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***Finished*** ACG Skelf Single-cut


Alpha-Dave
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Hi Folks,
Right, a new build diary here!
I found that having 1 ACG isn't enough, so I'm getting a second built!
This will be a 6-stringer to the 'Skelf Single-Cut' design with a set-neck, also being headless and having a ramp.
This is the gist of the overall shape (without the ramp, and the neck-laminations should be seen between the fretboard and the neck p'up, and the tuners will be within the body outline, and there will be a scoop cut from under to be able to tune).

I'm having a quilted Redwood front and back, a white-limba body core (with black contrast veneers), and bubinga/sycamore laminate neck and a flame/spalted maple finger board. The ramp will be cut from the same wood as the fingerboard.
Of course I'll be having the ACG/East filter-pre.
The scale length is yet to be decided, but it's mostly there.
Redwood (body shapes are for illustration purposes only):
Top:

Back:

As above, but wet:
Top:

Back:

Body: white limba

Neck laminations:
Figured Bubunga:

Flame sycamore:

Fretboard (nice eh!)

This is going to be great!
Thanks,
David.
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Edited by Alpha-Dave
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Well, thank you to both Alan and Sugden for sorting out a render!

This is how it should look, the major things to note being that the tuners are well within the lines of the body and they have a rout under them so you can get your fingers in to tune, and the p'ups will be covered in the ramp too!


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Here is a general update, the neck blank made from quilt bubinga and Ebony: it'll have an oil finish, so will have a lovely feel to it! :)


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Small update, We've finally decided on how to cut the fingerboard (thank you to all who voted):

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Arr woo i got top wood layout right for the render. Thats coming together really well love the way its turning out.

Mind me asking about the ramp. I was quite tempted to ask for a ramp with my fretless as playing a few fretless's with ramps it felt really nice. How come you have gone for a ramp that covers both pickups, and not just in between?

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CK: I hope so! I've only seen a couple of quilt red wood tops, but I think they look better than red-dyed maple because of the extra vertical grain pattern :huh:

Sugden:
This way the ramp and the p'ups will all be the same surface, so I won't feel any edges. Plus this way the p'up tops will be curved to match the fingerboard (I think I went for a 24" radius or something so it's pretty darn flat, but it means there won't be a difference between them anyway. Also the most useful part of a ramp is over the neck p'up or even towards the neck (we couldn't put a ramp there because of the truss-rod adjuster), so only having it between the p'ups is quite far back.

The last major reason is to increase the woody goodness of the bass. :)

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[quote name='Alpha-Dave' post='4232' date='May 22 2007, 11:43 AM']CK: I hope so! I've only seen a couple of quilt red wood tops, but I think they look better than red-dyed maple because of the extra vertical grain pattern :)[/quote]

I have some lovely quilted and burl redwood I've been keeping at home which ended up being loads cheaper than maple to buy too. Its a very soft wood so it might need a tough finish to stop nail marks and the like from showing.

The Fodera AJ basses and MTD basses sometimes have quilted redwood tops.

Your selected neck laminates are very similar to Smith's so I'm really looking forward to hearing how it compares!

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I thought you sold that piece of redwood you had?

It certainly is soft: Alan and I looked at it when it first arrived, and were considering going for an oil finish but you could make dents in it with just your nail, so he's going to pore fill with a hard coating as deep as possible. As the top of the ramp is red-wood too he's filling that with a thick coating too so that it doesn't wear through too quickly.

This is the kind of glassy finish we're aiming for on this Nordstrand:

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[quote name='Alpha-Dave' post='4293' date='May 22 2007, 01:18 PM']I thought you sold that piece of redwood you had?[/quote]

I sold ONE of the pieces :huh: I have two others which were much nicer. One bit has a very coarse quilt figure, and its very dry and light. The other bit was sopping wet when I bought it and was very heavy so I've been letting it dry out for the last 2 years. It has a very distinctive birdseye/burl/quilted figure to it. I showed it to Rob Green last year - since then he only remembers me when he remembers the wood. :)

[quote name='Alpha-Dave' post='4293' date='May 22 2007, 01:18 PM']he's going to pore fill with a hard coating as deep as possible.[/quote]

That nord finish looks like a great combination of lustre and its still got an organic quality to the sheen. Lovely.

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Ahh, that makes sense now.

I do have to admit, a few months ago I was looking all over ebay and the US stores for high quality wood for basses that I could store for a while to eventually make instruments out of, but quality wood keeps croping up!

I'm tempted to get this piece of burl walnut that would have been good for a single piece body, but it would weight soooo much and the shipping would be half the cost of the wood!
[url="http://walnutwoods.net/Merchant2/graphics/00000001/37.27.11gcomp.jpg"]http://walnutwoods.net/Merchant2/graphics/....27.11gcomp.jpg[/url]

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Lovely piece of walnut - is it English or Claro?

Sometimes good value redwood and maple can be bought direct from land owners on Ebay -some of them have old logs they've salvaged from deep rivers on their land, after the trees were cut down at the turn of the century and lost in rapids. However they don't tend to stay on Ebay for very long. The other thing is that Ebay is used as a clearing house for stuff that otherwise wouldn't make it past a lumber yard or broker inspection.

Dry wood costs a load less to ship too!

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Claro, but as with many lovely pieces of wood, I think that one may be dificult to carve a bass out of that looked good symetrically becuase there are some cracks in it. Alse there is an issue that a lot of the best figureing would be lost under the p'ups, bridge and neck pocket.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Excellent, good choice! It certainly is a worthwhile trip to meet the guy who is going to be making an instrument for you I've found. Are you spending some time researching more wood choices or are you pretty much set? While you're there you might get to see this one in its final stages; the guesstimate is 2 months, but we'll see ...

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Yeah that'd be awesome, but it will probably be done and in your hands before I get there haha.

Wood wise I am not sure - I am going to check all that out when I get there. I'm just unsure as to exactly what I want.....I will see what Alan says, what woods he has at the time, that kind of thing. We shall see.......but it will probably be a "warmer" core wood with a brighter top wood, and then the neck I am thinking either 5 piece maple/sycamore + ebony or 7 piece with Maple/Syc, Ebony, and walnut?

We'll see.

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Holy crap Dave!
That thing is awesome!
Alan's builds are just getting better and better, you must be so chuffed!

(must save up a deposit... must save up a deposit... must save up a deposit...)

Cheers,
Eude

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