Number 36 is happening.

[ozzbike]

I am thinking I may have to recess the bridge.

I have tried ridiculous amounts of business cards...as they are disposable to try and get a thickness of wood veneer shim I would have to make to try and get the bridge height adjustment to actually matter with this Bass. Sadly, No go....6 was the limit for me...the pics are with 2.

I am thinking, from reading some other posts and threads, that I may have to recess the bridge. I saw one thread where the toploading Guitar Fetish big lump of metal bridge produced the same outcome.

I have little leather cutting chisels and an Aldi router that can freehand and fit a router table. I am worried that the chisels will not produce a level and smooth bass for the bridge to sit on.....and that the router will take off across the top and make one ungodly mess.

I am thinking that a 3 mm recess may be a good place to start and I am tempted to just try that with the chisels and one gouge shaped chisel thing I have.

One saving grace is that the bridge and headless nature of this Bass allows such easy string removal. So as long as I can work out how to take the recess right through to the bottom edge of the Bass, so I can hang the string winders out in space, I am good I think.

Some pics as she sits now with 2 business cards full length under the neck......yeah 2.....and all height adjustment wound out of the bridge saddles.

[stansby40]

Maybe some graduated shims only at the back of the neck to raise the neck angle will work?

[Sonic Mountain]

I'd definitely be trying shims before recessing the bridge.

[Dwubyd]

That looks like about a 7mm gap. So if you wanted a 2mm action, you would have to add a 5mm shim under the neck, if they were parallel shims.

If you used the suggestion of a tapered shim, it would have to be around 1mm at the thick end. That is assuming the length of the neck/body contact surface is 50mm. You could test it by putting a 1mm shim - like a match stick shape - right up in the neck pocket to simulate the thick end of the wedge, and see how the action looks then. Or you could cut 5mm wide strips of business card and put them in the corner of the neck pocket.

[Sonic Mountain]

Yeah I'd be using tapered ones to create a break angle and let you adjust the bridge saddles up a bit. As you say you can test the theory first by just putting something at the end of the pocket. I like using feeler gauges, they are cheap and neat and can give very precise increments of adjustment. It might not solve the issue, but it's something you can do without any drastic surgery.

[Simon Barden]

It looks like the neck has a negative angle compared to the body, so it’s pointing down at it, which isn’t good/right.

Are you using just a sliver of card at the body end of the neck pocket, or a whole card sitting flat along the whole pocket? The first is far more effective at creating more of an angle as dwubyd says.

I presume the truss rod has currently been set for the neck to be as flat as possible? Any relief above a fraction of a mm will be adding to the string height issue.

With no card shims, what is the neck angle relative to the body?

[blinddrew]

The action is the same on mine. I'm going to try the angled-shim approach. When my shims turn up.

[ozzbike]

Thanks for all the ideas guys.

I tried the full length shims and no go.

Then I tried the 1/3 to 1/2 length shims...again just from business cards....I managed to get the action down to about 8/64ths of an inch over the 17th fret.

The frets are all levelled, and the neck relief has been set at 0.015 thousands of an inch at the ninth fret. The neck was dead flat prior to strings being attached. The neck joins the body at the 19th fret, and I figure the 9th fret is pretty close to halfway.

I have set the pickups to be 3mm under the bass strings with the string held down at the last fret, and 2.5mm on the treble side.

I will have to find something to go in between 3 and 4 business cards.....may actually have to make a shim out of veneer.

I have to say she sounds pretty gutsy when plugged in to my amp....the action is about 3/64 too tall for me.

I also took the extra A string off....found the kit E string...dug out a file and now the E string is fitted. The E string does the same as the A string that was fitted in its place....it has a funny metallic hollow sound when plucked as an open string. When it is fretted at any fret, including the zero fret it is wonderfully clean. I think it may be a challenge without a NUT. Maybe some fabric or felt under the strings may help to mute the string noise over the zero fret. I think that the E string is so fat it does not bend the 90 degrees under the string lock and through the headstock flat, and appears to have a wide arc that produces a noise when it is plucked.

I hope the string will settle down.

[ozzbike]

My last build on the table, and may be last one for some time, life does get in the way.

The kit was a customer return on the sales/seconds list. Maple neck, real rosewood fingerboard, Mahogany body with a thin zebrawood veneer...and she made 36 guitars/basses in my possession.

Issues along the way, as is the norm, and some very helpful ideas and suggestions from the forum. Thank You all.

Highlights for me:-

The veneer has pores and holes all over, and lots and lots of glue squeeze out on the top....showed as white dots and marks all over. (Thank you Simon for the tinted spray poly idea...worked well.)

The neck and fingerboard were super easy using my norm of Feast Watson Fine Buffing Oil and then Gillys cabinetmakers Wax and Carnauba Polish. That went through really easy.

The body finish only came together with the use of C.A. glue. The glue filled the pits, pores and holes. It sanded really well and gave a solid and very smooth, plastic feeling though, finish. Spray poly from both Cabots and Bondall stick to it like glue.

The front has many coats of CA glue and then about 6 coats of spray Cabots gloss poly. It then has one lot of three coats sprayed 10 minutes apart of the Bondall tinted poly gloss....Jarrah colour I think.

The back and sides are stained with Feast Watson Prooftint Maple stain....alcohol based. Then three coats only of the C.A. glue. Then just 3 x lots of 3 spray coats of Cabots poly.

Remaining issues:-

The neck height and the bridge saddles are pretty good now....three different lengths of cut up business card to create a slope is the answer.

The E string, as you can see in one of the pictures, is just too thick to push down on the ZERO fret. I will let it settle and then try again. I don't want to strip out the thread on the light cast string mounts and locks. So, the E string when played open has an annoying rattle...at the Zero Fret. It is therefore an #$@% to tune on that string.

The pickups are the normal low output humbuckers that come in the kits. I just punch the AMP a little and it sounds great.

Overall it is just weird to play with no headstock and no tuners. The weight is ALL down low and it lends itself really well to a strap even sitting down. However, it still remains quite light even with the OVERLORD bridge.

So ladies and gentlemen I present to you the TIGER.

[ozzbike]

And four more....