honza992

20 minutes ago, Geek99 said:

The LP kits you can buy have a bolt on neck 

OK thanks Geek, that answers that one! 

Hi All

I’ve just finished a Thinline tele which came out pretty well….

However, I’ve found that the only time I have to practise is in the evening, when my two year old has finally exhausted herself from saying ‘no’ repeatedly and vehemently to everything.  We live in a flat so to ensure I don’t disturb her I’ve also found that I play it unplugged. That works pretty well but I wish it had just a tiny bit more acoustic volume. So……

I’m wondering whether I should building something like this, that is fully chambered rather than only half chambered as the Thinline is.

Me being me, though, I want to simplify things a bit.  I’ve found that for me I really need to build in an incremental way - making each build only slightly more complex than the last.  I know there are builders here who can seemingly conjure painfully beautiful guitars from clothes pegs using only spoons as theirs tools.  That’s not me unfortunately.

At the moment, I don’t want to do a set neck or a carved top or bent sides but I’m wondering whether a flat top, bolt-on neck, fully chambered (ie routed) Les Paul build might do the trick?

If anyone wanted to offer up an opinion, I’d love to hear it.  Specifically, I’m wondering about the following:

Acoustic volume - do you think a fully chambered (routed) body like this would increase the volume a little bit in comparison to the above thinline?

Should I also be thinking about making the top thinner than the standard 5mm or so which I would normally put on a chambered guitar? 4mm? 3mm?

Is there any reason why a Les Paul can’t have a standard bolt on neck?

I know the LPs have the neck at an angle.  Is that because of the carved top? Or the bridge design?  Or both? Does anyone know what the minimum height of that sort of bridge is?

Lots of questions, I know.  

PS.  Now clearly I realise if I want a bit more volume just a pair of headphones would take me about 100 less hours than building an entirely new guitar.  But if I did that, how would I fill those 100 hours?

ooh very interested in this. Weight, or lack thereof, is right up my street.... 

Carry on😁

On 5/25/2018 at 04:37, Saved said:

I have this bridge

http://www.chguitars.co.uk/bridges/bass-bridges/b41-four-string-bass-piezo-bridge.html

In a 40" p-bass.I was expecting a huge boom,eath moving sound,and i get a very clean sound.If i play only the piezo bridge,i can turn all the way up the bass knod,and all the way down mid and treble knobs in my amp,and stil the sound is clean

40?!?  Inches?!?!  That is insane.  Any pictures?  (sorry to hijack my own thread...)

How would you compare the piezo and magnetic P sound?  I did think about putting a traditional pickup on this build (and may still do at some point), but assumed I would put a jazz in the bridge position.  Do you ever mix them?

On 5/24/2018 at 23:57, owen said:

I have a set of Ghost saddles in a bass. I once had a Bolin NS bass and foolishly sold it. I NEEDED something else. Live and learn - one day maybe. Anyway, it had a lovely, lovely piezo sound. I have tried to recreate that with this set of Ghosts. I have not managed, I do not know if it is the bass, the saddles or the preamp or a combination of all. They just do not bloom like the Bolin did. Mind you, nothing else has either (MM Bongo with piezo bridge and another custom).

That's disappointing.  Have you tried using exactly the same strings that you had on the Bolin?  

17 minutes ago, owen said:

Just as well that is not a fretted 5 string!

Ha ha it's funny you should say that, but I've already (mentally) planned out a fretted version using the Graphtec Ghost piezo saddles set in a custom wooden bridge like the one on the fretless.  

If anyone has any experience of the Ghost piezos I'd love to hear!

On 5/23/2018 at 17:48, Andyjr1515 said:

Saw this one in the flesh this afternoon.

It is so, so, so well built it's crazy.  And it's lightweight!  Top drawer on both counts

On 5/23/2018 at 18:07, TheGreek said:

I had "the real thing". If anything this looks better.

Good work that man..

  He he thanks guys that really means a lot to me.  This building thing is sometimes a solitary pastime, so having other people like what you do is ...well...amazing.  

The guy in the next door workshop is a photographer so did a couple of vanity shots.......

Andy, this is how I do mine (near bottom of page):

It's not a very flexible system because you are limited to the size of the cutter (19mm diameter) in this case, and they are not always 100‰ wobble free, but if you are ever in Nottingham and want to give it a go just let me know.... It probably takes an hour or so.... 

Andy, thanks so much for posting this.  A radius jig is next on my list of things to build, once I finish the two work tables, the work bench, wood rack....oh and the unfinished guitar and bass that keep on looking at me making me feel guilty.  But sanding radii is pretty much my least favourite part of a build, so I shall be re-visiting this thread shortly, compass and stubby pencil in hand.....

