Finished - November 2017 - Vivenbacker

Well it took a little longer than I thought, but it has worked out splendidly. It tunes, it is intonated almost perfectly, the action still needs minor work, but I have bought new name guitars in a much worse state! It plays very well, has an excellent sound and looks really wild.

I actually completed the build last November in 2017, however it has taken a while to get round to documenting this. Far too busy playing it...

You can see it didn't retain the original top that it came with, this was a shame, sadly, and despite warnings from many people on this forum, I sanded straight through it! Oh how we laughed!

That is a very interesting combo. Good work!

That is wild mate, nice job! What is the top made from?

That top looks crazy! In a good way. Really unique look. Congrats!

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Originally Posted by FrankenWashie

That is wild mate, nice job! What is the top made from?

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The top is "spalted Maple". It has an almost psychedelic pattern, it's only got a few coats of Crimson Guitar finishing oil.

This is what came out of the box.
Attachment 26280

Great job, well done!!!

Here is the trial assembly on the bench...
Attachment 26281

It all went together nicely, Adam provided exactly what I'd asked for and the quality was indeed superb.

Attachment 26282

The neck pocket was nice and tight, but not too tight!!

The fun started when I tried to make the pickup cavity larger for the bridge pickup

Attachment 26283

I'd decided I wasn't going to use the plastic scratch plate, but instead use the spalted maple top I had left laying around. It was while trying to prepare for that I realised I had rubbed down through the existing top. I wouldn't be able to cover it with the spalted maple top! As I actually felt a bit unhappy about cutting the top up, I came up with the cunning plan to use the whole top and make a carved top for the guitar.

Attachment 26284

You can see I also cut through the control cavity, the plan being to put a cover on the back for easier access.

Here is a view of one half of the book matched spalted maple top... I spent hours on a five minute job to join the two bits of top together!

Attachment 26285


I then realised I needed the neck in place so I could then fit the new top to the body... Panic set in a bit!

The neck was a dream to finish, a careful rub down and a few coats of oil and it was good to go....

Attachment 26286

The fretwork was excellent. The guitar, when finally assembled, played immediately without buzzing. Lowering the strings and working to get down to a low action turned up only two frets that needed minor adjustment. Nice one Adam!

Attachment 26287

I checked the machine heads all fitted, no problems.

I did more work on the back of the body... sanding... sanding I gave up sanding sorry!

Attachment 26288

Then I did some shaping with the help of an angle grinder. Absolutely terrifying, but it was quick and very satisfying. I promise I won't do it again.. probably! ;-)

Before...
Attachment 26289

After... quite subtle, quite neat. Surprising for an angle grinder.
1. Use a worn out fine pad.
2. Don't get too close!!

Attachment 26290


The finished back... this took something like 4 days of work in total. Sanding, oiling, sanding oiling...

Attachment 26291

Although the back is made of 5 different bits of wood, they work nicely together. They were clearly chosen at the right aspect of the moon, they make the bass sound really good!

I hope to put up the rest of the pics tomorrow.

Very nice. Looks great.

Sent from my SM-A520F using Tapatalk

Great job. You must be proud of the final result.

Quick question, I have the same kit with the same bridge which I finished last year. I didn't recess the bridge, but am thinking that I might have to. Did you rout the hole? How deep is it recessed? The action on mine is a little high with the bridge at the lowest point. This seems to be a common problem with these kits.
I'm thinking of dismantling the bass and replacing the nut as well as refinishing the headstock. It has sat since I finished it as I don't play bass any more in a band, but I'd like to make it right.
There's a link to my build in my signature below.
Thanks!

Nice work on the top there Viv.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Andyxlh

Quick question, I have the same kit with the same bridge which I finished last year. I didn't recess the bridge, but am thinking that I might have to. Did you rout the hole? How deep is it recessed? The action on mine is a little high with the bridge at the lowest point. This seems to be a common problem with these kits.
I'm thinking of dismantling the bass and replacing the nut as well as refinishing the headstock. It has sat since I finished it as I don't play bass any more in a band, but I'd like to make it right.
There's a link to my build in my signature below.
Thanks!

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I changed to a Gotoh bridge, I wanted something heavier, in the hope it would get me closer to that rick-o-sound. I tried the bridge without recess into the body, remember also that I added a top, but if you look closely you can see that is actually recessed so the bridge was just above the original surface. Secondly there is a very slight neck break angle. It is very small, but I expected that would allow the higher bridge. Wrong! In the end I routed down to the original body, and remounted the bridge there. The bridge itself has small black height adjustable saddles. see pic.

