Pain in the custom neck

[Andyjr1515]

1 hour ago, SpondonBassed said:

 

 

That's it.  Humour him.  It's just an excuse for him to have a few cocktails.

 

Whall...(hic)...thish ish wot I dun djust (hic)  

 

 

 

Reddy for gloo...gluw.......shtiking

 

 

[fleabag]

Someone been spiking your Horlicks ??

 

 

[Andyjr1515]

And glued with ebony-dust-mixed-in-epoxy and sanded:

 

Tomorrow I will be cutting the semi-circle at the overhang and then I think I've run out of excuses not to fit the board onto the neck 

 

 

[fleabag]

Oooh, come to daddy

[Andyjr1515]

With semi-circular cut done at the fretboard end, time to glue on the fretboard.

 

First was a check on the fretboard position do end up with a dead straight neck in relation to the body:

 

Then I drilled through into the neck for the fretboard dot holes that I had left un-dotted and double-checked that the cocktail sticks were in the right place with a further straightness check.  And before anyone panics, no - that pencil line in the photo isn't the centre line : 

 

Next was to insert some cut lengths of cocktail stick, leaving the hole on the fretboard face clear for the remaining dots to be inserted:

 

Trussrod inserted and masked off, time to make a mess - rubber gloves on and old-fashioned slow set araldite mixed with a decent amount of ebony sandings dust and spread evenly on both sides:

 

And finally - you can never have too many clamps!  :

 

And that will remain clamped until this time tomorrow 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 17, 2022 by Andyjr1515

[fleabag]

Spiffin' .. asbo lootly spiffin

 

[Andyjr1515]

Still quite a bit to do before this can go courier-ing back to chez @fleabag , but it's starting to look like a bass neck.

 

And it still lines up!     (Not that I'm stunned and amazed, you understand...)

 

 

But I'll let it be for the rest of the day so that the epoxy has fully cured before any physical work is exerted on it.

 

 

But seems a shame to lose a free day now all the tools are out.  So what can I possibly do?

 

 

Hmmm...there's that Wal-ish neck of @funkle's waiting in the wings.  Hmmm...I think I can feel a flurry of sawdust coming on   

[fleabag]

Dont forget to take your memory pills 

 

Neck looking stunning mate

[Andyjr1515]

12 minutes ago, fleabag said:

Dont forget to take your memory pills 

 

Neck looking stunning mate

What neck?   

[Andyjr1515]

Next jobs will be the neck carve and headstock plate.

 

Neck profile will be a pretty much standard 'C' shape.  I will rough it out with some templates and then fine-tune it by feel - plenty of air-bass coming up

 

For the headstock plate, I'm going to do an inset/flush truss rod cover in the same ilk as my recent ebony 6-string electric build, where the cover is fine-saw cut from the blank itself.  It creates a really neat and clean looking solution:

 

 

 

And this morning, we have shavings!

 

Most builders will tell you that the most satisfying part of a guitar or bass build is carving the neck.  Trouble is, it's usually over the quickest too!

 

I use a variety of tools.  First, I take the corners off the volute with a block plane:

 

 

And that lets the spokeshave, that comes next, to take full-length sweeps from heel to headstock to rough out the shape.  The spine is pencil marked as all of the carving will be up to this point to preserve the planned neck depth:

 

And that gets a rough oversize shape ready for the micro plane that will take less material away at a time and allow me to guard against going too far at any one stroke - which is easy to do with a spokeshave...this is after less than 15 minutes spokeshaving! :

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SpondonBassed]

1 hour ago, Andyjr1515 said:

I take the corners off the volute with a block plane

 

[fleabag]

You shaving that neck seems quicker than me shaving my neck 

 

That head plate is gonna look  triff

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 20, 2022 by fleabag

[Andyjr1515]

Working on the builders adage of "it's easy enough to remove wood but it's f*******g  (*******=lippin  ) difficult to put it back!" the hand carving of a neck is very much a case of creeping up to the final shape.

 

So pretty early on I move off the spokeshave onto a medium razor plane blade, which I use two-handed like a pullshave:

 

...and quite quickly to the even subtler card scraper.  Note that a card scraper is designed to act as a plane.  You know you are doing it right when you get proper shavings and not dust:

 

 

So I reckon this is heading towards half-way there:

 

At the thin end, it's getting pretty close to the planned circular arc:

 

But further down the neck, it gets progressively flat-topped:

 

These are the 'haunches' that still have to be removed.  And it is these haunches that makes a neck feel chunky much more than the actual depth of a neck:

 

So still a decent amount of timber to be removed sliver by sliver - but, all being well, the basic carve should be finished before the end of the day

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 21, 2022 by Andyjr1515

[Andyjr1515]

Working on the builders adage of "it's easy enough to remove wood but it's f******g  (******=lippin  ) difficult to put it back!" the hand carving of a neck is very much a case of creeping up to the final shape.

