Winter Build Off 2019 - Kubickenbacker

[ctmullins]

Gotcha. I guess I should see if they have guitar buttons that fit the bass tuner frames.

In the mean time, I have a plan for the neck mount. This drawing isn't to scale side to side, but the thicknesses are pretty close.

View attachment 3275753
Body is 1-5/8" thick. Neck blank would be cut 1-3/4" thick, with the tenon being 3/4" thick.
There would be 6 large bolts going into threaded inserts in the body.
If the tenon was all the way back to the bridge pickup, I could also run screws or bolts into the neck from that side as well. Perhaps pointless, but I drew it on just in case.
The area where the neck ledge bumps against the body would be about 1" thick of the solid body wood, so I doubt any string tension would seriously impact that area enough to warp it. And having at least 6 large bolts holding a 3/4" thick section of laminated maple is unlikely to flex much either.

Thoughts?

Looks fairly close to what I was going to suggest, but I do have a few thoughts.

First, the vast majority of the force exerted by string tension is parallel to the neck. Only a tiny force is actually trying to pull the neck up.

This means that, if your neck mates tightly to your body (insert Highlander joke here) then that force is borne by wood-on-wood contact, and the screws are contributing very little.

The small portion of force that is perpendicular to the neck is trying to pull the headstock upwards, meaning the neck will want to (again, slightly) pivot around the point north of the neck pickup where the neck wood meets the body wood.

So given your three pairs of screws,

Pair 2 is completely superfluous, Pair 3 is only there to support the neck when the strings are removed, and Pair 1 is the only pair actually contributing to structural rigidity when the strings are tensioned.

I would invert Pair 1, with the screw heads in the bridge pickup cavity, so that they’re not visible from the back (or the front, with the pickup hiding them), and I would do the same with Pair 3. A metal strip (like a mini neck bolt plate) might be a good idea.

Also, hopefully your pickups are long enough such that their mounting screws are in body wood, and not neck wood? Right? ‘Cause that would be bad...

 

[rojo412]

They are definitely going to be mounted in the body wood. They are essentially EMG 45 style pickups.
Unlike actual Rickenbacker pickups, these will cover the span of the string spacing. (Ricken-BURN!!!)

And that is damn helpful, thank you @ctmullins for the tips.
But to clarify, you mean having 2 pairs of bolts holding the neck on, only using the pickup cavity areas, thus making these a hidden neck bolt setup?

My concern with that area was the fact that once routed for pickups and the neck, the body would only be about 3/16" thick in those spots. Even with a 1/8" steel bolt plate, that seems kinda flimsy, especially if it fell over at some point. I could just see the neck dangling with 2 chunks of wood attached if that ever happened.

But I could add external bolts to the neck into the body, just to bolster that in case of tragedy, in positions 1 and 3, for example. The string forces would be exerted on the internals, the externals just keep the neck firmly attached in a rotational way.
That, or thin out the tenon to increase the body thickness.
Or try and get REALLY nutty with a dovetail joint (which I've never done).
Thoughts?

As for Hipshot, I love those guys! But they don't do a bass tuner with a guitar button. I'd have to modify.
I'd do Gotoh in a hearbeat if they are interchangeable with guitar buttons.

I think I need to go to get more TB3 anyway as we speak. I just cut this all up and it needs to be made into a billet:

13 piece neck, 10 maple and 3 walnut, the 5th from the left has sapwood in the area getting trimmed off.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

The image of neck bolts concealed under the pups is too cool, got to be a way to make that work!

 

[postalflunkie]

What about thread inserts mounted under the pickups?

 

[Beej]

I just cut this all up and it needs to be made into a billet:

View attachment 3275980
13 piece neck, 10 maple and 3 walnut, the 5th from the left has sapwood in the area getting trimmed off.

Beautiful... I think you should glue it up exactly as-is.

 

[ctmullins]

The image of neck bolts concealed under the pups is too cool, got to be a way to make that work!

Just trying to do my part to ensure rojo wins again this year.

 

[rojo412]

I am gluing it up like that! But in stages. I started with the middle.

 

[rojo412]

The image of neck bolts concealed under the pups is too cool, got to be a way to make that work!

I'll do it, even if it doesn't need to be done. Because I totally agree with you!

