You can always use the Windows Character Map and copy/pasta for options beyond just dots too. 
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Winter Build Off 2022: 5 String Fretless Neck Through
- Thread starter Gary_M
- Start date
Qüïmsgëfääërdën ÏÏ (rëvïsïtëd): The Drawing
I was planning to start making templates soon, but I still had too many unanswered questions. Questions that, for me, could only be answered by making a full sized drawring. I tried to avoid it and thought I could just wing it, but I relented and spent some time today doing a very basic layout. This will at least show me the geometry for the bridges, neck angle, etc.
Don't get me wrong, I can still screw things up with an accurate drawing. The main difference is that now I can screw it up with an undeserved sense of confidence.
So, in the spirit of documenting this build, here is a shot of me laying out Qüïmsgëfääërdën ÏÏ (rëvïsïtëd) next to the drawing of the original design. Many thanks to @T_Bone_TL for the umlaut-infused name. Maybe this will turn out to be the best bass for metal??
It's a little tough to see what's actually different in that picture. The changes to the body shape are subtle, but to sum it up, I pulled the horns in a bit so that weren't flared out as much. I also tweaked the lower bout on the treble side. I still need to re-draw the headstock.
Here is an overlay of the new body shape over the original sketch. Again, a little tough to make out, but you can see what I'm talking about.
To me, this is much more pleasing. The original design looked ok. I like that thin upper horn, but the angle just never sat right with me. In fact, it always reminded me of that goofy, buck toothed shark from YouTube fame...
More soon.
I was planning to start making templates soon, but I still had too many unanswered questions. Questions that, for me, could only be answered by making a full sized drawring. I tried to avoid it and thought I could just wing it, but I relented and spent some time today doing a very basic layout. This will at least show me the geometry for the bridges, neck angle, etc.
Don't get me wrong, I can still screw things up with an accurate drawing. The main difference is that now I can screw it up with an undeserved sense of confidence.
So, in the spirit of documenting this build, here is a shot of me laying out Qüïmsgëfääërdën ÏÏ (rëvïsïtëd) next to the drawing of the original design. Many thanks to @T_Bone_TL for the umlaut-infused name. Maybe this will turn out to be the best bass for metal??
It's a little tough to see what's actually different in that picture. The changes to the body shape are subtle, but to sum it up, I pulled the horns in a bit so that weren't flared out as much. I also tweaked the lower bout on the treble side. I still need to re-draw the headstock.
Here is an overlay of the new body shape over the original sketch. Again, a little tough to make out, but you can see what I'm talking about.
To me, this is much more pleasing. The original design looked ok. I like that thin upper horn, but the angle just never sat right with me. In fact, it always reminded me of that goofy, buck toothed shark from YouTube fame...
More soon.
Qüïmsgëfääërdën ÏÏ (rëvïsïtëd): The Drawing
I was planning to start making templates soon, but I still had too many unanswered questions. Questions that, for me, could only be answered by making a full sized drawring. I tried to avoid it and thought I could just wing it, but I relented and spent some time today doing a very basic layout. This will at least show me the geometry for the bridges, neck angle, etc.
Don't get me wrong, I can still screw things up with an accurate drawing. The main difference is that now I can screw it up with an undeserved sense of confidence.
So, in the spirit of documenting this build, here is a shot of me laying out Qüïmsgëfääërdën ÏÏ (rëvïsïtëd) next to the drawing of the original design. Many thanks to @T_Bone_TL for the umlaut-infused name. Maybe this will turn out to be the best bass for metal??
View attachment 4547326
It's a little tough to see what's actually different in that picture. The changes to the body shape are subtle, but to sum it up, I pulled the horns in a bit so that weren't flared out as much. I also tweaked the lower bout on the treble side. I still need to re-draw the headstock.
Here is an overlay of the new body shape over the original sketch. Again, a little tough to make out, but you can see what I'm talking about.
View attachment 4547327
To me, this is much more pleasing. The original design looked ok. I like that thin upper horn, but the angle just never sat right with me. In fact, it always reminded me of that goofy, buck toothed shark from YouTube fame...
More soon.
My eyes hurt just from looking at that title!
Amusingly...if you google Qüïmsgëfääërdën...you get this thread and only this thread.
