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http://youtu.be/jgflCE7zRpc
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Ooo 'eck. Are swapping the fret board?
Would you expect anything less of the ‘Lab?Quote:
Originally Posted by Sonic Mountain
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That's rad. Are you going to try and keep the existing one for something else?
If it comes off clean, then yes. Being a 5 string width it could go okay on a number of other bass projects.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sonic Mountain
If it argues too much, it may end up being maple splinters.
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Sheoak????
Yes, and I have enough left over for at least 1 more bass FB, 2 if I can get the remainder bandsaw cut with a thin kerfQuote:
Originally Posted by DarkMark
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Man that is a real nice piece of Sheoak.Quote:
Originally Posted by FrankenWashie
Oh yeah! I am keen to see this happen but slowly, slowlyQuote:
Originally Posted by Woltz
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Nice plank there dude! that's going to be mint. [emoji897]
Is that the heartwood?
It's a radical grain pattern and great colour. That is it's natural colour, yes?
That is straight from my thicknesser, wiped down with gum turps. Not sure if it was heart, but from the end grain it looked near quarter sawnQuote:
Originally Posted by McCreed
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Shhweeeet!
Going fretless?
Perhaps in a future iteration Fretty, this one is going to be fretted.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fretworn
can anyone tell me how to play bass? 🤪Quote:
Originally Posted by FrankenWashie
You'll be fine. No one is going to be listening cause they will be too busy drooling at how nice the bass looks [emoji23]
And the lunacy begins....
I thought folk might appreciate seeing my process, it’s worked well for me, others may have different methods.
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My little set up for dealing with neck surgery
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This fixture is a work in progress, the biggest issue with the stripping process is being able to clamp it adequately to work on it.
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As you can see from the end view, there is a little breakage under the nut shelf, this is just the remnant material from the TR drilling.
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I score around the nut just in case there is enough glue there to take chunks of neck with it when I tap it off.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...94333c0c51.jpg
I then lay a block of merbau along the top of the frets to tap the nut off, and give it a sharp knock with a hammer. The tape is an insurance against the nut, the block or anything else marking the board or headstock.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...865caa01cf.jpg
Et Voila! One unseated nut!
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You can see the breakaway across the TR channel.
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I started at the head, as the is a shelf there to guide the the blade into the board join. Starting at the head is preferable on a scarf jointed neck, as you can run the risk of catching the edge of the scarf going heel to head.
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I try to use minimal steam at this end of the board, no more than 20-30 seconds at a time until I get past the scarf. The reason for this is that if you linger too long, you may also affect the joint strength not just the board bond.
As you work it is important to check both sides, to insure that you a only going through the joint, and not taking chunks out of the board, or worse, out of the neck!
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Once you have established that you are going straight and true, you simply continue to work your way down the board.
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You will need to readjust clamps etc to get to the end but once you’ve got to the final quarter of the board it tends to speed up.
This whole board strip took approximately 45 minutes from set up to finish.
So we end up with:
A spare maple board, in one piece.
A naked neck blank, ready for a new fret board.
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Very interesting, FW. How do you apply the stream? And what is sliding between the neck and fretboard? Should I be thinking something like a bread and butter knife blade?
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...27062eb935.jpgQuote:
Originally Posted by DarkMark
Ye good old fashioned steam iron!
The knife is one of these:
https://www.stewmac.com/Luthier_Tool...on_Knife.html?
But the first time I did a board this way I used a putty knife with a thin blade that I had put an edge on like this:
https://www.bunnings.com.au/monarch-...raper_p0076392
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Ah yes. Thanks FW.
That's great info! Thanks for sharing so candidly and comprehensively.
I'm not sure I'm ready to take this task on, but it certainly give me some insight and takes away some of the mystery.
Good on ya & thanks again!
You’re welcome mate, this forum is about sharing skills and methods to help others out, that’s what I try to do, bad ideas and all!Quote:
Originally Posted by McCreed
So there are two or three other bits of fettling that need doing before I am ready to begin sanding and colouring.
One is the rear control cavity cover. The cavity is routed straight in, but there is no recess for the plastic cover.
I though of a number of ways of doing this with a router, but none of them struck me as being particularly easy to achieve, nor wholly safe. So I ended up using the cover to create a negative cardboard template and used that to mark out the cover shape evenly across the cavity.
