleTim68]

Just gonna dangle that one for the less mature among us?

It's like the Home Run Derby. Nobody ever gives credit to that pitcher out there lobbing easy ones all day.

 

[dwizum]

Those are some badass uke headstocks

Thanks! My normal headstock design I use on other instruments has the little carved out bevel along the top. Traditional uke headstocks have a three-point crown along the top edge. For my uke headstocks, I added a little point to the middle of my normal carved design as a sort of reference of the trad design. I think it looks pretty good and it's distinct from what you usually see.

 

[RichterScale]

Please tell me you totally stole that from someone else,.....so I don't have to feel all weird inside about stealing it from you, as a bass headstock.

 

[TerribleTim68]

Please tell me you totally stole that from someone else,.....so I don't have to feel all weird inside about stealing it from you, as a bass headstock.

It's okay, I'm kind of stealing the concept a bit too.

 

[dwizum]

I wouldn't ever claim to be the first to do anything, but I basically came up with that on my own over time. The first headstock I ever made from scratch had a headplate that was cut away to reveal the laminate at the end:

Those first couple were cut freehand. After that, I switched to using a template with a narrower shape, and carving away a concave lip. This was the first carved lip:

That shape was supposed to be my do-everything shape, and it went on a few instruments, but it was really cramped for big instruments and too big for small ones, so I replaced it with three new templates that I'm still using today. One is comically narrow, for tenor guitars. I like the dainty character of how slim it is:

Then there's this version, which I use for 6 string guitars and 4 or 5 string basses, the template has tuner hole locations marked out for each:

The third current template is that uke one pictured above.

And then for the occasional Fender style headstock, I move the cut-away lip to the side of the scroll:

At any rate, I would encourage anyone and everyone to steal from me without feeling weird, because I certainly don't hesitate to steal ideas myself!

 

[Matt Liebenau]

I wouldn't ever claim to be the first to do anything, but I basically came up with that on my own over time. The first headstock I ever made from scratch had a headplate that was cut away to reveal the laminate at the end:

View attachment 4680568

Those first couple were cut freehand. After that, I switched to using a template with a narrower shape, and carving away a concave lip. This was the first carved lip:

View attachment 4680571

That shape was supposed to be my do-everything shape, and it went on a few instruments, but it was really cramped for big instruments and too big for small ones, so I replaced it with three new templates that I'm still using today. One is comically narrow, for tenor guitars. I like the dainty character of how slim it is:

View attachment 4680584

Then there's this version, which I use for 6 string guitars and 4 or 5 string basses, the template has tuner hole locations marked out for each:

View attachment 4680588

View attachment 4680579

The third current template is that uke one pictured above.

And then for the occasional Fender style headstock, I move the cut-away lip to the side of the scroll:

View attachment 4680589

At any rate, I would encourage anyone and everyone to steal from me without feeling weird, because I certainly don't hesitate to steal ideas myself!

Very nice. Did we get to see pictures if that tenor guitar? If not, pleeeeeeease… What’s the scale length?

 

[dwizum]

Very nice. Did we get to see pictures if that tenor guitar? If not, pleeeeeeease… What’s the scale length?

I don't remember if I ever posted pics of those tenors. I made two identical guitars, one for my daughter and one for my brother. About two or three years ago I think. They're 23 1/4" scale length, semi hollow bodies with piezo pickups. One was tuned GDAE and one was CGDA. Cherry body, walnut top, and curly maple center. Neck is maple, walnut, and cherry with a walnut fretboard.

 

[Flamingo21]

This one's in danger of getting stolen by me.

 

[TerribleTim68]

Well, I'm not doing a direct rip-off. But I will fully admit that this design was heavily influenced by @dwizum and @SlingBlader, both of who I admire their work a great deal. -

The blue line represents the section that will basically be "stepped" down like the two of them do. It will probably just be stepped enough to reveal the neck lams under the headstock cap, I don't really plan on any fancy shaping like Dwizum is doing.

Yes, I'm aware it looks very Dingwall-esque. It's kind of a mashup of Dingwall and Ibanez SR series, with some liberties taken and the stepped area added to make it less "direct rip-off".

 

[RichterScale]

I'll allow it.
You may proceed to level 2.

 

[dwizum]

I do the cut away portion with a template that's cut to the "smaller" shape, and a cove/tray router bit with a bushing to follow the template. Basically, my templates have holes at the tuner locations, so I screw down the full size template with screws into the tuner locations, trim the headstock to shape with a normal patten bit, then swap to the other template and do the cut away portion. Bonus, the screw holes act as pilot holes when I go to drill out the tuner holes.

 

[Flamingo21]

(...) my templates have holes at the tuner locations, so I screw down the full size template with screws into the tuner locations (...)

Another thing worth stealing! Bookmarked.

 

[MPU]

I’ve been working with this free Epiphone EB3. It has nice mahogany body and maple neck. I’m modifying it to short scale. I removed the long scale fretboard, cut the neck, scarfed a new headstock, mounted dual carbon rods and DASR truss rod and made new, short scale fretboard.
I’m trying to make it sound everything else than mud often associated with these basses. I’m moving pickups to mid 70’s position and making Bisonic style pickups in the Mudbucker covers.
I repaired the broken jack hole and plugged long scale bridge post holes as well as pickup cavities. Finish will be walnut stain under schellac.
I’m going to use Babicz bridge and Schaller tuners.
So far I have bought the bridge, one mudbucker, frets, headstock veneer and fretboard blank. Everything else is from my drawers so this is mainly just work.

 

[StereoPlayer]

Ordered some white nail polish for my position markers on this fretless neck. The abalone markers were a poor choice…
I’ve been using this sorta new bass with a R&B band I joined. Getting compliments on the sounds of it.

 

[Flamingo21]

@StereoPlayer
What was wrong with the abalone markers?

 

[StereoPlayer]

@StereoPlayer
What was wrong with the abalone markers?

I thought they would “shine”sparkle”…but against the dark babinga wood they are hard to see at times.
See the above picture. The 5th position is rather hard to see.

 

[dwizum]

Abalone can be tricky. I buy the dots 100 at a time and then sort them into light and dark colors as I use them. The light dots show up great on darker woods and the dark ones look great on maple. Get it the other way around though and they disappear.