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5 string single cut Wenge and Brazil walnut


Bastav
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So I haven't quite finished the 25 inch scale bass yet... but as I'm lacking in the motivation department when it comes to frets and sanding I decided to get a headstart on my next project. Not that I need another bass, I've just gotten real fond of building them.

So this will be 34'' scale with 5 strings. Pickup will be a Häussel oldstyle P. Here is the drawing I'm currently working from


The body will be Brazil walnut (not sure but I think it's Imbuia) and wenge, with some additional wenge veneer stylings. Neck will be wenge, fingerboard will be wenge. I'm getting rid of all my wenge (almost) with this one. Even though it smells and looks nice, it's no fun to work (which makes me think this bass might mean trouble.
Wood!


Glue up!


I'm hoping to complete the bodyblank tomorrow. The Imbuia has got some really nice figureing, unfortunately the biggest peice is the most boring one...

Edited by Bastav
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I got the body down to thickness with a router, then I started the veneer trickery



Glued the veneers on and cut out the shape, I oversized it quite a bit to give me some room to work out how i would go about shaping the veneers, did some carve tests. I think it might actually work out the way I thought it would.

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So this probably won't be headless, the healess with regular tuners solution would take up too much real astate for it to work with the neck I have. I'll go with gold hardware as it looks nice against the wenge...

I used a bandsaw for the first time this week, cutting out thins for a control cavity cover. I finished it today.




And after a initial shaping


I also did some shaping of the other sid of the body (beautiful day out today :) )



Hpoing to start the neck this week!

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Routed for the truss rod, then cut the neck out on the bandsaw and finished the taper off with a top bearing router bit and a straight edge, the router bit is getting to be of a certain age and I did get some tear out, luckily it was in the portion of the neck that will be carved so all is good with the wood.


I had been contemplating what to do for the back of the neck down by the body. I didnt have any big enough pieces of wenge or Imbuia and I didnt want to add another wood to the mix so I decided to do a upwards bookmatch of the last piece of imbuia I had left. I had some cracks in it but I think I'll be able to work around those... I'll fill them with some epoxy and sawdust just to be safe.


I'm also working on a tailpiece in wenge that will serve as string anchor/bridge, more on that later I hope

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  • 1 month later...

Then, much to my own surprise, I went on to level and crown the frets. Hadn't planned on doing that yet but I'm glad to have that out of the way...




I found the crowning to be quite enjoyable. Sunshine and slow work goes well with each other. Feeling good about this one, running pretty smoothly so far, knock on wenge

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This would have been the perfect opportunity to add the Spector/Warwick bow back as Andy did to my Silk Bass:

[URL=http://s1167.photobucket.com/user/FairfaxAikman/media/Alembic-esque/6d3401dc-69e3-43b0-b25f-31638a3a70d6_zpshhxtxcuj.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1167.photobucket.com/albums/q639/FairfaxAikman/Alembic-esque/6d3401dc-69e3-43b0-b25f-31638a3a70d6_zpshhxtxcuj.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
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[quote name='Norris' timestamp='1465830949' post='3071369']
Nice progress.

How is the wenge to work with? I've heard it described as a bunch of splinters bound together :)
[/quote]

Thanks, yeah I wouldn't argue with that description :) You need sharp tools and patience and perhaps a little more thought put into how you're gonna go about shaping it in the design process (the veneers I used on the shortscale comes to mind, those were a pain in the a**).

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[quote name='TheGreek' timestamp='1465831869' post='3071382']


This would have been the perfect opportunity to add the Spector/Warwick bow back as Andy did to my Silk Bass:


[/quote]

I might go for a slight bow but probably not as big as the one on your (very nice!) bass

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[quote name='Andyjr1515' timestamp='1465936607' post='3072323']
I love the top carve, Bastav. It's going to look stunning once the finish has been applied :)
[/quote]

Thanks Andy, I hope so :) The walnut is very cool looking but the burly bits change color quite drastically from when it's freshly worked to when its been left alone for a while, from almost yellow to a brownish orange. We'll see what it looks like when a finish is applied

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  • 1 month later...

Got started on the neck carve a while back, also glued on the back portion of the neck, but haven't really made much progress since then.

Afew passes with the router to get me started


Then I used the shinto (love it) to do most of the rest



Picked it up for the first time in a few weeks today, clamped it together to mark out where the top "horn" will join the neck.




This is the back of the neck pre-glue.


Got the width done with the router and glued some wenge veneers to the edges. When I went on to flush trim the veneers I (of course, being that wenge is a bunch of splinters held together) got some tear out, so Ive been patching that up today. I will not use the router to get the patch flush

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