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Shuker Bass building course - Feb '19


GarethFlatlands

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I did the Shuker build course back in February and thought I should should share my experience with any Basschatters who aren't sure if the course was for them. I haven't done any woodworking since high school, so picked a nice simple build. The specs were:

Ash Jazz body (classic), stained black and rubbed back to highlight the grain

Maple neck

Fretless ebony fretboard

Musicman style humbucker

Passive electronics with stacked volume/tone to keep the front cleaner, but at Jon's suggestion a 3 way switch was added to be able to run the pickup in parallel/single coil/series for a few extra options

Schalled elephant ears tuners and Gotoh bridge in black

 

If you don't feel like reading the whole thread, here's the end result!

IMG_20190301_163813.thumb.jpg.0996fb900080f7383a375715be8283bb.jpg

 

 

Day 1

 

The 2 piece ash body had already been glued and planed, so once the centre line was found and the body outline drawn, it was onto the bandsaw for a rough cut. Then a template was used to guide a router around the body, removing about 2-3mm of material each pass until something that looked a bit like a bass happened.

 

IMG_20190225_114510.thumb.jpg.f3db85666850141ffa98997c2d3ff5c1.jpg

 

Once that was done, the forearm slope was cut out with a hand plane, and the stomach contour was done with a saw rasp. Then lots of sanding, starting at 100 grit paper, then moving on through 120, 180, 240, 320 and finally, 400. I'm a puny man and my arms were so gone by the end of the day I couldn't raise them horizontally, and had to buy a hot/cold pack from the train station Superdrug on the way home to try and get them ready for the following day's work. I decided I was going to take breaks if needed to make sure I got through the rest of the week. As it happens, that was the worst of the physical side of it, but I did get a good excuse to pet Jon's new dog lots, 10 month old Lily.

 

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Lily enjoys head scratches, singing the songs of her people and chewing everything, including my shoes, while I was still wearing them.

 

 

Edited by GarethFlatlands
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Day 2

 

Body routing for the control cavity, pickup and neck pockets. I was terrified of routers before doing the course, but by day 2 I felt very confident using them and the woodworking possibilities seemed vast with them. I figured with a good enough router and the right templates and jigs, you could build the vast majority of a guitar with a router. The body roundover was also done and you can see the scorch marks on the edges where I lingered too long. Nothing too drastic that wouldn't sand out thankfully.

 

IMG_20190225_151029.thumb.jpg.ae18e05ae018402dd07ca9bd9425594d.jpg

 

The neck was also done in much the same manner as the body. A channel was done down the centre for the truss rod and a hole drilled at the heel end for adjustment. Once the rod was inserted, a strip of wood was added and glued into place to cover it, which was then planed back until flush with the body. The ebony board was cut to rough shape, glued and clamped and day 2 was over. Things were coming together nicely!

 

IMG_20190226_150038.thumb.jpg.2b89d703f562d655a78a99973a973f08.jpg

Edited by GarethFlatlands
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Day 3

 

The neck and board glued and dried, the refining of the board shape was routed with the same template as the neck. The order things were done is a little hazy but the jobs for today were:

Cutting the nut slot

Rough shaping the back of the neck with a router

Radiusing the board (16" I think...) and then levelling using a straightedge

Adding some markers to the top and front of the board

 

Here's the neck with markers and a nut slot, but no shaping.

IMG_20190227_114506.thumb.jpg.b1bd7330919d9ab6db6cfaa3241ed0f8.jpg

 

And here's a neck with shaping done and on the table where I definitely remember doing the radiusing and levelling.

 

IMG_20190227_135742.thumb.jpg.11383713f74fd50574be1d8afb6f4345.jpg

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Day 4

The front of the neck was done, so Jon took the body away for a couple of layers of clear coat so that the staining could be done, and I got to work on the back of the neck. The heel and the headstock ends were done first, then I worked in to the middle using a flat file, a rounded file/rasp and a saw rasp, checking regularly until I felt like it was a shape I liked. Then lots of sanding and crossed fingers that no major re-working needed doing. There wasn't! Lots of detail sanding was done too. The holes for the tuners were marked out and drilled out on the drill press using a forstner bit.

 

IMG_20190228_115236.thumb.jpg.67a9ffa24baa8c93fb581abd9294b2b0.jpg

 

The body was stanined black with some stain diluted with acetone, being careful not to rub it in too aggressively and take any clear coat off. Once done, Jon's assistant rubbed this off until just the grain was black. Then more clear coat.

IMG_20190228_115345.thumb.jpg.b81001b09ad8d12c57c11c60ccaf29de.jpg

 

The lion's share of the work done, Friday would be about installing the hardware and setup. I'd been travelling from Sheffield on the train all week but my fiancee and I decided to make a trip of it and stay at the Old Hall Hotel down the road on the evening of day 4 for a pub dinner and a sleep in a 4 poster bed.

