Winter 2019 Build Off - The Carl Factor

[Jisch]

Wait, there's not a time element to this?

I can't help myself, I love working on this thing.

 

[ctmullins]

 

[Jisch]

I probably have 40 or more hours into this build so far, so it's not like it's moving fast, I've just been able to spend a lot of concentrated time on it.

 

[Beej]

Those of you unfamiliar with @Jisch 's pace might be surprised by where he's at right now, but those of us who know him are sorely disappointed by how much he's dragging along on this one...

 

[CatchaCuda]

I really need to visit luthier's corner more often.

The build is looking amazing, I can't imagine what the end result is going to look like.

 

[Jisch]

I had a bit of a mishap on the glue up.

How many times have I told you guys not to do stuff when you're tired? I left a small amount of room on the fingerboard, there was supposed to be a small amount (less than a 32nd) of overlap on each side of the neck. Somehow I set it up so it's flush on the treble side. Why? I don't know, tired and not paying attention, I guess.

I'll have to plane off the binding on the bass side and glue a new one on. That's plan A. Plan B involves planing off the whole fingerboard and starting over, that would be a bummer. In either case I should be fine and back on track by the end of today, another stupid rainy day when I should be out on my bike. Somehow Connecticut has become the Pacific Northwest. Normally at this time of year I'd be riding on frozen dirt (which is awesome) or snow (which is even more awesome).

 

[Jisch]

I really need to visit luthier's corner more often.

The build is looking amazing, I can't imagine what the end result is going to look like.

Thanks! This is one of the more complicated builds I've made. I'm happy with how things are going so far, I'm excited to see this thing done. I'm on the road most of the next two weeks so progress will slow down considerably from here.

 

[Jisch]

I guess this is how most people do bindings anyway. It seems good. I've got the binding glued up, I'll put the two together later today.

 

[Jisch]

I'm just about back to where I was, I just have to do side dots, which should be easier to do with binding not connected to the neck.

 

[MPU]

Normally at this time of year I'd be riding on frozen dirt (which is awesome) or snow (which is even more awesome).

I think the best winter activity is fatbiking on the trails (or ice-swimming from sauna).

 

[Jisch]

I think the best winter activity is fatbiking on the trails (or ice-swimming from sauna).

I've never done the swimming/sauna thing, but I love fat biking in the snow. I got one snow ride in this year, but we've only gotten rain since then. It's a bummer. No one mountain bikes on the trails when they are muddy, and that's been most of the winter so far.

 

[Jisch]

I got an afternoon in the shop today. I glued on the binding, then worked on the semi-acoustic for a couple hours, then back to the Carl Factor.

Glue up went well, I have a couple of gaps I'll have to deal with, but nothing big. The dust from the padauk gets everywhere, I'm going to have to be careful with the maple when I get closer to finishing.

Hmmm, what to do next? Neck carve! I love this part, it's always over too quickly. I use my workmate to hold the instrument while I work on the neck. It works great with plenty of clamping space and I can hold the end of the neck on my thigh while I use the shinto (facet method if you can't tell).

First facet done.

I quickly ran a scraper down to clean it up a bit, but there's a lot of work to make the neck nice and that heel is going to be a couple hours easily.

It's starting to look like a bass.

I'll spend the next few hours shaping the neck and heel. I have a significant amount of cleanup on the scroll too. There's some rough spots in the middle, and I need to really look at how I should shape the inside of the very end, I'm not sure I've got it right.

 

[postalflunkie]

I'm with you! Neck shaping is definatly the most satisfying part of building.

 

[Jisch]

Even after doing maybe 20 necks with the facet method, I still look at those first two facets and wonder how a neck is going to emerge from that. Then after getting the second facet done I just go into roundover mode. I don't know if I've ever done the second set of facets. This neck has a similar profile to the last five I did (D), but it's slightly thicker, which feels good. I feel like that other five is slightly too thin.

 

[Jisch]

I've got a lot more shaping to do on the neck overall, but I got an hour in on the heel. Way more to do.

 

[ctmullins]

Oooo, tasty!

 

[CatchaCuda]

It's really coming along. Fine looking bass already!

Edit: Will this be a bass for personal use when completed?

 

[postalflunkie]

Very nice

 

[Jisch]

It's really coming along. Fine looking bass already!

Edit: Will this be a bass for personal use when completed?

I'm building it to my specifications, but really any bass I make is for sale (I have way too many basses at this point). If I kept this one, it would replace a five bolt on headless that is my "main" bass right now.

 

[Jisch]

I spent the morning working on the neck heel and generally scraping out tool marks in other parts of the bass. Most of that work won't show up on pictures, except maybe the heel, which is starting to look better. Standing it up like this under the light shows me where I've still got a couple of wiggles that need to be scraped, sanded or filed out.

The Factor bass has a smooth curve in the top of the fingerboard below the 24th fret and it ramps down to the body. I didn't copy it exactly, but I think this looks cool. Obviously it's got some final forming to be done as well.

And a gratuitous shot of the full front.