4 scratch build

[Rabbit]

Heydyho neighbors.

Originally I had 2 threads going with separate builds, however it's expanded to 4, and since there's a lot of overlap, I decided to wrap them up into a single thread.

It all started with a couple of replicas. The first a replica of Steve Harris's Lado Unicorn. A kinda weird T-bird like P-bass. The tricky part is going to be the airbrushing. Haven't been able to find a realy clear close up of either the unicorn on it or the fretboard inlays. The second, a replica of Cliff Burton's Rickenbacker. Whilst making the neckthough blank, I wasn't happy with the thickness of the Ovankol strip down the centre, so I made another blank, hence the third build. dozymuppet has been a bad influence, so it will be a flying V bass. Due to some confusion over the accuracy over my Ric fretboard template, the V will be a 33.25 inch scale with the fretboard glued on with hide glue in case it doesn't intonate properly. If all is good then I know the Cliffenbacker will be right.

As for the fourth. I saw an 8 string from the PRS vault and I thought "Hmm... for **ts and giggles let's do an 8 string as if Rickenbacker did one. I had planned on doing a headstock similar to Ric's 12 string, and in the process of my investigations, I discovered , bugger me! Ric *make* an 8 string bass! I made an SVG and template of the headstock. More detail on the builds with pics.

One helper with this endeavour is a neck shaping jig. I wasn't happy with the first jig I had build, so I made a different one. Seems much more stable. It took a bit of faffing around with adjustment to the cam dimensions, but I have it pretty dialed in to the Ric profile, and I'm closing in on the Lado. With 10 and 12 inch radius cams I'm hoping to be able to do the fret boards too. I made a separate jig for the fretboard radius, but it's kinda cumbersome finding space for multiple jigs.





Next post I should have some more pics and details.

[Stuart D]

That jig does look impressive!

What sort of timescale are we talking about to shape a neck using that? Obviously a huge amount less work.

Fretboards I'm less bothered about, with a bit of planing on the edges first I'm finding it's quite quick to radius them. But neck shaping does take me a while and is a bit of a cardio workout.

[Rabbit]

What sort of timescale are we talking about to shape a neck using that? Obviously a huge amount less work.

The size of the jig reflects the purpose, ie, shaping neck through bass blanks which are about 1200ish mm long and between 60 and 80mm wide and 40 to 55mm thick. I allowed for up to 70mm thick, but I think I'm more likely to scarf the headstock than have the angle such that the headstock than need to take up 70mm just to accommodate it.

As to time, it takes me less than 5 mins to carve the timber I have sacrificed in the name of dialling it in. That includes making slight on the fly adjustments to make sure everything is centered and taking fairly light cuts. I like to creep up on getting to the point where it just needs tidying up with some sandpaper.

[Rabbit]

back with some pics, and a bit of an update.....

first we start with Precipice, the Cliffenbacker. These are the timber bits I have this far:



Yes, I realise the body wings are upside down in the pic. Since this is meant to be a replica, I try to get details right. The Ovankol stripe down the centre was too thin in a previous blank, so I made another with the correct thickness. The blank will be brought to the correct width when I am closer to carving the neck... which will be when I am closer to carving the curved truss rod channels...which will be when I have made the truss rods...which will be when I free them from the prison of metal flatstock they are trapped in.

For the fretboard I created a template on the computer and had it printed at the local Officeworks. I transferred the print to a fretboard blank, which is Ovankol because its proving to be difficult to find some affordable Bubinga, which is what Cliff's Ric had. When I measured the fret to fret distance they were all spot on, but when I measured to the 7th fret from the nut, my 300mm calipers were telling me it was off my about 1mm. probably an instrament error, but to be sure ... that brings us back to the rejected neck blank;



I haven't finished the wing templates, but the shaped is bassed on pappa Het's Vulture. Why a flying V? @dozymuppet is a bad influence .Ya don't see many flying V basses.This bass will be the test bed to see if the Cliffenbacker fretboard template is correct. I'm planning on making a one way truss rod. A jig for carving the truss rod channel is under construction. The headstock template is a reversed version of the headstock on the YB-4.

I made some wing templates, and the plan was to buy some Tasmanian Blackwood to make the wings. Plans change. I had some Mahogany left but it wasn't quite wide enough to fit them. I angled the templates , turned one around and they fit. Then I noticed they fit but the grain was all messed up and even with one of them turned over the grain would be strait on one and angled on the other. Plans change...the plan again was to maybe buy some timber to make the wings out of. The next day at work they had some offcuts of Walnut. One was long enough to cut come pieces from and glue to the mahogany to widen it enough for the wings. Game on!

