Winter Build Off 2026 - Wandre Transonic inspired headless

[MoleSandwich]

This is the crude prototype made of Douglas fir that contained the headless hardware that I will reuse for this build;

I pulled out a part of the truss rod I made to show you the principle:

I cut it with an angle grinder. On the other end of the rod is a threaded block inserted into the aluminium to receive the m6 threaded rod.

It worked on this first prototype, but;
- Unused a normal twist drill bit brazed on a rod to extend it to be able to drill the full length. As Lark_Z explained, you have to retract the drill quite often to remove the wood cutoffs. This left a less then perfect hole and dit for the truss rod. I drilled using a handheld drill which worked out not too bad although it could be greatly improved to ensure better centricity/alignment and a cleaner result
- the Overlord headpiece could not hold the E-string under tension; it slipped. Thats why I will use some Double Ball strings this time and a different headpiece
- the very thin neck stayed straight and I was able to change the relief a little bit with the truss rod. The strings and hardware where on this prototype for years under tension and the neck did not seem to have changed much since then.

I will use a similar concept for this build since the one above seemed to work. I will use a small mill to make a new truss rod for this build which I am restoring/rebuilding. More on this later for those interested

 

[MoleSandwich]

I don't know if you can, but I for one would love to see a short video of the gundrilling process

I will film the process but I am not sure yet how to upload it... Maybe I could use my old YouTube account

 

[MoleSandwich]

Spend some time on the neck drilling setup. The neck blank will be clamped inside a 160mm PVC tube. I made some hardwood discs to fit inside the tube wich will be the base for attaching the tube to the lathe headstock. This is the first time I did some wood turning and it worked out quite OK I think, it's a snug fit insude the tube;

I build a base out of MDF and made it as stiff and heavy possible to help with keeping the drilling stable in case of any imbalance in the neck blank. It will be quite a jig taking; it's 244 cm long.

I made a drawer below the lathe to store all the pulley's, chisels and other lathe parts which helps to add a bit of weight too.

The steady rest will keep the tube centered during drilling and the lineair rails will be used to slide the drill straight into the neck blank fitted inside the tube;

There is just enough room to place the center at the end of the lathe to align the tube and adjust the steady rest using a calibration disc that I will build with a hole in the exact center of the disc precisely fitting inside the tube.

 

[13ghosts]

Totally crazy!!!
Looking forward to the result

 

[MoleSandwich]

Not much to report except that I made a spindle sanding jig for my cheap little drillpress. I build up a spindle using m12 threaded rod and a stack of wooden discs cut with an hole saw. To have less sideways force on the drill spindel I used a big bearing to support the sanding spindle.

There is a hole for my vacuum cleaner for dust collection. I used the jig to do the inner corners of my body template and it worked perfectly fine.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Not much to report except that I made a spindle sanding jig for my cheap little drillpress. I build up a spindle using m12 threaded rod and a stack of wooden discs cut with an hole saw. To have less sideways force on the drill spindel I used a big bearing to support the sanding spindle.
View attachment 7427421
View attachment 7427422
There is a hole for my vacuum cleaner for dust collection. I used the jig to do the inner corners of my body template and it worked perfectly fine.
View attachment 7427423

Good work. Very creative. You can even tell where to apply pressure.

 

[MoleSandwich]

Finally started on the actual instrument in stead of making jigs. While waiting for some last parts for the neck drilling jig, I started with the body.

I rough cut the outlines of the body with a Jigsaw and cleaned up with a router and the template I made.

The body felt quite heavy even though it is only 2,8 mm thick and rather small. I measured it and it weights 2.3 kg (5 lbs) at this point so that's not too bad I guess.

Next I cleaned up the tooling marks with a handplane which revealed a crack in the lower bout. Not sure yet what to do with that...

 

[Bonkersville]

That crotch figure is quite nice indeed. Hopefully the piece is stable enough for a single piece body. I would just fill the crack with something clear. Have you decided on a finish?

 

[MoleSandwich]

Thanks. The blank is quite a few years old so I hope it behaves... fingers crossed.

My initial plan was to use boiled Tung oil since I have at least half a bottle left. Probably thin it a bit with lemon oil. I was thinking of using CA glue to fill / stabilize the crack or maybe penetrating epoxy? Not sure what would be best to combine with an oil finish.

 

[Bonkersville]

I'm not an expert but ca has a tendency to seep in the wood, which might create a blotch in the finish. Or not, if the finish has a similar effect. Epoxy is not as likely to do that.

 

[MoleSandwich]

Thanks for your insight, thats exact what I would be worried about when using CA glue... I can do a test on a piece of the remaining Ash to fill up a crack and finish it with the Tung oil.

