It came from the black lagoon...

[Hellzero]

There is a bias in your system, it comes from the USA, where, for example, maple and walnut are local, but China has to import almost every wood they are using for manufacturing instruments, so the prices will be quite the same for maple or wenge, furthermore if they used wenge, it's because it was cheaper than the usual walnut for that skunk stripe as the politics of the Chinese factories is to always use what is the cheapest option.

 

Check this supplier prices for a more accurate representation of the value of current woods used in luthiery and you'll see that wenge is a non expensive wood, in the lower range: https://luthierssupplies.co.uk/product-category/electric/electric-neck-blanks/through-neck-splices/bass-through-neck-splices/?orderby=price

 

Edited July 24 by Hellzero
Link added

[neepheid]

1 hour ago, Hellzero said:

There is a bias in your system, it comes from the USA, where, for example, maple and walnut are local, but China has to import almost every wood they are using for manufacturing instruments, so the prices will be quite the same for maple or wenge, furthermore if they used wenge, it's because it was cheaper than the usual walnut for that skunk stripe as the politics of the Chinese factories is to always use what is the cheapest option.

 

Check this supplier prices for a more accurate representation of the value of current woods used in luthiery and you'll see that wenge is a non expensive wood, in the lower range: https://luthierssupplies.co.uk/product-category/electric/electric-neck-blanks/through-neck-splices/bass-through-neck-splices/?orderby=price

 

 

Thanks for the followup - every day's a school day.  I guess my perception is that I've only seen wenge widely used in expensive instruments where it is used as a marketing tool/flex.

[neepheid]

Small update, the neck pocket has been cleaned out.  Unfortunately, that means it's a tad too deep and a tad too wide.  So will be building it back up with wood veneer, which should hopefully be arriving today.  Also suspect that the screw holes were drilled out by hand and are at rather jaunty angles, so I'm going to check that and if it's too far out of wack, gonna fill those for subsequent redrilling.

 

[neepheid]

An important piece of the puzzle hath arrived...

 

 

Existing screw holes lined up and the screws went in good and tight - like I never sold the previous bridge in the first place...

 

Now I can see about setting the neck the appropriate amount into the body - I suspect it'll need to go back towards the bridge a few mm.  Might as well do it now whilst the neck pocket is comically oversized anyway...

[neepheid]

Had a busy day today, on both projects I have got on the go right now.  Here's what happened on the shed bass.

 

First of all, I offered the neck up and used some string to see how the alignment was.  Not too shabby, as it happens, with the neck almost along the top edge of the neck pocket, just needs a slight angle away which I will hopefully be able to create with a bit of veneer.  And scale length looks good with the neck pocket the depth into the body it currently is.

 

 

Next wee job was to drill out and fill the old neck screw holes.  I checked them a while back and they were a little jaunty and I wasn't happy to use them again, so they need to be filled.

 

 

Now, because the neck pocket had to be routed out to clean it up of all the glue and unevenness caused by the removal of that infernal glued in neck, the result was that the neck pocket was too deep - the 21 fret overhang of the neck was sitting on the top of the body, but the bottom of the heel wasn't making contact with the bottom of the neck pocket.  So I used some 2mm thick maple veneer (intended for headstock fronts) and got to work shaping it to fit the neck pocket.  Then it was glued in and clamped down.

 

 

So, toddling along nicely, more neck pocket fettling to be done then it'll be time to fit the neck...

[neepheid]

Small step forward today - tuners arrived.  Because nothing ever goes smooth, the (pre drilled) holes in the headstock of my neck were way too big - and in my opinion having way too much slop to fix by wrapping tape around the tuner bushing.  So, in steps some 0.6mm basswood veneer I have.  Did a quick and dirty test fit and it worked pretty damn well.

 

 

That one was a bit short though, so I cut some new strips of a more correct length:

 

 

You've got to steam them first - they snap if you try to bend them that much when dry:

 

 

After steaming, they're pliable enough to curl into shape and drop in the hole.

 

 

Nice and tight, tuners fitted.  Small job done.

 

 

 

[neepheid]

I know (now) that Hipshot do conversion rings to take them up to 18mm, but I thought I'd save myself twenty quid with my homespun solution.

[neepheid]

Today I tackled the sloppy, oversized problem that is the neck pocket.  In a super janky, homespun way, of course!

 

A few days ago, I said that the neck angle (for string alignment was just right with a small piece of veneer at the open end of the neck pocket, so I made that official and glued a small piece of veneer up there:

 

 

Super janky!  To add to the jank factor, I used one of those furniture repair/touch up pens to try to disguise the top of the veneer...

 

 

Then I got to the yawning chasm which is the right hand (treble) side of the neck pocket.

 

 

Aye, that's the edge of the neck.  Ouch.  So I spent quite a lot of time cutting, shaping and gluing veneers to the offending area (a 2mm thick then a 0.6mm thick)

 

 

And did the same cover up job with the touch up pen.  And now the neck pocket looks like this...

 

 

Real luthiers - look away now - heh, too late!

 

So, a final check of everything with the fake strings...

 

 

It's far from perfect, but it's a damn sight closer to what it needs to be.  From a distance, no-one will know.  I think I'm ready to fit the neck now.  Still have to decide what to do about all that spare material - but I know I'm putting off the inevitable which is that it'll probably have to be routed off and the offending area refinished.  Yay!

[Joe Nation]

Ted Woodford (youtube: twoofrd, guitar repairer extraordinaire) uses artist's alcohol markers for touch-ups, even on all those super-pricey vintage Martins and Gibsons.