JBoman Posted August 10, 2023 Share Posted August 10, 2023 Yep It's brewing in my mind. Since I completed this, I have been thinking about something that is the complete opposite: - Natural finish, just the wood + oil and/or wax - Passive - Maybe neck-through - 2+2 tuners, instead of 4 in line - Separate bridge pieces - Laminated 5-ish piece neck My biggest question at the moment is the truss rod. Well, actually the combination of neck-through and my favorite truss rod desing: the spoke wheel. As far as I can see, this kind of design does not exist. You always find spoke wheel truss rods only on bolt on necks. Having this rod design on a neck through would mean carving this area and after finger board glue up, the spoke wheel would be "permanently" buried there. With bolt on necks, you at least have the chance to access the spoke wheel and remove it for possible lubrication needs in the future.... Hmmmmm, thoughts on this? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBoman Posted August 11, 2023 Author Share Posted August 11, 2023 Some doodlings in cad.... Headstock and body shape obviously not final Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauzero Posted August 11, 2023 Share Posted August 11, 2023 Just make it headless and access the trussrod at the nut end. Some day all basses will be like this. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBoman Posted August 13, 2023 Author Share Posted August 13, 2023 Logically it makes sense. But who needs logic when we are speaking about instruments! And sorry, headless basses are just ugly.... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauzero Posted August 13, 2023 Share Posted August 13, 2023 16 minutes ago, JBoman said: Logically it makes sense. But who needs logic when we are speaking about instruments! And sorry, headless basses are just ugly.... Better looking than those ones with headstocks, and better balanced. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBoman Posted August 18, 2023 Author Share Posted August 18, 2023 Note for myself: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rexel Matador Posted August 18, 2023 Share Posted August 18, 2023 (edited) I don't understand why you'd have to do it after the fretboard glue up. I'm sure it's obvious but I'm not getting it 😄 Edit: ok should have given this some more thought before posting - would it be because of glue squeeze out? Could carefully placed masking tape mitigate that? Edited August 18, 2023 by Rexel Matador Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBoman Posted August 18, 2023 Author Share Posted August 18, 2023 3 hours ago, Rexel Matador said: I don't understand why you'd have to do it after the fretboard glue up. I'm sure it's obvious but I'm not getting it I didn't actually yet watch the video, just saw the part with that table router and the radiused blocks and realised immediadetly that this is a good idea. But having a bigger block of wood is better. It's more stable and less prone to flexing when you move it around. And when you work piece is more heavy it makes the routing more stable. Less mass is harder to hold in place when doing anything with a router. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rexel Matador Posted August 18, 2023 Share Posted August 18, 2023 No, I'm still not getting it, surely then once you're at the point of radiusing a glued up fretboard the truss rod will already be in there, so you would have had to cut the area for the spoke wheel before that? I feel like I'm getting my wires crossed somewhere an hijacking your thread unnecessarily though! Back on topic - I did once do a heel end trussrod adjustment on a neck through IIRC. It wasn't a spoke wheel though. Perfectly doable in any case, I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBoman Posted August 19, 2023 Author Share Posted August 19, 2023 (edited) 20 hours ago, Rexel Matador said: No, I'm still not getting it, surely then once you're at the point of radiusing a glued up fretboard the truss rod will already be in there, so you would have had to cut the area for the spoke wheel before that? I feel like I'm getting my wires crossed somewhere an hijacking your thread unnecessarily though! Back on topic - I did once do a heel end trussrod adjustment on a neck through IIRC. It wasn't a spoke wheel though. Perfectly doable in any case, I think. No no perfectly good point! Of course the spoke wheel cutout would be done before radius cut. But other option would of course be to attach the fretboard to some scrap wood for the radius cut process. Using masking tape and super glue trick Both are doable. But I think having the fretboard glued on the neck and having the whole piece over-sized would minimize/eliminate tear out. Edited August 19, 2023 by JBoman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBoman Posted August 20, 2023 Author Share Posted August 20, 2023 (edited) I experimented on the shape a bit more by re-using my drawings from the previous project. I wanted to make the bass shorter, therefore 2+2 tuners. I reused the headstock shape but making it shorter. Body shape is also a bit re-used, but made less tall and added some "hooks" or what you could call those in the horns, something that would kind of mimic the headstock shape. I really like these shapes, how it reflects my 2 favorite designs, the P-Bass and the Music Man. Edited August 20, 2023 by JBoman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rexel Matador Posted August 21, 2023 Share Posted August 21, 2023 (edited) I love a good hooked horn - looking forward to seeing how this turns out. Not so sure about the angled tuners - I think perpendicular always looks better. It's your bass though! And that compound radius trick is potentially brilliant - can't wait to see the results! Edited August 21, 2023 by Rexel Matador Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauzero Posted August 21, 2023 Share Posted August 21, 2023 Perhaps I should mention that for some reason the guy who made one of my gorgeous headless basses put the truss rod access at the body end. Not spoked wheel but conventional truss rods with hex heads - in fact, two of them. There's a little cover over them. As you can imagine, the groove is fairly long so an allen key can be inserted. So there you are, you could have both spoked wheel truss rod adjustment and the better balance, lighter weight, and greater beauty of a headless. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBoman Posted September 2, 2023 Author Share Posted September 2, 2023 (edited) The nut seems like a logical place to start a build? Some experimentation: I still had a piece of brass from some previous attempts in making a brass nut. This time I started by making a template in CAD. Picked up some brand new drillbits that are close to the regular 105-45 strings. I glued the template on the brass, drilled through and then hacked off the extra material on a belt sander + files. This way I need to use the actual nut files only in the final touches. I actually made 2 prototypes with this method. I'm not yet sure if I'm going to use a brass nut in this one, but at least I know I can make these quite easy and fast. Edited September 2, 2023 by JBoman 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpondonBassed Posted September 2, 2023 Share Posted September 2, 2023 Brass is a lovely metal to work with. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBoman Posted September 11, 2023 Author Share Posted September 11, 2023 More speculations in CAD.... hmmmm... hmmm... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrbacco Posted September 18, 2023 Share Posted September 18, 2023 I find this better than a wikipedia page , thanks for sharing and very well done (even from me who has a lot to learn, but thanks!) 🙂 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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