Andyjr1515

Before starting with the heel fettle, I made a start with the top binding. It will have an inner feature line of black/white/black purfling and then some Rocklite ebanol outer binding. I have to say, I HATE routing for binding. With a spheroidal top, it's really tricky - especially as you are working with 0.25mm tolerances. I use a Stewmac Dremel attachment, but I wouldn't recommend it - there are just too many times where tiny adjustments in angle or tilt of the Dremel (difficult to avoid with it being top-heavy) you can gouge up to mm too deep! But, so far, I haven't found anything affordable as an alternative Anyway - after HUGE amounts of care and re-runs and tidying up with a very sharp chisel, it is as good as it's going to get. And some of it is OK - The next bit - gluing the purfling and binding - I also used to hate. I tried all the traditional methods, from fibreglass reinforced tape to bicycle inner tubes, to ripped sheets and tourniquets. And - with everything now completely hidden, you could never see how well it was positioned and clamped. I never took all that stuff off the next day to find a tight-fitting, in-place binding... So I had a brain wave - and, honestly folks, I think I'm the only person in the world who does it this way - why not IRON it on like I iron on veneer????? And that's what I've done the last two builds and I can't see any reason not to do this for all of my future builds. For those who haven't seen my veneering threads, basically I use decent quality PVA wood glue, paint both surfaces with it, let it dry and then iron it on. The heat of the iron melts the PVA between the two parts, the two parts float a touch so can be positioned precisely, you hold it there10 seconds or so for the glue to re-solidify and that's it! You get instant confirmation that the joint is good or not and - if it isn't, it is fully repeatable...you just heat it up again and it re-floats, you re-position it and let it cool and it's fixed. This is my kit. You can just a well use a household iron...I just use the smaller one for ease of use: You can see at the bottom of the photo the length of purfling with the PVA drying (takes about 15 minutes). I've already painted the slot with the same glue. Then I just iron it on: I do about an inch at a time, hold it in place for 10 secs and then move on to the next inch. To do the full top, using two purfling strips, took about 20 minutes. Bit of sanding showed me this: And even now - if I saw a gap I didn't notice (there wasn't one), I could have just repeated the iron at that point and fixed it. The outer binding will need pre-bending - but I will be ironing that on too: I'm sure there are lots of reasons why this is a really bum method - but it certainly works for me...

There's a lot of fitting and fettling with an acoustic. With the fretboard now glued on and the neck bolts & inserts in place, it was time to check the neck alignment and angle again. The fit of the heel is pretty good - and any adjustment is much more fiddly now the fretboard so fingers crossed Bummer! The straight edge is supposed to be in line with the top of the bridge. Oh well, a few hours fettling, then

Like this, @Si600

Yes - exactly that. I'll take a photo when I get a moment...

It's certainly a very pretty bass. Difficult to know what kind of value because they clearly don't come up for sale often. Also, as always, price is what the market will bear. From what I can gather, it's the V216 model and it was made in the mid to late 60's for Vox by the Italian makers Crucianelli. There some info on these two sites http://www.vintageguitarandbass.com/vox/bass/Escort.php http://www.voxshowroom.com/equipment/guitars.html Older Vox semi acoustic basses in excellent condition selling in the States seem to be advertised in the $1000 to $2000 range. However, a serious issue such as a twisted neck would bring that down to $00's and not $000's. I can't find any recent sales in UK but there maybe some if you spend a few hours on Google.

The overnight job was gluing the fretboard to the neck. I use radius sanding blocks as my cauls - you can put a huge amount of clamping force on them and they apply the pressure to the sides as well as the middle. Ready for neck carve The neck is bolted on with stainless machine screws and some decent threaded inserts. Once It is all set up, I may well be gluing the tenon too - bolts alone work well, but I do find that the heel blocks can relax a touch over time and therefore can have a tendency to slacken off a touch. Easy to re-tighten but not ideal. In that the neck should never have to come off, I've come to the conclusion that using the bolts to ease getting all of the angles and fit right - and then glue and bolt - might be the best of both worlds. I did do a dovetail once. But my GP told me that I must never do that again because the emergency services are just too stretched to cope with another self-inflicted heart attack... Here are the inserts: Got a few household things to do over the next day or two but the next big jobs are the binding on the top and the neck carve.

Yes - I think imperfection is probably the term MrsAndyjr1515 would also use. Early in our marriage, I wrote her a short love poem: "Completely, was I floored When she struck me with the sword Of how completely, I was flawed...."

