honza992

Volute anyone?

On 07/02/2020 at 09:32, Stub Mandrel said:

 

You're doing a beautiful job there, but are you your own worst enemy in the balance department?

I guess that's part of designing and making guitars, pushing the boundaries to see how far you can go.  I've made 3kg full scale basses, so given this is 31" and is using guitar tuners, I'm  confident this will have zero neck dive.  And should be sub 3kg.........

Just a bit more work on the fretboard.  The epoxy and mixol worked fine, as it did last time....🥴

I had a couple of small tearouts with the fret slots, so rather have to dig out dried epoxy I used some 'dams' made from a cut up sheet of 0.5mm teflon.  They're the perfect thickness for the fret slots, and teflon is one of the few things that expoxy doesn't stick to at all.  Just stick 'PTFE teflon' into ebay and you can buy it by the small sheet.  

Then just radius sanding block to 400, then hand sanding to 2000.....

Talking of sanding blocks, the quickest and best I've ever made was this one.  Makes radius sanding much quicker and much less stress on the hands.  It's just a plastic push block that came with a cheap set that I think came free with my planer.  2 bits of double sided onto the foam on the bottom, then stick it directly onto the back of the radius block and hey presto!  cool, glow-in-the-dark custom handles...

8 hours ago, Jimothey said:

I’ve started trying to use recycled wood as you can’t get much more eco friendly than....

That's great.  It's occurred to me.  On holiday in Italy last year we stayed in a place that had a massive 4 inch thick mahogany garden table.  Enough for probably 10 bass bodies!  Once we've moved to Italy, I may try and sneak it off under my jacket.....😎   

8 hours ago, Jimothey said:

....have a Ford Ranger as my own vehicle I better watch out I don’t have people gluing themselves to my front door 😬

Ha ha probably not the vehicle of choice for the Extinction Rebellion activist🤣🤣  But the reality is, what you drive makes no difference.  What's important is that we recognize fundamental changes are needed in the way we all live our lives, then apply political pressure so that society-wide solutions are enacted.  If we depend upon all of us willingly giving up our carbon-intensive lifestyles, then I don't believe there's any hope.  There's just not enough time.  Or at least that's what the United Nations and scientific community tell us.

Andy, any comments I make are those of a total amateur with no training in anything useful, like engineering or physics.  But this is an really interesting build so thought I'd chip in....

First off most guitar necks are frankly over-engineered. I've put one of my (standard Fender size) necks betweens bricks and completely failed to break it despite jumping up and down. Not even close.  No movement at all.  And I agree with wood inserts.  I always use them and they are absolutely rock solid. 

I also love the design, it's really ingenious, I shall almost certainly steal it in the future (with credit of course). 

But.....I just have a bit of an uneasy feeling about the neck wood that lies between the body/neck join and the 'ramp'.  I can understand the logic to a biscuit, and I'm sure it's adds some strength, but I wonder whether it adds some risk as well.  Once under string tension I think the biscuit is going to be pushing on the back of the ramp of the flush heel joint.  And at that point the neck wood is probably 5mm thick (ie directly above the biscuit). 

Two thoughts.  First, do you want to think about grain direction of that wood.  Maple can be amazing stable until you apply force down grain lines, at which point it can split into wafers very happily. 

Second, would a neck plate that crossed the body/neck join provide more strength to the join, without leaving a weak point that I think the biscuit may introduce.  Or maybe use both?  

Just thinking out loud.....

12 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

Very accurate work.  True craftsmanship. 

On 02/02/2020 at 19:33, honza992 said:

Tomorrow I'll sand the fretbard flat and we;ll see how neat my MOP blocks are🙄

 

@Andyjr1515 methinks you did speaketh just a touch too soon!  The Superglue/black dust gap fill didn't work at all.  And now I  come to think of it I'm pretty sure I've tried before using that technique and it didn't work then either.  Honestly, I have no memory at all.  Drives me and Mrs H bananas!  I think the problem is that even with water thin CA glue, the instant is hits the powder it turns to a solid, so no time to fill the gaps.  Ditto medium and thick CA. 

So I've redone it using Epoxy and Mixol black pigment, which now I think about it that is exactly what I did last time and it worked fine.  Fingers crossed.😁

I've made some progress on the fretboard and neck. 

First I cut the holes for the mother of pearl blocks.  I marked the edge of the blocks by using masking tape, no need to temporarily glue them down.  I then routed up as closed to the tape as I dared before using a chisel to go all the way up to the tape.  It worked really well, and was much quicker than the usual method of using super glue to glue the blocks down then score round the edge to make the outline.  This is really quicker and easier. 

