GarethFlatlands

I've left instructions with the cat. If someone called Mr Wilson gives you any bad news, that's him.

I had an old Maya bass which I was doing up before I realised the truss rod was stuck, rendering the neck pretty much useless. Said bass is now in many, many pieces in my basement and I decided to use it to make some templates for bass building. However, if I can't build a neck then any hopes of building full basses are out the window (although I suppose I could do bodies?), so I decided to take the plunge and try it out. I ordered a maple neck blank and a pack of 5 panga panga boards and got to work. I also ordered a neck template which had a 62mm heel width as I think my Maya bass was 60mm which is non standard. I found a centre line on both the template and the blank and drew an outline before busting out the jigsaw and doing a rough cut as close to the line as I could freehand. Looks pretty good if I do say so myself (which I do). I then left it for a couple of days to rest. I have no idea how much truth is in it, but I saw a Paul Reed Smith documentary on Youtube where they said they take a month to build necks, taking a little material off at a time and then leaving it to settle so by the time it's done, the wood has moved as much as it's going to, leaving the neck super stable. I'm doing it for this reason, and because I'm pretty lazy. Once two days had passed, I secured the template to the blank again, using double sided tape to add friction to prevent slipping and C clamps to fix it to my workmate. I was going to use my new, big Von Haus router but the bit I wanted to use was a 1/4 inch shank and the collet installed on the router was 1/2 inch. I could have swapped them around but hadn't used the router before and didn't know how involved a job that was. I decided to plough on with my Katsu palm router and see how I got on. I used a top guide router bit, and using the template as the initial guide took off a little material each pass before lowering the bit and repeating. The palm router didn't drop enough to the the whole neck, but I had a bottom guide bit so once I'd gone as far as I could, I removed the template, flipped the blank upside down and used the already routed sections as a guide for the last 1/2 inch or so. I also watched another woodworking video the day before I did this work that said to use a low speed when routing maple to prevent burning, so I settled on the 2 setting on my router (no idea of the rpm but the lowest setting is 10,000rpm and this is the next one up). It seemed to work anyway, there was neglible scorch marks and it still cut great. Note the slight singing on the template. I'm not convinced it'll last long, so I might use that template to make another template out of hardwood ply or some 18m MDF I have lying around. Anyway, cut done! A little sanding and then leave the blank to rest again both to settle, and to order a truss rod and wait for it to arrive. I also decided to carry on with the neck template from the Maya neck so I could, if I wanted to, make 60mm necks. People with older Japanese copy basses and anyone wanting to make a Fenderbird with a bolt on neck would find a 60mm heel neck useful so I'd rather have it and never need it that not bother. I ran into a slight problem in that the headstock on the Maya is both huge, and not aligned in the same was as the Fender ones. I'd already done a rough cut but the alignment issue meant that I wasn't able to just substitute the Fender template onto the Maya one as there was overhang on the top edge. I could either start again, or use the Maya template for the fretboard area of any future necks before swapping it out to the Fender one for the headstock. That was a problem for future Gareth to deal with though. I've done enough for him.

I've done a rough cut of a fretboard (well, a fingerboard; it's for a fretless) with another of the panga panga boards yesterday and didn't have any real problems with it. It didn't cut as cleanly as the maple for the neck but I found a comfortable speed in terms of the jigsaw that minimised splitting, although there was still some points where small flake-like splits occured. However, it wasn't an issue as it was at the edges which will be radiused off anyway. The septic part was a bit worring as I caught a sharp edge holding the board for a rough sand, but I'll update you all if I die from it. Also, looking good Andy! It reminds me of a sunset for reasons I can't really explain.

I have 5 panga panga (similar to wenge) fingerboards if you want one. It's an African hardwood so would keep it continent correct!

I'll have to have a proper read when I'm feeling a bit more clever, I've been wondering how easy it would be to make a footswitch operated MIDI keyboard to scratch that Rush itch and trigger synth sounds while playing bass but didn't know where to start!

I thought it was just my cinema that had issues with a harsh top end, having seen music videos and docs there before and experiencing the same problem, but it sounds like maybe you need very specific mixing and mastering for a cinema sound system. It was a good excuse to have a burrito and a few drinks with mates, but it was probably cheaper and more convenient to go to someone's house and watch it there like we did with Time Stands Still. Having it mid week meant everyone had to split for work straight after too.

I'm sure I must have missed another thread on this as there's a lot of Rush fans on here, but if there is one then I can't find it! Did anyone go and see this last night? It was on at one of my local independent cinemas. A bit disappointing in that I'd seen a lot of it before, being composed mostly of footage from R40 and a few interviews, but as being a latecomer means I'll never see them live so this was about as close as I'll ever get to a Rush concert.

It's a bit trite, but I'd say get a best of collection and work from there. You can narrow down an album or an era from the tracks you like on there and investigate further, or not. I got 'Chronicles' and discovered mid 80's Rush which is currently my favourite, Grace Under Pressure specifically. I also discovered I wasn't a big fan of anything before 2112, or the late 80's stuff. Be warned that Chronicles stops at Presto and there are still 6 albums after that, so there might be a better collection out there, that's just the one I picked up.