I most humbly apologise Maybe would it help for me to disclose that, because this was a reused neck blank, and because I started making the acoustic before deciding to give it to Matt, and when I started making it, I was aiming for a 42mm nut and the neck blank JUST fit, but then when I talked to Matt, he plays a 43mm nut to get a 37mm string spacing and so, actually, the fretboard overhangs the neck in places by almost 1mm each side and I am banking on the radius of the neck carve being tight enough in those places for the fretboard edges to be angled enough for the fretboard to merge into the neck and if it doesn't I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do and that worries me a bit and when things worry me a bit I start writing impossibly long sentences that make most readers give up half way through and, now I think about it, MrsAndyjr1515 muttered about doing much the same during what she describes as the tortuous forty years we've been together and that she regards THAT as the true meaning of a long sentence.

I know there are cheaper alternatives, but I love Luminlay. It is SO easy to fit. I do recommend use of a good quality bradpoint drill (I use the Fisch ones from Axminster) but it's basically: Measure and mark the centre with a sharp centre punch Drill 3mm or so depth Check the stick goes in OK Pop a drop of CA on the end Push it into the hole Cut flush with a razor saw Sand the edge Less than an hour in total and here we are: Final job is filling the tang slots and it's ready to fit to the neck

Frets are in. Next step is to add some blue Luminlay dots on the side before gluing it to the neck. But still time for a quick mockup

It's looking very good indeed. I feel a workshop visit coming on

There are many parts of an acoustic build where it is better to take things slowly than rush. None more so than fitting the neck. And it's getting there - although is still a way off. One important task is to relieve the joint area of as much wood as you can while retaining the main contact areas: This lowers by a touch the insanity brought on by hours of 'flossing' a rock maple and ebony jointing surface: And it's getting there, although a number of hours left to do. The joint is starting to get close to the required gapless joint all round... And the vertical angle is close to OK with the straight edge just touching the top of the saddle-less bridge... ...but the side-to-side is still off: The challenge is correcting this without making the other two factors worse Perfect job to do while watching the Grand Prix this afternoon

I hope, but I never expect

A rolled up old bath sheet towel to be accurate

The next bit is even more scary. Taking off the neck jig, I now suspend the body over the cellar floor using only the jaws of the workmate protected by some bits of cork!!!!!! And then rout it!!!!!!!!! And to my great relief and surprise, it fits... ...and more surprising, it even fits in the right place (14th fret): Happy chappy...until, of course, I get to the next scary bit....

Next is one of the scary bits - routing the tenon on the neck and the corresponding mortice on the body. First, I needed to work out the neck angle. Clearly, there are very limited options for adjusting heights on acoustics, so this has to be pretty close before the final hand fettling. In broad terms, the angle is going to be the line from the body joint to the top of the bridge. The saddle will then lift the strings 2-3mm to give the requisite action height. I use an engineers protractor: My routing jig is a rough variation of the OBrien fancy rig, using an old Workmate and templates from G&W. The neck is positioned with some studs that fit in the trussrod slot on a hinged (very rough) plywood board: This board is held by the hinges on the workmate, and angled using a threaded bar/knob/ insert arrangement: The a shorty flush bearing bit, and I get this: The next bit is even more scary...

If it is affecting both pickups, and judging that those pickup to pole distances are certainly not completely out of order, then it is not likely that the pickups that are giving you the problem. Apols for the poor picture, but the circuit is probably this one: The Phat pot is the one at the far right before the jack. As you can see, all of the signals go through there on the way to the jack, so a failing battery would affect all of the tones all of the time (and a fully dead battery would mean no signal at all). So easiest first step is put a new battery in and see if it helps. If that doesn't help, then what I would personally do next would be to simply bypass the Phat pot. In simple terms, that means taking the earth coming from the tone pot direct to the earth tag on the output jack and taking the 'hot' coming from the volume pot direct to the tip tag of the output jack. In more detail, referring to the above diagram, I would: - take the battery out and desolder all the connections off the jack (the black from the battery and the black and yellow from the Phat) and off the Phat pot. - then solder the black that originally came from the Tone pot to the Phat, instead, direct to the earth tag of the output jack. - Then solder the 'hot' green that originally came from the volume pot to the Phat, instead, direct to the tip tag of the output jack. The ring tag on the output jack should now have nothing attached (Note the colours I refer to correspond to the diagram. The wires in yours maybe different colours but, whatever colours they have used, you should be able to follow the wires from and to the same places.) Hope this helps

The answer is yes, but before spending money on pickups, it is probably worth a bit more investigation on the issue. Have you got the same volume drop on both pickups? Have you changed the battery? The Phat EQ is always in circuit so the battery will affect it whether or not it is turned up. What are the distances of the G and E strings from their respective pickup tops? Getting the pickups to lift properly is an easy fix if they are too low. The next thing I would do, again a easy fix if you're OK with a soldering iron, would be to bypass the Phat pot altogether. If you can let us know ref the above questions, I'm sure we can guide you through to the easiest and cheapest fixes.

