Happy Jack's Mike Lull Necks

[Silvia Bluejay]

3 minutes ago, Gareth Hughes said:

 

Blasphemy!!!!!!

Yeeuch. 😱

[ezbass]

2 minutes ago, Silvia Bluejay said:

Yeeuch. 😱

Sorry, Silvia, I’m in the tort camp too. 

[Happy Jack]

Keep the votes coming, guys ...

 

😂😂😂

[pete.young]

7 minutes ago, ezbass said:

Sorry, Silvia, I’m in the tort camp too. 

Me too.

[Silvia Bluejay]

Yeuch. I blame Fender for starting the rot. 😉

[Gareth Hughes]

I’m fairness, I am just stirring the pot - I have both 😜

 

(sorry for the derail, I am LOVING following this thread)

 

[MacDaddy]

Tort

[BreadBin]

Tort 👍

[Happy Jack]

Best quit while you're behind @Silvia Bluejay! 😉💋

[Silvia Bluejay]

Matter of taste, peeps, matter of taste. 😉

[MacDaddy]

4 minutes ago, Silvia Bluejay said:

Matter of taste, peeps, matter of taste. 😉

 

Your Italian style, flair, and panache, is obviously wasted on Basschat! 🇮🇹

[LukeFRC]

10 minutes ago, Silvia Bluejay said:

Matter of taste, peeps, matter of taste. 😉

Would get you properly lynched in someplace where tort is the religion. (Like talkbass) 

[Hellzero]

Tort for me too, especially with aged white.

 

Urm, urm, the aged white is not @Happy Jack... 😉

 

[Andyjr1515]

Before I set the heel angle and depth, I have to level the fretboard. 

 

For a fretted neck, that is straightforward - you get a dead straight levelling beam with fine emery on one side and run it up and down the fret tops evenly across the width of the board.  The fret filings tell you when the tops are all flat and even (or not yet in this example):

 

But for a fretless, it's a bit more awkward.  You still use a levelling sanding beam, but black dust on black makes it difficult to see if you are getting there.  So I tend to use an old mechanics' 'Engineers Blue' trick, but with blackboard chalk.  I cover the beam with chalk and run it from one side of the board to the other.  Where you see chalk, there is a high spot:

 

All I have to do is scrape or sand gently wherever the chalk is:

 

This is repeated until the beam leaves an even layer of chalk over the whole surface. 

 

With the fretboard levelled, I strung it all up and then measured the string heights at the same places that I measured with the fretted neck:

 

It was about 0.5mm lower than the fretted at the G string and 1.5mm lower at the B.  I measured and drew an accurate pencil line round the bottom of the heel and used a jack plane with a very fine cut to bring the heel down and angled, checking frequently for flatness (using the chalk trick here too).

 

And here it is - within a 10th of a mm of the string heights when fitted with the fretted neck.  And it sounds great!  A nice subtle touch of mwahh 

 

 

And so the geometry bit is now complete and so that just leaves the side dots, the probable conversion to inserts and machine screws and the aesthetic bit 

 

And here I have a thought I'm going to pm @Happy Jack with.  This is the colour maple goes with finish but without the ubiquitous amber stain:

 

And AJR's moniker swifts don't have to be mother of pearl.  In the past he's done them in ebony too:

 

 

Just saying...  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 2, 2022 by Andyjr1515

[Daz39]

7 minutes ago, Andyjr1515 said:

Before I set the heel angle and depth, I have to level the fretboard. 

 

For a fretted neck, that is straightforward - you get a dead straight levelling beam with fine emery on one side and run it up and down the fret tops evenly across the width of the board.  The fret filings tell you when the tops are all flat and even (or not yet in this example):

 

But for a fretless, it's a bit more awkward.  You still use a levelling sanding beam, but black dust on black makes it difficult to see if you are getting there.  So I tend to use an old mechanics' 'Engineers Blue' trick, but with blackboard chalk.  I cover the beam with chalk and run it from one side of the board to the other.  Where you see chalk, there is a high spot:

 

All I have to do is scrape or sand gently wherever the chalk is:

 

This is repeated until the beam leaves an even layer of chalk over the whole surface. 

 

With the fretboard levelled, I strung it all up and then measured the string heights at the same places that I measured with the fretted neck:

 

It was about 0.5mm lower than the fretted at the G string and 1.5mm lower at the B.  I measured and drew an accurate pencil line round the bottom of the heel and used a jack plane with a very fine cut to bring the heel down and angled, checking frequently for flatness (using the chalk trick here too).

 

And here it is - within a 10th of a mm of the string heights when fitted with the fretted neck.  And it sounds great!  A nice subtle touch of mwahh 

 

 

And so the geometry bit is now complete and so that just leaves the side dots, the probable conversion to inserts and machine screws and the aesthetic bit 

 

And here I have a thought I'm going to pm @Happy Jack with.  This is the colour maple goes with finish but without the ubiquitous amber stain:

 

And AJR's moniker swifts don't have to be mother of pearl.  In the past he's done them in ebony too:

 

 

Just saying...  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dang. That’s flatter than a baby asleep face down in their cot with an arm and leg hanging down the edge of the mattress.

