HazBeen

2 hours ago, Hellzero said:

Yep sounds fat indeed and nice too with the right amount of harmonics. Well done Harry.

Thank you Tony, appreciate the comment especially since you know a th8ng or 2 about fretless basses.

Quick sound snippet.....

Infinite Bass 5 FL.mp3

Fretless sisters.....

I enjoy this thread, tinkering with wood is always a joy to watch.

16 hours ago, durhamboy said:

Looks great. A really nice job, solid building skills and a classy refined look to the finished bass. You should be proud. 

Does it sound as good as it looks?😉

Thanks, much appreciated. I still need to finetune before I can fully answer that question. But first impressions are very positive.

Today I worked on the nut (needed to sit a little deeper) and sorted the string height out. After everything has settled (give it a week or two) I will tweak again and record something.

Thus far I am very happy, the wenge fretboard gives it a warmer rounder sound than my Status necked fretless. Acoustically it resonates well and there is ample “mwaah”.

More pics and sound bites will come

Still all the tweaking to do, but it is a bass....

4 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

Then I put some copper foil in each of the bridge-block recesses and soldered a shunt running through a small drilled channel between each:

 

And a G string threaded through the ferrule should mean earth continuity between the blue wire and the E-string bridge block.  And we have continuity:

Love this solution! I went the easy option and bought a brass nut, but this is a really neat and clever solution.

Poor poor soul, I really feel for you 😂

Well done so far!

4 minutes ago, Geek99 said:

Send it back ! What clown has been botching that up .... ?

I know, what a horrible example of inept home building. It should be forbidden.

Sneak pic after 6 coats

Doing 6 coats for this one, 4 on the neck.

Coat 2 went on this am, am doing 3 tonight. Then 4 and 5 Thursday and 6 Friday am.

Then will leave to cure, with a final coat of lemon oil going on Sunday. Will then wax, assemble and do the pre-requisite tinkering next weekend.

No further pics until then
 

First layer of finishing oil on!

I’d say Sire, Yamaha, Ibanez or LTD all give you great bang for the buck.

Just now, Si600 said:

What's the inlay made of? Or did I miss that in the depths of a thread?

Scratchplate material, sanded down to wood level.

13 minutes ago, Geek99 said:

Now you’ve totally gone and f cking spoiled it

🤐

26 minutes ago, Geek99 said:

I look at your angled neck transition there (which you wouldn’t see on a fender) and I’m reminded of the story about the designer of the spitfire putting the chord on the wing joint simply because it looked right rather than for any objective engineering reason at all 

You missed it.... It actually is function dictating form. The body (where the neck meets body) is angled to ensure better access to the 21st fret (line).

By making the neck cavity and neck heel follow that angle, ensures that both sides of the neck heel have the same length and can accommodate 3 bolts either side. Impossible if neck heel and cavity were “Fender straight”.

Inlay cavity done.... I am not unhappy with it at all. Was afraid of messing up, but whilst I will obviously need to fill with some sawdust I got it pretty close.

Wenge....

5 hours ago, Geek99 said:

Needs tort ....

Needs Wenge  

1 hour ago, Hellzero said:

Harry, may I ask you why you don't use your router for the deep cavities like the neck pocket or, here, the control ... cavity ?

I've always used a router for this, in multiple passes, of course. To me, it's easier and faster than drilling holes first.

You certainly have a very good reason for this way of working, but each time I'm watching your great work, I'm wondering why...

And as ♌ too, like me, don't take it the wrong way. 😉

I have found that I have significantly fewer router mishaps if I drill out most of the wood first and then just route the edges and last few mm depth. It is as simple as that. I know that many just us a router, but this works for me and thus have had no reason to change the approach.

Little progress to report....

I think the cavity cover will be Wenge, but I had a little 3 ply left so made a quick plastic cover too.

14 minutes ago, SpondonBassed said:

That's going to be twangy.  You'll need extra tough callouses if you routinely play above the pup.

Interesting.

Not really mate. As it is still more forward than the single Bart humbucker I have in the other fretless I built or the bridge pickup on a jazz and no issues there.
 

I went with the 5 mm back to get a bit more crisp attack, but the placement will ensure enough warm roundness too.

More decisions made, going with the 1 MM pickup, 5mm further towards bridge compared to the classic Stringray position.

Cavity for pickup all done, control cavity getting there but needs further work.

On 06/10/2020 at 18:27, Bassdude BE said:

Had the fretted 4 & 5 string en fretless 6 string version of this,  excellent basses all of them and they probably had the best playability of all the >200 basses I´ve owned so far, Keith Roscoe knows how to build a good bass for sure!  

Oh no, a sufferer of SBAS (ake Serial Bass Acquisition Syndrome)..... a dangerous disease.

On 06/10/2020 at 17:30, skb558 said:

two cash sponges

That made me smile .... know the feeling.