 

So pretty early on I move off the spokeshave onto a medium razor plane blade, which I use two-handed like a pullshave:

 

...and quite quickly to the even subtler card scraper.  Note that a card scraper is designed to act as a plane.  You know you are doing it right when you get proper shavings and not dust:

 

 

So I reckon this is heading towards half-way there:

 

At the thin end, it's getting pretty close to the planned circular arc:

 

But further down the neck, it gets progressively flat-topped:

 

These are the 'haunches' that still have to be removed.  And it is these haunches that makes a neck feel chunky much more than the actual depth of a neck:

 

So still a decent amount of timber to be removed sliver by sliver - but, all being well, the basic carve should be finished before the end of the day

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 21, 2022 by Andyjr1515

[Andyjr1515]

And so, probably 2/3rds there and ready to go to the final shaping stage - towel-rub sanding 

 

Here it is so far:

 

Before:

 

After:

 

 

 

[fleabag]

As always, the devil is in the detail

 

You must be Beelzebub 

 

 

[Andyjr1515]

The towel-rub sanding next.  Two handed side to side.

 

That's getting pretty close.  Probably a bit more off the haunches near the heel but the rest of it looks OK:

 

And the clamps did their stuff - a completely gap-free join for the fretboard (phew )   :

 

[fleabag]

I doubt many people here, if any at all,  that build basses,  have worked with an unknown like Richlite.  So i doff my hat to you Andy.

 

Lovely work

[Andyjr1515]

The neck profile carve is now finished and ready for final sanding.  But wait a minute?  What's happened to the overhang?? 

 

Don't panic - I've temporarily (and intentionally) removed it.   The reason is that because presently there is no neck or body to support it, the 22nd fret pushes the gap and curves the overhang towards the body.  And when you are fitting the heel...or when you are attaching the plate that will be fitted under the overhang to fill the gap, the chances are that either the neck heel fit in the pocket will be compromised because the overhang is fouling the body, or that the strain on the overhang will snap it off in an uncontrolled manner.  Better to take it off in advance and stay in control.

So the neck will be:

- temp fitted to the trial body and the heel adjusted (if necessary) to give the right adjustment at the bridge

- the fill in plate under the overhang will be fitted to the neck

- the overhang will fitted to the plate

- the fret will be re-fitted to the overhang 

 

What could possibly go wrong?    

 

So next job is the heel.  My donor body is, theoretically, identical in the key dimensions as @fleabag's and I have the dimensions of the bridge and the all-critical saddle height ranges.  To check the present theoretical action height of fret line to the saddle position, I fit the neck firmly in the pocket and lay a carbon rod along the top of the frets.  I've popped the loose overhang piece on also to see how thick an underplate I am likely to need:

 

At the saddle position, this is currently just under 11mm.

 

 

Hmmm...might be about right even without the use of the optional spacer available on the 3D.  I'll get @fleabag to do some calliper double checks on the physical bridge but in the meantime move onto the headstock plate.

 

Oh - and the Fiebings dye has arrived - I'll also be doing some trials on the maple off-cut

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 23, 2022 by Andyjr1515

[4000]

On 20/04/2022 at 13:53, Andyjr1515 said:

Next jobs will be the neck carve and headstock plate.

 

Neck profile will be a pretty much standard 'C' shape.  I will rough it out with some templates and then fine-tune it by feel - plenty of air-bass coming up

 

For the headstock plate, I'm going to do an inset/flush truss rod cover in the same ilk as my recent ebony 6-string electric build, where the cover is fine-saw cut from the blank itself.  It creates a really neat and clean looking solution:

 

 

 

And this morning, we have shavings!

 

Most builders will tell you that the most satisfying part of a guitar or bass build is carving the neck.  Trouble is, it's usually over the quickest too!

 

I use a variety of tools.  First, I take the corners off the volute with a block plane:

 

 

And that lets the spokeshave, that comes next, to take full-length sweeps from heel to headstock to rough out the shape.  The spine is pencil marked as all of the carving will be up to this point to preserve the planned neck depth:

 

And that gets a rough oversize shape ready for the micro plane that will take less material away at a time and allow me to guard against going too far at any one stroke - which is easy to do with a spokeshave...this is after less than 15 minutes spokeshaving! :

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m amazed to see how little time this took. I always imagined it’d take some serious time whittling away at hard maple. I’ve watched a few luthiers working in my time but have always managed to miss neck carving. 

[Andyjr1515]

24 minutes ago, 4000 said:

I’m amazed to see how little time this took. I always imagined it’d take some serious time whittling away at hard maple. I’ve watched a few luthiers working in my time but have always managed to miss neck carving. 

The fine-tuning takes a little longer, but the basic rough carve can be surprisingly quick.  That's why moving to lighter cut methods sooner rather than later is quite important...it is very easy to cut too deep with, say, a spokeshave

 

[Andyjr1515]

There's nothing more frustrating than a truss rod slot not long enough for a standard allen key - so best to measure it first.  The spacer is a graphtec piece that will be cut to make the string spacer later on:

 

Then out comes the jewellers saw - one shot to get it right so that it will be a gap-free fit when the magnets are fitted:

 

And even for a headstock plate, you can never have too many clamps!

 

[fleabag]

I am Quick Draw McGraw and I'm ready with my digital verniers.

[Andyjr1515]

Just now, fleabag said:

I am Quick Draw McGraw and I'm ready with my digital verniers.

 

It's a quick check of the depth of the A or D saddle from the bottom of the roller groove to the back when the saddle is fully lowered

 

Thanks

 

[fleabag]

I'm on it maestro - back in a jiffette