I mananged to get some pretty clean holes.  Here's the first put in for a test fit.  Pretty good. 

I then used a wooden stick to try to push furniture powder into the tiny gaps around the blocks then dripped in superglue.  Tomorrow I'll sand everything flat so I'm not sure yet how well it's worked.   For the moment it looks like a right mess, but I'm hopefull!

I also glued on the binding for the fretboard.  I taped the binding on once I was happy with the mitre joints, then used a plastic pipette to wick in super glue to do the pale veneer and the binding at the same.  Worked really well.  The key to using superglue for binding is to make sure it is water thin.  Loctite from the pound shop will not do.  The best I've found is from Bob Smith Industries.  It really does a great job on binding. 

Because of the curves on the headstock, I couldn't do all the layers of the binding at the same time, so I glued in each one seperately.  First a 0.5mm black venner, then a 0.5mm maple then the rocklite binding proper.  Doing the layers seperately made it super easy and ended with a really really neat job.  I was really please with how it turned out.  I wiped on some shellac around the edge of the headstock first to hide any superglue leakage.   Here I've just done the black and pale line.....

And the headstock once the binding itself is on and sanded back....

And cutting the slots....

Tomorrow I'll sand the fretbard flat and we;ll see how neat my MOP blocks are🙄

On 28/01/2020 at 08:56, Christine said:

Good on you for being active in ER

Using shellac isn't carbon neutral by any means either, the production of methanol or ethanol whichever you use has a huge carbon footprint, it's all hydro carbons that will mostly end up in the atmosphere one way or another beyond the initial CO2 producing stages but it probably is better than nitro in that respect.

Thanks Christine, I'm really grateful for your support. I've been arrested twice as part of XR protests, and as an ex police Detective Sergeant it's not a path I've taken lightly. But it's clear that fundamental changes need to be made in every part of every industrialised country.  And I agree that even French Polishing isn't carbon neutral, nothing we do ever is.  Fingers crossed that the world wakes up in time. 

On 28/01/2020 at 08:56, Christine said:

 

The bridge probably is a 12" radius if they call it a Tune o matic,it sounds like a Gibson type replacement . I take it the saddles aren't adjustable in height on that?

No, the saddles aren't adjustable (neither height nor side to side) and just looking at them they seem to be at some pretty random heights.  It may well take some filing to make it useable.  I'll let you know how it turns out!

Thanks @Christine @JohnDaBass opening a Paypal dispute hadn't occured to me.  I'm just done it fingers crossed. 

8 hours ago, JohnDaBass said:

He's very much a one-man-band so email response can be slow....

I must admit I don't really get this.  If you're a small company shouldn't customer service be the most important thing?  The Creamery and Mojo pickups regularly turn off their online shop so that they can catch up with orders.  That way they don't take on more work than they can fulfil. Instead, Jess clearly takes on too much, can't keep up with orders or emails and ends up pi**ing everyone off.  

3 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

I think you are right to have doubts.  Yes, there will be some electric pickups that are eq'd very specifically, but most will work just fine.  @scrumpymike 's original and modified Fender Rascal has 6-string electric single coil lipsticks - and that sounds great!

I knew it!  The master has spoken and that's good enough for me😁

8 hours ago, Christine said:

Thanks, shame it might be useful to have such a part available

You can get a mini DPDT ON ON ON everywhere (https://www.axetec.co.uk/guitar_parts_uk_051.htm for example, and cheaper from ebay and non-guitar shops) but they are really small - the sort of thing used for an active/passive switch, like this on a j-retro

For purely aesthetic reasons I want the switch in the standard Les Paul position and such a small switch looks a bit ridicuous, so I was after a slightly bigger one.  And are impossible to find.....

10 hours ago, Christine said:

Thanks I'd love to know more about that switch @BassBunny

The top of that looks sensational, it really does, tell me you're going to spray that with clear nitro, it will look sensational for evermore. Acrylic gloss with a cross linker would be good too, keep the blonde colour set for much longer with it's UV blockers

I thought that was the bridge you were using, I've looked at them too because they look more like the tune o matic  that the Warwicks I've been using. Are you planning on canting the bridge slightly to allow for it's limited movement? Very keen to see what you do and how you get on here. Another couple of questions, do you need to angle the neck with the height of that and what neck radius does it look like been designed for?

