Andyjr1515

That looks a good joint!

Blast! Well, based on it feeling like the fretboard has taken longer than the body so far, I'd better just remake the body and persuade Neil that learning to be ambidextrous is a real life-skill!

Well, it was a lot of work - but on a scale of 1 to 10, how satisfying was that?

And to the next scary bit - cutting and gluing the ebony blocks. The process was straightforward but needed to be quite accurate. Not only does the ebony have to be cut spot on, but because of the radius, it needs to be certain that the middle is proud of the fretboard but the sides set into the fretboard so, when attacking it with the radius block to smooth them flush, I don't sand into fresh air. Here's 6 done and 4 to go: And here's all 10 in place: I'm going to leave it on the template until I've sanded them flush - in the event that any or them are flawed, it then would be a simple job to rout out the ebony with the index pin still in the right place and re-do. In the meantime, I popped across to Neil's and took some profile and depth measurements from his favourite playing neck: Every bass has its own feel, but making the new one to similar profile and measurements should make it have a comforting familiarity when Neil gets to play it

To my shame, I don't possess a bass amp and practice on my 4W Guitar amp. It's fine.

I like the pioneering spirit!

That's right. I used to use brown parcel paper too. Nowadays, I use the micromesh as @Norris suggests above.

I'd missed this...interesting. Have you seen that used before?

Anyway - using router guide bushes and bearing cutters to take the ash excess off about 2mm at a time, some noise and lots of dust later, we have a basic body shape You can see here how much scooping's going to go on in the next stages! And that's to get it to 30mm max. I might go even slimmer if I think it's going to balance OK...

I could call it the 'I can't be certain I didn't subconciously steal this shape off @Norris hole' Whether I put any finish on the veneer depends if any finish drips through said hole when I'm slurrying the top

So a couple of hours have gone past since I did the above and I've come back to it and I can't think of anything I've missed. And so, having popped a couple of locating screws in in the pickup positions, it's being glued as I type. And you all know the mantra. This time it's in the key of F#: "You can NEVER have too many clamps!!!"

Final two things before closing the top. First - a tip I learnt on my veneering jobs - is take a paper template of the chambers. Especially as this will be carved to within an inch of its life, knowing where the chambers are is pretty crucial. All I do is make an indentation on some standard photocopying paper, including some positioning datum marks: The second thing I do is WAIT! Once it's glued, it's permanent. So I need to walk away from it for an hour or so, then come back fresh-minded and recheck: has EVERYTHING that needs doing before that top goes on been done?

Just a touch more sanding on the top with a large flat block to ensure good flatness and the top's then ready to be glued on. As you see, I've added the veneer in the f-hole chamber: It certainly gives the illusion of a deeper chamber than it actually is:

Having worked out the carve shape - and therefore the thickness of the body at various points in the cross-section - I was able to rout the main chambers and cable routes. Control chamber-wise, we are going for a Master Vol/Master Tone/Blend option, with the pots following the curve of the lower bout. Theoretically, I could rout deeper at the areas further from the neck but the swampash is so light it really won't make a difference. The rout in the top is more for aesthetics than weight. Bear in mind that the top will be curved and so this will slim quite a bit, it will eventually give the illusion of being a semi, when it's actually basically a solid: Before popping the top on, I will line the f-hole chamber with some redwood veneer to further give the illusion of depth.

Wow - that's a lot of laminations on the top one!

Ah - OK. I'd remembered that your original spec was through neck but I think you're right to leave that to a bit further down the line - they bring a whole mountain range of new learning curves! I've double checked but, as I had suspected, all the necks I've got in my box of bits are 6-string electrics. While the thoughts to pass on the bass as-is is admirable, just a few musings: Many, if not most, modern low cost basses are perfectly playable and so there is always the opportunity for finding another one of equal value for the club You need a decent, playable neck to be happy with the extra time, cost and effort of building a custom body to fit it. If this feels good to play, use this one for your build and sell the body on ebay. If the neck is 'well, OK I suppose', then find another one and, if it's better, use that and donate the bass to the club. Well - that's what I'd do, anyway. I work on the basis that most budget bolt-on basses and guitars are essentially 'bitsa' builds using standard components anyway so the fact that that neck and that body happen to be assembled in this particular bass is just happen-chance. Which is why I've got a load of random necks and bodies hanging around

Ooooo....that looks nice

Most of them are 6-string electrics, I'm afraid - but does include a flame-maple/flame maple one of those, as it happens...;)

Glad this is back on the active status But I'm a bit confused...if you are going for a through neck, how are you planning to use a bolt-on as the donor? I ask partly because, since moving to almost 100% neck-through designs, I've got a number of past bolt-on necks in my over-full bits box! It would be jolly nice to find a use for some of them

We used to use Tewkesbury Saw for tools and CNC router bits, etc, for all our Cheltenham and Tewkesbury plants. Pity I'd left the area before I discovered working with wood!! Good supplier, though. That is a very impressively clean cut for what are pretty standard tools and bits, especially with so few passes - I had ten or so in my mind. I've never tried using a template to cut out a neck blank like this but I'm tempted to try, seeing this.

On the sample I've actually got this back to front, but I think this will be just right for the demarcation line: I tried doubling up and also doing a redwood/ebony/redwood and redwood/maple/redwood sandwich but the former one didn't add anything and the latter two looked a bit tacky - a bit 'trying too hard'. So next jobs are adding the redwood veneer onto the (bottom of the) top and routing the chambers and cable routings on the back. With luck, this will be all done and the top glued on before the end of the weekend.

Good progress, Jez. The neck rout on that blank looks exceptionally neat. How many passes did it take and what router / bit size did you use?

That's no surprise to me - the only time I've seen a chisel that worn before was in the days that my father used to use his long-suffering Draper 1/2" to straighten up brickwork prior to plastering...

Thanks! Trust all is well with you and yours

Lovely. The build qualty of ACGs I've seen in real life is superative.