Winter 2017 Build Off -- The Dan-0-Backer

[Jon Clegg]

Hey Jon, I'm curious, how did you rabbet for the neck binding after the fingerboard was radiused, in the planer jig? I did mine while the FB was flat, installed binding, then radiused the whole shebang. The downside was I couldn't set side dots until I had the FB radiused, didn't know how thick the bound edge would be.

I scratched my head over this a bit before I came up this this solution: I noticed that with the 12" radius, the fretboard didn't really rock much if laid on its face on the router table.
So... what I did was to use a 1/2" bottom bearing bit with a 3/8" bearing mounted in my router table; yielding a 1/16" rabbet -- same thing I did to rout the body wings. The fretboard is mounted on my tapering template with carpet tape so I just ran in upside down with the bearing riding along the template. did some test fits and it looks like a perfect fit for the 1.5 x 6mm binding.

 

[Jon Clegg]

Bam! Problem solved. Bass looks great, BTW. I'm kind of regretting I didn't inject a few more personal details into my build, it's a little too slavish to the original 4001 design. No worries, I can get a little jiggy with it on Hossenfeffer II.

Yeah... Yeah... personal details.. that's the ticket!

"They're not bugs they're features!" -- Every software developer, ever

 

[Gilmourisgod]

All my special "features" got filled with bondo and sanded flush.. heh! Hopefully they don't telegraph through the black paint to announce their special-ness later.

 

[Jon Clegg]

Dots and binding installed:

 

[Beej]

Excellent! Coming along nicely...

 

[Jon Clegg]

Thanks Beej!

 

[Gilmourisgod]

I like the three dots, Win! Binding looks great. .060"? I screwed up and used .040", too thin by the time I scraped it flush, had to pull some off and re-do it. Nice looking FB, rosewood?

 

[Jon Clegg]

Thanks. Love it when I can turn a bug into a feature! The binding is 1.5 mm or 0.060. Yes, the board is an LMII Indian rosewood board.

 

[Jon Clegg]

More work on the rest of the neck:

Back of the neck all planed

Back of the headstock planed off

Rough carve of the volute

Now my entry for most clamps in a square foot, gluing the wings to the headstock

Should I go chrome or brass:

 

[Gilmourisgod]

I vote brass on the nut. Easier to shape and polish.

 

[Jon Clegg]

Couldn't resist popping down to the basement to un-clamp and take a few pics before leaving for work:

Ready to cut that iconic shape:

 

[Jon Clegg]

Got home and eagerly went down to the shop to cut the headstock to shape. I decided to use a forstner to create the inside curl of the wave:

Rough cut the headstock shape with a jig saw then applied my template and a flush cut bit to get the shape everything was going swimmingly and then:

After contemplating how to fix this disaster, I opted for a slight reshape. With the help of the bandsaw and the robo-sander I think I salvaged things:

Tonight, barring further disaster, I'll apply the mahogany veneer to the front of the headstock.

 

[Jon Clegg]

Pressing on the veneer, or how many clamps can I fit in here?

And 2 hours later out of the press and roughly trimmed to shape:

Tomorrow, I'll grain fill and color-match

I'll do it tomorrow:

 

[Jon Clegg]

Headstock cap dyed

I think I got the color right. Ready to rout the binding channel, I think.

 

[Jon Clegg]

Decided to do a few other things before routing the headstock for binding. Made holes in the fingerboard binding for fret markers; I have black plastic rod on order:

And got the neck beam planed down (mostly) to matchup with the body:

Motivational glamour shot:

Progress continues, albeit slowly.

 

[I-Am-The-Slime]

Hey Jon, looking great! I think those are the bridges I've seen on amazon (like this) that require some hogging out of the body. Did you choose them for any reason in particular? Are you going for through body strings? I have flat-bottomed ones that have a third hole for if you want to go through body (like this). I guess I don't understand the need (and extra work) for the stuff sticking out on the bottom...

 

[Matt Liebenau]

That looks very good. I'm looking forward to seeing how those bridges work out. I was just looking at those last night.

 

[Jon Clegg]

Thanks! I confess that I went with those because of the looks after seeing @JIO use them. I also like the screw adjustment for intonation. I've used the flat bottomed one's on another bass; thought I'd try these. I do have ferrules to do string-thru.

 

[JIO]

Thanks! I confess that I went with those because of the looks after seeing @JIO use them. I also like the screw adjustment for intonation. I've used the flat bottomed one's on another bass; thought I'd try these. I do have ferrules to do string-thru.

They are used on Ibanez basses and can be had in silver, gold and black. For individual units, they are substantial, have internal body interface (for more dynamic coupling) and feel nice for palm-muting on the surface. Staggering them is a must as fore-aft adjustment (if going string-thru) is best determined before installation.

 

[I-Am-The-Slime]

For individual units, they are substantial, have internal body interface (for more dynamic coupling)

dynamic coupling, you say I'll have to look into that more. I do like the aesthetic and can appreciate how they could be more comfortable for the right hand, just not fully convinced it's worth the trouble (for me, on my own build) of the extra installation steps. On the other hand, they are dirt cheap