Yes that's right! I like thin and flat wizard style necks. Can't play fat profiles for nuts!Quote:
Originally Posted by wokkaboy
Printable View
Yes that's right! I like thin and flat wizard style necks. Can't play fat profiles for nuts!Quote:
Originally Posted by wokkaboy
Thanks for the response, I'm glad it's not just my eyes playing tricks on me!Quote:
Originally Posted by SIMpleONe89
Great vid, Simon.
cool video Simon, gives people who haven't shaped a neck and idea how much work is involved
love the Timbermate jar used for sanding rounded corners - nice work haha
Thanks guys. I discovered the time lapse function on my phone and have been using it so far.
Woks the timbermate jar is definitely useful for rounded parts!
Great video. I was holding my breath everytime you grabbed the chisel for fear it was going to catch and bite too deep.
Haha don't worry I go slow and take off little bits. I think the fast forwarded video makes it look much scarier.Quote:
Originally Posted by WeirdBits
Hi Simon, just did some catching up with this build. Amazing job mate, looks awesome, very inspirational.
How is your left hand after using that Shinto rasp so much? I know my fingers were almost raw after my sessions, and that's just working on pine. Yours would have been much worse working on harder timber.
I also liked the Timbermate tub sanding as well. I have an assortment of off-cuts of PVC pipe and pieces of dowel of different thicknesses to help with my sanding. "Necessity, the mother of invention."
Keep it up mate.
rob
Thanks Robin. My left hand was alright. I used the rougher surface to carve the neck so my hand was on the finer side.
You could always get some gloves which could help.
I love the Shinto rasp! I bought one after you mentioned it on the superstrat build and they are awesome, but yeah, you could take a finger off if you aren't careful. I tend to wear a rigger's glove on my front hand to guide it as I work.Quote:
Originally Posted by SIMpleONe89
Yes they are awesome and take material off very quickly! Plus I got mine for $26 I think.Quote:
Originally Posted by FrankenWashie
Cut out the body wings. Couldn't resist a mockup.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...psnuroii4y.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...psgswslusr.jpg
I'll show the process of how I managed to get clean edges without having to create an additional set of templates soon. I can't get perfectly straight edges because my jigsaw struggles on thick pieces and the blade bends outwards and the bottom always ends up thicker.
wow thats looking wicked Simon, will you be able to reach the high frets with the massive tele style upper horn ?
what are the wings again is that wenge or walnut top ?
Thanks woks. The upper frets should be okay to reach. I can always reshape it later on.Quote:
Originally Posted by wokkaboy
The top is wenge.
nice one Simon, you are very lucky you live far enough away from DB the bass napper, I reckon he would want this in his collection although any more than 4 strings for him is too many haha
I think I just had a little joygasm, that looks wicked!
My fingers are barely long enough for a conventional 4 string Bass, 5 at a pinch, but no chance reaching across a 6 stringers fretboard.
Looks great and curious to know how you plan to string it as I am finding the low B on my 5 stringer is about as thick and low frequency as I can work with.
@Woks haha fortunately I live at the other side of where he is!
@Franken thanks!
@wazkelly My hand isn't very big also so I chose to go for a narrower string spacing with this bass. The bridge has a 16mm string spacing which is narrower than the commercial 6 string basses available which can be 17.5-18mm I believe. I plan to tune it to B E A D G C which is the standard 6 string bass tuning. But then again I'm primarily a guitar player so I may tune the high C to a high B instead.
Sorry haven't been updating but I managed to get quite a bit done over the week. It was hard juggling two projects, the flamed strat, and this!
Anyway from where I left off last time, I wanted to show you how I made the body wings without the need to create a custom template. This is just a one time project so I felt no need to make templates.
So I started off by choosing the best figure on the wenge top, which is 10mm. Then I used my original design plans and traced them out on the wenge.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...pswdqeobij.png
Cut it out...
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...ps0bahdpey.png
And sanded it.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...psk4hjkequ.png
The ideal way would be to glue all pieces, true the edges and cut the shape out with a bandsaw, and fine tune the edges with a random orbital spindle sander. However, since I don't have these equipment, I thought the best way would be to use the wenge top as a template. If I were to make another bass with the same shape I would've made a custom template.
This means I'll have to get the 10mm top perfectly flat on the edges. I placed the top on a shooting board and sanded the edges. Ideally a spindle sander would be of great help.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...pszdypj6ym.png
And I regularly checked to see the edges are squared. This is important if I'm using the top as a template to route the entire body.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...psnia3w312.png
Once I was happy with the wenge top, I transferred the outline onto the second piece, the Victorian ash.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...ps110qqakz.png
Then cut it out. The Vic ash is thicker at 21mm so my jigsaw was struggling towards the end. Man I wished I had a bandsaw!
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...ps2xeadjxm.png
I also decided to use a Jarrah veneer in between the wenge and the Vic ash. This provides a nice contrast which should hopefully show up once I start carving the top.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...pswhhzxi4s.png
Here's a pic of the first 3 layers.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...psq8k5fkhi.png
Then I glued the first 3 pieces together.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...pshve5r5bu.png
I also hate the gluing process because there's a need to rush before the glue settles and so many things can go wrong! I reckon the scariest bit is waiting for the glue to dry, unclamping everything only to see the piece moved out of alignment! This problem can be solved by using alignment screws/pins but I didn't in this case.