Attachment 26292

The saddles come out easily enough and on the low E and B strings (remember its a five string) I have filed those down to get still lower action. I do suspect that if I want to get a bit lower I would need to route about 1-2 mm into the body.

I think the trick is to start high and work down!

Really nice look to yours, it looks brilliant finished.

Thank you! I think I have the same bridge in 4 string, or very similar. I think we are in a similar situation, I have filed the saddles also, but at the lowest position the action is still marginal with no further adjustment possible. I don't really want to stuff up the finish, but to get the best out of it I will need to have some more adjustability........ ho hum, I might think about it for a week or two...

Yeah, I have bought the same bridge for a fiver and also a 4 stringer and with both the lowest setting has saddles sitting way too high.

Still scratching my head as to whether they are worth mucking around with or to try something else. Recessing into body is not something I wish to attempt.

I used a laser to work out the various levels so I could be sure I had the neck positioned how I wanted it. I used the laser to check the level of my bench. Then checked that the guitar body was set level. Then put the neck in place and ensured I had the neck break angle how I wanted it. If you look at the image you might see how small the break angle is. This was so I could fit the GOTOH bridge without burying it in the body!

Attachment 26837

You can see the neck is almost flat with the body, but not quite. I could have increased the angle, but I was worried about having to then raise the bridge.
Attachment 26838

While I was there with the laser I also checked that the neck was dead on the centreline of the guitar.
Attachment 26839

I checked everything 3 times. No rush to glue the neck in... :-)

I used the shape of the body to provide a guide for routing the top. The more deliacte areas around the neck I shaped by hand with sand paper. I also used a router to get a rough cut on the relief patterm I wanted in the top. I wanted to get away from the completely flat surface of a guitar body and come up with something much more organic.

Attachment 26840

A little more routing later, again using the holes already routed into the body as a guide, and I had the recesses for the pickup holes. Note that I could use all the original wiring channels created by Pitbull, so I didn't need to worry about that, apart from the earth wire to the bridge. One carefully drilled hole later...

Attachment 26841

I used some pieces of card as templates for the pickup covers and the bridge...

Being an engineer, I wanted access to my soldering (or collecting of dry joints if you prefer!), consequently I departed from the original plan and put a cover over the control cavity for easy and frequent access. My apologies to all the people I can here screaming Noooooo! Oops too late!

Attachment 26842

I added another piece of thin maple to reinfoce the area in the cavity under the top. I intended to recess the controls so I made sure I have a good 8-10 mm to play with.

I then made a cover plate out of the same Spalted Maple, strangely it just looked right to me.
Attachment 26843

Some test placing of the aluminium pickup surrounds and the steel bridge.

Attachment 26844

I could measure the angle of the strings and was pleased to find that the strings lined up with the bridge and gave an acceptable starting height. Phew doesn't cover it!

Attachment 26845

You can perhaps see that the bridge is already slightly recessed, in the end I took it down another 1.5 mm. It is now on the original surface of the guitar body.

Here there be Daemons...

It was very hard to know how thick the Spalted maple top was, so carefully recessing the controls was trial and error.

Attachment 26846

If you look carefully you can see that on two holes I went through the Spalted Maple top to the wood below, I seem to have a habit of doing that... Oh well (Hmmm Fleetwood Mac!)

Attachment 26847

The other thing worth noting is that this had by now a coat or two of guitar oil on the top, it started to really standout, so the small problem of the control recessing was now forgotten.

Finally got these in place...

Attachment 26848

Attachment 26849

Decided to work in aluminium as it is a soft easy to work metal. I am very pleased with the neck pickup surround, it looks right. The bridge pickup surround is two pieces, it should have been one. I might also replace them with steel if I get the time...

It's amazing what can be done with a file, a drill and a small hammer...

Attachment 26850

I think this was 1.5mm ali, cut out of an old computer front panel! I used the same material for the bottom half of the bridge pickup surround.

Almost complete and by now quite playable. Although I could quite happily just sit and look at the Spalted Maple top.

Attachment 26851

Note we were still waiting for some knobs!!

And finally...

Attachment 26852

Fully oiled, polished and with knobs on.

How does it play now? Hopefully much better.

Looks great.

Impressive! Great job.

Nice work Viv.

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Originally Posted by wazkelly

How does it play now? Hopefully much better.

Looks great.

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Thanks wazkelly, I have the action down where I want it, and it does play very nicely. I left it for 6 months to see if the neck would move at all. As far as I can tell it hasn't budged. I learned a lot from this kit. I am really badly bitten by the need to build another guitar, it is highly addictive!

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Originally Posted by Fretworn

Impressive! Great job.

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Thank you!

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Originally Posted by Wayne.Mumford

Nice work Viv.

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Thank you!