HazBeen

Drat..... dropped the wenge...FFS.

Hmmm, I like this a lot....

Okay, Mahogany with a Wenge top ramp/cover required.

Neck pocket routed (the scariest bit)..... and looking nice and tidy.

Even though I used my best 3 flute bit, I do have 2 little chip outs unfortunately. They are small, but it is rather unfortunate.

I will fill with a little sawdust and since I am staining the Mahogany red it will magically disappear  

Such is.... still pretty happy.

Still not 100% on the ramp/pickup cover idea. Think I will just make one, and then decide what to do.

There isn’t much more relaxing than drilling a bunch of holes with a Forstner bit and Pillar Drill 😂

So today I cleaned up the neck a little and finished the scallop. I was worried for nothing..... will not cause any issues at all.

Then drilled a bunch of holes, drilled the earth and bridge holes (fingers crossed I route the neck pocket right .... ), routed the control cavity.

I am pondering if I should make a wooden ramp/pickup cover in one instead of the single jazz pickups. Have a nice a light bit of maple left over and mahogany. Also have a nice bit of Walnut left and some Wenge.... hmm, might go for a ramp thing... why not.

10 minutes ago, Andyjr1515 said:

For completeness and as a 'How To' guide for @Jus Lukin  I'll confirm all of this when the real strings have been fitted, but this is how I would do it with what I've done with the test strings.

Below assumes that the bass has already been intonated and therefore the tuner holders are already clamped in their playing positions:

1.  Normally, the ball-end socket blocks are going to be in the right place - because normally you will have recently loosened the strings.  But assuming that I'm starting from scratch, I would unscrew the brass block, then reattach and screw it on around 3mm to ensure that enough thread is in the block to start off with:

 

2.  Then the ballend of the string is pushed through the tuner holder:

 

3.  The ballend is hooked into the holder and the unit pulled into the holder:

 

4. The string is pulled straight, the position to the end of the clampblock noted and the string is clipped at this point:

 

5.  The string is fed through the clamp block until the string is straight and then clamped:

 

6.  String is tightened to pitch:

 

I trimmed and fitted all four strings in less than two minutes.

Oh, did I mention that I love the Nova system...? .

 

Ref intonation, if you were, say, fitting a different gauge or make of strings, you would leave them overlength, tune up, check and/or adjust the intonation, then, when the tuner block was secured in its final position, just loosen, unclamp, shorten and reclamp.

 

 

 

 

 

Okay, next bass build will need the Nova system. This is a really smart solution.

Man it was a late one...

So I waited 2 hours and unclamped. The fretboard slip is actually even smaller than I thought. Pretty much zero and no gaps either. So feeling okay now

I think I might also get away with the headstock thickness. 12mm is minimal, but just enough for the Gotohs. 
 

Every so often I am confronted with the fact that I am an amateur builder, not a pro.

.....

Today has been so so. 
 

Good news, fretboard is glued on. Opening for trussrod (allen key) made, started scalloping the headstock (will complete when fretboard has dried).

Bad news, like the amateur I am I decided to not use locator pins. Fretboard has slipped by about half a mm. Normally not an issue, but as I correctly sized the fretboard to the neck it will need a little work. No disaster, but I am annoyed at myself.

Also, I may have sanded/scalloped a bit too much. Touching on 12mm thickness. May need to stick on some veneer to gain a mm or 2. Also not a disaster, just more work and annoying.

Building is not about perfection, it is about mitigating imperfections.... well at least in my case.....

Really neat work (again)!

You can remove the fretboard, see my 5 string or @Andyjr1515 Wal neck build thread for info, then replace the trussrod and stick on a new fretboard. Very satisfying job to do and not super complex.

Fantastic!

Further progress!

- Neck and headstock cut/routed to size

- Truss rod channel cut

- Fretboard also cut/routed to size

53 minutes ago, Hellzero said:

I have a simple question, Harry, due to the fact that it's a (very) short scale. Where are you positioning the two pickups ? Is it, scale wise, à la Fender 60's (or 70's) or at postions of your own ?

My own spacing Tony. I want to bring the front pickup back a little as the short scale means it will naturally have a more “bass heavy” sound and I want to prevent it getting too muddy. The back pickup is slightly closer to the bridge compared to 70s position (relative to scale) for the same reason.

I did a quick sound test with the shorter scale with the intended positions and it seemed to work well. My test rig is a 7x5 cm beam with 2 strings where I can test pickup positions.

58 minutes ago, TheGreek said:

Like the way the headstock gives a nod of acknowledgement to the body shape...

Well spotted!

Cleaned up the blank, laid out the truss rod location and slotted and rough sized the wenge fretboard. Looks tiny  .... will end up lightning fast I am sure.

Basic 3 piece maple/wenge/maple neck glued up.

With the fretless complete, now shifting attention to the shorty,

Just ordered:

- Brass Nut

- Medium fretwire (Dunlop)

- 4 Gotoh tuners 2L/2R

- Trussrod

- Strap buttons

- Neck ferrules 

I should now have all parts. Will be starting the neck soon.

Fantastic progress. I learn so much from these threads.

And done!

4 coats and counting

I will be very happy to finish this one, really looking forward to progressing the 27” scale build I’ve started.

1 hour ago, Geek99 said:

Probably raw sharpened talent with a following sanding using a compressed block of utter competence   (... that’s probably been blessed by unicorns on a particularly magical day)

no, not jealous .... 😔

Trust me, I don’t have any real or special woodworking skills. What I do I think most could do.

I am naive and brave though  

2 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

That looks very good.  Great job.  What did you use to trim the veneer?  Because the the tendency for a split to follow the grain, I found that the trickiest bit - and maple veneer is tough stuff!

I use a very sharp chisel, one you just need to look at and it cuts you, and sand from about 1mm above the ebony.

But to be frank, I have never ever had veneer perfect and there is 1 spot here as well.
 

Close but no cigar  

But I vastly prefer wood over polystyrene, so I will happily accept the 1 spot ....

First coat on!