Andyjr1515

Next task while the top is still flat is the bridge. It's a Schaller Hannes piezo bridge. And it's a complicated fit. And the none of the mass of information about it from Schaller refers in the slightest what to do with this spaghetti in terms of fitting it!: There's even drilling and routing templates for the through-body string holes and slots and the back mounted fixing bolts. But NO mention of those wires!!! Having said that, and having given it a lot of thought, I'm pretty happy what I'll do. I'll route a deep but narrow channel under the saddles themselves where the wires are going to be and then drill an intercepting hole (a bit like you do with an acoustic piezo element) into the control chamber. The individual connectors detach from the collector block so an 5mm hole should do it. All the same, I'm going to sort the the bridge fitting screws and bolt holes and slots (there is a through-string block that needs slotting at the back also) before fitting the fretboard! There is, peversely, going to be more wiggle room on the fretboard positioning than on the bridge! But I'm going to have a good long think about this before I start drilling holes and slotting slots....

To the pickup chambers..... Again, this is simply the way I do it. Many builders use a forstner for rough bulk removal and then a template and router for the final shape. I use the same things but in, perhaps, a different order to most. The reason is simple - I simply haven't found the foolproof way of positioning and avoiding router disasters with the more conventional method. I've also learnt how to sharpen a chisel...amazing what that can do when it doesn't have the sharpness of an old screwdriver... Anyway, good or bad, this is how I do it nowadays. The corners make all the difference to the professional look of the finished fit. So I drill them first on my little drill press: I then use the Forstner to take out the bulk and also to nibble right to the very edge of the marked line (which is drawn 1/2 mm larger than the pickup covers all the way round) If you ever try this, by the way, always clamp the body - nibbling hits the side of the forstner bit so, unsupported, it will shift the body however hard you might be holding it! Then I use my very sharp chisel and mallet to straighten up the top ripples in between the original four drilled holes: And only now do I get the router out to finish route the lower part of the chamber and the bottom to the specific depth I need - because now it is fully safe to use with a short top bearing trimmer bit: Result is a neat and very accurate chamber: So it's a slight shift from the conventional approach, but works for me

[quote name='Si600' timestamp='1505983574' post='3375590'] Why are you using a piezo bridge as well as magnetic pickups, is the sound noticeably different when playing? [/quote] It's Tim's request. Piezo bridges can be used to act as 'normal' pickups or run through a synthesiser. Tim's requirement is the former rather than the latter. And in this event, the answer to your question is yes - they sound very different. Piezo's tend to sound very very bright - which is why they are often used for acoustic emulation - and is quite different to any of the types of magnetic usually used. However, the real flexibility can come when you start mixing the two - for example, you can get the bass and power of, say, a humbucker, but with the top-end clarity and definition. There are many other possibilities, but this is broadly the benefit. You can, of course, do the same on a bass - Mick's Psilos Bass has the same type of arrangement.

[quote name='SpondonBassed' timestamp='1505841290' post='3374704'] Now you're just teasing. Very nice. [/quote] Thanks, SpondonBassed And onto next steps... This will be transformed once the carve is underway, but there are a few things that need to be done while I have a flat surface to work with. The most important is the pickup chambers...and because of the depth of the pickups vs the slenderness of the body itself, this will need a bit of time and care. First job here is setting the positions. The scale is going to be standard Fender 25.5". Whilst the fretboard will be trimmed slightly shorter than this, this is where the relative components are going to be (suitably squared up, of course ) Again, ignore the PVA blobs at the top - they will disappear with the first sanding. Likewise, the outline will be 'fine-tuned' before the main body carve. Nevertheless, I'm quite excited how this is going to turn out visually... The bridge is a Schaller Hamer piezo affair and will be thru-body strung. That angle IS intended with the bridge incorporating a basic intonation sweepback.

And trimmed: It's only rough-trimmed and I will finish off with microplanes and sanding blocks. The couple of blobs, by the way, are not blemishes - it's just where the Titebond has squeezed up through a couple of the natural fissures in the top. They will sand out easily. Why do I only rough-trim? Well, I find that sometimes the wood (particularly mahogany) bruises a little and if the template is absolutely spot on, there's really nowhere to go so I just find it easier to do the final smoothing by hand and that takes out any bruises or nicks easily. By the way - as those who follow my build threads already know - I always try to stress that I only describe how [b]I myself[/b] do some of these things, [b]not 'this is how it should be done'[/b]. How I work is often quite different to how many good builders work ... so, please, NEVER assume I know what I'm doing! The main difference here is that I use the top as the routing guide. Now pretty much every other experienced builder will say NEVER use the top as a routing template...and they are right. SO DON'T!! In fact, the convenional wisdom - for VERY good reasons - is don't even use your master template as a template. Use the master template to cut yourself a working template and use that as the routing guide. I do have a very logical reason for doing it the way I do it - and it works better and less risky based on previously tried methods for me... The wenge demarcation veneer here is 2mm constructional veneer: In case you're wondering, standard 0.6mm veneer works perfectly well, but when I do the carve, I want to emphasise the demarcation line and hence the thicker product. The other thing I know one or two folks are interested in is the laurel camphor. You can see the natural fissures well in this shot - those are not damage cracks, they are holes in the wood. How stable is it? Very. It seems to have a similar stiffness and workability to figured walnut. Actually quite nice to work with and not at all impacted by the voids. And just wait until I've put the finish on top!

