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Bassworks

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Everything posted by Bassworks

  1. Bassworks
    Jigs, fixtures and special tooling are valuable resources to high precision work. When it comes to fretting a neck as well as pressing frets in with an Arbor press, I use a little hide glue in the fret slot (which is blind and a constant depth from the top of the curving fretboard surface) and I clamp the whole neck and 22 Frets perfectly flat whilst the hide glue sets. Here you see the lower fret press "caul". The upper caul with 22 discrete compound radius features is about to be manufactured from the billet behind.
  2. Bassworks
    Here we are a little further down the line fast approaching truss-rod fitting and bonding Daphne's fretboard on. Precision is the name of the game for a premium instrument. Here I'm able to dial in some truss rod adjustment if necessary to ensure a truly flat neck during final truing operations and to support each neck with profile specific jacking plates at their mid-span to limit deflection during machining.
  3. Bassworks
    Lets start out with some neck stuff like the last build diary. The neck for "Daphne" is propped up here with her siblings in blank form. Carefully acclimatised for several years, the blanks are just about to be bandsawn to around 10mm oversize and then left to de-stress before rough machining commences.
  4. Bassworks
    This bass is effectively a sister to my build diary for a PPJ5 in Surf Green that sold recently. I'll try to find some different pictures from the ones that I chose for that build diary. Feel Free to comment and ask questions along the way. I'll start with a recent photo, I'm just at the point of fitting the nut and John East UNI Pre active electronics, so this is nearly but not quite finished. It weighs in at exactly 4Kg with strings and everything else. It is a Chambered Swamp Ash body, Canadian Rock Maple asymmetric profile to the rear with a proprietary "thumb-groove" further slimming the fast "J"-like profile. It sports a compound radius Macassar Ebony fretboard 12"-20" radius with block inlays. The Daphne Blue Nitro has been lightly aged with a cryo-relic process. There is the usual high specification hardware and electronics from Hipshot, Bartolini and John East. This bass is available and I'll be shipping it out at the Black Friday week deal price from last year on her Surf Green sister. Complete with a branded Hiscox hard case and 2 years of free setup and service (fair use policy applies). Please DM me if you might be interested. EDIT: I have added a picture of this bass with the neck swapped out for a fretless one that I am making for Bassworks Artist Lee Pellington. Mwah for days! Do head over to @bassworksluthiery on Facebook for other information, if you can't wait for me to populate this build diary over the next week!... Thanks for reading and enjoy!
  5. Bassworks
    Hi, a great Black Friday week price that I held open for a while longer. I can't realistically offer these deals on all instruments all year round. If you were interested in having one built to your colour with some choice around body, neck and fretboard woods it would come in at c£1,950 with branded Hiscox hard case and 2 years of free setup and service (fair use policy applies). No VAT to pay on that. Note that I have just started a build diary up for this one's sister. A PPJ5 in Daphne Blue. She's up for last year's crazy deal price and ready in about a week or so.
  6. Bassworks
    Update: SOLD! 😁
  7. Bassworks
    Bassworks Luthier FB Page OK so tried a different route if this does not get you to my Facebook page then Basschat is blocking links that go out of their platform and instead putting you back to the head of the thread. This video with audio is the pinned post on my page. Thanks. My search string on Facebook is @bassworksluthiery
  8. Bassworks
    Here's a sound demo of the Surf Green PPJ5: Surf Green Audio Track and Video Let me know what you think of her and if you like it I'd be so grateful for Shares on Social Media etc? Thanks folks. Bruce
  9. Bassworks
    It's certainly creative and quite pretty!
  10. Bassworks
    Sweet!
  11. Bassworks
    I suspect prevalence (or lack of it) is more to do with the amount of work and effort to produce one in metal as compared to soft, fast cutting materials such as bone and Graph Tech TUSQ.
  12. Bassworks
    Thanks, I'm doing all sorts from Graph Tech TUSQ, though to bone and brass. I like the way that the open string on a brass nut sounds closer to a fretted note, tonally.
  13. Bassworks
    Thanks Sam, much appreciated. Happy New Year in advance!
  14. Bassworks
    This pretty much concludes the build diary for this instrument folks. The finish is a what I call a light "cryo-relic" with some mild abrasions to a couple of places. Personally I'm not a great fan of heavy relic instruments, but I'm happy to do it if a Client wants! 😉. All the best for the New Year folks. See you for another Build Diary soon....
  15. Bassworks
    Like this one...
  16. Bassworks
    Electronics cavities should in my view always be shielded, whether passive or active circuits. Copper foil in this case. The cavity is designed for a John East UNI Pre 01, 4 knob, 3 band pre-amp, running at 18V.
  17. Bassworks
    Now you can see how neat those Hipshot USA tuners look recessed into their matching pockets!
  18. Bassworks
    I'm a big fan of Bartolin PUs. They sound sublime and are internally shielded, so there is no need to shield PU cavities when they are specified in a build.
  19. Bassworks
    Surf Green Sunday! Here's the UK designed and built body and neck, together with the bought-in parts (some UK, some USA sourced) laid out ready for assembly and test.
  20. Bassworks
    Thanks @MoonBassAlpha, I believe this does exist. There's no problem in implementing this either way. It just needs some forethought in terms of electronics cavity depth and choice of electronics to suit available depth.
  21. Bassworks
    To finish off this morning, here's the finish I used on the Surf Green PPJ5. It's old school Nitro colour, plus slighly yellow tinted clear-coat. Then it gets a "cryo-relic" by apllication of heat followed by rapid and deep cooling. Not for everyone I know, but I think she's pretty sweet!
  22. Bassworks
    I guess it's my Mechanical Engineering backgound but I really don't like woodscrews! 😂 My Pickup fixation and adjustment solution involves supporting each unit from behind with three socket head cap screws running in brass threaded inserts. The front screws act as lock-down screws. Set and forget. Solid and there's no foam to degrade over the years and no springs to rattle.
  23. Bassworks
    "The Devil is in the detail" as they say. Here's the side jack socket recess for a Neutrik NJ36C locking jack socket. It's a three stage rout with a manual router using a special fixture that houses three different router guides for the three stages.
  24. Bassworks
    Good morning Bass fans! A few more insights for you. This is the rear detail of the body nearly complete. having just had it's electronics cavity put in. It's optimised for John East's UNI Pre, 4 knob 3 band EQ, but can accommodate other brands.
  25. Bassworks
    Last one for this morning is a nearly complete PPJ5 body front. There's stock left on the outside profile for final profiling and the heel pocket geometry has not yet been put in. This is proprietary Bassworks intellectual property, so sadly I can't reveal that detail to the public domain in picture form. Suffice to say that it's innovative and confers better sonic transfer, joint rigidity, alignment accuracy and structural strength than a tradiational heel pocket.
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