Andyjr1515

Yes - very nice. Good call

Hi I know you are moving on but, as a bass builder, just to put your mind at rest: it is exceptionally unlikely that the twist problem is anything you've done. My reasons for saying this: As folks above have said - with a single truss rod neck - in my view, the truss rod does not do anything about twist. It does not cause it and it cannot cure it. I'm pretty sure the Jazzus is a single truss rod neck. The truss rod adjustment is a routine event - especially with changing weather conditions. Adrian M explains this himself in Part 1 of his YouTube set-up guidance videos (which are good, by the way). He himself in that video adjusts the truss rod under full string tension. Adjusting with no string tension is also OK. Unless a bass has been left in exceptionally poor storage conditions (eg, I make an assumption it hasn't been left in a car in full sun in recent weather or anything of similar extremes) twist is usually an issue whose causes would have been already present in the timbers or construction at the time of building. It is entirely possible that this would have been undetectable at the time of making so it is not necessarily a sign of poor quality control. As the neck moves, through playing or through weather changes, those underlying issues can sometimes start to show. On a relatively new bass, therefore, I'm surprised that there is any argument other than to replace the neck FOC (I think the neck is bolt-on?). It is usually no-one's fault - but it is, in most likelihood, a fault in the bass.

I had a look around, Luke, and here's at least four Andyjr1515 bloopers All covered in gory detail in their respective threads My first acoustic guitar build. Lovely neck blank. Was really pleased with it: Slight problem. Wrong size. Had to make another neck blank Mick's Psilos Bass. I knew what I meant. Unfortunately, I comprehensively failed to explain to Mick what I meant. Had to make another neck Tom's African Bass. "Hmmm...did you hear something like a cracking sound???" Tim's Alembic-esque electric. Fretted, through neck. Almost finished. Problem was that, once I'd strung it up, I realised that the fretboard was too narrow and the strings slipped over the edge. Result - I had to de-fret, add binding to either side of the fretboard, refret, re-shape the neck to fillet in the new binding...and every erroneous step followed avidly by the thread followers And there are many, many more examples. To be honest, there aren't actually many builds where there isn't at least one 'oops' moment. And usually it's a really obvious and avoidable error. The only difference to my earlier builds is that I now: triple check stuff that would render a bass or guitar complete scrap before I let sharp metal anywhere near the wood. I reckon I make as many errors, but they tend to be smaller ones. have got better at working round issues once I've c****d them up! Does that make everyone feel better?

My home made radiusing rig isn't brilliant, but it does the job. I've clearly got something horribly wrong with my geometry because I have to offset the blank by 10mm off centre to get it to rout evenly on both sides of the radius Still - with that tweak it works well enough to be able to just finish it off with 15mins of a radius block after 20 mins or so routing down to final size. Based on that it used to take me a couple of days to radius a fretboard - and the radius was often highly suspect even after that - it's still progress and was well worth the time to draw it out and make it Then onto the G&W mitre box. Theoretically the scale should be 25 3/8" but I have a 25 1/2" template already - should be close enough as the guitar is going to be for my own use. Folks may have seen one of my previous threads where I scrapped a fretboard using this rig the very first time (please note @LukeFRC ) but, now that I've found a decent method of setting it up and securing everything from moving, it works well. So, I have a radiused and slotted fretboard: Next job is the neck, using the maple/walnut/maple offcut I found. But first, I must amend the title of the thread to avoid being lynched when everyone realises this isn't a bass and think I've been hoping no one would notice!

Actually, I should point out - holding my head in shame, of course - that this is going to be a 6-string guitar and not a bass. Acoustic basses are too big both for my workshop and my abilities!