Actually it's not going to be Nitro.  It's going to be..........shellac.  My plan is to French Polish.  I've got no way of spraying Nitro and the one time I brushed it, it worked but I swore never again.  I like the idea of being able to do it at home in the evening and also the fact that it's seems to be pretty environmentally friendly.  I'm active in Extinction Rebellion so I'd find it hard to spray Nitro.  I know I only make a few guitars a year so realistically it makes no meaningful difference to the climate crisis, but symbolically it's important for me to try to reduce my carbon footprint.  I also know that FP is considered too soft for electric guitars, but I don't gig and if it get's trashed I'll make another one!  I'll probably use blonde for the front, keeping it as pale as possible, and garnet for the back and sides, hopefully darkening them quite a bit. 

As for the bridge, yes I think it will be at an angle.  There's not much travel so between short scale and low tension strings I'm nervous of running out of adjustment.  I haven't drilled the bridge holes yet, so I'll wait till everything is done, string it up and mark it out properly.  

Yes, I'm using a neck angle, albeit only a slight one - 1.6 degrees.  I forget what the minimum string height at the bridge is, something like 16mm, so it's significantly more than a fender style bridge which is somthing like12mm.  So it definitely needs an angle to make it useable.  As for radius, I think it's 12", but will double check tomorrow.  Certainly that's the radius I'm building anyway!

I ordered a pickup from Jess Loureiro at the beginning of December and have heard nothing since.  Anyone dealt with him recently?  I've ordered from him before and I got the pickup promptly (though I must admit he never replied to an email he sent).  

5 hours ago, Christine said:

Some questions:

Is the top flat or curved? It looks curved in the photos but I am as blind as a bat

What switch are you using?

What's the bridge?

😀

It does look curved!  But it's not.  Flat as a ....pancake.  But thinner.  Much much thinner (the veneer started at 0.5mm....)

The switch I'm using in a DTDP ON ON ON very generously donated by @BassBunny.  It's not just a simple pickup selector switch, it allows for 3 completely independent selections - in this case 3 different cap values.   

The bridge is this one:

https://www.blackdogmusic.co.uk/product/bass-guitar-bridge-and-tailpiece-set-2/

It's obviously cheap but it feels very solid and the chrome is nicely done.  I haven't used one before so I'm not sure how well it's going to work but it was the only reasonably priced TOM bridge with seperate tailpiece that i could find.  This whole bass is bit of an experiment, so I'm testing the water as I go!  

OK the binding is on.  I cut some veneer for a couple of accent lines for the front and back faces....

...then used Rocklite ebano bindings with a 0.3mm white/black/white series of stripes which will be viewed from the side.  I used super glue to glue the bindings in, doing all 3 layers at the same time, apart from the lower cutaway which is a bit more difficult so I glued the black and white veneers in first then the binding itself.  I've pre-bent the last piece of binding here, just prior to gluing:

The superglue worked ok, but has left a little bit of staining round the sides, even with a couple of layers of shellac before gluing.  I think the problem was that the superglue I used was thin, but not water thin.  I've ordered some super thin CA glue from BSI, so next time it will be perfect.  Godammit.....

Time for a mock up....

Annoying the Jess Loureiro pickup that I ordered well over a month ago (precision in Cabronita style case) has never arrived.  No nothing.  I've emailed and left voicemails and no acknoweldgement of any kind.  Very annoying.  I spoke to Matt from House of Tone pickups who suggested they could do a custom wind in a standard guitar humbucker size.  Lead time is 5 weeks or so, so in the meantime I've ordered a cheap (ish) wide spaced guitar humbucker from Tonerider and I'll stick that in in the meantime to see how it sounds.  Most of the internet commenterati say that using a guitar pickup in a bass is doomed to failure, but I have my doubts. If it sounds rubbish I'll get Matt to build me a proper one.....

On 18/01/2020 at 09:21, Christine said:

Would this work

https://www.stewmac.com/Pickups_and_Electronics/Components_and_Parts/Switches/Free-Way_Pickup_Switch.html

It's a 6 way switch but if you looped in both sides together it would work or you could play with other configurations

free-waydiagrams.pdf 2.24 MB · 3 downloads

Thanks for that, looks interesting.  Would it work?  Not sure.  Electronics is definitely not my strong point.  Luckily the amazing @BassBunny has sent me the right ON ON ON switch, so I think I'm going to run with my original plan.  Thanks Bunny!

On 10/01/2020 at 22:05, BassBunny said:

I haven't a clue where I got it from. It's been in my bits case for years.

