Andyjr1515

Onto the final tasks while the gloss varnish hardens enough to polish it up (about 2 weeks from last coat) The main one was levelling, recrowning and polishing the frets. Done I'm pleased the subtle figuring in the ebony still shows after the final treatment

This double posted so this is just my way of deleting the duplicate!

And...admittedly to my surprise...it seems to have worked. Once this is sanded flush and stuck round the edges with thin 2-sided tape, I'm pretty sure it's going to look fine. The 2-sided tape will only to keep the edges secure - the plate itself will be secured by the tuner bushes and the string tree It certainly balances the look of the bass a bit better: Next job is to find the sapele that I'm sure I've got somewhere in the shed for the back

Decent question but no, not at all The plate really does, as you say, weigh naff all - but the main thing is that the Lyte top horn is longer. This will place the strap button at about the 12.5th fret, as opposed to the Rascal which places it at the 14th fret. This makes a big difference. That is quite important, also, because the new body will be much lighter than the Rascal and this, if nothing else was done, would certainly give some issues. I suppose the only slight unknown is going to be the 'sit' of the bass on the strap. It is likely that it will sit further to the player's right than the Rascal - this will make it feel a very short scale indeed (although still longer than a 6 string electric). Time will tell on that one

Can't be absolutely sure yet, but at the moment I'm planning to be there, Mike

OK - so maybe we've got the chances of success a whisker ahead of evens... It's bent. Next test is will it stay bent once it's dried... I knew the scraper burnishing rod would come in useful one day....

So what are the thoughts I have about hiding the Rascal colour of the headstock and still making it a reversible mod? Well....this may not work but: I've managed to cut a 1.5mm sliver of the walnut offcut which will scrape down to 1mm: The idea is to try to stick this on with very thin double sided tape. But what about the bend?? OK ... this is why it might not work but - an acoustic guitar side is around 1.5mm thick. And I have built a couple of acoustics and have a bending iron. So I'm going to try to bend the walnut to shape. I told you it might not work!

While I've been waiting for Tim's Alembicesque's gloss finish to dry, I've done a little more on this. Pickup chambers cut out, back trimmed, carve started, edges rough-rounded and first tru-oil slurry fill done: Next big job is probably fret-slotting the snakewood board... I'l do that when I've made a bit more progress on @scrumpymike 's Rascal conversion

The one on the right for my money

And this is probably the final gloss coat on the top. It is dust buggy free but there are still very fine brush lines from a slightly 'draggy' varnish in spite of it being warmed a touch and using a very fine fan brush. Having said that, I'm pretty sure they will polish out once the coating is fully hard:

Hi Well done to ped and all others involved on what was clearly a major upgrade. Great stuff and much appreciated folks Andy

Hi Well done ped and team It all seems to be working...including the easy fix to re-instate pictures So - I'm going to try to do a direct load of photos It's to show the neck pocket and pickup cuts: OK - that failed. So I'll try by adding the URL For the neck pocket, I used a scroll saw: For the pickup slots, I drilled either end and then used the scroll saw to cut the straights: And this is where I got to

[quote name='scrumpymike' timestamp='1510337797' post='3405792'] That's brilliant Andy! How nice to finally be able to visualise how the 'new' bass will look. Certainly makes the headstock look bigger, although that's emphasised by the current 'green-ness'. In any event, I've always liked chunky headstocks. Your comments about the original quirky design of the Rascal are spot on. Having said that, my problem was with the weight rather than the reach. If it had been a couple of pounds lighter we wouldn't be reading this build diary. Mind you, now that Merv's walnut is part of the project, I'm really pleased we are . [/quote] I'm going to have a go at cutting a headstock over-plate in the morning. I suspect that will make it look a lot less bulky

And there it is, all stripped: Fairly standard 'stratocaster' type pickup and electrics arrangements: The lipsticks have a standard single-coil type back plate, wider than the protruding part of the pickup, which the fixing and height adjustment screws screw into. While the lipstick itself appears to be bolted to that backplate, close inspection makes me think that to remove the backplate would leave a reasonable chance of knackering the pickup - so I won't be doing THAT I'll do some careful measuring and thinking of the best way of mounting them. In terms of the bridge, this is broadly where it will sit: Those of you who have followed some of my other builds will know that I break one of the taboo's of guitar building - I use the top as the routing template (please note - this is emphatically NOT recommended by the sensible and conventional wisdom!) My reasoning is, however, simple in a case such as this: The top here is, 'coincidentally', the same thickness as the neck pocket is deep I therefore just have to scribe the shape onto the walnut around the neck Then I can use the 'safe' tools (safe in terms of unwanted and irreversible gouges out of the wood) such as fret saw, chisels and files to cut the perfect neck pocket Then I will add the sapele back, cut slightly oversize, and use a bearing flush trimmer on the router, using the top as the template, to trim the back flush with the top. There are times when this approach can add issues - which is why I always emphasise that I describe how I do some of these things and most definitely NOT 'this is how you should do it'. However, in this particular instance, the approach will reduce some of the cock-up potential and not increase it