[Happy Jack]

Is there any way you could do the swifts using tort?

 

😆

[Andyjr1515]

10 minutes ago, Happy Jack said:

Is there any way you could do the swifts using tort?

 

😆

As luck would have it, my brother-in-law's 70+ year old tortoise has been looking a bit peaky for at least the past 20 years (like all of us older folk, he also has a tendency to drop off now and again...usually around November to February).  

 

I'll get the fret-saw ready just in case  

 

[Happy Jack]

Have to say I'm not convinced by the 'natural' maple ... for me it neither complements the body not matches the back of the neck. Obviously I'm basing my comment on how the headstock looks in my screen's depiction of your uploaded photograph, so I'm aware that reality may differ.

 

I'm now thinking that the headstock should either be tinted maple (to match the rest of the neck, or at least get somewhere close) or plain white (to match the body, or at least get somewhere close).

 

White would also bring the benefit of providing much better context for ebony swifts. 

 

[Andyjr1515]

19 minutes ago, Happy Jack said:

I'm now thinking that the headstock should either be tinted maple (to match the rest of the neck, or at least get somewhere close) or plain white (to match the body, or at least get somewhere close).

 

No problem, Jack - I have the same stain as the back of the slimmed fretted and have also been experimenting with some white's I have here.

 

If we go for tinted, the swifts can be inlaid in MoP or ebony.  If it's paint, it will need to be a transfer, but that would be OK too 

 

 

 

 

[Andyjr1515]

28 minutes ago, Happy Jack said:

Have to say I'm not convinced by the 'natural' maple ... for me it neither complements the body not matches the back of the neck

My thoughts would be that the whole neck and headstock would be natural maple, but I understand that amber has been used so often and for so long that the natural wood look is not to a lot of folks' taste.

[Happy Jack]

50 minutes ago, Andyjr1515 said:

My thoughts would be that the whole neck and headstock would be natural maple, but I understand that amber has been used so often and for so long that the natural wood look is not to a lot of folks' taste.

 

Ha! Of course ... it's an entirely new neck, so of course the headstock matches the back. Doh!

 

[Andyjr1515]

OK - we have a plan

 

We're going for clear-finished maple for the neck and headstock back and sides and a colour-matched headstock front.  The top one of the sample stripes is probably getting pretty close:

 

That's white primer with clear varnish mixed with b****r-all yellow dye.  The ivory-looking sample at the bottom is the same but two times b****r-all yellow dye.  Tiny amount more makes a big, big difference.

 

As it is a painted finish, the logo will be decal - I have a cunning plan for making the decal.  I shall reveal my method if it works...

 

The neck is ready for final sanding and so one last check with the side-by-side profile check.  This is how I checked:

 

The observant of you will spot the reason for doing the double check - the profile here, just before the heel, was a teeny, weeny bit flatter.  Tut tut!  Fixed

 

These were better:

 

1st

 

7th

 

12th

 

 

So next job is luminlays, then final sand and then finishing while I muster up courage to fit the machine screw inserts 

 

 

Edited January 3, 2022 by Andyjr1515

[Daz39]

1 hour ago, Andyjr1515 said:

OK - we have a plan

 

We're going for clear-finished maple for the neck and headstock back and sides and a colour-matched headstock front.  The top one of the sample stripes is probably getting pretty close:

 

That's white primer with clear varnish mixed with b****r-all yellow dye.  The ivory-looking sample at the bottom is the same but two times b****r-all yellow dye.  Tiny amount more makes a big, big difference.

 

As it is a painted finish, the logo will be decal - I have a cunning plan for making the decal.  I shall reveal my method if it works...

 

The neck is ready for final sanding and so one last check with the side-by-side profile check.  This is how I checked:

 

The observant of you will spot the reason for doing the double check - the profile here, just before the heel, was a teeny, weeny bit flatter.  Tut tut!  Fixed

 

These were better:

 

1st

 

7th

 

12th

 

 

So next job is luminlays, then final sand and then finishing while I muster up courage to fit the machine screw inserts 

 

 

I do like a profile gauge: sadly mine is currently being used to help cut laminate around a toilet base and waste pipe…

[Hellzero]

Sh*t happens...

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'll get my coat.

[Andyjr1515]

All masked up, paint coat is on and first coat of clear varnish on top.  I'll do a couple more clears and then a tinted coat, and finish with a couple more coats of clear before putting on the transfer - and then two or three more coats to seal and hide the transfer edges.

 

 

And as for the transfer(s) themselves - I can't remember which genius it was who came up with this but how cool is this?  This isn't the actual design I'll use but hopefully you will get the picture - 

 

You print any type or picture on a laser printer (note - has to be a laser.  An ink jet printer doesn't work):

 

Then cover the print with Sellotape (actually, for the actual one I will be using some ultra clear packing tape):

 

Cut it out:

 

Leave it to soak in water for a minute or so:

 

Then rub the paper fully off the film:

 

And one already sticky and re-peelable transfer ready to use: