I tried gluing the photographic paper onto some left over ash using Titebond. It seems to have glued really well, better then I would have expected.
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Winter Build Off 2018 - 54 P bass inspired 5 String
- Thread starter GMC
- Start date
At the risk of self-something-or-other, if you are going to put in a skunk stripe for the looks, it need not be "false" - as an entrant, you should have a roll of carbon fiber, and under a skunk stripe is a great place to put a chunk of it. Will/should make essentially no difference in depth.
Funnily enough, I had a pair of carbon rods ready for this bass. I chose not to use them as the neck blank is so strong and stiff, they weren't needed. The whole "5 strings needs 2 truss rods or carbon fibre re-enforcement" is very dependent on the neck construction. Laminated Wenge, Purple heart and Padouk are a lot stiffer and structurally stronger than any plain maple neck I've seen. Sure it'll be a little weaker once the neck is carved, but it's SO stiff already.
I just finished a 35" scale bolt on five string. The neck is 3 piece with mahogany on the outside and maple in the middle, tiger maple fretboard. It has no support besides the truss rod. It's the thinnest neck I've ever made and it's still structurally sound. I'll admit the truss rod adjustment is very sensitive, but I have no fear of this neck folding over or whatever.
I'm with you there. My last build was a 6 string, 5 piece laminated neck. Single truss rod and no carbon re-enforcing. The neck is pretty stable, stays in tune and the Low B is clear and defined. I think that all maple necks probably need the extra stiffness. But once you get into laminated construction with woods like Wenge and Purpleheart...it's really not necessary.
Yesterday, I started the slow and tedious process of fret slotting with a fret saw. I have a jig that I like to use, which I built for another bass over 10 years ago. I really need to mechanise this process...it's far to slow and tedious. Zero Fret and nut slots are cut first.
I've completed the fret sawing and I'm starting the fingerboard radius sanding. I have photos, but my laptop Windows 10 profile has just corrupted and it'll be a few days before I can process them.
Here's the slotted fingerboard. Sorry about the bedspread background. I marked out the tuner holes and the headstock shape. I also cut off the end of board with my fret saw, it's amazing the smooth cut that I can get from this saw. The truss rod is body end. I prefer to leave as much mass in the neck at the headstock end.
I pre-drilled the tuner hole centers. Then I drilled 2-3 mm of the top face side using a 14mm forsner bit in my drill press. They are slow going, but are very accurate and allow small adjustments. They also minimise tear out on the protruding hole. Then I flipped over the board and used the hole centers as a locating hole and drilled from the other side. This gives a nice clean cut and no tear out. Sometimes there's a tiny shift in the hole, but the Hipshot tuners will cover this very slight difference.
It's a slower way to drill, but it's amazingly accurate and neat.
An hour or so later and all 5 holes are neatly drilled.
An hour or so later and all 5 holes are neatly drilled.
I fitted my widest router bit on my router table and took 3mm off the front face of the headstock. It's not the most accurate was of doing this, so undercut and allowed for sanding and scraping. I started to carve the fingerboard ramp too.
It was nice to get back into the workshed today for a few hours.
I tapered the sides of the neck. I did a rough pass with a straight edge on my band saw and then stuck an MDF neck template to the underside and routed it on my table router. Then I stuck a headstock template onto the back of the headstock and neatened up the line a bit more on the router table.
Then I popped the headstock onto the round part of my table sander / linisher to get the headstock radius machined. Nice and smooth now and curves well from the end of the fingerboard to the flat part.
Then I glued two wenge blocks to either side of the headstock to make up the correct width. These will need to set fully before I can any more to the neck.
I tapered the sides of the neck. I did a rough pass with a straight edge on my band saw and then stuck an MDF neck template to the underside and routed it on my table router. Then I stuck a headstock template onto the back of the headstock and neatened up the line a bit more on the router table.
Then I popped the headstock onto the round part of my table sander / linisher to get the headstock radius machined. Nice and smooth now and curves well from the end of the fingerboard to the flat part.
Then I glued two wenge blocks to either side of the headstock to make up the correct width. These will need to set fully before I can any more to the neck.
A few images from today's work.
Firstly I took off the masking tape and sanded the back of the headstock flat. Then I stuck the MDF headstock template onto the back using some double sided tape. I then Routed around this template using a template follower bit in my routing table set up. Quite a neat job.
Firstly I took off the masking tape and sanded the back of the headstock flat. Then I stuck the MDF headstock template onto the back using some double sided tape. I then Routed around this template using a template follower bit in my routing table set up. Quite a neat job.
Then I used a template router bit with the bearing at the top to trim down the thickness of the stick on wings.
This worked well and made a really clean cut.
This worked well and made a really clean cut.
Then I used a few different sanding rollers to neaten my line.
I'm leaving the back of the neck un-cut at the moment, until I've finished radius sanding / routing the fingerboard. Tomorrow I'll fix the neck to my radius jig and route out the radius.
After a LOT of routering, planing and sanding....this 5 string bass fingerboard now sports a 12" radius.
That...was...hard...work...
No photos during that process...way way too much fine dust in the air for my DLSR.
But as a consolation I cracked out the 100mm IS macro and ef 35mm f1.4 for some glorious slim DOF imagery. Enjoy!
That...was...hard...work...
No photos during that process...way way too much fine dust in the air for my DLSR.
But as a consolation I cracked out the 100mm IS macro and ef 35mm f1.4 for some glorious slim DOF imagery. Enjoy!
