Twin neck project

[Dom in Dorset]

The necks tunred up today, they were from here:
[url="http://stores.shop.ebay.co.uk/CH-GUITARS__W0QQ_armrsZ1"]http://stores.shop.ebay.co.uk/CH-GUITARS__W0QQ_armrsZ1[/url]
they were £49 each, reading stuff on here about off the peg necks it seemed that necks from £50-£100 are prety much the same, good and bad stories about cheap and mid price necks. I chose this shop because they gave precise measurments ie width at the nut, 12th fret etc. the necks were ordered on friday, turned up saturday (while I was out).
Both necks have a slightly raised 3rd fret, not a big problem , otherwise nicely made, quite delicate.
The next step is to try some dummy bodies from mdf, ply etc, to get the ergonomics and ballance sorted.


Yes , my photos are cr@p!, It's a cheap camera and I'm sh1t at photography + my hands start shaking as soon as i pick up a camera.

[hillbilly deluxe]

Why 2 fretted necks ?

[Dom in Dorset]

one neck will be de-fretted.

[hillbilly deluxe]

Thats what i guessed.

[Dom in Dorset]

I've done a bit more:
I've de-fretted one of the necks and put on a super glue coating. I put on four layers , cut it back and polished it with T cut.



I'm going to base the body on a jazz bass, this is an idea of what I'm planning:

Next step is to make a dummy body to experiment with control positions , neck spacing, strapping points etc

Edited March 14, 2010 by Dom in Somerset

[henry norton]

Mental! The fretless neck looks really nice too - I hope you wore your mask when you did the glueing! Jazz style offset sounds good. It'll look less wide and blocky than a symmetrical body. Keep postin'

[umph]

this is making me tempted to make a double neck guitar/bass jobbie.

[Dom in Dorset]

I did wear a mask but the fumes are so acrid that it made little difference. If I did it again I'd wear my gass mask , do it outside, use my workshop vacuum cleaner as an extractor.

[Dom in Dorset]

Ok , I've been side tracked with gigs etcbut I'm back onto it again.
I've settled on a boby shape, the starting point was a Peavy Zodiac (thanks to Flat Eric for the pattern) . I split it and moved the curves around a bit and the result is this (MDF pattern):

I'm still playing with scratch plate shapes. the controls will be in a trench half covered by the scratch plate. this means that I don't have to worry too much about them getting in the way when i'm playing the lower neck.
I've started on the actual body:

It's made from cherry, partly because it looks nice, partly because I had some lying around. Concerned about weight I put it on the scales and it's 2.9kg, CH guitars' catalogue has Les Paul bodies that come in at 3kg , I'm confident of losing 1/2kg from contouring and routing.
Next I've got to save up for pick ups and pots.

[Rich]

I'd have been tempted to use a left-handed neck for the lower one, so the tuners didn't get too close to the headstock of the upper neck. Still, this is a fascinating (and very different) project and I'll be interested to see how it turns out.

[Dom in Dorset]

I couldn't find a lefty neck for £50 at the time.

[Dom in Dorset]

I've routed out the neck pockets and refined the body a little (a lot more work on the body to come)
Those are piezo bridges.

Edited July 15, 2010 by Dom in Somerset

[Metalmoore]

Could we get a bigger picture please? How much you got left to do?

[Dom in Dorset]

Not sure why it came out so small, try this:


What's left? final shaping and profiling of the body, routing for pickups, wiring, scratch plates, bolt the necks on, machines, strap buttons , get a cape , some dry ice and write a rock symphony in four movements.

Edited July 15, 2010 by Dom in Somerset

[Dom in Dorset]

I've contoured the body, sanded it and drowned it in linseed oil. i'm goingf to give it a final buff with bees wax before final assembly.
the headstocks have been shaped and the necks stained.
Next it's scratch plates and wires...

[Dom in Dorset]

It's done!


I'm still getting to grips with how she plays and how the controls are used best, it's a weight off my proverbial shoulders to finish it - now a weight on my shoulders to play it.
It's beer time now.

[RIM Basses]

nice work on the bass dom

[stoker]

that looks well nice! how does it sound?

[rmshaw37]

nice one bud! bet it weighs a tonne though! lol

[Truckstop]

That is the wick!

Truckstop

[7string]

Very cool. Great job

[Dom in Dorset]

I've just got back from my first rehearsal with "The Beast" as she now seems to be known.
In that band I was using a fretless acoustic, with only an active piezo pick up. It had a nice "double bass" sound but quite diffuse, you had to play loud to hear what I was doing and sometimes it could be a bit muddy.
The twin neck has a much more focussed sound, and I love to jazz necks.
How does it sound? the fretted side sounds like a regular P bass, it's got light strings on at the moment and it's quite twangy. The piezo bridge is subtle but add great slap tone.
The fretless neck has a nice warm sound, the piezo adds some nice top end "mmmwwwwaaahh" and "board crack"
I'm a happy bunny.
Yes it's heavy, but I'm getting used to it, I'll try and weigh it tomorrow.

[Dom in Dorset]

It weights 6.25Kg / 14lb

[FlatEric]

Looks great and a lot lighter than I thought it would be.
Top job!

Just dug out a pic of his dad.

[attachment=63386:Dad.jpg]

You know what I mean.

Cheers.