 

[rojo412]

The clamp farm is clamped up.

The body looks unassuming, with the drill bit pins holding it together...

... But inside is where there is magic!

Well, not really magic. It's just been chambered and prepped for glue. And I wrote some hidden messages in there.
Once I get all of the clamps back from the farm, I can make these 2 become 1. Then it's just a matter of everything that is much harder and more time consuming.

I love this time of year!

 

[postalflunkie]

Will there be a special award for the most excessive use of clamps this year? I may need to go buy a few more

 

[rojo412]

Not sure on that award, but I think I'm already being beaten on that front. @GeraldMcG looked like he was clamping for the gold last I checked.

 

[GeraldMcG]

Not sure on that award, but I think I'm already being beaten on that front.

@GeraldMcG looked like he was clamping for the gold last I checked.

It's a tough call. I will leave it up to the judges.

 

[rojo412]

Should there happen to actually be a clamp contest, I hope it's like olympic events, where you can take more tries and use the best score. Here's my attempt #2:

I even tried an artsy shot, like a skyline of clamps:

Anyway, the body got glued yesterday. So far, so good.

The neck got unclamped and it's also looking good, though I'm going to have to use a router sled to plane it perfectly flat on one side.

And I'm well aware why people avoid figure like this in necks, when it comes to making them flat and smooth. Chipout is inevitable, so it's a lot of sanding to make it perfectly flat.
But as for twists or weird things happening, I think the fact that it's gonna be 13 pieces, supported with a lot of carbon should at least fight that well enough for this bass.

 

[Jon Clegg]

Should there happen to actually be a clamp contest, I hope it's like olympic events, where you can take more tries and use the best score. Here's my attempt #2:

View attachment 3279044
View attachment 3279046
I even tried an artsy shot, like a skyline of clamps:

View attachment 3279045
Anyway, the body got glued yesterday. So far, so good.

The neck got unclamped and it's also looking good, though I'm going to have to use a router sled to plane it perfectly flat on one side.

View attachment 3279050

And I'm well aware why people avoid figure like this in necks, when it comes to making them flat and smooth. Chipout is inevitable, so it's a lot of sanding to make it perfectly flat.
But as for twists or weird things happening, I think the fact that it's gonna be 13 pieces, supported with a lot of carbon should at least fight that well enough for this bass.

A much better effort in the clampology.

 

[postalflunkie]

I yeald to you O master of clampology

 

[rojo412]

Clamps worked. Bandsaw works. Oscillating spindle sander works (new belt!).

The router works, too. But using the pattern bit, it was rubbing against the control cavity "ceiling".
It's superficial, the burn marks will be covered in shielding paint and then, you know... it will be closed! So I'm cool with it.

With any luck, I'll be getting the neck moving tomorrow. I managed to flatten it with a router sled, enough to do the rest by hand. But first, I need to figure out how to cut the side profile while it's still square. Once I have that sorted, I can taper it, cut the tenon shape, plot the location on the body, then cut the neck pocket.

Of course, beyond that is:
How to anchor the strings at the headstock (I have an idea, need to test it)
Whether or not to do the "fretboard goes to the end of the neck" like Kubicki
How to do inlays (Kubicki is the clean look, Rick is ornate as hell... where's the medium?)
And of course, the matter of the drop A... that is my white whale!

 

[ctmullins]

It’s going to be a shame to paint that....

 

[rojo412]

@ctmullins, I get where you're coming from on that. The pics kinda make it seem that way. But these boards are really mismatched and have weird coloration and figure. I think when a clear finish were to hit it, that would be loud.
Plus, I gotta do the Kubicki thing! I know they made a few exotics, but they were mostly solids, so that's the mission.

If it helps, the wood for this body was all of about $8. My wood place has a clearance section of curly maple and you can get 8' boards for between $4-12. I've gotten some really nice stuff there... and this wasn't the nicest.

 

[Jisch]

I think you'll be fine with that neck, I built my two hand tapper in a similar fashion and it's very stable.

Is the taper cut on the neck going to go through layers? I always avoid that, interested to see what it looks like.

 

[rojo412]

Yeah, it will cut across. I've done it before, no issues. And it will definitely look interesting with this array!