Second build - Custom IB4 Bass

I like to modify my guitars, I apply my finish to my guitars. Does it make it wrong? My guitars still make a sound just the same as everyone else's, my finishes are just as shiny and I use a lot less to obtain said finish, just the way I get there is different, I just like to think outside the box.

Everyone has their own idea about the keyhole design, while some are saying they like it, some cannot fathom why? As with everything in design try and break it down, and all will make sense and you will find it just doesn't matter.

Through body strings are a personal choice, I like them and I convert all the guitars I build to the system even though some guitars I buy are of a Gibson design that uses a stop piece. I convert to a string through as I like the way they look and for the, in my mind, string stability they offer as there is a definite stop and unless the wood shrinks or expands the ferrules never move.

As for the keyhole design you just have to look at it as a different way to get the string from the back to the front and how to remove the wood from between the ferrule and the hole in the bridge. You can drill a hole the same size as the large round area of the keyhole and leave it as it is. Depending on the wood used in the body will determine how much the wood will deform under the strings tension and what effect that will have on the string. At worst it may deform on softer woods and you will have to retune your guitar until the wood wears away completely and the string then rests upon the end on the smaller slot and on harder woods it may never move. How does it look leaving the wood there? Some people may think it doesn't look as good if it was removed but when I play my guitars I don't really notice anything other than where my fingers are going on the frets. My thoughts on guitars are they are for playing, not displaying. If I want to display something I put a painting on the wall.

You can drill a hole and then use a small round file and remove the wood at an angle to the slot so as it mirrors the strings angle that exists where the string leaves the ferrule and sits against the slot of the keyhole. More work but it would look neat but again I don't care as I wouldn't be looking. If you want it to look neat then you do you.

My plan of attack, if I was to use a bridge with a keyhole, would be to drill a hole that was big enough to remove all the wood under the keyhole. How would you know where to drill said hole, I hear you ask, easy I reply. Fix the bridge to the body via the screws, mark the end of the slot and the opposite side of the large round hole, which is parallel to the string and along the same axis. Then mark the sides of the large round hole. Do this to all the slots and that will give you the position of the hole.

Remove the bridge and run a line along the ends of the slots and the end of the round hole. Find the centre between the lines and that gives you the centre of the drill hole. The size of the drill is the distance between the 2 lines, you could even go half a millimetre, would not make a bit of difference as the string will still contact the same parts of the bridge and ferrule. Now find the centre between the marks made by the sides of the round hole and that is the exact centre where you will drill your holes. Don't drill all the way through as you need to drill the rear face to fit your ferrules. How you do that is up to you as you have to work with what equipment you have. That is as simple as it gets.

Break down what is being discussed and what is needed. The ferrule is positioned on the back and is stopped from being pulled through the body via the lip on the head of the ferrule and the string passes through the small hole on its way to the bridge where it contacts the small slot end in the keyhole. It then goes to the part of the bridge that adjusts to give intonation and string height. Everything from the ferrule to the saddle is irrelevant as the important part is from the saddle to the nut. The break angle, no matter whether you remove the wood or leave the wood, is sufficient to make the guitar make a sound and makes no effect on whether the guitar will make a sound or not.

My work here is done

Why thank you Dickybee for those nice words. Have a good day.

Well, that was a lot of impressive input :) always great to read about thoughts and ideas! And finally, of course, everyone has his own way of working and personal expectations. But different opinions do often enrich a project. And taking some time is also important, for ideas have to mature...

Concerning the key holes, atm I am also not convinced about using them plain. If I am going to use the "keyhole" bridge I think I will try to install some kind of ferrules also on the top. But I will have to see first how it is with drilled holes and feeling how the strings are touching the wood material. Although ash wood is expected to be harder, I do not experience it as very hard on my bass body.
So I will have to take some care, when the time has come.

And while I am waiting for the second bridge to arrive, I made some pickup mounting for the bass. It works fine, using some foam between wood and pickup. It is also very tight when set in place. I had to deepen the bolt nuts into the wood and then glued them. Would be finer without glue, but it was hard to bring this kind of bolt nuts into the material. Actually they are not for wood, but I kind of like them..

