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Winter Build Off 2022 - Essence II

#22
smart51 said:
head-piece-jpg.jpg
Click to expand...

That's amazing.
 
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#28
While I'm building up the finish in layers and waiting for some brass to arrive for the tuners, I thought I'd experiment in making some wooden knobs. It turned out to be a lot of work for something that you can buy cheap. I think it perhaps worth the effort if you were using some highly figured wood, but with plain timbers like this, I don't think it worth the effort. And now that I've taken a close up, I've spotted a pencil line just below the veneer of the right hand knob. It's below the finish too, so it will have to be taken back to the wood to remove it.

knobs.jpg
 
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#29
I know for some of you, this is the main event. Self built headless tuners. I'm taking the saddles from a set of eBay individual bridges as they're too small and fiddly to make by hand. Ideally, I'd use some 15mm square tube with a 1.5mm wall thickness and some 12mm square bar to fit inside it. For some reason, you can't buy brass in metric sizes in the UK. What you see here is 5/8" tube and 1/2" bar which is almost as good. I've had to glue a piece of veneer to one side of the saddles to bring up the width a bit but that's OK. The handles are 14mm draw knobs.

tuner parts.jpg


I've cut a few pieces to make a prototype. The draw pulls are tapped M4 so I've drilled and tapped the slider to match. The string hole is 6.5mm dia with a 4mm diameter hole for the string drilled into the end, and bit between the two holes filed out. I cut the head off the bolt and screwed the cut end into the knob, then soldered it in with a blow torch. The end plate is taken from the piece cut off the top of the tube, which is also soldered on.

tuner breakdown.jpg


and finally and assembled shot.

tuner assembled.jpg


Everything slides nicely, nothing binds. Some filing, sanding and polishing and it will be done. 4 more to go.
 
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#32
One weekend later and we have a full set of tuners. They're heavy at 638g but it will still be a light weight bass. I've found that square brass tube isn't really square. Not if you try to sand it. The faces are concave and are not flat, so sanding leaves scratches in the low spots. It also kills wet and dry paper in minutes. The finish I've got is a long way from perfect but is fine.

The knob at the far end has discoloured. I had to heat it up again to unsolder the screw and move it out a few millimetres. It is now "antique". Is there a good way of restoring the original colour of brass?

tuners.jpg
 
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#33
smart51 said:
One weekend later and we have a full set of tuners. They're heavy at 638g but it will still be a light weight bass. I've found that square brass tube isn't really square. Not if you try to sand it. The faces are concave and are not flat, so sanding leaves scratches in the low spots. It also kills wet and dry paper in minutes. The finish I've got is a long way from perfect but is fine.

The knob at the far end has discoloured. I had to heat it up again to unsolder the screw and move it out a few millimetres. It is now "antique". Is there a good way of restoring the original colour of brass?

View attachment 4583357
Click to expand...
Buffing wheel
 
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#35
Try on scrap brass first, but household vinegar (5%) and houshold peroxide (3%) mixed 2:1 and do NOT walk away and forget about it. It's actually for de-leading (the surface of) brass, but my recollection is it was a pretty good "chemical polish" as well, which might be good given that you have knurling to deal with there.

If you leave it too long it eats more than you'll want it to. A short dip of 1-5 minutes and then rinse well. Set a timer/alarm if you resemble being distractible.

As for the sanded surface, try a conformable abrasive (scotchbrite, abralon, etc) if you want to get that "evenly brushed surface" rather than "try to sand it flat/square when it's not."
 
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#36
Today in winter build off, we have all the classics:

I put the pickup screw so far in the front, it came out the back
EMG pickup screws are made of cheese so soft, one bent when putting it in and the screwdriver left a dent in the top
I routed the battery pocket 15mm deep instead of 17mm
and my favourite, I make the control cavity big enough for the pots, but not the miles of wire EMG send you. There's no way in heaven or hell that's all going to fit in there.

but...

I strung it up with 4 of a set of 5 used strings that have been littering my work bench for weeks. Its alive and it sounds great.
Cut off pickup screws work just as well as full length ones. A cocktail stick cut from an offcut of the wing wood is now plugging the hole. A pocket too small can be routed deeper. Now just what to do with all that wire.
 
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#38
Today is setup and test day. There are some finish imperfections to fix but I'm not letting that stop me stringing it up and playing it. I'm very pleased with the way it sounds and plays. Bright but not harsh when the tone is turned up, round and smooth when rolled back. There's just a slight hint of growl. I prefer more which is why this comes in as my second best sounding bass, and by far my best short string.

body 3.jpg


body 2.jpg


Rather than have a step between the body and fret board, I decided to plane an angle into the body to get the string height right. What I didn't think about was that would also put an angle between the arms and the neck. It means I couldn't fit the strap button on square because the neck is in the way. The strap button at an angle irritates me.

body.jpg


Strap buttons turned from offcuts of the wing wood.

strap button.jpg


I like that the fret board and neck blend into one
neck (1).jpg


I'm a bit disappointed that the end of the neck split slightly when I tightened up the headpiece screws.

headpiece.jpg


I'm going to try sanding and reapplying the finish on the end to see if it disguises the cracks a little. If there's a next time, I'll leave more of a gap between the nut and the head piece. It is a bit tight for the B string to bend and it took a bit of persuasion to get it in. There are a few spots in the finish that I want to tidy up but it's almost done.
 
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