HazBeen

It appears finished. As I am remodeling the headstock I will probably need to sand everything down and refinish with oil. Should be fine, oil gives a really nice and thin finish to wenge/bubinga.

Whilst I am still very much focussing on the multiscale 5, I have 3 projects lined up already. 1 scratch build, 2 part-builds. And two are actual client builds too... based on seeing me play my own instruments, two people asked me to build them an instrument too! Scary but very cool. - I found a mint wenge/bubinga Ibanez Grooveline 104 neck on the web recently. I got it for very little money indeed, it is a made in Japan Prestige neck with Titanium stiffening rods from 2013, never fitted to a bass. I am going to use this neck and build a 4 string passive PJ. Alder body (own design), wenge/bubinga neck (I will remodel the headstock as it is fugly currently), EMG Geezer pups, Gotoh GB707 tuners chrome, Hipshot kickass bridge, black stain/oil finish, black pick guard. For me, - in parallel I will do a custom design 6 string (spits in disdain) scratch build. Alder body, 2 humbuckers, 25.5” scale rock monster. For a client. - after I will do a VI/baritone build based on an 28.6” scale Ibanez Mikro bass neck provided. Jazzmaster based design body most likely. For a client. That should sort me out for the rest of 2021 Build threads to follow of course.....

Quick snapshot to show just how easy I can access way up the neck due to the flared heel/ deep body cut.

The worst thing is that it always seems to find new ways to harass

Found another hour or two so sorted the bolt-on setup. All went smoothly on that front. In the saga that is my love-hate affair with routers, my neck pocket was an almost perfect fit..... until I wanted to clean up one corner and my router decided to take a sliver off with the bearing itself 😳🙄..... how the heck Still happy, and nothing major but it just shows that even if you make a template the router can still bite you in the behind. Highlighted in yellow for your viewing pleasure 😂

Tips: - Apostrophe/Overnight sensation - Sheik Yerbouti - Zoot Allures - Them or Us - Man from Utopia - Broadway the Hardway - Roxy and elsewhere - Tinseltown Rebellion - zappa in New York - Lumpy Gravy To name just a few....

Lifelong Zappa fan here, changed my life at 12 or 13 years old... not exaggerating. For me the period 73-86 ish resonates the most, but the earlier stuff is really interesting too and even his classical dabbling worked for me. One of the very few to effectively combine humor with great/serious composition.

Unexpectedly found 2 hours to rough carve a neck. With the “flared” heel it is slightly more complex, as I need to very carefully carve the heel to match the contour of the body. So next week when I have time again I will fix the neck to the body and finish the carve. The neck will have a SS zero fret and I will notch out the fretboard so I can angle the strings down into the string clamp. The clamps will sit on top of a 2mm thick piece if ebony that follows the shape of the mini headstock ( a few mm smaller in diameter to still show the maple/wenge). Also did the 20” radiusing. Happy so far in any case. Note the neck is a few mm thinner on the flare than the neck, clearly I needed to create a little elevation to get enough clearance for strings/pickups etc. This flare design is either going to be very smart or very stupid 😂

Such a cool build, almost furniture like (in the best possible way) and truly unique.

Hmm, I realise I have not been snapping pics.... hmmm, bad hobby builder! fretboard is glued on, body carved, neck cavity, battery cavity, control cavity and headless tuner cut all done. Need to carve te neck/radius fretboard etc. I will not be doing much over next 2 weeks, so pics will come asap. I did for some reason snap these pics, gives a little indication of what things look like, albeit totally incomplete.

Love it! Although I think you need 21 frets

If I built any more basses than I do, I would get a CNC or laser just for that. But to be honest, for normal frets I use a jig which works really well and relatively quick. The fan fret makes is more of a hassle, and I don’t see myself do loads of those.

I am indeed doing the 35.5-33.5” one.... I hate slotting at the best of times, but now I cannot use my normal jig I am REALLY hating it. 5 slots in and all is well, but man it is an ordeal.... am going to take as long as I need.

Never

Still my main cabs, 2 L212s .... never been able to find a substitute and they haven’t missed a beat in the many years I owned them.

Sometimes I tire myself.... I have decided that I now ideally want a 35.5 - 33.5” fan, not 35-33”. I bought a spare Ebony blank... hmmm, am I really going to do another? Decisions, decisions...

Fanned fret slots..... check. I have checked them several times, appears to be within acceptable limits so RESULT!

+1, great supplier and they have loads of stuff

Thanks, soon I will address the biggest challenge... getting the neck right, incl. the flared part where it bolts to the body. But I think I have the right approach in mind for that.

Body rounded, as it is is 2.45kg. And the wood I will take out for the control cavity, belly and arm cut, tuners and neck should be roughly the same as the weigh of the hardware, so that is where I am thinking we will end up. With the headless neck absolutely on track to stay below 4 kg, Quick mockup attached as well, just for fun

Weight wise, it is looking like we will end up just under 4 kg. Not bad!

Note the trussrod access

Did quite a lot over the weekend. - Both top and bottom now glued on (1 at a time). Bottom in first, got a really good glue up. Hope 2nd is as good. - Weight reduction cavities routed - Neck rough outline cut, trussrod and graphite rod slots routed - Devised a way to keep body shape as it and still be able to access the tuners - and a few more bits here and there.... Apologies for the upside down pics, my iPad sometimes decides to flip pics when posting to BC.