PM me your address and I'll send it to you. 

That is really kind of you! You'll have pm. 

The body is coming along nicely, f holes now done and the sides are sanded ready to have the binding channels cut:

The binding will be rocklite ebano with an white/black/white stripe on the side, and a white/black stripe on the top.  The flame on the back of the body is going to be stunning!

Because this will only have a single pickup (a P in a cabronita cover, from Jess Lourieiro) I've decided to play around with the electronics a bit.  There's a great TB thread on using multiple different caps (https://www.talkbass.com/threads/multi-capacitor-tone-control.737912/) so I thought rather than having a pickup selector in the traditional Les Paul location, I would have a toggle switch selecting between three different cap values - 0.047, 0.001 and 0.0047.  I've posted in the Repairs & Technical board about where to find a DTDP ON ON ON toggle switch that is the same size as a Les Paul pickup selector switch (most ON ON ON toggles are mini), so if anyone knows where to buy one, please let me know!

So that's where I am.  Thanks for looking.

Sorry, this one is well due for an update.  Lots of progress that I should have shared in real time, but by the time my day of arguing with a toddler has come to an end, I just don't have the energy😂🤣🙄😭

Here goes....

The neck blank is made from flame maple and sapele, with a few accent lines thrown in for good measure.  I also took the time to make a proper jig for flattening one side.  I've been meaning to make one for ages and I have to say it works brilliantly.  It's a direct copy from Bruce Johnson on Talkbass.:

The body I've decided to chamber a bit more than I have in the past.  Still with a solid block for bridge and pickup, but otherwise chambered:

The veneer went on in the normal way.  Wine not included...

The neck pocket I did in my normal way - make a template using the neck itself (albeit this is from my other build):

The biggest step up for me in this build is that I have decided to do a proper mortice tenon joint.  The joint isn't straightforward because it is angled in two different directions - the neck is angled back (at 1.6 degrees) and the neck itself tapers.  I thought long and hard about how I could use a router to do it (my preferred technique for almost everything) but in the end decided to go old skool.  Cutting the side wall with a guide placed at an angle of 1.6 degrees:

Hacking at it with a chisel!

Ending up with a tenon like this:

After an entire morning of going back and forth, test fitting, sanding a bit, chiseling a bit, swearing a bit, I think I ended up with a joint that I am very pleased with:

22 hours ago, Mottlefeeder said:

I was joking that a switch that was always on would be equivalent to a piece of wire - moving swiftly on:

Toggle switches can stay where you put them, or spring back when released. The former are 'latching', and the latter are 'momentary' or 'biased', and often shown in brackets, so ON-OFF-(ON) would have a centre 'OFF' position, an 'ON' position one way and a spring loaded 'ON' position the other way.

Have you looked at the guitar spares suppliers - they might have a pickup selector switch that would look the part and make the right connections? Alterntively, could you incorporate a push-pull switch into one of your pots to give you the functions you need? As a last resort, if you have a scratchplate, do you have room for a rotary switch under it?

David

Ha ha ha...sorry I was being a bit slow.  Thanks for the info re latching and momentary, that makes sense. 

8 hours ago, KiOgon said:

Why not use a rotary switch? You could simply have 2, 3, 4 , 6 or so options.

I'm building a Les Paul style bass :

I was reading this thread:

https://www.talkbass.com/threads/multi-capacitor-tone-control.737912/

And thought it would be cool to have a capacitor selector switch in the normal style of a LP pickup selector.  A rotary switch is the obvious way to go, but aesthetically I'm not sure it would fit in with the rest of the design. I like the idea of have the normal 'rhythym/treble' style selector. So the initial plan was to have an ON ON ON DTDP switch connecting to 3 different caps - 0.047, 0.01 and 0.0047.  The bass is only going to have a single pickup (a P in a cabronita case) so I thought the multiple caps would add in a bit of tonal variation.  

7 hours ago, BigRedX said:

Sorry didn't see this before my previous post.

Does it really need to be double pole? 

Can you post your circuit diagram? You might be able to get away with a standard PU sector switch.

Here's the diagram posted by the OP in the Talkbass thread I've linked to above.   It's really a great thread, well worth a look if you're into that sort of thing. 

5 hours ago, BassBunny said:

This one is a DPDT On/On/On but not that much bigger than the normal micro switches. The black Cap is an optional extra.