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Day 5

 

I'd saved a lot of time by not having frets, so I'd jumped ahead of the other 2 people on the course by about Thursday afternoon. But Friday was the scary part; drilling holes into all my hard work for the week and hoping I didn't make any mistakes. There was a lot of nervous butt clenching, which wasn't helped by Jon telling us stories of people who'd got to the last day and then made mistakes like drilling tuner holes all the way through the headstock! After the control cavity was lined with copper tape, it was onto the drilling for the neck pocket, front controls, bridge, tuners and anything else I've forgotten. Having most of the day for this, I took my time and thankfully there were no mishaps.

The electronics were wired up and installed, and then the hardware and neck screwed into place.

 

IMG_20190301_102345.thumb.jpg.c20758858676cdbb5c6ce3bac921fd4d.jpg

 

A bone nut blank was cut, filed down and polished once the strings (Rotosound flats, 40-100) were loosely installed and then glued in place. I quit eating meat at the start of 2018 and wish I'd asked about another material rather than bone, but didn't think about it until it was too late so just went with it. I might install a Graph Tec one in it's place at some point.

IMG_20190301_120430.thumb.jpg.b9f071cb129d91cbfcc015c6c3ed359b.jpg

 

Strings on, it was time to set the bass up. 1st fret height was fine, but the neck required a very slight shim to get the action low. A piece of veneer cut to shape was all it took, a slight adjustment to the truss rod and the height could be lowered sufficiently for easy play. Bridge saddle adjustments sorted the intonation out and everything was done! A quick blast through the shop amp ('Music for Chameleons' and 'Every Time You Go Away') checked everything worked as it should (apart from my intonation).

The only cosmetic thing I don't like is the amount of the fretboard material that extends behind the nut. I wish I'd taken it back by 5mm or so, but that's really my only issue. Other than that, I'm extremely happy with it. I was worried my lack of woodworking experience would be an issue, but Jon and the man helping him on the first 3 days (none other than Tim Lever, former keyboard player for Dead or Alive) were both amazingly patient and all round great teachers and the whole thing was pretty painless.

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25 minutes ago, Daz39 said:

Nice! You’ll have to give details of cost and options when you’re all posted!

 

Thanks Daz! The course was £900 which included everything for this build (no case included). You'd need to speak to Jon about additional costs for any build you have in mind as I'm not sure at what point the costs would be over and above that base. An active circuit was discussed for mine but this would have been extra for example, but Jon let me specify brand name hardware like the Seymour Duncan alnico pickup, Schaller tuners and Gotoh bridge without any extra cost.

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IMG_20190227_135742.thumb.jpg.11383713f74fd50574be1d8afb6f4345.jpg

"The only cosmetic thing I don't like is the amount of the fretboard material that extends behind the nut."

I actually like the look of this. 

41 minutes ago, GarethFlatlands said:

A bone nut blank was cut, filed down and polished once the strings (Rotosound flats, 40-100) were loosely installed and then glued in place.

I read the sentence as in the bold...:facepalm: 

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48 minutes ago, GarethFlatlands said:

 

Thanks Daz! The course was £900 which included everything for this build (no case included). You'd need to speak to Jon about additional costs for any build you have in mind as I'm not sure at what point the costs would be over and above that base. An active circuit was discussed for mine but this would have been extra for example, but Jon let me specify brand name hardware like the Seymour Duncan alnico pickup, Schaller tuners and Gotoh bridge without any extra cost.

As a comparison - how would that compare to buying the same bass direct, i.e. without you building it or them training you?

I like it though: teaching building skills with assistance to craft your own instrument. You must feel proud every time you noodle on the bass now, knowing you did most of the fiddly bits on it.

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1 hour ago, TheGreek said:

 

I read the sentence as in the bold...:facepalm: 

I could have worded it better! It'd keep the strings in tune I guess...

 

43 minutes ago, Daz39 said:

As a comparison - how would that compare to buying the same bass direct, i.e. without you building it or them training you?

I like it though: teaching building skills with assistance to craft your own instrument. You must feel proud every time you noodle on the bass now, knowing you did most of the fiddly bits on it.

It's hard to say. A fretless Jazz by Sire, who by all accounts make great workhorse basses, is around £450, but with regular jazz pickups and active electronics. A Fender Flea sig Active Jazz bass has the humbucker pickup but is more like £1,500, and I can't see a fretless option for it. In fact, I can't find anyone doing a Jazz body, fretless neck and a humbucker so you'd be looking at a custom build unless you managed to find a nice fretless Stingray (or a fretted one and either de-fret it or get a fretless neck) which is pretty close. Shuker Basses have a regular Jazz up for sale on the website for £1,600 so that would be a ballpark figure at a guess.

But like you say, it was partly about the experience and learning the skills, which in addition to having a bass at the end of the week, was well worth the money imo. It's got a lot of great comments and more importantly, I'm happy with it! I get a little tinge of pride whenever I take it out of the case, and I love the sound.

I'll try and do a quick video at some point.

Edited by GarethFlatlands
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