Fortunately, nothing funky happened during the gluing process. I waited for it to dry, then routed the Vic ash out to shape, using the wenge top as the template.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...psopsvufmi.png
Then flipped the body over and switched to a flush trim bit with the bearing on the bottom to finish up the cut.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...psxnb1upjy.png
Lessons learned:
1. Always have good lighting to see where you're routing.
2. Don't try to take too much off at once.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...psu2hpcbuv.png
I couldn't glue the pieces back together so I decided to modify the shape a little.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...pslde2ipra.png
Then I cut out the last piece, the Tasmanian blackwood, which is similar to Koa and it tears out very easily while I worked with it.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...psvqdbmwot.png
Then I glued the final piece of the blackwood and now we have a delicious Wenge, Jarrah, Victorian Ash and Tasmanian Blackwood sandwich.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...psnot2mfn9.jpg
Yum!
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...pskiutrwix.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...ps3okmfqzp.jpg
I had a few gaps where I didn't have enough clamping pressure but this was easily fixed by stuffing pieces of Jarrah veneer into the gaps. Not good practice but it's fixable.
great progress Simon, bummer about the tear out, yes routers can be brutal to your timber !
lovely looking wing sandwich, so is the next step gluing the wings to the neck ?
Not yet! There are still a few more things to take care of before gluing the wings, because once they are on, it's hard to move the entire heavy bass around so I'll try and do more things first!Quote:
Originally Posted by wokkaboy
This is how I did a matching control cavity cover. I plan to attach it with magnets so you can easily pop them off without any ugly screws.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...psz5vlwwoa.png
After I cut out the blackwood piece for the lower wing, I cut out a section with my fret saw so that the kerf is smaller and less wood is removed.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...psqvrfqko2.png
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...psszvtvswf.png
Then I glued the blackwood lower horn to the body and routed it to shape. I stuck the cover onto the back and also routed it to shape.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...psa5fkncqj.png
Once the cover was shaped, I rounded over the lower wing. The cover also gets rounded over and it blends it nicely with the other blackwood piece.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...psetytazrw.png
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...psxurngphk.png
I was worried that the cover would warp in the future, so I decided to laminate it with some 3mm aluminium. In hindsight I think it wasn't necessary but I bought the aluminium sheet on impulse so why not. The blackwood had been drying for a long time and was stable enough. But laminating definitely reduces the chances of any warping in future!
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...pstlbecjd5.png
Then I routed out the aluminium piece on the cover.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...ps1dohk8fy.png
Unfortunately I went 1mm too deep so I'll have to make up for the height difference by gluing on some veneers. This also allows me to hide the ugly free-hand route I did for the aluminium.
To attach metal to wood, I used some epoxy.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...ps71adv7ra.png
love the rounded edge on the wing sandwich is making me hungry haha
saw 2 pairs of 3 pluggers thongs lined up to for when you knocked off haha
With the cover all settled, it was time to route out the electronics cavity. I drew out the layout I wanted for a volume, pickup blend, passive tone with a passive switch, and a 3-band active EQ.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...psudx2irel.png
Then I made room for a battery compartment and for the preamp to sit. Having a larger control cavity means lesser weight and more room for any cool mods to be done in future.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...pslnekuuby.png
Then I proceeded to hog out as much material - this is standard for routing any cavities. This helps relieve the stress on the router bit.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...pst5n2tyzs.png
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...ps62eouk2n.png
Another smarter way would be to precut the cavity shape on the Vic ash itself, but I didn't do it because I hadn't planned for the layout way back then.
The battery sits nicely and there's plenty of room for the battery snap plus some cushioning foam.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...psfwgphgjg.png
It was tricky to route the control cavity because the piece of blackwood which was glued on severely restricted the movement of the router. The smarter way would be to precut and preroute the Vic ash before gluing on the blackwood but this was done some time ago.
I then used some blackwood offcuts as makeshift, temporary templates for the control cavity. Didn't want to make anymore templates!
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...psqx6o4bpo.png
It came out looking nice!
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...psec1ixzcg.png
Then I connected the cavities together.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...psnrshsr5u.png
And finished it off by drilling the output jack hole.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...pswyf9f6pm.png
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...psgcywdrb1.png
looks excellent great progress Simon, you haven't drilled through the wenge top have you ?
EDIT I can't keep up with your update posts !
It looks like a delicious ice scream sandwich!Quote:
Originally Posted by wokkaboy
Haha yes 2 thongs. One for me and one for the wife.
Thanks woks. I drilled through the top for the pot holes.Quote:
Originally Posted by wokkaboy
ah ok Simon all good mate, I had a moment where I wasn't sure if the holes were there for a reason ! great stuff
Yes, the Vic Ash is lovely but it does tend to splinter and tear out really easily. I found the Shinto rasp's rough side took some serious gouges out of the Ash whilst it barely even touched the Matai and Merbau in the FrankenWashie's composite body.Quote:
Originally Posted by wokkaboy
@Simon, that Wenge is going to look SICK once its all polished up!
I find the Blackwood worse to work with. The tear outs are tearible! Oh and wenge really stinks too! Vic ash smells like sour dough! Hahaha.
I can't smell the wenge through my dust mask. The vic ash smell you claim might explain why i want toast after working it though.Quote:
Originally Posted by SIMpleONe89