I really like your builds, very inspirational. Are you thinking of an unlined or a lined fretless? I used black fret lines on two of my figured ebony fretless builds. Which is nice because it doesn't detract from the figuring of the board. However I can make reading the fret lines on a dark stage tricky. I needed to re-work a fretboard for my headless 7 string, so I took the opportunity to add a maple veneer along the first 5mm of the fret line. I used Paduak veneer for the fret lines on a black ebony 6 string fingerboard that I built. That was nice too, it matched the Cocobolo top plate.
Gorgeous work! I have a few ideas in mind for fret markings, but haven't yet settled on one. The leading contender right now is a mix of partial lines and dots.
I need to experiment a little bit to make sure I can actually pull off what I have in mind... I'll actually have to make some accurate measurements
and we all know that can lead down the path of disappointment, bitterness and resentment. 
Not a huge update, but I finally got started on new templates which are representative of the updated outline. I was hoping to get away with the old control cavity layout, but I think I'm going to have to redo it... not looking forward to that. 
- Apr 18, 2008
- 16,007
- 1
- 31,705
- Disclosures
- I'm highly opinionated and extremely self-assured
Lööks nïcë. Ï ägrëë wïth yöür sübtlë rëvïsïöns - brïngïng thë hörns ïn slïghtlÿ ïmprövës thë dësïgn. 
Lööks nïcë. Ï ägrëë wïth yöür sübtlë rëvïsïöns - brïngïng thë hörns ïn slïghtlÿ ïmprövës thë dësïgn.
Ha! Thanks, I appreciate it. I like it too, much closer to what I had in mind originally... a bit more streamlined.
I finished up the wing templates last night. They still need a little cleanup. I went ahead and reused the original control cavity even with the new outline. I think it looks OK.
Progress has been slow, hopefully it will pick up more this week.
Qüïmsgëfääërdën ÏÏ (rëvïsïtëd): Progress Report
With the wing templates completed and the headstock template willfully ignored again for now, I moved on the truing up the neck beam. As mentioned in the first post, this neck beam was glued up along with its twin back in 2018. Since that time, it has just sat on the shelf patiently waiting further processing.
The neck beam is composed of the following:
The first step was to get one side flat. So, I used my end vise to lock it into the dogs, then I knocked off most of the high areas with an old Stanley #5. I trued up the entire face with a #7.
And here it is ready to go to the drum sander.
And here it is making passes through the drum sander. The freshly planed side goes face down on the feed belt and the opposite side is brought parallel.
A quick layout of the templates next to the neck beam gives a look at the overall outline.
Next, I need to true up the sides of the beam (the wenge laminates) to be sure that they are perpendicular as well as straight along the length. I was going to do that this evening, but my wife and I wanted to get started on the new season of Ozark.
More soon.
With the wing templates completed and the headstock template willfully ignored again for now, I moved on the truing up the neck beam. As mentioned in the first post, this neck beam was glued up along with its twin back in 2018. Since that time, it has just sat on the shelf patiently waiting further processing.
The neck beam is composed of the following:
- Wenge
- Hard maple (tapered)
- Black dyed poplar veneer
- Bloodwood
- Black dyed poplar veneer
- Hard maple (tapered)
- Wenge
The first step was to get one side flat. So, I used my end vise to lock it into the dogs, then I knocked off most of the high areas with an old Stanley #5. I trued up the entire face with a #7.
And here it is ready to go to the drum sander.
And here it is making passes through the drum sander. The freshly planed side goes face down on the feed belt and the opposite side is brought parallel.
A quick layout of the templates next to the neck beam gives a look at the overall outline.
Next, I need to true up the sides of the beam (the wenge laminates) to be sure that they are perpendicular as well as straight along the length. I was going to do that this evening, but my wife and I wanted to get started on the new season of Ozark.
More soon.
Qüïmsgëfääërdën ÏÏ (rëvïsïtëd): Nëck Bëäm (rëvïsïtëd)
So far, I've made the top surface of the neck beam flat and true and the bottom surface is parallel to it. Next, I needed to make the sides perpendicular to the top and back, as well as to make them straight and true along their length.
Here is how I accomplished that. I attached the neck outline template to the beam using the usual tape and CA method. The overall size of the neck was already at near final dimension, but I wanted to remove a little material from each side to true it up, so I scootched the template down a scosche.