Cable routing routed: Wenge veneer trimmed: ...and top glued on, pending trimmer-routing of the back wings:

Just gets better and better

It looks the same but it's properly flat now So now the bench and flat plank are free, on goes the first length of wenge 2mm demarcation veneer, clamped down by some mahogany offcut acting as a caul:

Next task is preparing for the top to be put on. My work with veneers has told me to always have some method of knowing exactly what and where things are under anything you're going to cover up. The easiest way is simply making an impression on a paper template: The first job was preparing the mating surfaces for cable rout channels, demarcation veneer, top chamber routing, etc.. And the first task was measuring the flatness of the assembled back wings....and not happy. Would the top 'ease' under clamping to give a good fit? Yes Would that have niggled me like crazy for the rest of the build? Absolutely So one of the wings had to come off. Quick wizz through the band saw: Then a re-flatten and mating angle adjust with a jack plane and levelling beam, then back clamped onto the flattest surface I have in the house to re-set and glue:

Good news. Good choice

That's looking really good

[quote name='MarkG3' timestamp='1505145885' post='3369797'] I might have to give up on this. If I move the bridge, it'll be in my way of playing, if I move the neck the screws to hold them will be going into the back on the thinner part of the neck [/quote] I think you are probably right. All options are likely to lead you down to quite a bit of skilled work and compromises which, from the sound of it, isn't really where you really want to be. Those options, from what I understand to be the problem, are going to be: - moving the bridge back. Issues can be practical in terms of how far back the bridge can go or aesthetic in terms of finish or fixings, or playability in terms of bridge position to playing position - or modding the neck or pocket so that the nut to saddle length is the same as the original. This is not something for the inexperienced to tackle lightly, and may compromise the fixings of the neck or the match up of the neck heel. It would be safer to sell the new neck and rethink what it is you want to do with the bass

Good progress, Jez

[quote name='TheGreek' timestamp='1504877869' post='3367987'] I think this would look really nice with that piece of quilted Ebony you have - IMO it would compliment the light body beautifully... [/quote] The quilted ebony is designated for Tim's - and as I think I've got the only piece in the world, don't suppose I'll get any more But I'm a happy enough chappy - I think, with the way the camphor will darken, this will look pretty good with the snakewood

[quote name='ezbass' timestamp='1504875601' post='3367958'] Ooh, that's lovely. I wasn't even aware that there was such a thing as quilted ebony; every day's a school day. [/quote] I wasn't aware either!

I would buy the Squier (assuming it has a decent 'feel') and consider a future upgrade to the p/ups.

A small but visually important step...the f-hole is cut

Someone asked for a closer look at the quilting on the fretboard. I've certainly never seen it before and a very welcome bonus on a board I bought as standard ebony

That is flipping gorgeous!

Did the contour steps on the other wing while the router was out: In terms of weight, the total wood content is going to end up around 5lbs, assuming I don't do any more chambering. That's fairly comparable with the piccolo bass (which ended up at a touch under 6lbs total finished weight) but the hardware on this will, of course, be heavier. Just got to cut out the control chamber and the back wings can then be glued to the neck

Been working out the area needed for the control chamber. There's a lot of real-estate taken up by Tim's chosen piezo/magnetic pre-amp (Schaller 'Flagship'): Working that out has meant I could cut out the control chamber shape. Here are all the main wood components (it'll end up about 5 1/2 lbs wood content) with the back wings now ready to glue to the neck: You can just see the quilting in the ebony of the fretboard in this shot...

Next machine set-up for Tim's Alembicesque sister build is getting the scroll saw out to cut the control chamber. So while the router jigs are still out, I've done the main cutting for the main back wing of this build. This, if you remember, is going to be curved in cross section, so I needed to know just how deep I can cut the weight relief chamber at different points from the neck join. From the back, it will look something (very approximately something!) like this: The actual cutaway will be on the bottom only. The upper dotted line is just a datum. So this is how deep I can go in mm. The fact that I can only go 6mm deep near the neck illustrates just how skinny this guitar is going to be: Still got some chiselling to do, but the bulk is out: And then at the back, to save a bit of effort, I've routed some carving steps: So the router can be put away and the scroll saw brought onto the bench for both builds...

Tim's spec includes an enclosed (ie no f-hole) semi-acoustic-with-centre-block approach, trying to get it as light as possible but without compromising balance, etc.. This means a major chamber in the top half, most of which is routed into the rear mahogany wing: Note truss rod slot is also now cut. The wall thickness of the chamber thickens at the top horn to give plenty of meat for the strap button, but also thickens at the top of the lower bout to allow the 'sucked lozenge' (as Tim describes it) cut through that he has also asked for. This will be similarly done as on Kert's camphor-topped bass which many of you will have seen before: Tim has sent me his recently purchased fancy Schaller pre-amp so that I can now work out the optimum size and shape of the control chamber to sort out the lower wing cuts and routs before they are then both glued to the neck.

Sounds like one of those 'special' acquisitions, ped. Great stuff. I'm really looking forward to the progress with the GK system...

It's looking great, Jez