Andyjr1515

Doing the neck is best done outside for me if possible - more room than in my very small cellar space. And much more light! I took this shot to show my grandchildren when/if that time comes. They will already be eye-rollingly bored at grandpa's endless tales of 'when I used to build bass guitars', but will, I'm sure, point at this picture with wonder. "Oooooh. What's that bright bit, grandpa?" "It's called sunshine, Billy" "What's sunshine, grandpa?" "Well - if you wait until you are a BIG boy...and then wait some more until you are a MAN...and then wait some more until you are an OLD MAN... and all the time hope and hope and hope - you too might see something like that!" "What - in DERBY, grandpa???????" Anyway - the main neck carve. Once it's been roughed out, I do almost all of the rest of the carve with a humble cabinet scraper: Using the template I took from Neil's favourite Fender, checking the fit frequently. Here the haunches are still sitting too proud: And here it's sitting just right: As well as the template gauges, I play a lot of air-bass guitar. The neighbours think I'm bonkers, but sitting it over your knee and playing it is, on my view, one of the best ways of checking when it's 'right'. I will probably tweak it a few more times before I'm finished, but here it is pretty close: What I do like about going for the thin-body-neck-through approach is that you can get some quite elegant transitions neck to body:

It it's all solid wood (unlikely) then yes - as @Reggaebass says, it's a case of stripping and sanding down to clean wood. If the figuring is a veneer, then yes with some disclaimers...the veneer will only be 0.6mm thick so it is very easy to break through when stripping If the figuring is a photo application, then no - well, technically you could still go down to bare wood and stain that but all of the figuring will be sanded away.

Pretty much....and from the look of it, that will be the least of your problems You certainly like a challenge...

Oh...and this is absolutely splendid, by the way Great job!

As I found out in my journey of mods and builds, it's just a few extra steps up from the skills you've already gained. And neck carving is also one of the most satisfying part of a build If you want to lower the learning curve just a touch, buy a preslotted fretboard blank. David Dyke only charges £10 to slot the blanks he sells.

Superb

OK - I'm confused Just to clarify: I think your Tokai needs a 3.5mm metric fine thread grubscrew A Fender USA grubscrew will not fit because the threads on USA Fenders are imperial, not metric So if you get a 3.5mm metric fine thread grubscrew off ebay, it should fit your Tokai. A Fender USA grubscrew may be the same diameter but it won't fit on your Tokai because it will be the wrong thread pitch. Are we both saying the same thing?

Just weighed it - that neck carving has taken off a lot of weight. We might be looking below 6 1/2lbs finished weight …

Lot of carving still to do, but the neck is sized and roughed out:

Carve's done for the body ready for final sand. As usual, I give the wood a quick coat of tru-oil to show up any filing or sanding marks and any glue spills, etc.. It is also useful for keeping the body relatively clean while I move onto the next bit - carving the neck. The finish will be enhanced, but this is fairly representative of the colour shades that will be on the final product: Nice bit of quilting when it catches the light: This will be enhanced further when the final finish is applied. And for good measure, the back: ...and front-on: Next job - the neck carve

Fascinating thread - the one above and this one you are doing here, @jebroad Continuing to watch with great interest!

Wow ... that's some inlay!

The bottom bout is the one I'm still tweaking to balance out both the visuals and the practicalities, Mick. By ghe way, notice some ancestral familiarities to the psilos on that second shot?

The basic carve of the body is almost done. Just got to take a bit of thickness off the back of the lower bout and then I'll move to the neck. I'll finish sand it all at the same time. From the view above, it looks pretty conventional. But this gives a hint that it's not quite... :

I'll call it a day now and come back to it tomorrow to decide about the edges. But you probably get the idea of where it's generally heading: With loads of wood still to remove - especially the heavy maple from the neck carve - and with all remaining hardware piled onto the scales, it's sitting at below 7lbs at the moment, so below 6 3/4lbs should be well within reach for the finished bass. As always, thanks for looking

Those who have seen my other builds will know that I creep up on the final shape generally when I'm doing the body carve. While I have a general idea of what the final shape is going to be, I tweak it as I'm going along and do multiple checks ref the depth of carve and where the chambers are. This is after the first pass. Plenty more to go:

And the fretboard is on! So tomorrow is officially designated top carve day

First of all HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NEIL! With the proper Nordstrands arrived, I could move forward today on this. For cutting pickup chambers, I've found a way that works for me. Although many will do it quite differently with equally good results, briefly, this is what I do. I draw round the covers and centre point the critical radii: I use a bradpoint and forstner to drill those points to full depth: I then use a forstner to hog out the rest to 5mm shallower than final depth: Having at last learned how to sharpen and use a chisel (trust me - it's worth learning), I chisel to finished shape: Then rout to finished depth using a short trimmer bit. You can see here where I've broken into the cable channels: And - to my great relief, first try, no trimming or sanding: This means that the fretboard can now go on: Which means that tomorrow, I can start carving the top

This is looking excellent

That is beautiful, @Sibob

Fender US will be imperial, I'm pretty sure (at least, I think most american guitars are) I would be surprised if a Tokai would be anything but metric.

I think it will be a 3.5mm metric fine. The minimum allowed external dia of a 3.5 mm is 3.354, which seems to be within your measurement. Anyone else agree?

Well, they've been flying all the way from South Africa and only just arrived...I suspect they are kn******d

Hmmm - interesting... Anyway, I'm promised they are on the way so I've been doing the final fretboard pre-glue jobs so that I don't lose time while I'm waiting. Truss rod installed and demarcation veneer applied: The smaller luminlay dots for the over-body dots (the main dots will be the larger ones) which are best done before the fretboard is on - because, trust me, these particular ones are a beggar to do when the fretboard is already fitted: And - as you may have noticed, I've decided in the end to do a 24th fret block. It looked a bit bare at the dusty end without. This looks better to my eye: I'm hoping the replacement pickups will arrive tomorrow so I can rout the chambers then get the fretboard on

They are not worth holding onto from the look of them Anyway, I'll send them back in the morning. There might be some anxious soul at this very moment saying, "Where on earth did I put those bits????"