It is indeed The fretboard will be sanded a number of times with a 16" radius block, progressively down to 1500 grit or so. At that point it should shine without the need of anything on it. At the moment I'm still using 120 grit so it's fairly brutal (and ebony being ebony, pretty ineffective). Basically, the mother of pearl and epoxy will sand down way, way before the ebony does. And yes - you all knew I couldn't wait until the morning....

Matt is opting for a plain fretboard with just a couple of swifts at the 12th fret. As usual, I cut the MoP shapes out with a jewellers saw: Then pencil round them and rout out with a 1mm Dremel bit, using a precision router base: Then mix epoxy with some ebony sanding dust. In the morning this will be sanded flush and any gaps, etc, will be invisible

Oh, my... I designed and built this before the G&W one appeared on the market: ...and - though not faultless - was very pleased with it. And so was reluctant to take the fairly hefty outlay of the G&W one. But trust me - this is SOOOOOOOOOO much better! Quicker, more accurate, MUCH easier to centre everything. Less than 10 minutes got me this: Then no more than another 10 minutes with the sanding block to get to this: If I compare that with the two days it took last time I tried to sand ebony with a block only (AND that one came out skewwhiff after all that)... Very pleased with the investment - even including the cost of the rather pricey extra radii for future projects.

There's a very steep learning curve involved but, as the saying goes, if I can do it, anybody can do it

Yes - one of the few things that makes my blood boil. In my case, a different but equally well-known supplier - gave the misleading implication that they stock the products, but they only order from their own UK non-stocking supply chain partner for them to order from the States once they receive your paid order. 5 weeks later, after many phone calls and emails it arrives, States to handler, handler to well-known UK supplier, UK supplier to me. Had I known, I would have ordered direct and got it cheaper and in less than a week, including customs clearance. When I was in the supply industries, I'm sure there was a name for this type of business model. Oh yes, I remember now...."shoddy"

OK - so onto JIGS AND FIXTURES NEEDED BUT WHICH CAN EASILY BE MADE 1 Top and Back Radius Dishes Messy job, but relatively easily made with a couple of MDF or plywood boards, a router and a swan-neck scraper: Bit of schoolboy maths will allow calculation of the depths of the routed steps. Usually the back is dished to around 15 feet and the top to around 25 feet 2 Go-bar rig Easy to make with a couple of stout boards (I used chipboard but it's not really strong enough - 20mm ply would be better). 4 threaded rods, some nuts and wingnuts and you have the rig, then dowels or fibreglass rods to apply the pressure. I think I got the fibreglass rods from a kite parts supplier. 3 Mould Various ways of making these from solid wood sections to this lightweight 'does-the-job' version 4 Routing rig for tenon and mortice or dovetails I modded an old workmate and fitted it with some G&W templates 5 Jig for applying pressure to bridge wings when clamping I'm sure there's stuff I've forgotten. I'll highlight if I come across more in the build

Just a slight diversion. A few folks who are or have been considering building an acoustic bass or guitar have asked during this and previous builds what specialist tools and jigs are needed for such a task above and beyond those that most builders will already use. I would be delighted if other Basschat builders had a bash - whether bass or six-string - and it can be a bit daunting, particularly with so much expensive 'stuff' you see on sites such as Stewmac and LMI, so happy to feed back those things I've found pretty essential Well, as always, this is just my take based on the four acoustic builds to date of: - what you really need to buy (not much, but very difficult to get a successful outcome without) - what you really need, but can make (compared to a solid body, there are quite a few pretty essential jigs and fixtures involved with an acoustic) - what you could buy, but - with care - you can also cobble together reasonable DIY alternatives As always, there are a number of ways of doing things. Clearly, I can only show you pictures of the ways I do it but will, where possible, refer to the common alternative methods. ESSENTIALS BOUGHT, BEGGED OR BORROWED: 1 Bending Iron or Rig Yes - I made one for my first build, but that involved pointing a gas blow-torch through a metal tube straight towards my stomach. So, in the interests of safety... I now use an electric bending iron and hand bend: These are very expensive. There is an alternative. A hot silicone blanket and former arrangement (I think these are sometimes called Fox rigs?). These are large, one size and very, very expensive...and almost impossible to get hold of in UK 2 Bridge Clamp It has to reach in the sound-hole to the bridge and be shallow enough to fit inside the body. 3 Spool Clamps Clever people make these themselves. I buy them. 4 Some way of cutting a binding channel on a spheroidal back and top Various ways of doing this, from the cheap (but skilled) double scalpel tools, to this that I use: Not the easiest to use but relatively cheap. To the palm router rig that people like LMI sell. Good (although quite tricky to set up) but eye-wateringly expensive. 5 Dremel radius jig If you have a Dremel, you probably already have one of these. 6 Thickness calipers I'd love some dial gauge ones but they seem to be inordinately expensive. These are cheap but only JUST do the job (and not really well enough) Next post I'll outline some of the jigs and fixtures - most of which can be made.