- Apr 18, 2008
- 16,011
- 1
- 31,709
- Disclosures
- I'm highly opinionated and extremely self-assured
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Winter Build Off 2020 - Kuun Space
- Thread starter Jisch
- Start date
I got the front glued up. While this walnut isn't figured, the grain and colors are pretty spectacular.
I got the neck blank and the front piece out of the clamps and planed, both glue ups look perfect. The boards I'm using for the front include the pith of the log. I'll just have to be careful when carving that I don't get into that stuff. It looks fine, but just something to remember later on.
This neck is going to be pretty cool, lots of figure in the birdseye! The center beam is quartersawn, this should be a pretty strong neck.
With the front and the back together it's about 1.35" thick, so I'll add another half inch+ of cherry in between. I'm thinking of putting a black laminate stripe in between the two pieces of cherry. I think that will look cool.
Next I have to get the outer birdseye panels cut, shaped and glued in. I'll get the top shaped and carved then work toward the back from there. Now that I've got all this glued up I can work pretty much non-stop without waiting for glue to dry (for a little while anyway). The kid invasion is underway, so I'll have limited time until tomorrow afternoon, at the earliest.
The top will end up being 3/16" thick. I need to get down to HD and get some bolts to make spool clamps for gluing the top on. Alternatively I can try using the vacuum bag, but I'm concerned about it caving in the top, I suppose spool clamps are the safer way to do it.
This neck is going to be pretty cool, lots of figure in the birdseye! The center beam is quartersawn, this should be a pretty strong neck.
With the front and the back together it's about 1.35" thick, so I'll add another half inch+ of cherry in between. I'm thinking of putting a black laminate stripe in between the two pieces of cherry. I think that will look cool.
Next I have to get the outer birdseye panels cut, shaped and glued in. I'll get the top shaped and carved then work toward the back from there. Now that I've got all this glued up I can work pretty much non-stop without waiting for glue to dry (for a little while anyway). The kid invasion is underway, so I'll have limited time until tomorrow afternoon, at the earliest.
The top will end up being 3/16" thick. I need to get down to HD and get some bolts to make spool clamps for gluing the top on. Alternatively I can try using the vacuum bag, but I'm concerned about it caving in the top, I suppose spool clamps are the safer way to do it.
I started working on the birds eye maple that will be glued in against the maple on the front. A bit stressful, but I have the difficult part done (on the treble side).
The wood mill guy cancelled on me this morning due to an issue with his mill, so I got some time in the shop this morning.
I continued working on the birds eye edges, this all seems a bit abstract at this point, I think I have it figured out, but we will see when I get to shaping the top! After I get the top shaped I'll work on the back, I have a drawing I'm working off, but I suspect the shape might change a bit and will be entirely based off the top.
This is the treble side, seems to be a pretty perfect connection.
The bass side needed a bit more massaging, but I think I got it. I'll verify before I glue it. I almost made an error when cutting these, I hadn't considered the grain on the maple. I used the sanding marks from the planer on the treble side (that I had already cut and routed) and referenced them against the centerline, then transferred that same line against the grain orientation on the other side. It was significantly different than how I had originally planned on cutting it. I was lucky that there was enough extra material so that I could rotate it to accommodate the grain. Certainly the eyes are random, but there is still grain there.
I got the treble side glued up, getting a good clamp wasn't easy, but with a couple of wedges (added after this pic was taken) and a piece of hickory on the bass side I got it. I'll let this set and maybe this afternoon I'll get the other side glued up.
Then I started working on the neck. I penciled in all the cuts then routed the truss rod. The neck blank is about 3" longer than it needs to be right now.
I'm not sure if I'll get more time in this afternoon or not.
I continued working on the birds eye edges, this all seems a bit abstract at this point, I think I have it figured out, but we will see when I get to shaping the top! After I get the top shaped I'll work on the back, I have a drawing I'm working off, but I suspect the shape might change a bit and will be entirely based off the top.
This is the treble side, seems to be a pretty perfect connection.
The bass side needed a bit more massaging, but I think I got it. I'll verify before I glue it. I almost made an error when cutting these, I hadn't considered the grain on the maple. I used the sanding marks from the planer on the treble side (that I had already cut and routed) and referenced them against the centerline, then transferred that same line against the grain orientation on the other side. It was significantly different than how I had originally planned on cutting it. I was lucky that there was enough extra material so that I could rotate it to accommodate the grain. Certainly the eyes are random, but there is still grain there.
Then I started working on the neck. I penciled in all the cuts then routed the truss rod. The neck blank is about 3" longer than it needs to be right now.
I'm not sure if I'll get more time in this afternoon or not.
I got the bass side done. The treble side was almost perfect based on the templates, for some reason the bass side needed a bit more work. I clamped it in my vice and used the light on my bandsaw as a light table of sorts.