Well, the time has come to start pulling Mike's Rascal to pieces The interesting thing about a Rascal is that because of the offset body, visually it really doesn't look like a 30" scale. The Precision Lyte is 34" - and yet look how much longer the Rascal body is the longer-scale Lyte (my walnut Lyte top is 1:1 scale): The other difference is that the Lyte neck is 22 frets and the Rascal is 21. This affects where the neck pocket needs to be. This is basically how and where the neck will fit: The bridge will sit well back - in a similar position to the Lyte, although the top horn will be 1/2 fret further forward. The advantage of this is that it should help to avoid any tendency to head-heaviness in spite of this being a much lighter body than the original. Playing-wise, the new bass will sit differently to the Rascal and very much feel like a short-scale. The Rascal itself, with its quite heavy body and far rear strap button swings the whole bass to the player's left hand side, pushing the nut further away and making it feel more like the stretch of a long-scale. This will new one will sit more in the standard short-scale position. Should be interesting

With the slightly odd way I do gloss finishes, it's often a case of knowing when to stop. Sometimes trying to get from good to perfect actually makes it worse This isn't perfect - but in real life it looks pretty amazing: I've still got to do at least one more coat on the top and sometimes that means having to redo the back, but, failing that, this might be where I stop for this side

[quote name='Cato' timestamp='1510267993' post='3405267'] Dilemma: If you point out the Spaniel image to the friend who commissioned the build, he'll never be able to unsee it. It will always be the 'Spaniel Guitar'. Personally I'm not sure I'd be able to resist. [/quote] Ah...but I know where the Hannes bridge is going. Problem solved

[quote name='MoonBassAlpha' timestamp='1510262596' post='3405214'] Just catching up with this build. The top has a nice portrait of a spaniel behind the bridge. Nice work! [/quote] So it does

Excellent

[quote name='walbassist' timestamp='1510231734' post='3404804'] I always use harmonic and fretted at the 12th, not open and fretted. [/quote] walbassist is right here. Do the harmonic at the 12th then fretted at the 12th. Open and fretted 12th is not going to give you a good indication of intonation. Re-intonate on that basis and then let us know if it's still got a problem. I think that will sort it...but if it is still a problem, then we can then all pile in and REALLY confuse the issue

Ah....but remember it has a sister build...and that one is for me. Normal stuff, of course, my own one will always tend to take the back seat

When Pete and I do our two-some rather than the 5-piece full band, we use its bigger brother for a few of the numbers. Assuming we're talking using the harmony functions, then used sparingly - and only where it really is appropriate and necessary - it adds a great deal to those songs. However, I think these sorts of devices are problematic at the simpler and cheaper end of the scale. If you are using them for harmonies, the 'auto' key setting is usually an absolute nightmare...and I think the small pedal version is 'auto' only (may be wrong, of course). With the bigger one, you can tell it exactly what key the song is in (with modal options too) but even then it takes some sorting. And even then it needs to be used VERY sparingly.... As for the other enhancements and presets...well, it's a bit like presets on a multi-effects pedal, ie would you actually use any of them live???

I see exactly what you mean, Pea Turgh In the meantime, the back has had its first coat of gloss: The neck will be left unvarnished - a tru-oil slurry and buffed neck has to be felt to be believed! The top and sides have had their second coat: I'm using standard Ronseal Hardglaze as usual. The only thing I've changed since they altered the formulation to save the polar bears, is that I now brush it on with an artists fan brush (the budget ones seem absolutely fine) rather than wipe-on. The formulation change started giving issues when I tried to add enough thinners to make the wipe-on approach work properly. The advantage is also that the new formulation does seem a little thinner anyway so brushing becomes feasible with the subsequent reduction of the drag on such a fine brush.

[quote name='TheGreek' timestamp='1510166584' post='3404450'] Andy Andy would know for sure but i think it's the Satin finish [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Osmo Polyx Raw treated. Still looks beautiful..[/font][/color] [/quote] Yes - the special one that minimises the darkening effect of lighter woods is a satin finish. Mike - the lipsticks will need to be visible to get close enough to the strings (Mick's had some custom pickups made for that installation). Why I am thinking of fitting them from behind is that the fixing brackets are, of course, much wider than the lipstick itself (hidden under the pickguard). If I fit them from the top, I will need to fit pickup rings to hide the cavities. If it can be done, it will probably look quite neat not to have to do that. I'm going to take your Rascal to pieces soon so I'll have a better idea then

Top has been cut out and joined: I'm pleased to see that the flame ripple (particularly nice on walnut) is clearly there on the top horn as well as the bottom one. In discussion with Mike, we're going to go for a similar approach to the Alembic-esque electric build, with a sapele/mahogany back and a wenge demarcation veneer. The original plan was to stain the wood to coordinate with the colour of the headstock plate, but the figuring here is so spectacular we both agree it is worth sticking to natural. I may use the same Osmo 3014 'special' finishing oil I used on Mick (TheGreek)'s Psilos to try to reduce the darkening effect of the finish but we can experiment. Ref the headstock, I have an unconventional but potentially interesting thought that I will be bouncing off Mike which would give a coordinated look without losing the reversibility of the mod... My thoughts at the moment is that the lipstick pickups would be much better being fitted from the back rather than having to use pickup rings. Maybe another carry over from the Psilos? Next task is to pick some sapele that does the back justice