Currently Grace Under Pressure. Everything from 2112 to GUP is fantastic, although I'm not as familiar with their later stuff so I'm sure I'm missing out on a lot of good stuff. I'll give Counterparts a spin soon as it's had a few mentions.

At the risk of being obvious, Geddy Lee. I ignored Rush for years until giving them a proper chance and I haven't looked back. Geddy is relatively unflashy but everything he does, he plays amazingly well, usually while singing or playing synth at the same time. I keep trying to learn Rush songs to find there's one part that defeats me, which he makes look effortless.

Thanks, if I'm making a short scale, small body bass then weight might be less of an issue but it's something to bear in mind for sure. I have a local wood recycling place but they just group it by hard and soft wood so it's sometimes tough to tell what the specific woods are, but I'll check for other places. And Jabba, please finish that lovely looking bass!

Feel free to move this thread, I wasn't 100% sure where to put it. I'm getting the itch to build a short-ish scale bass, preliminary idea is the 60's Gibson EB0 type shape but didn't know where to start looking for decent wood. One of the issues was that I'd like to do something with UK grown wood, but beyond ash and maple wasn't sure which woods we grow are suitable for guitar building. I remember Scojack doing a very nice looking build with Scottish woods like sycamore but that's about the extent of my knowledge. Also, I've seen some warnings on social media about people being ripped off by wood suppliers and it's made me wary of ordering expensive woods online. So really 2 questions I guess. 1) What UK woods are good for building basses?; and 2) Which suppliers do you builders use and would recommend? For any wood rather than UK build in case I change my fickle mind and want a wenge neck or something. Thanks!

Done! The bolt holes were filled with dowel and I sanded down the baffle hole until the speaker dropped in without being forced, but still felt like a good fit. The speaker was screwed into place and re-wired as the 4 pole female connector arrived today. The speaker seems to mainly deal with lower frequencies compared to the official one, although I managed to put a screwdriver hole through it which I had to patch up with some watered down wood glue and a piece of coffee filter which will have affected the sound 😐 There's definitely an increase in volume with both speakers on, and they complement each other nicely in terms of sound. I need to come up with a front grille and maybe a cover if I can find some suitable material and sweet talk Mrs Gareth into helping me with the sewing.

Thanks Phil, I'm going to wait as there's a 2 pole speakon cable, and a 4 pole connector on the way so one way or another it's going to make some sound by the end of the week. As the speaker is being disconnected from the backplate, I think I'm going to remove it, plug the bolt holes with dowel and just use wood screws for attaching the speaker. I've had to do it for the left and right speaker holes and it seems to work fine. I'm also going to clear the paint off the inside of the baffle hole as I'm not sure if the fit is too snug. It looks like the accordian part of the speaker cone is slightly wonky and I'm wondering if the speaker is being forced down into a slightly too small hole and warped. Speaker screwed in. Notice a slight curve from 11 to 1 o'clock? And with the screws removed and the speaker prized out of the hole but resting on it. It lookes better to me.

Thanks David, I've ordered a 4 pole female connector and I'm just going to suck it up and re-wire one of the cab connectors, then I'll have the option of using 4 or 2 pole.

Tuff cab dried, the corners and handle were fitted, along with the back plate and 2 pole speakon connectors. See a problem with any of that? I didn't.... I also couldn't find my soldering iron and had to wait for a new, better one to turn up from Amazon before I could wire up the speaker. I noted the holes for the top and bottom holes in the speakers weren't quite lined up properly. I'll fix it if it's an issue, but I lightly glued the tee nuts into place to stop them falling into the cab when inserting the screws so it's going to be a big faff, and the finish line was in sight. Thanks to Phil Starr for letting me know my 16 gauge cable was likely going to be find for the internal wiring which saved me having to order some cable in. The speaker wires were soldered to the lugs, passed through the internals of the cab, and the speaker screwed into place with a piece of speaker wadding stuffed in there. The back plate was then wired up, the amp sat on top of the cab, and..... ...the speakon cable wouldn't fit into the connectors. I didn't know that there were at least 2 types of Speakon connector, 2 and 4 pole. All my cables are 4 pole and the connectors are 2 pole. 2 pole male will fit into 4 pole female, but not the other way around. Some combination speakon connectors allow a 1/4 inch jack to be used in the centre barrel, but not the ones I bought, so I'm stuck until I order some 4 pole connectors, or 2 pole speaker cable before I can see if it all works. I'm leaning towards the 2 pole cable, as it'll sidestep the need to re-wire anything. So close, yet so far.

Speaker fixing holes drilled and porting hole routed, so all woodwork should be done, unless something has gone wrong. After a quick sanding with 80 and 100 grit papers, one coat of Tuff Cab was applied. I didn't see the point in sanding back any further, as the paint is textured and should in theory grip onto the wood better if it's not too smooth. The directions say you can re-apply after 8 hours but I'll leave it until tomorrow and do the second coat then. I'll have to sand back around where the speaker sits to get a good seal but hopefully that won't be too tedious. I hope the colour will look less obnoxious once it dries and hopefully darkens, and all the hardware is on there.