I've done this same thing a few times in the past, basically looking for the places where there is no light shining through, marking them with a pencil, removing that and testing again. After about 20 minutes it was good and I glued it up. It looks so weird right now, the curves are all backwards, hopefully I got this right.
I've done this same thing a few times in the past, basically looking for the places where there is no light shining through, marking them with a pencil, removing that and testing again. After about 20 minutes it was good and I glued it up. It looks so weird right now, the curves are all backwards, hopefully I got this right.
Ok, let's try this post again:
I got the neck roughed in. I haven't done a bolt on in a while, I think next time someone asks which is easier, I'm going to say bolt on. I guess if you're not making a hippie sandwich a through neck isn't so hard, if you are, there are a lot of parts to figure out, a bolt on seems simpler. I caught a few mistakes on the neck right before I made them, which is nice.
(actually did a bit more fine work after I took these pics)
Then I cut the fingerboard. My plan right now is birds eye fingerboard with walnut binding. Before I commit I want to be able to look at it all together after I get the top out of the clamps. I have enough for one, maybe two more fingerboards out of the board I cut this one from. Not long ago I bought a birds eye fingerboard that had way fewer eyes than this for $30 or something. I got this board for free, pretty psyched about that. I sent the guy who gave me the board a few early pics of this build, he was really excited to see it. I'll bring the bass over to show him when it's done (and maybe bring him a bowl I turn out of the scraps).
I laid the drawing over the front wood that's in the clamps and everything lines up perfectly, I'm not sure I was having so many problems seeing that before, just a lot of wrong curves and angles, I guess.
I got the neck roughed in. I haven't done a bolt on in a while, I think next time someone asks which is easier, I'm going to say bolt on. I guess if you're not making a hippie sandwich a through neck isn't so hard, if you are, there are a lot of parts to figure out, a bolt on seems simpler. I caught a few mistakes on the neck right before I made them, which is nice.
Then I cut the fingerboard. My plan right now is birds eye fingerboard with walnut binding. Before I commit I want to be able to look at it all together after I get the top out of the clamps. I have enough for one, maybe two more fingerboards out of the board I cut this one from. Not long ago I bought a birds eye fingerboard that had way fewer eyes than this for $30 or something. I got this board for free, pretty psyched about that. I sent the guy who gave me the board a few early pics of this build, he was really excited to see it. I'll bring the bass over to show him when it's done (and maybe bring him a bowl I turn out of the scraps).
I laid the drawing over the front wood that's in the clamps and everything lines up perfectly, I'm not sure I was having so many problems seeing that before, just a lot of wrong curves and angles, I guess.
Do the walnut and birdseye on the top end up at different heights? Or are they flush? Somehow, when I saw your drawing, I had imagined the birdseye was a solid piece underneath the walnut, and the walnut was just cut to the curved shape and glued on top of the maple, so the walnut ended up "raised" above the maple...
No, it will be a carved top, but one solid top all the way across, made out of four pieces of wood. Kuun does have some built like you are describing, but that's not how I'm building this one. Given that I'm using a transducer system under the top I need it to vibrate, so this will be carved to probably 3/16" or so. That's the plan anyway, we'll see how it goes IRL.
I think I could agree with that. Binding on a fingerboard adds a sort of very rigid geometrical look because it emphasizes the straight lines. This bass is going to have a really flowing organic look, and the hard lines from the binding might seem out of place.
I thought about this during my 3-4:00AM no sleep hour, which seems to be a semi-permanent part of my nightly routine now. As this will be an unlined fretless, dots and blocks wouldn't work, but an inlay would be very cool, especially considering I've never really done one. Murray Kuun is German and I have Germanic ancestry as well, so I thought I'd look at some German runes - I found these two that speak to me. I resized them and printed them off, I'll see how they look on the fingerboard. I'm leaning toward the one on the left, it's called "Fire Eye".
Personally, I'm not a fan of binding at all........on any guitar. Just don't like it. But again, that's just me.
I've done fretboard binding on a few instruments and I think it looks good, but as @dwizum says above it does create a hard linear element. I recently used binding to hide the fret tang ends, which I think added to the over all look of the bass.
I got the top cut out and the back of the top planed flat. I need to figure out my carving plan, but I'm pretty excited about how it looks so far. I'm less sure about this rune, I have to think about what materials I'd use. Maybe I'll try making the rune and see what I think.
- Apr 18, 2008
- 16,011
- 1
- 31,709
- Disclosures
- I'm highly opinionated and extremely self-assured
I like the rune. But I don’t know anything about them, so I’m wondering if perhaps the meaning might change when rotated, like perhaps it means “Fire Eye” in its normal vertical orientation, but when the instrument is rotated to playing position it suddenly proclaims “Dirty Diaper” to everybody listening...?
That would be embarrassing ...
That would be embarrassing ...
