Andyjr1515

Because the eyes on the 'right' side were less diffuse, and were slightly further away from the centre, they actually would have been cut out entirely at the waist one way round, or been at the very edges of the body the other way round and because the length of the blank wasn't much longer than the bass itself, I couldn't just move it up a bit to get them into the area where the body widens. It's why I always use a paper template to check - too many times I've ended up having to cut out the nice bits! This way round - which is actually a mix of the two sides, you have one eye in there from the 'right' side, but the second eye spreads out so more of it ends up in the visible area. If that makes any sense at all!

Hi Not a large tortuous thread, you'll be relieved to know. A 'mature' former professional bassist I know was bemoaning the sale many decades ago of his beloved 60's Fender Precision. The two things he remembered - different to the cheap and cheerful no-name P he'd recently bought - were the smooth feel of the neck, and the lack of a sharp heel where the neck abruptly meets the body. I said I might be able to help by building a cheapish 'bitsa' and doing a couple of mods. The first was the neck - straightforward. Bought a P-bass neck, tinted it with chestnut spirit stain and finished it with the tru-oil slurry and buff approach described in a number of my tortuous threads For sorting the sharp heel, I wanted to use a cutaway neck plate but I also wanted to use an old Washburn body bought for a song - and for time and cost reasons - didn't want to have to strip and refinish it. Here's the plate: In that my mate wanted function over form, I could have just filed the corner off, stained the bare wood and treated the hole as an object d'art. Instead, I decided that if you can't hide it then flaunt it! So I decided to drop a piece of contrasting wood in. First forstnered and routed a pocket at the back: Then set in a piece of figured dark wood from a previous project: Shaped that to remove the corner: Drilled through the three relevant existing holes and the new offset one, then a touch of finish: And I've got to say, wow - what a difference! I thought that you would still hit the heel with your palm, albeit not on a sharp corner, but in reality, you can play right up to the top frets and your palm doesn't hit the heel at all. My mate is over the moon. Clearly, the fact that the offset plates are readily available means that this is a regular feature on some basses but has anyone else tried a retro like this? I'll certainly be doing this on my own VM Jag!

It's a pity I don't have spray facilities - some of these recent 'poster paint' colour jobs look SO good. This looks fabulous

Lovely job

Love it! That looks really smart

And the top is now rough-cut: I will probably use an ebony veneer as a thin demarcation line between the ash and the katalox. Doesn't need a lot of demarcation but even a thin strip does add a bit of class to any join Before weight relief, this is presently 5lbs 10oz. I will probably weight relieve the top as well as the ash to try to get a decent amount of weight out. I've also got to test the bond on the offcuts of the katalox - it's a relatively oily wood and may need to be epoxied to the back rather than tite-bond. I'll try and break the offcut from the neck in half and see how strong the titebond is. Relatively soon I will be joining the neck splices - mahogany/walnut/mahogany. I can be fiddling around with the weight relief while that is gluing...

A small but important step today. So I don't lose the interesting figuring of the top with the bits you end up cutting away, I took off 15mm from the width so that the two 'eyes' weren't off the edge of the waist. Having done so, I had to re-jointer the mating faces. For this I used the offset fence technique again on the router table. It needs careful set up but works a treat: Then the two halves were glued and clamped: And we had a piece of joined top wood: Seen through a paper template and dampened a bit, this will be the broad look. Once it's been sanded and finished, it's going to look v good :

Actually...hmmm. It's worth a thought...

And there we are - 10mm off the body. And it's flat! I've also cut a paper template to look at the options for the top. I'll play around with the various combinations, but this isn't bad for starters!

I sometimes use a router to get the 'spine' dead flat and correctly tapered, but I personally wouldn't trust myself with a router anywhere near the rest of it

It's certainly heavy!

So the first cut is the deepest, they say. Off comes the front part of the neck pocket: Nice join, @eude ! Next is to take 10mm off the top. Now as it happens, about a month ago, I finally got round to making a routing sledge to cope with pieces of wood that wouldn't fit in my thicknesser. Well - talk about fortuitous! Here's the rig: It's a heavy router and yet there appears to be very little deflection. The frame runs on two sets of bearings between a couple of dimensioned bearers: And 20 minutes later, the first 2mm is successfully off:

Yes - exactly like that middle one. Clearly Fodera have been stealing my ideas!

