Andyjr1515

Well I reckon it should be 1001. Oh, there we go

Splendid job

Well, after this...nor will mine

And bringing it up to the present state of play... To balance the purple of the headstock and fretboard, I added a slice of purpleheart to a cut block of ebony and carved the beginnings of the bridge. I also cut the fretboard end to where it will meet the soundhole: Next, I turned my attention to the decoration around the soundhole. Although you have to be a bit canny to maintain the accuracy, I actually find the Dremel radius accessory reasonable for this job: I used a 1mm bit to cut a circle at the centre and wrapped some 1mm b/w/b purfling into it after running a teeny bead of glue onto the bottom edge. After scraping the excess purfling off, I drilled an offset radius tool spike-hole that will be used to put in a second, larger offsett ring (you can just see the pencil check marking offset and outside the installed ring): And then another radius tool spike-hole in between those two to be able to cut - using a 3mm bit - a mid radius to create an offset channel for some curved abelone that, all being well, would fit in between the two other rings. It worked!! And finally, the radius tool spike back to the original hole, but at a slightly smaller radius to now cut right through and create the sound hole : And that's how far I've got so far. It's dinky, isn't it!!!! @Frank Blank might recognise the LAG next to it :

I ordered a tenor ukulele mould from Radius Dish UK - superb product but did take a long time to arrive: I also ordered a sitka spruce bookmatched pair, which I planed and scraped down to a touch under 3mm and joined: And also found in my small wood collection a full mahogany back and sides set - I have NO idea when and what I bought that for...but it would do nicely. Again, planed and scraped the sides down, this time to around 2mm and then out came the bending hot pipe. First a good dousing with water: Then on with the leather work gloves. With a bending iron, a hot pipe and a lot of patience plus plenty of spritzing is the key: One half nearly done: And now both! Once that was fully dry (overnight) I could cut the sides flush at either end and cut a mahogany tail block and neck block to glue them up: Then, having found the rubber-banded clothes pegs in a long-forgotten drawer, applied the kerfed (slotted) linings: And then that's the sides done ready for radius sanding :

As the purpleheart gets exposed to the light it will pinken markedly. Originally, I was going to put a plain ebony headstock plate over the mahogany...but maybe a bit of purpleheart there too? Got me thinking and experimenting. Hmmm...and was there room for a swift in there too? : Then add some dots and frets to the fretboard - this might work: Then back to the neck. No trussrod needed but, as it is a mahogany neck, maybe a little extra stiffness would not go amiss - so I slotted the top for a couple of hollow carbon-fibre beams: With that sorted, I could bandsaw the neck and start shaping that. Before shaping the heel, I added an extension to its length. The fretboard is just laid on top - it won't be glued on until the neck angle is fully sorted (a long time yet!): Did a bit more carving to start sorting the neck profile and, in the same way that you can't have too many clamps, you can never have too many swifts! You can tell the age of my iphone by the colour aberrations of its camera!! Starting to look like an acoustic guitar neck

Wow! Newborn or not, it's a big b****r!!

Looks good. I like those features at the back.

For the fretboard, I had found an offcut of some purpleheart that I used for neck splices in the past. I sliced a length off on the bandsaw and radiussed it with a radius block: Then used a 24.75" (I think it was) scale in my fretting mitre jig starting at the 5th fret to give me the 17" scale: Next I added some sawn strips of purpleheart to act as binding, curved to radius and taper using my little block plane:

I've found quite a bit of stuff for it in my various bits-boxes and rubbish bits-piles. Including - and I have NO idea why I have a set of these - some classical guitar tuners!: I found a mahogany offcut from one of my bass builds. Would the tuners fit? Wow - clearly this was meant to be : So, after cutting a headstock angle, out came my little Proxxon pillar drill: Back to the band saw to cut the rear face of the headstock, then back to the pillar drill and scroll saw to drill/saw the slots: Well - that went better than I thought it would!

