3rd Build?! 6 string neck through single cut bass!!!

[SIMpleONe89]

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.


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.


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.



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.

[SIMpleONe89]

The battery sits nicely and there's plenty of room for the battery snap plus some cushioning foam.


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!


It came out looking nice!

[SIMpleONe89]

Then I connected the cavities together.


And finished it off by drilling the output jack hole.

[wokkaboy]

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 !

[SIMpleONe89]

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

It looks like a delicious ice scream sandwich!

Haha yes 2 thongs. One for me and one for the wife.

[SIMpleONe89]

looks excellent great progress Simon, you haven't drilled through the wenge top have you ?

Thanks woks. I drilled through the top for the pot holes.

[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

[FrankenWashie]

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 ?

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.

@Simon, that Wenge is going to look SICK once its all polished up!

[SIMpleONe89]

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.

[FrankenWashie]

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.