1 hour ago, SH73 said:

Wow,This is a really lovely fretless.

Thanks for that!  

At the moment it's also sitting unfinished in a case.  Nothing major, but the electronics need finalising, it needs a string retainer, and a couple of imperfections in the finish need sorting.  I finally got to the point where the mess and chaos in the workshop was sapping my motivation - the endless tripping up over power leads, dragging a shop vac around from one machine to another, the endless looking for stuff!  So, I am in the middle of completely re-organising, getting power and extraction to every machine, assigning everything it's true and proper home from which it will never move (honest guv, I'll be tidy in the future).  And building a new table, workbench and shelving.  

This will be finished in January, I promise.  Probably.......

Merry xmas to you all, see you in the New Year.  Basschat is without question the friendliest place on the 'net 

1 minute ago, Jabba_the_gut said:

Hi Honza,

Could you possibly use a couple of short dowels / locator pins that protrude a couple of mm from the face of the body. Then you could have a couple of matching shallow holes in the bottom of the bridge to locate on the pins. The holes in the bridge then don't need to go all the way through so keeping the looks. 

Does this make sense???!!

And here come the professionals!

Yes, nice elegant simple solution.  Why is it that those are always the sort that elude me?

Thanks Jabba,  That certainly sounds like the most straight forward way of doing it.  Any idea if a couple of standard 6, 8, or 10mm dowels would be enough to hold that much tension?

2 minutes ago, SpondonBassed said:

I don't feel good about adhesive but I can't give you a reason why not.

SB, we are as one, very beautiful, mind......

OK, time to share a slight setback with you all. 

When I was designing this bass I had always imagined a 'floating' bridge, held in place by bridge tension.  I thought this would solve the intonation problem - you could slide the bridge around till you got the ideal position.  What I've found though is that because it's a string-through, and because I've got the bridge so near the edge of the body (to help with balance) the angle at which the strings cut over the bridge means that they are 'pusing' the bridge towards the neck.  And as you bring the strings up to tension the bridge is pushed out of it's correct position, meaning the intonation is shot.  I've even tried clamping it down as I tune up but again the bridge just moves as soon as you loosen the clamps.  Looking at the design, it's now pretty obvious that this would be a problem. 

So, I think I've got three solutions. 

1.  Drill holes in the bridge and screw it down as you would any other bridge - I'm sure this would work fine, but the though of drilling holes in my beautiful bridge is not filling me with joy.  Not my preferred option. 

2.  Glue the bridge down.  Hmmm.....I'm not sure about this.  I'd need to strip the finish first from the top, though that in itself isn't a problem.  I'm just not sure I love the idea of permanently attaching the bridge.  Possible though. 

3.  Rout an indentation into which the bridge would sit.  I'm thinking it would only need to be a couple of mm deep, just enough to stop the bridge moving.  Rob Allen sinks his bridge into the top, as does Jerzy Drozd.  So I've been experimenting to see whether I can make a template accurate enough that everyone doesn't laugh and point at the gaps round the edge.  Watch this space. 

Does anyone have any observations?  Advice?  

On 05/12/2017 at 08:53, SpondonBassed said:

Isn't that one of Sir Elton's lesser known albums?

Ha ha, very good.  One of my favourites, actually (albeit Madman Across the Water is better).  It's a shame Sir EJ has become a parady of himself.  Like Rod Stewart.  Both of their first few albums are fantastic, and almost completely overlooked now.  And the quality of their backing bands is also incredible.  Puts 99% of modern music to shame......  Of course anything produced by either of them in the last 30 years makes me want to retch, but there you go.  I'm a fickle bugger. 

On 04/12/2017 at 21:24, owen said:

Honky piezo = needing a high impedance preamp. Nothing to do with the bass.

I've got a Cafe Walter PZP1 in there, which was designed specifically for the Fender AE, of which this is a copy.  It may be time for me to check my wiring!

Ok I finally managed to get round to looking at the piezo issue.  It turned out to be two things.  First the bottom of the saddle wasn't flat and second the saddle was a bit tight in the slot.  Once I was tuning up to full tension the break angle of the strings over the saddle was forcing the saddle sideways into the wall of the bridge, meaning it then wasn't transferring the strings vibrations effectively to the piezo elements.  Again a bit of sanding the sides of the saddle and that finally gave me all four strings sounding at equal volume.  Less pleasing is the sound itself which is a bit nasally.  Goddam!  I noticed though that the bridge itself is not sitting flat on the top and I wonder if that is affecting the bass response.  So I've sanded it flat and then.....ran out of time So tomorrow I'll string it up again and see if that's helped......