Yes - I know, it's a guitar. But it's for a good cause - it's for my two grandchildren for them to pick up and try if and when they are able to or want to, or use as a cricket bat or wall hanging if they don't. And you never know - if they get hooked, they may well turn into bass players when they grow up I'm going tenor-uke size, but definitely a 6 string guitar. Nothing against uke's but this way - if they do take a liking to it - they can progress to larger guitars without having to re-learn all of the chord patterns and tuning. So spec is going to be : 17" scale Ball-end nylons tenor uke body size Sitka Spruce top Mahogany back and sides Mahogany neck Purpleheart fretboard 'Standard' X-brace And, broadly, it is going to look like this: I'm about halfway through - I'll do a few quick posts and then stuff will slow down to actual progress rate (that is, pedestrian! )

Hmmm...not sure. My first thought was 'wide range in the bridge??' Shades of mudbucker came to mind. And, compared with your other basses that may still be the case. But this video is actually quite interesting (SUPER irritating, but actually quite interesting): Skip to 8:12 and then direct to 9.02 for his demo of DI neck to bridge ('direct to' so as to miss all of the changes in tone position and introducing an amp emulator which just confuses everything). Then to his comments at 14.32. He is clearly unimpressed with the neck pickup so maybe it is a fairly objective review, but is clearly quite impressed with the bridge pickup. Now, regardless of the above, my guess is that it is always going to sound a bit like a mudbucker - but, before you shell out cash on it, try this: - try raising bridge pickup - and if you have enough gap, then raise the back of the bridge pickup more than the front of it..say 3-4mm at the back and 2mm at the front (and so tilting the pickup higher at the bridge side than the neck side) - if this helps but still a bit muddy, then raise the 4 poles on the bridge pickup a couple of mm above the casing - from the photo it looks like they are all screwed down below the casing If this doesn't get you there, then I reckon different pickup for at least the bridge is probably on the cards as a split coil, in my opinion, will not get you there. If you try the above, then let us know if it makes a difference.

They look beautiful!

See who?

Trouble is, modding the neck will make it sound different (not necessarily worse, but definitely different) and it will feel different... ...and as @fretmeister says above, this will be just a set up issue - easily fixed and something you would want to learn in any case if you were considering changing the neck So I agree with the others, best to: -set up your present bass which will mean you keep the stuff you like and get rid of the stuff you are not happy about - buy another bass for no better reason that you can never have too many basses

My bad. I scan read it and thought it was the drill that had broken based on the photo!! Yes - there are some timbers that are very resistant to letting the screws cut their threads. Wenge, ebony, even some types of rock maple. I try to find good quality screws (easier said than done...how do you know?), I put soap on the threads and do the 'two twists forward, one twist back'. But sometimes they still snap

Ouch! What drills are you using? I would recommend some decent quality Forstners. Are you using a pillar drill or hand drill?

I've been awakened from my slumber by @Jabba_the_gut. Yes - of course I'll be there. I'll try to sort the payment stuff tomorrow Hmmm...is that the time? Better nod off again, then.......zzzzzzzzzz

That neck is the absolute dog's whatsits! Can't see a dark patch even when you tell me where it is supposed to be

Looks good! And funnily enough, ref mashing up the pickup screw holes when originally fitting the pickups, I was going to ask whether there was enough depth to pop a hardwood block under there and screw into that - but you clearly beat me to it and popped one in there in any case! Looking forward to the next one. With that result, can't believe you haven't now fully got the bug

Well, as always with me I am probably may be wrong - but isn't it that the bridge earthing might be causing this effect? How I always understood it was: - that when touching the strings or bridge any potential current present at the strings or bridge basically grounds through your body - but if your bridge is already fully grounded, then there is no potential current because that potential is always being fully dissipated through the bridge to the earth of your jack - On the other hand, if your earthing of the bridge is weak then, when you touch the bridge or strings, that potential earths through you - stopping the mains buzz. **I am aware that the grounding of the bridge is not primarily a shielding action - it is very much a safety step to stop fatality in the event that a short somewhere renders the strings and anything metallic touching them becoming electrically live. But I think the above logic holds good even accepting that?

Sounds pretty good from here! And it looks utterly splendid. I'd missed the thread previously - stunning.

I would have said that is very marketable. The headstock and decals is a pro-job and, to a buyer, that is often what they look at first. I stand by what @Richard R quotes me as posting - it's splendid and beautiful job.

Stunning and awe-inspiring in equal measure.

I was going to suggest a curved fine Microplane rasp blade from their Snap-In range...but it looks like they've pulled out of the carpentry market altogether!!! That said, they are very active in the (probably more expensive lucrative) cooking utensil martket - and it's almost certainly the same blades...