I then laid the cover over that marking out and marked the screw holes, which I then drilled for the screw size.
By screwing the cover in place, it gave me a hard edge to run my marking out knife around.
This then allowed me to deeply engrave the cover profile, remove the plate and then set to work with sharp chisels to edge cut it and then start paring the ledge down to the required depth.
Unfortunately I had a brain fade and didn’t think to actually take any photos of this until it was nearly complete!
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The next area to tackle is going to be the mounting for the output jack. It has the same issue as the control cover, but due to its position in the edge of the body it’s going to take some very careful work and some very detailed planning. More on that later
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Great thinking workaround to get that sitting right. And love the extra little access area too, will make it heaps easier to get off when you need too. So frustrating trying to get covers off when there is nothing to grab on to.
Thanks mate!Quote:
Originally Posted by Bakersdozen
i agree, not being able to grab the cover is a constant frustration with factory finished guitars and one of my pet hates, along with not recessing the covers. Why spend all that time making the body look good to leave the plastic cover sitting up proud?
Hah! I thought that was a boo-boo with the chisel until I saw the pic with the cover in there! Good thinking 99!Quote:
Great thinking workaround to get that sitting right. And love the extra little access area too, will make it heaps easier to get off when you need too. So frustrating trying to get covers off when there is nothing to grab on to.
The original plan was to have the thumbnail cutout halfway up the straight side, but a sizeable pullout in the radius of that corner meant it moved. I think I like it better in the corner but it still need some refining.Quote:
Originally Posted by McCreed
I really need a spoon gouge or similar to get in there properly.
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So some additional work got done to recess the jack point.
I set t up in my drill press with a 19mm router cutter and it did a serviceable enough job. I only wanted to get the jack itself flush with the curve of the body rather than protruding so the cut depth was only about 5 mm. I ended up with this.
Attachment 31878
There was a little bit of smoothing off to do but the final sand will take care of most of the finish detail.
with the Jack in place it looks like this:
Attachment 31879Attachment 31880
There was an existing issue with the pot placement, even with the mini pots provided, I think i can get around this by taking another 3mm in depth into the pot cut outs, but at this point there is direct contact from the jack barrel to the pot casing. at worst I could insulate one from the other but i will see what els could be done.
The next job will be to get the board slotted and attached to the existing neck. I had a couple of crazy ideas for using some brass anchors and cap head screws for the neck attachment, but I also want to pare the end of the fretboard and neck level with the face of the body which would expose the two rear mounting points. I feel it needs to be one or the other, as i don't think both ideas will work aesthetically together.
Still we can review this for a different build idea brewing in the background. Never any shortage of experiments in the Lab!
Looks clean Frankie. Nice technique
Cheers bro, I like your version, nice clean and simple. I’m shooting for the same in the most complicated way I can...[emoji23][emoji12][emoji2957]Quote:
Originally Posted by Marty C
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One of the other things I picked up while assessing the neck for the new board was how much of a step exists at the pocket/heel transition.
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This is (to me at least) a really aesthetically poor look.
Given the position of the neck studs there isn’t a lot of leeway to graduate the body profile; it is squared off quite abruptly through that area. The pencil line represents the end of the neck pocket, and I feel the neck transition can brought back closer to that line, if not all the way to it.
Obviously this will be better executed after the new board is on and roughed to final shape.
So next take will be slotting the blank and getting it mounted and bonded. Stay tuned!
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Expect nothing less from you man.
Give me another dozen builds and ill be at your level of creativity/eccentricity.
Okay so catching up...https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...fc2c473ee8.jpg
Fret slotting
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Assembly and clamping
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So that was the stupid part done...
Now for the REALLY stupid part!
Having just pulled the neck apart, fabricated a fretboard and fitted it and trued it all up, it is obviously time to hack the heel to bits and reshape the body neck transition area. I mean what’s the point of doing all that and not hacking further into a kit that doesn’t need it right?[emoji2957]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...6c1ead7e78.jpg
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The whole point of the exercise is to get to the below.
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Looks great Frankie, really nice transition.
Cheers mate, Just down to sanding, then some grain highlighting.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hardcoretroubadour
Very nice man.
Now that's the way it should be!!! Nice job.
Gee that's looking good Frankie. Your attention to detail is inspiring. Can't wait to see how this build progresses.