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Recycling a piano -short scale tele bass


Dom in Dorset

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8 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

A strip of oak from B&Q will set me back a lot less than finding some rosewood/ebony and slave my eco-conscience.

Plus I can choose a nice looking bit.

There are a lot of beautiful native timbers out there but they just aren't available commercially. Apple, pear, plum, damson , also quite a few garden trees such as laburnum. I used to make blowy instruments out of some of them in a former life.

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  • 2 weeks later...

More progress (and another side project)

The original T800 body was largely made by routing out a solid body, a face will be added later to close the chamber. This is the next generation where the central layer of the body is made up of edge pieces that form the hollow chamber.
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Glueing/clamping:
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The next generation body above will probably end up as one of those things with six skinny strings.
Meanwhile the T800 marches on....
Back of the now profiled neck showing original veneer on the back of the headstock and heel:
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Trial assembly. I've put it together so I can try out different pickup regimes before making the front.
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  • 1 month later...
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  • 3 weeks later...

Clamp , clamping, clamped.
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The face is now trimmed to fit and the neck pocket routed.
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Next comes sanding and finishing the sides and neck before final assembly. 
The F holes look a bit out of line (further from the bottom edge than the top) it looked worse in the picture than it real life but I have since trimmed the body a bit more to rectify it.

Edited by Dom in Somerset
It was a bit crap.
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  • 4 weeks later...

I have rehearsed and gigged with the bass now, in fact I'm using it for a lunchtime gig tomorrow. So far I've replaced the pickup, it was originally an Entwistle but I tried a generic one that I got from AxesRus a few years ago that I liked due to it's big dynamic range. It's a bit clearer than the Entwistle too. 
It cut's through nicely without being too loud, great in the folk rock band I'm with tomorrow but not big enough for the country rock trio that I also play in.
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I've replaced the strap buttons with piano frame bolts (they hold the frame to the case) , this extends the position of the strap and improves balance.
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I can't stand those piddly little screws! There is no way these bad boys are working loose.

 

 

 

Edited by Dom in Somerset
Sometimes you just have to.
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