First Scratch Build.

[HaMMerHeD]

Greetings LC.

So my pointy V bass project is on hold, partly because of availability of certain components, and partly because during the design process, I began to understand that many of the skills required to successfully execute my plan for the project were out of my grasp. So I have put it off for a future date, hopefully this summer.

In the meantime, I am building something else.

I am calling it "Epoch", and it is a 4-string fretless bass. Specs follow:

4 strings
Fretless
35" scale
Madagascar Ebony Fingerboard (Diospyros perreira)
1-piece Wenge neck (Millettia laurentii)
2-piece Eastern Soft Maple (Acer rubrum) body "core"
2-piece bookmatched Flamed Maple (Acer saccharum) body top
Hipshot Ultralite Tuners
Hipshot A bridge
Bartolini X44CBJD pickups
Passive electronics: blend, volume, tone
Tru-Oil Finish

The Design:
The Body:

The Neck:

Mockup:

The Wood:

And some parts:

The headstock will be covered in a 3-piece veneer sandwich of maple, ebonized maple, and flamed maple. This will provide a nice contrasting color scheme against the dark chocolate wenge neck, and match the body.

The body will be 1-5/8" thick. I had the supplier machine the maple body blank to 1-3/8" thick. and the flamed maple top is 1/4" thick. The body will have a 3/4" roundover profile shaping, which will be smoothed with the random orbital sander. I know the body isn't the most creative or original design, but I like it a lot. I'm hoping this slightly more pedestrian build will give me the necessary experience to be able to execute my V bass this summer.

The neck will have stainless steel inserts and the bolts are #10-24 303 stainless machine screws. The neck blank is 1" thick currently, and I am going to have it milled down to 7/8" thick as soon as I can find someone local that is willing to do it. The nut is 1-5/8" wide, and string spacing will be 0.75"/19mm at the bridge.


Body in clamps:

(note: this picture was taken after removing some of the clamps to return them to a friend. the whole body lamination stayed in clamps for about 10 hours before taking any clamps off, so there weren't any problems.)

After I got the clamps off the body, I went ahead and glued and clamped the veneer sandwich for the headstock:

It is squished between the pine planks, wrapped in parchment paper (which is like wax paper, but better).

 

[HaMMerHeD]

I cut the scarf joint yesterday. I forgot to get pictures of the cutting process, but it was pretty straightforward. A while back, I built a 10 degree cutting jig, and I used that today. Here's what the jig looks like:

The problem I had was that the neck blank is 4" wide, and the table saw will only cut about 3" high. I went back and forth with a lot of solutions before I decided to just cut as much as I could with the table saw, and finish up with a handsaw. So that's what I did.

The handsaw cutting was pretty rough, and I didn't do the best job. But I built a lot of extra material into the build, so I had room to correct my errors.

After sawing, I clamped the two pieces up and began to plane them flat/smooth. Here's what it looked like starting out.

OK, what really happened was that I asked the guy who owned the shop to show me how to use the planes. He was happy to do so. About a minute into the planing, however, he suggested that he should finish up the wenge planing, and he'll show me using some other wood. He didn't think learning to plane on such hard and stubborn wood would be the best idea. So, he finished the planing for me. Here's how it looked when he was just about done:

And done:

There is still some more work to be done which will clean the edges and surfaces up.

A few nights ago, in a fit of foggy insomnia, I had an idea for a scarf joint clamping jig. On the test neck I made of oak a couple of months ago, clamping the neck was a pain in the butt, and the pieces slipped after clamping. Late one night, I laid awake in bed thinking of a solution. A very simple idea came to me, so I dragged myself out of bed at 3am and built this:

After I got the scarf cut and planed yesterday evening, I tested the clamping jig out. Everything fit snugly together:

As soon as I get the headstock piece planed down to 1/2" thick, I'll glue it up. I have ordered a Wagner Safe-T-Planer for that process, and it should be here Wednesday or Thursday.

 

[HaMMerHeD]

Forgot to mention, thanks to the joys of sloppy tolerances in machining wood, the body laminate came out about 3/8" too narrow for my design. So it is either make the body wider, or make the plan narrower.

I chose to make the body wider. I have sawn the body laminate in half along the glue joint, and I am going to glue in a 3/4" thick piece of wenge. It will be here at the same time as the Safe-T-Planer.

 

[scherzo1928]

Good luck with the build mate.

Sweet clamping jig btw.

 

[Themadcow]

You would not believe the amount of times I changed my plans during my first build because of tolerances, mistakes, voodoo. Just keep at it, you seem to have the mind to work through any issues, that's half the fun of doing this.

 

[sk3ks1s]

No!!! You did it the wrong way!!!

 

[HaMMerHeD]

No!!! You did it the wrong way!!!

Scarf joints can go either way. A lot of guitar builders glue the shorter piece on top of the cut, and a lot of bass builders glue it on the bottom.

And anyway, it's not glued yet. That was just a clamp-up to see if the clamping jig works.

 

[scherzo1928]

I would still listen to sk3ks1s though.

 

[HaMMerHeD]

I would still listen to sk3ks1s though.

Well, at this point I would have to buy a new piece of wenge stock to make a headstock piece out of, since the piece I cut off is not long enough to make a full headstock if glued the other way.

I have spoken to a number of bass builders about scarf joints, and they have said that it will be fine the way I have designed it.

 

[sk3ks1s]

I do believe the other way is more structurally sound. That's not to say that this way isn't. Both will definitely hold. It's more for appearance. The way you are going to do it will reveal the line going straight across the headstock. You will also only see head grain from the nut to the join as opposed to one nice piece of linear grain the whole length of the headstock.
I was kinda just joking when I said you were doing it the wrong way. While either way will work fine, I do think that this is the inferior way of doing it. Just my .
Either way, clamps and jigs all around. Very nice to see (as I'm sure Scherzo will agree). And I love me a good 'ol fashion guitar/bass buildin' thread.