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I don't want to lose the main point, which (I think) is that it wasn't hard to drill for string-though with a keyhole bridge.

Just speculation, but I think the reason for using top-ferrules on string through may be aesthetic or to prevent the string from damaging the finish. At lest that's why I put them on one of my string through basses.

I think it's probably true that a well engineered round hole would be just fine. I would also agree that the keyhole shape does not give much of an advantage. The break angle of the string is a bit less. But I am not sure if that has any practical payoff. Maybe a little if you take off the strings and put them back on often. Other than that, as long as the string doesn't break (as in "break in two") behind the saddle when you are stringing or playing, and the string stays in tune, I don't see that it makes much difference whether the bridge has a key- or round hole.

What does seem likely to make a difference is when the round hole (or keyhole for that matter) is NOT well engineered, like on Alexej's with the sharp edges. That's not really a problem on the Sung Il, partly because the edges of the hole are not sharp. Even if they were, the break angle is less-extreme.

It's funny that you would mention the "quick change," Simon. With my bridge, if you top-load it has the quick change feature already. Whatever advantage--real or imagined--that there may be from the keyhole shape, I agree that ain't it.

I am not really arguing for any real advantage or disadvantage. It's more that I think this bridge could work for sting through, or top loading for that matter. It's cheap. I've had a good experience with the build quality on three of them now, and I don't think it's any harder to mount than any other string through bridge.

Wow, a lot of message seemed to be happening all at once there!

I hope it is not too horrible reading my English :)

Two new things that I came upon. First is the Neck/Body connection. I do not like how it looks like...feels like it were two different parts. As I have seen on FrankenWashies IB-5 lab diary, he made a smooth transition, which looks very nice. So I am thinking to try doing it the same way...

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And another theme is the color of the bass. Originally the idea was to take just oil for the finish and keep the color. But now I think about staining/coloring the back of the body and maybe the neck. Making it darker, something like walnut wood, adding a high visual contrast. Just made some photoshop visualization...I am not sure if it is possible to achieve a clean border, I suppose it will penetrate the wood fibers and spread over. Have to try it on some piece of similar wood. Quiet a risky thing and maybe it is even not that good looking at the end and maybe looking strange...but there is something in mind...

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Your English is fine, don't worry about it.

I've never tried a masked-off stain, but I suspect that the edges will end up a little fuzzy at best. You'll probably get a slightly different level of spread along the sides compared to the end grain. It may be possible to spray the stain on if you had an airbrush, with very light coats so there wasn't enough liquid to soak into the wood and spread.

And even if you try it on another piece of wood, the amount of spread will probably vary between timber types, so if you test it on some pine, it may end up better or worse on the ash body.

The only really safe way to do it would be to spray it tinted lacquer, which almost certainly means using nitrocellulose lacquer.

It would be a lot of effort to do it just for the back, which you really aren't going to see that often.

Returning to the keyhole business, I noticed that a UK parts manufacturer, Grainger, has keyholes on their bass bridge (which looks very similar indeed to Fender3x's bass bridge) , so I've emailed them about why they are using it. I hope they've returned after their summer shutdown and just haven't updated their webpage rather than closed down completely.

https://graingerguitarparts.com/

About the masked-off stain, I think you are right Simon. I have similar thoughts about the stain spreading uncontrolled through the wood structures. It can behave unpredictable even on different parts of the same wood of the body I suppose. And I have not much experience in mixing Oil or Wax and Stain on wood. Usually I used one of them. Not sure how they might affect each other.

I might try on another piece of wood, if something like masked-off stain is possible in general. Making an oil or wax "border" to prevent stain from going into the fibres, which are already filled with another substance, like imprignation, could help. I would say that it very much depends on the specific wood structure and the materials used. And maybe it does not work at all :) I have not so much experience with stain to be honest.

I checked the Graingar homepage. They have some really nice pieces. Also some helpful stuff, hope they are still there...