This allowed me to remove a little less than 1/16" from each side while still leaving plenty of room for the 34" layout.
I set up a pattern bit in the router table and ran the beam through on both sides. Then I raised the bit to rout the remainder of the height. The template is on the bottom of the beam here.
And with the template removed, I now have nice, square sides. Easy peasy.
I'll probably start to prep the fingerboard next... followed closely by some tough decisions on wood choices.
So far, I've made the top surface of the neck beam flat and true and the bottom surface is parallel to it. Next, I needed to make the sides perpendicular to the top and back, as well as to make them straight and true along their length.
Here is how I accomplished that. I attached the neck outline template to the beam using the usual tape and CA method. The overall size of the neck was already at near final dimension, but I wanted to remove a little material from each side to true it up, so I scootched the template down a scosche.
This allowed me to remove a little less than 1/16" from each side while still leaving plenty of room for the 34" layout.I set up a pattern bit in the router table and ran the beam through on both sides. Then I raised the bit to rout the remainder of the height. The template is on the bottom of the beam here.
And with the template removed, I now have nice, square sides. Easy peasy.
I'll probably start to prep the fingerboard next... followed closely by some tough decisions on wood choices.
I literally LOL every time I see that ^^^
It totally cracks me up every time that I copy and paste it.
If I squint, the body template looks like wenge.
I like it.
Qüïmsgëfääërdën ÏÏ (rëvïsïtëd): Wööd pïle (rëvïsëd)
Wow, I really need to get moving on this project. I'm still feeling crappy from my covid bout in December... which has now morphed into a chronic bronchitis situation. I have been coughing since December 22 and I'm so tired of it; my ribs ache. On top of that, it's been really cold, which is true for a lot of the country, I know.
Anyway I got my butt out to the garage today to finalize wood choices. In a nutshell, I've added padauk to the mix. At a minimum, I plan to use it as the rear laminate, but may add another layer under the top. I haven't decided yet.
Here is the potential order from the top down:
I really need to get the fingerboard in progress so that I have that thickness finalized. The fingerboard thickness will allow me to determine all the rest of the geometry which will allow me to finalize body thickness (because there is a limit with the neck blank) and in turn, determine the thickness of each layer that goes into the body.
Having said that, I wanted to start breaking down the raw materials for the body and get them in progress so that they can settle in while I work on the fingerboard.
I started things off by choosing the best end of this 8/4 mahogany board for this project.
Cut off a chunk with a crosscut saw.
Next up was the padauk. This board has a gorgeous ribbon figure to it. Should look killer on the back of the bass.
And finally, the revised wood pile.
Now, I gotta get back out to the garage for some resawing, etc.
More soon, I hope!
Wow, I really need to get moving on this project. I'm still feeling crappy from my covid bout in December... which has now morphed into a chronic bronchitis situation. I have been coughing since December 22 and I'm so tired of it; my ribs ache.
On top of that, it's been really cold, which is true for a lot of the country, I know.Anyway I got my butt out to the garage today to finalize wood choices. In a nutshell, I've added padauk to the mix. At a minimum, I plan to use it as the rear laminate, but may add another layer under the top. I haven't decided yet.
Here is the potential order from the top down:
- Quilt maple
- Padauk
- Mahogany core
- Padauk
I really need to get the fingerboard in progress so that I have that thickness finalized. The fingerboard thickness will allow me to determine all the rest of the geometry which will allow me to finalize body thickness (because there is a limit with the neck blank) and in turn, determine the thickness of each layer that goes into the body.
Having said that, I wanted to start breaking down the raw materials for the body and get them in progress so that they can settle in while I work on the fingerboard.
I started things off by choosing the best end of this 8/4 mahogany board for this project.
Cut off a chunk with a crosscut saw.
Next up was the padauk. This board has a gorgeous ribbon figure to it. Should look killer on the back of the bass.
And finally, the revised wood pile.
Now, I gotta get back out to the garage for some resawing, etc.
More soon, I hope!
Well, I bet cutting that mahogany with a hand saw helped you to stay warm!
The wood on top of the pile is the fingerboard? What are you using for that again?
The wood on top of the pile is the fingerboard? What are you using for that again?