 

[sk3ks1s]

Also... wenge splinters SUCK.
If you get one, pluck that thing out as soon as you can.
It WILL get irritated.

 

[HaMMerHeD]

The headstock face will be covered by a veneer sandwich, so the grain won't be showing at all. I know the other way is a little bit more structurally sound, but due to the length of the neck and the length of available wenge neck blanks, I would have had to buy 2 blanks in order to get enough length to glue the scarf the other way around. I've seen a number of fairly high-end boutique basses built this way, so I asked around. Of the luthiers I polled, they were split about in half as to which way they glue the scarf. As a total n00b, I decided to take the slightly easier and less expensive route for my first build.

And yeah...I've had a lot of splinters from it already. They are rough. When I was pushing the thing through the table saw on the scarf cutting jig, the sawdust hitting me in the face felt like I was getting sandblasted.

 

[sk3ks1s]

Well, if a veneer is going over top, then I don't see there being a problem at all. And if it saved you from having to buy 2 stocks, then .

 

[HaMMerHeD]

Thanks sk3ks1s.

I've been thinking of what order in which to do the actual neck construction. Here is what I've come up with:

1) Reduce headstock piece to 1/2" thickness
2) Trim and level the cut surfaces of the scarf joint (the neck side of the cut is a bit off the line, so it needs to be trimmed back a bit)
3) Glue the scarf joint
4) Glue veneer sandwich plate to the headstock and file the fingerboard-facing edge of the veener flush with the neck
5) Route the truss rod channel
6) Install truss rod
7) Glue the fingerboard
8) Cut the neck taper (1-5/8" at the nut, 2 1/2" at the 24th "fret")
9) Adhere the neck pocket template to the neck heel so I know where to stop profiling the neck
10) Profile the neck
11) Cut the headstock shape
12) Blend the neck profile and headstock transition with sandpaper/files/whatever
13) Drill and install side dots
14) Drill and install fingerboard face dots
15) Radius the fingerboard
16) Finish sand the headstock and the back of the neck
17) Apply a light tru-oil finish to the back of the neck, about 3 very light coats
18) Apply a heavier tru-oil finish to the headstock veener face, about 10 coats
19) Drill tuner holes and pilot holes for the truss rod cover
20) Finish sand and polish the fingerboard to 800 grit (I bought the nicest ebony board I could find, so it should polish to a reasonably glassy finish)
21) Install nut and shim if necessary
22) Install tuners

After that, I need the body finished, then I'll mark and install the stainless threaded inserts in the neck heel.

I know that wenge can be left unfinished, but I'm going to use a couple of light coats of tru-oil on it anyway. It really makes the surface much more slick.

I'm using 1/8" aluminum rod for the side dots. I'm also using 1/8" aluminum dots for the 12th and 24th position fingerboard markers. The fingerboard markers will be offset to the G-string side of the neck. The 12th and 24th positions will have two 1/8" aluminum dots each. The 13th through 23rd positions will each have a 1/16" aluminum dot, also offset to the G-string side of the neck. Other than those 15 dots, the fingerboard will be just a polished black slab. I think it'll look pretty slick. I'm using aluminum because it reflects nicely and should be very visible under any given lighting condition.

It seems like a lot of work, but I think it will go rather quickly. I'm most looking forward to the profiling part. It's a lot of fun and a very meditative process to me.

 

[scherzo1928]

Either way, clamps and jigs all around. Very nice to see (as I'm sure Scherzo will agree). And I love me a good 'ol fashion guitar/bass buildin' thread.

This, and this. Well spoken my friend.

Also... wenge splinters SUCK.
If you get one, pluck that thing out as soon as you can.
It WILL get irritated.

I havent worked with wenge yet, but getting a cocobolo one will get all green right away... at least with me anyways.

Thanks sk3ks1s.

I've been thinking of what order in which to do the actual neck construction. Here is what I've come up with:

What about the trussrod access? You can either glue the headstock plate before routing the channel, or just use a drill bit afterwards. Don't forget that one.

 

[HaMMerHeD]

What about the trussrod access? You can either glue the headstock plate before routing the channel, or just use a drill bit afterwards. Don't forget that one.

Oh, I forgot about the truss rod access through the veneer. I supose I'll glue the veneer plate on before I route the channel. Thanks.

 

[sk3ks1s]

You can do the headstock veneer either way. Glue it one and route as per normal and slap a truss rod cover on there. Or, like Scherzo was pointing towards, glue it on after the fact and drill through the veneer directly inline with the hex nut and be left with only a pocket joint-looking hole. If done properly, you could leave as is without a truss rod cover.
Keep in mind, if you opt for the later you may need a long hex key or a long hex extension for your screw driver to be able to turn the hex bolt.

 

[sk3ks1s]

I havent worked with wenge yet, but getting a cocobolo one will get all green right away... at least with me anyways.

My guess is any naturally oily wood is gonna have a reaction to human flesh.
But dammit, they're soooooo purdy!

 

[HaMMerHeD]

So some stuff arrived today...

A Wagner Safe-T-Planer: (so I can plane the headstock piece down to 1/2")

A nice piece of maple: (fretboard for a future project)

And a wenge plank: (to make my body blank a bit wider and add some contrast)

 

[BIG ND SWEATY]

my friend has a sub sub company guitar manufactured under gibson and it called the Epoch . its so terrible hopefully yours will be much better than his