Westone "The Rail" Bass - DOA - Now a minimal bass

[JohnH89]

A choice between finishing the bass or a six string ? Oh come on Rob , this is BASSchat . 😁

[rwillett]

So started drilling this evening and broke my one and only 6mm metal drill, I had three holes to do and then I could do the M3 hole tapping. Somewhat annoying but two 6mm's on order for tomorrow delivery. That's half a day lost.

 

My issue now is time, I'm in London Tues and Weds, jam session Thursday and I may have family things at the weekend. I'll probably have to put the guitar on hold but I'm worried that any paint finish will not be dry, so suspect I may have to just prime it and bring as-is.

 

Ahhhh! This is annoying, work is definitely getting in the way of play now.

 

Rob

[SpondonBassed]

2 minutes ago, rwillett said:

So started drilling this evening and broke my one and only 6mm metal drill, I had three holes to do and then I could do the M3 hole tapping. Somewhat annoying but two 6mm's on order for tomorrow delivery. That's half a day lost.

 

My issue now is time, I'm in London Tues and Weds, jam session Thursday and I may have family things at the weekend. I'll probably have to put the guitar on hold but I'm worried that any paint finish will not be dry, so suspect I may have to just prime it and bring as-is.

 

Ahhhh! This is annoying, work is definitely getting in the way of play now.

 

Rob

 

Annoying maybe.  Despite that, it sounds like a good life/work balance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[rwillett]

1 minute ago, SpondonBassed said:

 

Annoying maybe.  Despite that, it sounds like a good life/work balance.

 

It doesn;t feel balanced, I need 48 hours per day to do what I'd like to do

[Stub Mandrel]

21 minutes ago, rwillett said:

 

It doesn;t feel balanced, I need 48 hours per day to do what I'd like to do

 

You and the rest of us!

[rwillett]

I now have five days to complete the bass, I've had to go to London twice in the last seven days so progress was limited.

 

Today's activity is to file the aluminium backbone and floor to fit. I've cut it approximately down to around 2-3mm too big and now ill use the finger grinder and a file to make it better. The red parts below are all sacrificial and to make sure it all fits.

 

All the drilling (bar four countersunk holes for the neck bolts on the bottom) and tapping is done. The top aluminium still has it's protective cover on. 

 

 

Once shaped, I'll polish it to an inch (or 25.4mm) of its life. 

 

Body sides are more or less done but need some filling, sanding and then priming, sanding, priming, sanding, painting, more painting, yet more painting and then quick drying lacquer. That might be tight

 

Rob

[rwillett]

And it's all gone wrong. 😩

 

The primary aim of this build was to get a better finish on the body. As its 3d printed you get little layer lines and large join lines.

 

The layer lines are caused by building the body up in layers between 0.1mm and 0.2mm high. The thinner the line, the longer it takes. Currently all the bits take around 36 hours to print. 

 

As nobody makes a large enough decent printer to do a bass body in a single pass, it has to be made in sections and joined. If anybody thinks RatRig does one, they don't. Had a number of discussions with them and they were not hopeful. 

 

So the intention of this build was to focus on finishing quality. I've been experimenting with various finishes and one that I thought might work hasn't really and so the body I made looks bad so back to the drawing board.

 

I'll use the opportunity to try out a different build method so that if things do go wrong, I won't lose the whole body next time. 

 

One step forward, half a step back. 

 

Rob 

[SpondonBassed]

3 hours ago, rwillett said:

One step forward, half a step back. 

 

It's a good half step forward Rob.

 

Lots of claims are made about 3d printing with plastics.  The big drawback seems to be - plastic.  It's fine for a lot of things but very poor at one or two.

 

I've followed your progress with great interest and the thing that is becoming apparent is that it is ideal for development of complex designs and so forth but not really suited to production.  Also, you are having to use materials other than plastic to make your guitars work.  It complicates things somewhat.

 

The overall designs are exotic and versatile but the modular approach to assembly is an obvious issue as is how to make the finish a little less plasticky.  It's a tough nut to crack but I have every confidence in you to persevere.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[rwillett]

I'll get there. The aim is to make a bass or guitar that looks and plays like a decent guitar.

 

As you say, 3d printing is great for some things, it does allow designs like this, that you can't easily do with wood.

 

They also sound pretty good. I'm sure a Fender aficionado would complain its not as good as their 62 or 72 or 82 Jazz but they have other advantages. left handed is easy, changes to accommodate different sizes is fairly easy. The metal work is not too bad now, it's about 90 mins depending on how much I have to cut through.

 

The end build is strong, I was a little surprised that joining bits together works so well, so that's an issue resolved. The next one is the finish, and thats where its been a bit hard. Given some of the chemicals I've brought, I'm fully expecting a visit from the boys in blue asking whats going on  I've yet to buy 2.5 tonnes of ammonium nitrate though so that might work in my favour.

 

Thanks

Rob