The hardware from Farnell arrived so I was able to do a rough fit of everything, and to route the holes out for the speakon connectors. I also filled any gaps with wood filler. Quick rant:- The Ronseal stuff in the tube I tried was rubbish. It clogged up every couple of inches when it flowed at all, and rather than feed out of the hole it's meant to come out of, the tube popped at the top early on. It also stuck best to anything that wasn't wood, like my fingers or it's own nozzle. I still need to get a hole saw set and some drainpipe (both should be available in 68mm diameter) and decide how to finish the cab (I wanted white cab, black hardware but Blue Aran are out of white Tuff Cab and have a 2 month wait time. Red is an option, as are many other things but choice fatigue is setting in), but we're nearly there. I glued some bits of the 21mm bracing wood onto the bottom for feet, then had to saw and chisel some of it away as it interfered with the plastic corners. Well done me... The only other thing left to do today was glue the vertical bracing in at the back. Tomorrow will be spent worrying about fixing the speaker to the baffle (I'm thinking M6 bolts and tee nuts), then maybe wiring it up to a speakon to see if it all works to any degree at all.

Not much happening today. I'm amazingly tired, and I didn't feel up to anything too in depth. Also, I sliced 2 of my left hand fingertips removing the plastic guard from a pull saw yesterday and wanted that to heal before I injured myself again. Band practice tonight will be fun.... The speaker was checked in the baffle and sits flush with it, so there was no need to sand anything down. I glued and screwed the baffle into place and that's clamped and drying as I type. The 3 pieces that make up the internal dividers were all cut as per a couple of posts above and checked for size. And we're done with the circular saw for this project! Hardware was ordered from CPC Farnell. I need the back speakon panel to arrive before I cut a hole for the connectors so there's not much to do until that arrives. Off to Screwfix tomorrow for some drainpipe, a cheap hole saw set, and a tub of wood filler. I'm still debating the finish. Priming and painting will be very time consuming and costly, varnish straight onto the ply will possibly look a bit rubbish, and a fabric covering is tempting, but I've never done it before and it may go very wrong. Any suggestions are welcome!

Mrs Gareth didn't need the car so I ran to B&Q to pick up a few bits, most importantly some 21mm square pine lengths for the internal reinforcement. They were out of stock on the auger needed for the hole saw, and a roundover router bit to my mild annoyance but I could still make progress. My cutting and gluing wasn't perfect, but was good enough and by this afternoon I'd made something that definitely looked like a box. It'll need a bit of wood filler on some of the joints, but overall, it's passable. I also busted out the router for the speaker hole on the front baffle. I drew a 26cm circle and cut 4 * 8mm holes into the wood as router bit starting guide, before realising that it should have been 23cm. Oops. A quick re-draw and re-drill, then out with the router to cut a (mostly) circular hole. The wrongly drilled holes line up almost perfectly with 4 of the holes for securing the speaker, so I got lucky there. The routed hole fits nice and snug but may need some more sanding tomorrow. Almost a cab!

I've left my notes in the basement so I'm replying as a way of keeping track of some measurements. Internal bracing is the whole internal width and height, but with a gap of about 2cm in the centre, so I need 2 pieces that are 27.6cm by 16.8cm. These sit about 11cm from the back wall and there's also a vertical piece making a t with the other bracing which overlaps by about 5 cm, so this needs to be 11cm by 21.8cm. I can just about get my finger to the gap and it feels like it's packed with wadding. The port is about 7.5 cm diameter, and B&Q sells a hole saw that's 76mm so that's what I'll be doing. The port is 11cm deep. I'm thinking of using t nuts to fasten the speaker to the baffle unless someone gives me a better suggestion? In terms of hardware, I need:- 8 * Plastic corners 2 * speakon connectors A back panel A handle 8 feet Speaker wadding And I think that's it for now.

Made a mill bill from the external dimensions of the One10 (28*30*38) and worked out what I'd need to cut for the top/bottom panels, left/right panels and internal panels. I'd originally planned to get them cut at B&Q as my straight line cutting skills weren't great, but I made a jig for the circular saw yesterday which seemed to work out great so I decided to try it at home first. I had a full sheet of 12mm plywood so used that. I'd also need some more internal panels for the unique bracing the One10 has, but getting the basic box built was the main priority for now so they could wait. I spent about an hour today cutting everything out, and it seemed to go fine. The 28cm measurements were a little short (1mm if that) but it looked good. The plan is to use square lengths of wood for reinforcement as per Phil Starr's easy 12" cab build, but I didn't have anything suitable in the man cave so the next step will be to buy something suitable and assemble the box. I need the car, and the weather forecast for this week is grim so my fiancee might be using it so I can't say when it'll be yet.

Response from Barefaced. "Hi Gareth, The woofer is the same nominal impedance as the One10 woofer. A cab a similar size should work pretty well. It won't add as much output as a second One10 but it should add a bit (it won't handle as much bottom because it doesn't have as much cone excursion as the final driver). Best regards, Alex"

Manchester is already sold out. Bad times.

I got lucky, fired up Facebook and they'd posted it "1 minute ago". Grabbed it while I could!