Fingers crossed.

On 18/11/2017 at 13:57, SpondonBassed said:

That's got some lovely clean lines.  Very nice.

2 hours ago, fleabag said:

That is stunning. Very clean

Thanks guys, I'm really pleased you like the bass.  I've put it aside for a week or so for the finish to properly cure then I'll get some real photos done. The mahogany at the back has also come out nice!

Ok here's a teaser photo.  Proper ones will follow....

On 16/11/2017 at 19:57, Bridgehouse said:

I'm going to go with an f-hole on this one to keep the thinline tele vibe - but to be honest it's an aesthetic thing - it wouldn't sound much different if it didn't have the f-hole and just looked like a solid body

I am aiming for 7lbs. Anything under that and I'll be very amazed. 

Sub 7lbs is definitely do-able (and I realise that is not your goal!), though I would say only with ultralites. 

My fretless build I'm doing here on Basschat is basically what you are suggesting, ie a P bass build with chambering and an f-hole.  I haven't weighed it yet, but my guess is it will be 6lb6oz pounds, 2.9kg.  Thats a maple top and mahogany body so probably fairly similar to swamp ash in terms of the overall weight of the wood.   Overall thickness is 39mm.  I've got a wooden bridge which will save a bit of weight and there's no magnetic pickup. The balance is perfect, though I've designed it so the strap pin is level with approx fret 10 and it's a 33" scale.  

The lightest 34" scale bass I've ever done was a 2.4kg (5lb5oz) chambered 'f-holed' P bass.  That had a standard fender style metal bridge and P pickup.  The body wood was horse chesnut though (or at least I think it was, my memory is atrocious, ditto my record keeping) which was very very light.  Although the bass was ridiculously light it wasn't really a success.  Even with the bridge close to the edge of the body and with Ultralite tuners the balance was still a touch neck heavy.  That made it much less comfortable that the one I'm just finishing.  In my book balance is more important that absolute weight.  7lb and perfect balance is ideal for me. 

Looking forward to seeing the build!

Really really nice Andy.  Hats off

Well the woodworkery type stuff is done.  FInish is finished, as in my experience it isn't wont to do.

So I strung her up, connected the wires, decided on the red pill then plugged it in.  And there was noise.  Beautiful noise  Or at least there was from the E string.  Nothing at all however from either A or D string, and only a bit from the G.  Now I'm the sort of player where even one and a half sounding strings is probably overkill, but purely for academic interest I should try to get the other two and a half strings up and running. I literally wired, stringed and plugged it in about 20 seconds as I was late picking up the little one from nursery (and they charge one pound per minute, yes one pound per minute if you are late) so I may well have missed something obvious, but I couldn't wait till next week to see if anything was going to come out at all.  My instinct is that the difference in output between the strings is due to the bone saddle not being flat on the bottom.  That or I guess the bottom of the channel in the bridge may not be flat, but that was routed in one go so that seems less likely.  The transducer itself is one similar to this:

So it looks as though it's got seperate sensors for each string.  Whether it actually has or not is a different matter.  If anyone has got any immediate pearls of wisdom I'd love to have them.  As I said it was a bit of a rush job so I may be missing something obvious.  I'll take a more leisurely look next week. 

And THEN you'll get the some photos.  Promise. 

Photos?  Of course.  Without those none of this ever happened.......

On 14/11/2017 at 16:04, owen said:

Wood is the best!

The bridge turned out nice didn't it! 

Finish is, well, umm, finished.  Bit of curing time than string it up and ride it out......

Thanks all for the advice re dust.  Tried all in the end, so there....was....no....dust....

And this one has not long gestation left.  The body needs one or maybe two more coats of osmo.  The water slide decal is on and buried on the headstock, so the neck just needs a couple more coats (of General Finishes HP) then it's electronics and out kicking and screaming into the world!

Happy days

Oh, and Honza.  Please be careful.  Don't drop it.  Don't drop anything on it.  Like that Brad Point.  Step away very slowly.........

Man this thread has slowed to a snail's pace....first Foot & Mouth, then flu, then this, then that....aghhhh very frustrating.

Anyway, I'm ready to start finishing. I've sanded the mahogany body till I can sand no more. This is what it looks like:

The observant of you will notice the light coloured flecks of the grain. My question is whether this is sanding dust which needs to be blown out, or whether it's just the grain pattern. I've vacuumed it with the shop vac but I don't have a compressor to try blowing it out (if indeed there is anything to blow out). A guy in one of the next door workshops has got a big old compressor but isn't here for a few days.

What do think? Is it dust (and I should be less impatient and wait for Mr Compressor's return) or am I being paranoid, just get some oil on there Honza.....