These are looking really good, Christine. What I love about a well applied clear coat is how it makes the underlying detail and form project out to the eye. Just look at those headstocks! And the quality of the top carves. It's a great looking spray job, but what that is illuminating is the quality of the build underneath. Top drawer stuff

Thanks! A mere king's ransom There is, of course, room to negotiate around which king and how badly we want him back - I'll pm you

Hmmm....I don't think so... It's actually a stretched version of this piccolo bass I designed and built for Pete, our band's bassist: Because of the longer neck, it meant the top horn needed extending but that's pretty much the shape. If Ric's have muscled in, they will be hearing from my solicitors!

Lightweight tuners, top horn in the Goldilocks zone near the 12/13 frets, bridge set well back reducing the projection of the neck, relatively small headstock, relatively heavy bridge

Well, with a nifty slip of a router, it could easily become a P. I'm sure @Len_derby wouldn't mind. He only had to wait three or four months for it, after all

Just found out that my recent build for @Len_derby (covered to sleep-inducing detail in the Build Diaries) has been awarded 'Bass Of The Week' in the excellent (not that I'm biased) US-based e-zine 'No Treble' I'm well chuffed - it's my fourth BOTW with them Here's the link: https://www.notreble.com/buzz/2018/08/06/bass-of-the-week-ajr-guitarmods-swift-lite-lightweight-bass/ I'm just off for a cold shower to deal with my nauseating smugness Andy

Just found out this has been voted 'Bass of the Week' in the excellent (well I would say that, wouldn't I) US e-zine 'No Treble' https://www.notreble.com/buzz/2018/08/06/bass-of-the-week-ajr-guitarmods-swift-lite-lightweight-bass/ Well chuffed. It's my fourth success with BOTW Andy Smug

I'll find at least one where I did

Ah...but I can turn nice wood and a budding instrument into BBQ fuel just as easily - and just as quickly!

That is a jolly impressive line-up

Sides trimmed and mahogany front and back blocks glued on: And the (unsanded) back also cut - leaving it oversize to allow both wiggle room and for the contraction when it is dished to its 15 foot radius: Much of the build will be done with the sides remaining in the mould: The top wood (sitka spruce) and bracing / kerfing wood is on order so not much more can be done on the body at the moment. While I'm waiting for the wood to arrive, I'll start on the neck and fretboard. Busy tomorrow but I should be able to make some progress on Wednesday

The bending irons are a sort of steam-bending to be honest. You comprehensively soak the wood first and then spray it frequently during bending. Some folks also use a flexi stainless steel sheet that keeps the steam in, although I find it easier without. The other common method is a fox-type bending rig with heating pads - common in the US but the equipment tends to be quite difficult to get hold of and expensive here. Also, it is a specific rig for each size of guitar. Fine if you are doing multiple builds of the same design, but a bit over the top for one offs For me, the bending irons work (as long as they are turned up hot enough) and don't take up a lot of space. With a workshop about the size of a public toilet cubicle, that's important to me

I think that would be hugely helpful. I've finally got to the stage of being able to sharpen planes and chisels successfully and repeatably, but it was a tortuous learning curve. I think there are a lot of folks around here, including me, that would find it very valuable to see a professional's approach

OK - we have a live project These need a touch more bending to take some of the stresses out, but I will let them fully dry, clamped to the formers and then do any extra bending at specific points where needed tomorrow. Minor rant. This bending iron isn't cheap and is pretty much the only one you can get: The heating scale goes from 'Low' through 1 - 6 to 'High' There is a slip of paper that comes with it that says something on the lines that you should never go higher than 4 as it will burn out the element. Well - I had forgotten but soon remembered when there was a lot of steam but then sounds of grain splitting and no magical 'relaxation' of the wood - you need to be on at least 5 for it actually to do its job. So what, I surmise, the makers/suppliers are saying is - 'we have underspecced the heating element and a lot of people have complained that their heating elements are burning out so don't try and claim warranty because if you have actually bent some wood then we know that you must have used it above 4 and so we won't cover the replacement element' Some very well respected suppliers sell these - and at a hefty price. Shoddy.

