Jabba_the_gut

Looking nice!

Not much progress as I've been working on my semi hollow basses but here's a piccie of what builds I've currently got on the go....it gives a good impression of how dinky these headless things are!!

Exactly!! Andy - that poplar looks really nice!

Here's where I'm currently at with these - two bodies glued up and roughly cut out. Quite noticeable weight difference between these; the maple/walnut one is 1.5kg and the Sapele/spalted beech one is 2.0kg.

I quite like the spoke wheel truss rods for their ease of use and that there is no nut to round off!! I have had a few Musicman basses and think that this is an easy and tidy enough solution. It also means you don't need to have an exact tool to make adjustments (though I'm a firm believer in the right tool for the job). Having said that, on the basses that I've made I've always used the barrel type truss rods with the adjustment at the heel. Only reasons for this are I don't have volutes on my necks so I work on the principle that leaving the most amount of wood around the nut is a benefit and I prefer the cleaner look of the headstock. No experience or scientific reason for this decision - just my preference. Cheers

You’re right. Just had a look - they’re not cheap!!!

It does look like that, doesn't it?!!

Had a chance to do a bit more routing!! After my previous router failing, today routing decided to have a go at me by disintegrating a bearing on the template cutter I was using. Luckily I was cutting the hollowed out section of this bass so no real damage done but it did take a thin strip off the template before I noticed. First job was to repair the template - relatively easy, just needed some veneer supergluing on and trimming back to the original line. The remains of a template bearing - all the ball bearings disappeared along with the other retainer!! I found a new bearing the same diameter so carried on. I've also cut the scroll hole on the top. Time to start gluing this together and routing the chambers on the other body.

Hi Tomas. Cheers for the comments. Unfortunately, I don't have any sound samples despite having the opportunity to get some. I took this bass to the SW Bass Bash where it suited someone who tried it and wanted to by it. I did hold onto it for long enough though to take it to the Midlands Bass Bash where Lee-Man played it and I wish I had recorded it as he made it sound so nice!! When I complete these I won't make the same mistake again and will get sound samples made!!

I've trimmed this down now and fitted the threaded inserts. The repair isn't a perfect alignment but it is near enough as it is in a place where it won't be seen.

Marvellous!! Bargain buy.

I'm still chuckling at your 'contribution' to the Basschat podcast.....

This is the damage to the other neck where the router snatched at it: It won't be seen but I'll have a go at fixing it anyway. I cleaned the sides with a chisel and cut a small piece of the neck offcut and shaped it to suit. It looks okay but not perfect. I'll tidy that up then fit the threaded inserts.

I'll be interested in how you do this - I was considering it for the finish on one of the headless short things I'm building using the decoupage paper you get from Hobbycraft (though a single sheet wasn't big enough for a normal guitar body): Look forward to see how you do this. Cheers

I've made some LEDs looms for my own build basses - I quite like them but they are a pain to make and fit. I've used individual surface mount LEDs which are 0.8mm x 1.6mm and are therefore a pain to solder normally. Here's how green LEDs look on a finished bass: And this is a neck with white LEDs I've built for a project (and am still building....) I've built 4 necks (and have another fretboard with them installed for yet another project) so far with LEDs but haven't tried flashing, multicoloured ones....that is a step too far for me!!

The Hohner page is up again. Have a look at this - they have the saddle part you're looking for. http://www.hohner-cshop.de/en/Guitar/Headless-Bass-Series/Basses-Bass-Headless-BB/Hohner-B2AV-Headless/

That's wrong, just wrong.....!!

Hi Mike, Glad you're liking the fretless! I'd quite like to do a 30" version of this headless thing in the future . Preferably I'd like to use double ball and strings as they are a lot less faff than a clamp. Will have to look to see if anyone makes such strings first. All the best Jez

I did, however, forget to fit the fret dots before I radiused the fretboard which will make it a bit trickier to get them nicely aligned. Doh!! Just being a bit over-eager in getting the neck shaping done.....

Thanks for all the positive comments - I hope it carries on going well!! I've done the neck shaping this evening - good old Shinzo rasp!! The neck is obviously a completely different shape to a normal neck being headless, short and single cut and I have tried this before so I was expecting a few issues but it all went smoothly. I had to make a couple of rough jigs to route along the join with the body with a round bit. I did this as I wanted the join from the back of the neck to the body to be nicely rounded (this might make sense when looking at the picture of the neck on it's own).I modified the round cutter like a template cutter by fitting a guiding bearing on the shaft. It only needed a channel a couple of mm deep so I cut that first then changed to a normal template cutter, made another jig then removed a couple of mm from the back of the neck leaving me a level surface to start cutting from. After a bit of rasping and sanding I ended up with this (note the threaded inserts for bolting the neck on with allen headed bolts): And fitted to the body this is how it now looks (note the previous scars on the bench work top where I cut a bit too deep with a router in the past...) Next job is lots of sanding of the body.....

Another piccy - you can see the clamps better on this one,

It is. These things have a grub screw per string then a clamp per two strings. Seems to work okay though I do prefer double ball end strings as they are a lot less fuss, but not an option for this build.

Not done much more but I have fitted threaded inserts into the neck and roughly assembled one of them. I've put some string on it and left it overnight to make sure there' no slippage of the strings and it will stay in tune and so far, it looks like it will. I'll probably finish this one off before I move onto the other just so I can learn any lessons first!! Need to start shaping the neck next.