I found a better pic of a Vulture and made some new templates (the unfinished ones in the pic). The first ones were too big after I modified them to maintain angles and fit the longer bass distance and longer bridge . The revised ones are a better size. A badass bridge puts the back of the bridge right near the end, even with the 33.25 inch scale rather than the 34 I had origanlly planned. Using the bridge from the YB-4 gave me some more breathing room.

On to the Bomber , the Lado Unicorn replica....ish;



As far as I can tell, most of the Lados are neck throughs, and the body wings generally maple. I have some maple that is not quite wide enough, but I have some scrap that I can glue on in the required places. Since the body is painted, no one will see the joins.I'm intending to do a Warwick style two way truss rod. Eventually I will have to do some test pieces for the airbrushing on the front.

And finally, and 8 string Ric style bass named Pretentious, because for a stringed instrument, any more than 4 strings is just being pretentious....

]

The neck blank will have to narrowed from 90mm to 60mm wide. I made a mistake and the centre stip is too wide, but I'm just going to have to live with it...it's not a replica, so it's not an important detail. The neck blank is maple, with two strips of red Ironbark. The fretboard will also be Red Ironbark. The wings are a combination of Mahogany bottom and Silky Oak top (again , dozymuppet is a bad influence). Since the mahogany I had book matched wasn't wide enough, I added a strip of New Guinea Rosewood to the side.

I was using the router table with a shiny new compound bit. I did one half ok, but there was a tiny bit of tearout on the ends. A bit more on one than the other, so I will have to get creative to fix it. Probably be an Edd Roth moment. ;

[

Things went otherwise well with one half. Now they tell me that one advantage of a compound bit is that tearout is uncommon. Wish someone had told the timber this;



The pic doesn't do justice to the true horror of the damage. Why don't I have a pic of the shiny new bit? because when this happened there was a loud bang
and empty space where the bit had been. The carbide section had sheared off at the place it was brazed to the shaft, just above the bearing. It could not be found. Again I will have to be creative trying to fix the damage.

That's all for now

[dozymuppet]

I’m happy to shoulder some of the blame Rabbit. Gotta love too-many-projects.

[Rabbit]

I’m happy to shoulder some of the blame Rabbit. Gotta love too-many-projects.

Ta mate .

I cut out the body wings:



The first image I came across was misnamed. It was labelled as an ESP Snakebyte, which as it turns out is a modified explorer shape. The correct label should have been Vulture. Since this is going to be bass, I'll name it something different. I was going to go with Condor, but that sounds far too majestic for this instrument, so I'll go with the alternative. It shall be the Buzzard Bass

I discovered my method of transferring fret locations to the fret board blank has some limitations.. namely , paper when it gets whetted out becomes stretchy. The upshot being that on a couple of the other fret boards, the marks are in the wrong place. Luckily no fret slots have been cut yet, and the centre lines are strait and in the middle, so I can re-mark manually. The fret board for the Buzzard happily had no stretch in the paper template, so it's goo to cut the slots. I think I will use some very dark Jarrah (similar to the Wallnut) for the dot inlays on the front.

Still working out the kinks in a router jig to carve the curved truss rod channel.

[Trevor Davies]

Looks great. I think the walnut is a nice addition. I'm really liking the laminations idea.

[Rabbit]

Looks great. I think the walnut is a nice addition. I'm really liking the laminations idea.

Thanx, but it was more by accident than by design. The neck blank was rejected for another project and I just happend to get lucky that there was a long enough offcut of Walnut from a special order for me to grab and use to widen the Mahogany I already had. I started to watch a YouTube video from Highland Guitars where as usual he was whining about something in his usual patronising manner. In this case it was about how he hated laminated necks and seams. I chose to ignore his flawed logic and went ahead with the laminations anyway .

[Bakersdozen]

Thanx, but it was more by accident than by design. The neck blank was rejected for another project and I just happend to get lucky that there was a long enough offcut of Walnut from a special order for me to grab and use to widen the Mahogany I already had. I started to watch a YouTube video from Highland Guitars where as usual he was whining about something in his usual patronising manner. In this case it was about how he hated laminated necks and seams. I chose to ignore his flawed logic and went ahead with the laminations anyway .

Good line to take Rabbit! I feel the same about his vids. Looking wonderful. Watching with my interest piqued

[Rabbit]

Well I *had* a fretboard almost ready for the V. I slotted the board, drilled some 6mm blind holes, cut some 6mm plugs from some Jarrah and glued them into the holes. I was sure I put the board in my car, but when I got home, it wasn't there. I either put it on the roof of the car to free up my hands to open the rear door and forgot, or I left it at "The Shed", guess I'll find out tomorrow.. I'm not keen on having to start from scratch. Anyway here's a pic of how I cut my slots:



It was originally a Veritas magnetic dovetail jig. I modified it. Because of the height of the jig the back of the saw hits the jig before the slot gets too deep.