OK - rapidly onto the go/no-go stage. Basically, if I split the sides when bending them, then the project is dead. So I'm going to do that early on. A few tips if anyone is thinking of tackling their first acoustic guitar (some of which will apply to acoustic basses too): There are lots of 'I didn't know that' factors There are lots of things that aren't as they seem Such as that a flat-top guitar is usually not flat. Almost all of them have a slight dish - typically 25 feet radius The backs are also not flat. These are usually dished to around 15 feet radius There are lots of pretty essential jigs you need to make. Body mould; radius dishes (25' & 15'); go-bar deck to mould backs and tops to their respective radii Martin made a bracing pattern in the 30's (?) that happened to work and 90+ % of acoustic guitars use this EXACT pattern I follow every single hint and tip that successful luthiers suggest. No rebellious-against-convention Rogers here! So - the sides. First, I found my dreadnought mould that I knocked together for Chris's build. I then put a card former in with the back and front dimensions marked in a straight line: OK - so that's easy. So just cut the blank with that straight taper, right? Wrong. Look at what a straight taper does seen from the front: Imagine the left side doing the same thing and you have a 'v' shaped back So the shape of the sides needs to be more like this: I will fine tune it with some sand paper on the radius dish (don't worry - I will explain if it gets that far!) But the next stage is cut the sides to that paper template: And soak them. Am I using MrsAndyjr1515's leftover bubble bath water? No - I am following a respected acoustic luthier's conviction that fabric softener make a big difference to the bendability of figured woods. I question not. I just follow. And on goes the bending iron: So in the next couple of hours, the project continues or ends. Wish me luck

It's entirely possible that's where I will end up too

OK, good news is that all components are usable, size-wise - even the macassar ebony fretboard offcut It also gives me a choice of two neck wood combinations - maple/walnut /maple or mahogany/ walnut / mahogany. I'm tempted to use the maple...harder to work but might add a touch of brightness for the fingerpicking side of things...

Yes - the mpm-02 piezo/magnetic mixer is teeny weeny and works well. The info sheet provided is, however, rubbish. Jez ( @Jabba_the_gut ) had the same issue and John sent him a much clearer hand drawn sketch which Jez copied to me for Mick's Psilos bass. Why John doesn't just add a pdf of that on his web site or with the product I don't know, bless him, but if you get one give Jez or me a shout and we'll send you one.

In the early stages, my approach on this will be a bit brutal. The storage of the back and side wood has been poor - there's been a bit of dishing and there's been a bit of what looks like water damage on one of the edges of the sides set that was there when I bought it. So basically, rather than hours of planing, scraping and sanding - only to find out that there is not enough usable area - it's doing what you should never do with figured woods - through the Makita thicknesser down from about 7mm to 2mm at 0.5mm a time. And I've sort of got away with it so far. I say sort of because at the last pass of the last back piece like an eejit, I sent the panel through the other way round - and got some pretty impressive tearout! The other side is perfect, despite being reduced through a very, very harsh process. The sides too: I've lost a couple of inches off the length of the sides due to the unavoidable snipe of this type of thicknesser but - and I will check later today - this should still give me adequate length for a dreadnought The water (?) damage on the sides is on the opposite side to the bookmatch join and should be well within the trim allowance of the sides. Again, I will check later today the usable dimensions. So, assuming that the dimensions are usable, the next proper job is going to be bending the sides. If they bend OK, we have a live project, if they don't I'll use up the wood for headstock plates/inlay fills, etc.. Whatever, this will be a background project as it's only for my own use so may take some time!

Actually, John, the one I showed you was my smaller OM size: This is great for what I built it for - fingerpicking styles - but the king of strumming acoustics is the bigger dreadnought model and the OM is noticeably more limited. This is my own (look how much the top has darkened!) next to my dreadnought build for Chris, our band's vocalist: The reason I never made a dreadnought for myself before is that they are great for strumming (which Chris mainly does) but usually not so good for fingerpicking (which I mainly do). But - probably by pure luck - Chris's dreadnought just as good for fingerpicking as my smaller OM. If I can replicate that, then I have the best of both worlds