Well, with a passing nod to the Carl Thompson headstock style, this is broadly how it's going to look: I think that looks pretty The neck - at the moment, there is a fender-style brick wall at the heel - and multiple holes from two neck plates: So what I'm going to do is a bit radical. I will cut out the front 4 holes completely (shown hatched here): Then route the existing pocket further back to expose the end two holes and a bit more too (marked in pencil on the left here): Then carve a transition in the neck heel to the full depth at the join, with an extending 30mm 'tongue' containing set screw inserts: Leastways - that's the plan! The topwood that @eude arranged for Alan at ACG to send me is lovely: When I get a moment, I'll have a play around with a paper template. As is often the case, the interesting swirly bits would actually not end up on the build because that is where the waist of the body sits. I might turn out to be more pleasing using the back: Probably gives more figuring on the bits you will actually see. Anyway, we'll see. In the meantime, let's make some sawdust!

I spent most of yesterday evening with @eude 's body on my lap (eat your heart out, russian hackers) - that carve is SO tactile! And I came to a conclusion, that I have since slept on - and which this morning I am still pretty sure is right: I'm not going to mess at all with the external shape. Not even the thickness (which is an impressive 40mm). Because to slim it down would make the curves change which then changes the look and feel. So it's basically rout 10mm off the top, heavily chamber inside to relieve the weight, fit new top and carve as original. But I think I may have had a flash of inspiration ref the multi-hole neck heel issue. Going to draw it out and, if it works on paper, I shall reveal all later (russian hackers, please note)

As always, I learnt the technique from someone else and then just passed on the same technique to @honza992 I seem to remember the original guy did a video and quite a detailed description - I'll see if I can find it.

My goodness, John - that is flipping GORGEOUS!!!! Wow. Just Wow...

OK - well the first job, in my view, on a job like this is to draw it out full scale - and preferably with the bridge and nut you are intending to use in hand - to check out the geometry. And so far so good: The bridge saddles might be a teeny bit closer to the pickup than the original (we're talking only 3mm or 4mm closer) but so far everything checks out at the planned 31.5" scale. Notable, because it is an area that @eude is convinced he mucked up, the neck pocket appears to be spot-on. Having said that, it's actually probably all going to be routed off anyway, but hopefully will lay to rest a good many years of self-doubt. In the meantime, a bl**dy great big box (bass case big!) has arrived from ACG which has delighted, as you can imagine, MrsAndyjr1515. Next job for completeness is drawing the headstock (and opening the box)

And here are the finished pics As always, thank you all for your encouragement along the way - always greatly appreciated!

There are so many wows in that shot, of which the Katalox is only one of them!

No fear. There can only be one #001

It is indeed. And it's very heavy...

Anyway - back to the project OK - the objectives are: To end up with a 31.5" lined-fretless bass, 6-string B to C with the same pickup, controls and hardware as the original incarnation, except a change to the bridge, which will be a Warwick 2-piece. In fact, this specific one, bought at ridiculously good value from Warwick themselves : It will have a 54mm nut and the neck will be a mahogany / walnut 3-piece We will have a figured ebony board, flat profile. Specifically this one: @eude is getting a lovely piece of katalox top wood sent to me by Alan at ACG The headstock will be in the style of Carl Thomson's 6-er We will lose some weight along the way It needs to be finished and delivered before a certain special date in December So the main steps are going to be: Build a neck Slot the fretboard at 31.5" and fill with light veneer Rout the top 10-15mm off the body Chamber to save weight Cut, fit and carve top Cut new neck pocket Fit neck (prob recessed machine bolts) Tidy up old neck fixing area Build headstock Finish Set up I'm sure I've forgotten something but that's the broad plan. First proper job - tomorrow, hopefully - is to draw it out full-size and decide the best area of fretboard to use, then start marking out the fret line positions ready to cut the slots Andy

Yes - I confess. The thread title and opener all came out of my strange imagination. @eude was, in fact, very flattering and polite in his enquiry. Worked a treat Of course, that might be part of his dastardly plan! Just sayin'

Ooohh - I've got some great jiggering coming up. A new home-made jig I've not used before and has been just waiting for this very project!