Winter Build off 2022 - Sardonyx F

[postalflunkie]

This year I'll be bringing back to the Bass world the Sardonyx "F" bass. Everyone knows this shape as Prince's Cloud guitar but the shape started life as a bass, modeled after an exaggerated F style mandolin shape.
I intend for it to be reborn as a bass, the way it originally was (right down to the odd mounting of the neck pickup).
For any who dont know, the Sardonyx looked like this

I'll be giving a nod to his royal purpleness with a purpleheart fretboard and a purple burst finish.

This will be falling in the category of "Scratch Build"

The wood pile:

And the templates:

Body will be chambered hard maple, wih a flame maple cap.
A three piece Hard Maple neck (neck thru construction) with a purplehart 24 fret fretboard.
Pickups will be a humbucker in the bridge position and a Bullet style P in the neck position.
G&L L-1000 style passive electronics.
And Gotoh hardware.

 

[Bent77]

Subd!

 

[Beej]

I've always loved his cloud guitars. Little known fact, my very first scratch build was a cloud guitar. Almost completely unplayable. I kept it for a long, long time before stripping it of its parts and tossing it.

 

[Videojunkie]

Very cool inspiration!

 

[postalflunkie]

Time to start making this happen. No flow charts or spreadsheets here, I figured since this will be a neck-thru that the neck is the place to start.

First thing was to make sure the grain was oriented properly .

Then I cover things I don't want glue on (router table, drill press, new workbench) with wax paper. And then spread liberal amounts of glue on each surface. Stack them all up and clamp away.

I'll let that sit a while before moveing it out of the way, then start on the fretboard. This will give the glue a few days to throughly set.

 

[dwizum]

Bonus points for the Ghia poster!

 

[RichterScale]

And the cassette player

 

[postalflunkie]

Bonus points for the Ghia poster!

I miss having a Ghia in the garage, but I don't miss that it was usually in the garage. I called it my "baby Porsche that never grew up"

 

[postalflunkie]

Got a little Christmas eve work in this morning. The neck blank is resting comfortably off to the side. I was happy to see that it glued up nice and straight (always nervous about that), hopefully I can run it through the planer Sunday and get the glue squeeze cleaned up.

I pulled out my fretting box and got the board cut. I'm doing a 32 inch scale, so I use a 34 inch template and will put the nut where the first fret would be, wala! 32 inches.

And cut for 24 frets

Now time for the grunt work. Yes I use a radius beam and yes I know it's the hard way to put a radius on a board but hey, I hardly have room for the tools I have. Maybe some day I'll have room for a collection of jigs and what not.

Anyway, an hour here and there until my arms get tired and it will be done.
By the way, I always collect sawdust from this part, good thing to fix little mistakes

 

[BishopJP]

Out of curiosity...

The way you are getting the 32" scale fret positions using the 34" template; does that work? I have heard that before, but I didn't know if that is accurate enough! I've been wanting to make a 32" scale bass...

That PH board looks sweet!

 

[5tring]

Out of curiosity...

The way you are getting the 32" scale fret positions using the 34" template; does that work? I have heard that before, but I didn't know if that is accurate enough! I've been wanting to make a 32" scale bass...

That PH board looks sweet!

This method is perfectly accurate - tuning wise it would be the same result as tuning every string down a half step, then putting a capo behind the first fret.

it won’t be precisely 32” scale but that doesn’t matter

 

[postalflunkie]

I've done a few this way, it actually comes out around 32 and a quarter.

 

[BishopJP]

Excellent, thanks folks!

 

[2groggy]

Out of curiosity...

The way you are getting the 32" scale fret positions using the 34" template; does that work? I have heard that before, but I didn't know if that is accurate enough! I've been wanting to make a 32" scale bass...

That PH board looks sweet!

Try thinking about it the other way round. Leo Fender started with a 25.5" scaled and added frets without changing the spacings he already used. Adding 3 frets makes about 30.25" scale. Plus 4 frets is about 32. Plus 5 frets is about 34". That's how some conversion necks can be dropped into the same neck pocket without moving the bridge.

 

[RichterScale]

I was under the impression that the distance between frets changes in relation to the increasing/decreasing scale length. So, 32" scale isn't simply a shorter section of a 34" scale, but it's more of a % and proportion thing. Or are the differences so small that it's negligible?

 

[2groggy]

I was rounding off. Each fret spacing is related to the last based on a formula involving the 12th root. None of the fret spacings are at a truly even number.

 

[T_Bone_TL]

I was under the impression that the distance between frets changes in relation to the increasing/decreasing scale length. So, 32" scale isn't simply a shorter section of a 34" scale, but it's more of a % and proportion thing. Or are the differences so small that it's negligible?

The Capo is a good way to think on this. Want to build a 17 inch scale octave up bass? - Cut it off at the 12th fret, spacing is right.

Now, if you wanted (per measurements above) an "exactly 32" scale rather than 32-1/4", yes, there would be a difference in spacing .vs. a 34" scale lopped off at the first fret that's not quite 2", exactly. But for the method applied, it works, as exactly as your fret reference is.

 

[dwizum]

@RichterScale - think of it this way. A 34" scale bass has it's first fret at (about) 32". If you capo the first fret, you now have a 32" scale bass! And what used to be the 2nd fret is now the 1st, and so on. It's really a 32.092" scale length but who's counting. The distance between the first and second fret on a 34" scale length is 1.908", the same as the distance between the nut and the first fret on a 32.092" scale length. Basically you're just shifting each fret number by one, but keeping the same relative positions. @2groggy is making the capo permanent by putting the nut there instead of a capo.

This is effectively how I do a majority of my fretboards. I have a 34" scale template and a 24.75" scale template for my power fret saw. From those two scale lengths, I can start at different positions and get any scale length I need. For instance, for a tenor ukulele, I use the 34" scale template but I start at the 12th fret. That gives me a 17" scale length template.

 

[Slidlow]

I was rounding off. Each fret spacing is related to the last based on a formula involving the 12th root. None of the fret spacings are at a truly even number.

12th root of 2

 

[postalflunkie]

While I haven't had anything to post I really have been working on this thing. I spent some time every day sanding the 9.5 inch radius on this board and I can tell you this, purpleheart is every bit as bad as ebony

I cut the taper and rounded off the end and was feeling pretty darn good about myself

Really looks nice I think.
Now let me think for a minute, what was that someone said on another build???
Oh yea "measure twice" or something like that
I cut the end down at the 24th fret a 16th wider than my neck blank
I'm guessing my best bet now is to clamp a metal straight edge to the bottom of the board and sand it down one side at a time. Not a major problem, but still a pain in the behind.