BassBunny, that one looks great.  I've got a mini ON ON ON like the one on the left, but it looks ridiculous in the traditional Les Paul position.  The one on the right looks much better.  Any idea where I can get one?  I've only been able to find ON OFF ON in the bigger size, and actually I've ordered a couple.  I think I can use the ON OFF ON by permentantly have the 0.0047 connected, then using the two ON locations to add in either 0.01 or 0.047.  Not quite such a neat solution as the ON ON ON and being able to select each one independently, but I think it would work. 

Thanks everyone!

3 minutes ago, Mottlefeeder said:

It's verry tempting to suggest using a piece of wire...

David

PS no joy at Bitsbox, Rapidonline, Switch Electronics or ESR

Using a piece of wire?  Sorry, I'm hopeless with electronics, so not sure what that means!

RS have got these two:

https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/toggle-switches/7346805/

Though for 'switch operation' is says latching, rather than on on on.   I'm not exactly sure what that means.  

And this on:

https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/toggle-switches/0394431/

Which always says 'latching' rather than on on on. 

The only switches it specifies as being 'on on on' are mini ones.  Which are tiny and look ridiculous!

(I'm actually going to use it as a a cap selector.....)

Anyone know where I can get a larger size DPDT on on on toggle switch from?  There's a no end of mini toggle switches, but I'm looking for one just a bit bigger, the equivalent of a Les Paul pickup toggle.  I'm building a Les Paul bass......

2 minutes ago, Jimothey said:

If you haven’t dumped them yet I’m in the market for a tele body??

All gone I'm afraid.  None were useable by anone else - nothing I make ever has standard size neck pockets, routs or scale lengths!  But they had already been recycled by me in one way or another.  Mostly for experimentation either for fixtures or finishes. Bit hard to see but that Tele on the top has been planed down several times to apply different experiment grain fill & finishes.  Control cavity has about half a mm at the back😮

Ha ha this is a timely topic.  My car is full as we type, awaiting a trip to the tip......Here's a litany of my first half dozen builds or so, each utterly utterly awful.  I've been carting them round for several years in the hope that I would think of something to do with them, but I've finally admitted that they simply need to be burnt.  The world will be a happier place without them. Adios.....

OK, I'm doing a wipe-on finish on my Walnut Les Paul Guitar thingy, which means I have an inordinate amount of time between an inordinate number of coats.  So rather than actually do useful stuff, I thought I would start planning my next build. I realise @Christine has pretty much done the definitive Les Paul bass build thread, but maybe mine will be just different enough to hold your interest.  

Anway, specs something like:

31" scale, 19 fret (is this too few??)

Some sort of ridiculously over-laminated and accent-lined neck blank

Slightly oversize Les Paul Body (though smaller than the official Gibson oversized)

Slotted headstock

Single humbucking pickup, probably in the 'P' position

Birdseye Maple veneer top

Figured Etimoe or Bosse Cedar veneer back

Double bound with flame maple (umm...once I've learned to bend it)

Guitar tuners

Double 'f' hole

Yet more pinstriping and veneering than you can shake a stick at. 

So there you have it.  Short scale because I've never build one.  I want it simple though, so I thought a single pickup would be good.  I must do love the sound of a P bass though, so I'm thinking a Gibson humbucker in the P position would sound pretty similar but keep the Gibson look.  Slotted headstock, because I just think they look great.  The guitar tuners I'm going to try because bass tuners, even Ultralites, look a bit oversized and even they I think might cause neck dive, my pet hate.  The Hofner Beatle bass uses guitar tuners, so I'm pretty confident it can be done, particularly with light-ish strings, but if anyone has done this please shout up.  And they only weigh 20 grams each, ie half that of an USA Ultralite.....

Veneer-wise, here's the top I'm thinking.  Birdseyes.  And lots and lots of them:

For the back I'm thinking one of these.  The first is Bosse Cedar, the second is Figured Etimoe.  I've put the three together to see if you have a preference.  The workshop strip light sucks the colour from everthing so here's the stock photos.  Both look pretty amazing in natural light.  Any thoughts?

As for layout, here's a mock up of the slightly larger body and 31" scale with slotted headstock.  As with the Walnut LP I'm just finishing, the lower horn is 'sharp' so that I can do a mitred joint in the binding, rather than trying to bend flamed maple (which has a reputation for splitting) round the more traditional rounded lower horn.  But if I can practise a bit and I can manage it, then I may revert to the more traditional shape. 

So there you have it.  Them's are my thoughts.  This won't be a quick build cos I've still got two others to finish!  But thanks so much for looking.  And feel free to shout up with thoughts and criticisms🙄😎