 

[MoleSandwich]

While still waiting on parts for the neck drilling jig, I started with the pickguard/electronic compartment. The 30mm thick pickguard will be inlaid in the body and containing the electronics and dummy coil. I started with thicknessing and flattening a piece of walnut with my table saw and handplane;

I made a jig to route the channel for the dummy coil using forstner bit, Jigsaw and spindle Sander to clean up;

I attached the template using CA glue and masking tape and used the router to cut the channel;

On the right you can see the dummy coil I started to wind. I calculated that the Teisco pickup should have around 6000 windings using an online calculator. With an dummy coil area that is 10x the area of the pickup, I need to have 600 windings of the dummy coil to have the same hum cancelling signal as the pickup. I used 0,22mm enameld wire to further lowering the impedance of the dummy to have the least impact on the tone of the pickup. The coil of 0,22 wire gave me only 380 winds so I have to wait for more wire to finish the coil. I did a first test and I found out that it did not do much cancelling yet and I found out the Teisco pickup is very very microphonic so I have to pot the pickup as well. Below you can see the rough cut pickguard with a cavity for the dummy coil and an inner cavity for the electronics;

I will probably stain the walnut Black using black tea and iron acetate to mach the bridge / headpiece.

 

[MoleSandwich]

To shield the pickguard/electronics cavity I cut out a sheet of stainless steel to line the inside of the cavity using a nibler.

I bonded it to the inside of the cavity with epoxy which also helps to reinforce the pickguard. I clamped the part using the offcut of the routing jig.

 

[MoleSandwich]

I proceed with drilling out the cavity for the pickguard and cleaning up with a router + template.

I couldn't resist a quick mockup with the headless Bridge and pickup;

 

[MoleSandwich]

Every build needs at least one clamp shot. Since there will be none for the actual bass, here you go;

I glued up the chipbox that collects the wood particles during the gun drilling and acts as a support for the gun drill. I trued-up the edges using a block plane and closed the box;

I screwed the chipbox on the rollers of the linear rails, attached a tube for the vacuum cleaner and drilled a hole through the box in the same diameter as the gun drill an at the correct position using a Chuck in the lathe;

Next step will be the reception piece for the gundrill which will be made in a similar way.

 

[MoleSandwich]

I made the gundrill holder today, using 12.3mm drill clamped in the Chuck of the lathe. This way the hole for the gundrill be at the exact center of the lathe;

There is a aluminium tube clamp inside with an allen key bolt to clamp the gundrill.

Here you can see the complete setup (right to left) containing the PVC tube that will hold the neck, the steady rest that supports the tube, the chipbox that support the gundrill and collects the wood chips during drilling and the gundrill inside the gundrill holder at the end;

Last steps will be tapping the gundrill for an air connection and installing some fittings inside the PVC pipe to clamp the neck.

 

[Dark Horse]

@Bruce Johnson

Some interesting ideas in this thread that I thought you might like to see

 

[MoleSandwich]

Obviously I did not finish in time but I will update progress on this build.

The gundrill I bought did not have any threads to screw in a coupling for pressurized air, so I had to tap the existing hole in the very hard gundrill. Since I never threaded anything ever, this was a bit nerve wracking. I bought a set of 1/4" threads to be used for manual threading by hand, but I placed the threads in the lathe Chuck to keep it perfectly aligned with the gundrill, which was placed backwards in the gundrill holder I made. I turned the Chuck by hand using a bit of oil an regularly turning backwards to break the chips. It took a bit more force than I expected but worked out fine I think.

I used a allen key with a neodymium magnet attached to remove the metal chips out of the drill.

 

[MoleSandwich]

I installed a valve and a male coupling for pressurized air in the drill using a bit of teflon tape.

I also installed the 'adjustable feet' to clamp the neck blank inside the PVC pipe.

I also made a disc with a center hole the same size as the gundrill using the lathe, to align the neck blank and PVC tube. This way the steady rest van be adjusted to make sure the PVC pipe is in the center of the drill.

So everything is ready for drilling now;

Except.... I have no compressor. End of this week I will rent one and do the first drilling, fingers crossed

 

[MoleSandwich]

I also worked a bit on the body. Since the body is very thin, I decided to use a 'reverse strat output jackplate'. I made a template to recess the jackplate' flush to the body:

The router bit was just a hair to big to do the most narrow part so I had to to the last but by hand using a hobby scalpel. I also put some sawdust + CA glue in the router cavity to reinforce a knotty area with some small cracks which luckily dus nog run through to the top.