karlthebassist Posted November 8, 2009 Share Posted November 8, 2009 (edited) Hey guys (and gals), Some of you may remember a couple of projects I started back in March/April. Well if not, here are the original links: Bolt-on "traditional stylie" - [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=44429"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=44429[/url] Thru-neck headless jobby - [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=44449"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=44449[/url] Well, they have been sitting dormant since the last posts as I have not had any holiday since starting them, but now I'm off for two weeks, so I shall be seeing how much I can get done! [attachment=35968:P1010165.JPG] So what needs doing.... Well, on the first bass I need to re-finish the body as the Halfords paint can spray job has not come out very well at all. Then I'm going to re-make the scratchplate from a better quality material and also make a rear control cavity cover. Neck pocket needs tweeking slightly as it appears to be pulling the neck down to one side, but I think this is more to do with excess paint in the pocket as it was perfect before I painted it. Either that or the wood has shifted a little. Another think I'm not sure about is the pickup... I've opted to use a spare Status soapbar that I have in the bridge position, but I am now thinking of routing new holes and fitting a pair of Warwick MEC humbuckers, one in the current position, and one in the standard P-Bass position. Other than that it'll just need bolting together and setting up. I have a nice Gotoh bridge for it. On the second bass there is a bit more that needs doing. When strung up, the bridge saddles will not go low enough to get the strings closer to the board - even when acounting for the fingerboard radius and frets being in place. So I am going to sink the brigde rails into the body a bit. I shall do this by either sinking them in individual pockets, or by shaping a dip running from the back of the pickup hole right through to the body's tail, using the two bubinga stripes either side of the bridge as the edges of the trough and blending the shape up into the ash wings. I think it has the potential to become a rather interesting feature on the bass. Other than that, I need to finish the blend from the back of the neck into the body, radius the fingerboard, finish the body egde rad around the tuners, make a nut, finnish sand and oil/wax/polish the body, install frets, electronics and setup. The build to get into the state you see it now took 3/nearly 4 days. I expect that it should take about the same amount of time to get the bass to the stage where I can start thiniking about finnish and frets. Sorry for the epic amout I jsut wrote... Hope to update you all on the projects within the week! Karl [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=26144&hl=karlthebassist"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=...=karlthebassist[/url] Oh, and there is this too! Edited January 28, 2010 by karlthebassist Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikey R Posted November 8, 2009 Share Posted November 8, 2009 Hi Karl, nice pair! I like how they are both totally different concepts. Im more drawn to the headless, but thats probably cos I dont own a headless and I like the look of yours [quote name='karlthebassist' post='648744' date='Nov 8 2009, 01:30 PM']On the second bass there is a bit more that needs doing. When strung up, the bridge saddles will not go low enough to get the strings closer to the board - even when acounting for the fingerboard radius and frets being in place. So I am going to sink the brigde rails into the body a bit. I shall do this by either sinking them in individual pockets, or by shaping a dip running from the back of the pickup hole right through to the body's tail, using the two bubinga stripes either side of the bridge as the edges of the trough and blending the shape up into the ash wings. I think it has the potential to become a rather interesting feature on the bass.[/quote] If do choose to route out individual pockets for the bridge pieces then I'd love to see how you do that. Im been trying to come up with a jig for that kind of job and I just cant figure out the best way to do it. [quote name='karlthebassist' post='648744' date='Nov 8 2009, 01:30 PM']The build to get into the state you see it now took 3/nearly 4 days. I expect that it should take about the same amount of time to get the bass to the stage where I can start thiniking about finnish and frets.[/quote] Wow, you work fast! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 8, 2009 Share Posted November 8, 2009 I think you came up in conversation before between me and mate, do you know someone called Chris Logan? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karlthebassist Posted November 8, 2009 Author Share Posted November 8, 2009 [quote name='Mikey R' post='648908' date='Nov 8 2009, 04:57 PM']Hi Karl, nice pair! I like how they are both totally different concepts. Im more drawn to the headless, but thats probably cos I dont own a headless and I like the look of yours If do choose to route out individual pockets for the bridge pieces then I'd love to see how you do that. Im been trying to come up with a jig for that kind of job and I just cant figure out the best way to do it. Wow, you work fast! [/quote] Ha, cheers. Well I do all this at work where I have quite extensive facilities and solid surfaces to work on, so it doesn't really take long to get stuff done. If I do the individual brigde pockets then I will do it on a metal work mill, pick up the center of the width and just work from there - no marking out or jig needed, just using the readings on machine. If i were to build a jig I would do much the same, but into a piece of ply wood... you were trying to position individual saddels for a fanned fret build - i think i would have just planned it out on autocad and used a mill again and drilled the screw holes. its one of those things i guesss that if youre making a one-off then you just have to bite the bullet and go for it. but if it was batch/mass produced then i guess you could make a large jig that positions neck pocket, pickup holes, bridge holes and control holes all in one go. Yeah i saw your thread for you fanned fret build - thought it was absoloutly fantastic. The headless is my first serious attempt at designing and building, and once i finish it i shall make design alterations and build a second prototype. headed too. I would quite like to build a fanned fret bass at some point. maybe my next scratch build. I though about how to mark out and set the fret positions and did a model on autocad with a 35" E and a 32" G (or there abouts), but then read that you were having intonation problems up the neck - do you think this was due to incorrect marking out/cutting on your part or due to some secret that we dont know about fret positions on fanned fret basses? I like what you did and went for a less extreme faning than the dingwall. i hadnt' though of making the fret perpendicular at the 3rd fret though. sounds a lot better than the 10th or 12th that i did. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikey R Posted November 8, 2009 Share Posted November 8, 2009 [quote name='karlthebassist' post='648993' date='Nov 8 2009, 06:49 PM']Ha, cheers. Well I do all this at work where I have quite extensive facilities and solid surfaces to work on, so it doesn't really take long to get stuff done. If I do the individual brigde pockets then I will do it on a metal work mill, pick up the center of the width and just work from there - no marking out or jig needed, just using the readings on machine. If i were to build a jig I would do much the same, but into a piece of ply wood... you were trying to position individual saddels for a fanned fret build - i think i would have just planned it out on autocad and used a mill again and drilled the screw holes. its one of those things i guesss that if youre making a one-off then you just have to bite the bullet and go for it. but if it was batch/mass produced then i guess you could make a large jig that positions neck pocket, pickup holes, bridge holes and control holes all in one go.[/quote] Hmm, unfortunately a metalworking mill is way out of my reach. Also, they run much slower than a router so I would guess wouldnt leave such a clean cut, but maybe Im wrong. [quote name='karlthebassist' post='648993' date='Nov 8 2009, 06:49 PM']Yeah i saw your thread for you fanned fret build - thought it was absoloutly fantastic. The headless is my first serious attempt at designing and building, and once i finish it i shall make design alterations and build a second prototype. headed too. I would quite like to build a fanned fret bass at some point. maybe my next scratch build. I though about how to mark out and set the fret positions and did a model on autocad with a 35" E and a 32" G (or there abouts), but then read that you were having intonation problems up the neck - do you think this was due to incorrect marking out/cutting on your part or due to some secret that we dont know about fret positions on fanned fret basses? I like what you did and went for a less extreme faning than the dingwall. i hadnt' though of making the fret perpendicular at the 3rd fret though. sounds a lot better than the 10th or 12th that i did.[/quote] As it turned out, the intonation problem was only really slight, and was caused by being less than acurate with the fret saw - nothing wrong with the marking out. I used fretfind on the web, just google it. A less extreme fan and placing the parallel fret close to the nut makes it a surprisingly easy bass to play up to the 7th fret. Above the 12th it gets a bit weird but its certainly not unplayable. Give one a go, it was a little more complicated than a normal build but so much fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
budget bassist Posted November 9, 2009 Share Posted November 9, 2009 that neck thru headless looks amazing! can't wait to see it finished! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karlthebassist Posted November 11, 2009 Author Share Posted November 11, 2009 Little update. Went into work yesterday, started to flat the finish down on the painted bolt-on jobby. Also (and more importantly) I've milled the recesses into the headless so that the tuners sink into the body 5mm. This was needed as the bridge saddles were right down low but the strings not touching the board. The next one I build of these I shall work out an angle to set the neck back at. Although the tuners do look good sunk into the body. Looks a lot more solid. Also sorted some rads out a bit but did nothing major as I had other things to do elsewhere. Back in tomorrow I guess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 11, 2009 Share Posted November 11, 2009 [quote name='thedontcarebear' post='648917' date='Nov 8 2009, 05:24 PM']I think you came up in conversation before between me and mate, do you know someone called Chris Logan?[/quote] I take it you don't then? Haha. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karlthebassist Posted December 22, 2009 Author Share Posted December 22, 2009 [quote name='thedontcarebear' post='651428' date='Nov 11 2009, 11:10 AM']I take it you don't then? Haha.[/quote] So after looking at thedontcarebear's ACG for sale on here and making a nasty mess in my pants, I remembered the first bass build attempt I ever made - having absoloutly no idea what I was doing and losing interest in it as I encontered problems. It's the original build that I had brought the headless hardware for... Here is the only pic I have of it... DONT LAUGH! IT WAS MY FIRST GO AND I DIDNT KNOW WHAT I WAS DOING! [attachment=38787:My_bass.jpg] And also, to thedontcarebear - yes, I do know Logan - and I'm really sorry I missed your original post! It was ages ago! AND - I work next door to your bandmate Ed! Small world. But that ACG single cut has got me thinking about my next build already... I really REALLY must get these finnished though. Theyre SO close to being done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 30, 2009 Share Posted December 30, 2009 [quote name='karlthebassist' post='691765' date='Dec 22 2009, 07:57 PM']AND - I work next door to your bandmate Ed! Small world.[/quote] Do you often want to punch him too? He has one of those faces! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karlthebassist Posted December 30, 2009 Author Share Posted December 30, 2009 [quote name='thedontcarebear' post='696183' date='Dec 30 2009, 11:12 AM']Do you often want to punch him too? He has one of those faces![/quote] Haha. Can't say I've had the urge... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 30, 2009 Share Posted December 30, 2009 Give it time! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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