HaMMerHeD
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2011
- Messages
- 1,774
- Reaction score
- 515
Hey gang. It's been a while. I hope you are all well.
Lovely.
Right then, off we go.
So I'm making myself another instrument. Here are specs:
General Info:
6 string bass guitar
Bolt-on neck
35" scale
26 frets
Wood:
Swamp ash body (Fraxinum americana)
Quartersawn hard maple neck (5 pieces) and fretboard (Acer saccharum)
Bookmatched swamp-ash headplate.
Truss rod adjustment at the head
Hardware:
2.03" (~52mm) Graphtech Black TUSQ XL Nut
Hipshot A-style brass bridge, 0.640" spacing (~16.25mm), chrome
Hipshot Ultralight Y-key tuners (3/8" posts), chrome
Jumbo nickel-silver fretwire (LMII FW57110)
One double-action truss rod
Two pultruded carbon fiber reinforcement rods
Dunlop dual-design locking strap buttons, polished nickel
D'Addario XL light stainless steel strings (.032-.130)
3/4" (19mm) vol/tone knobs, chrome
5/8" (16mm) EQ knobs, chrome
Electronics:
One passive MM-style humbucker pickup
Aguilar OBP-3 onboard pre-amp
18v wiring
Active/Passive switch
50K EQ pots (low, mid, high)
500K master volume and passive tone control
.100uF Sprague orange drop passive tone capacitor
Finish:
Black pore-fill and purple dye job
High-gloss clear lacquer
It's meant to be something of a double-cut big brother for this bass. The spacing is narrowish because I'm old and my fingers aren't as stretchy as they used to be. Also I want to do more tapping and chords and such, so there we are. This will be my first time working with Swamp ash and quartersawn timber. I've only ever used northern White ash before, which is very hard and very heavy. I'm excited for the look of ash without the pain of carving the hard, heavy northern shit.
Regarding quartersawn wood:
I believe it is wildly overrated for neck building. Wood warps and deforms according to its orientation to the bark, which on a perfectly q-sawn neck, means that it is more likely to bend laterally, perpendicular to the strings, which can't be corrected by a truss rod. In practice, single-piece quartersawn necks are more likely to twist than flatsawn. But I like the straight grain look of properly quartered maple, so here we are. I'll be ripping the maple and making a 5-piece laminated neck with opposing grain and such, just like I would with a flatsawn board. The truss rod will be installed in the center laminate (5/8" thick), and the carbon fiber rods will be epoxy-bedded into the two stringers (3/8" thick). I may or may not glue some walnut and/or mahogany veneers between the maple pieces. I haven't decided yet. I like the look, but it's a lot of very fiddly work.
Here's the design:
It's a big bass. It'll be about 46.5" long, 13.5" wide. I changed my standard headstock design for this build. I'd been using the old one for ~6 years, and I felt it was time for an update. Here's a side-by-side comparison (new on left, old on right):
What do you fine folks think?
And here are all the bits that have arrived for it so far:
It's not much, because I just ordered everything on Thursday. The wood and Hipshot stuff hasn't even shipped yet, so I think it'll likely be another week and a half before I can make some sawdust. I ordered everything but the lacquer and the dye from these vendors: bestbassgear.com, bellforestproducts.com, kieselguitars.com, hipshotproducts.com, and bassstringsonline.com. I am not being compensated by any of them for this thread, but I know a lot of people struggle with where to find stuff. I've used all these vendors for a long time, and I know them to all give great customer service and stand behind their products. I bought the lacquer at Autozone, and the dye from Woodcraft.
Here's hoping I can get started soon.
Lovely.
Right then, off we go.
So I'm making myself another instrument. Here are specs:
General Info:
6 string bass guitar
Bolt-on neck
35" scale
26 frets
Wood:
Swamp ash body (Fraxinum americana)
Quartersawn hard maple neck (5 pieces) and fretboard (Acer saccharum)
Bookmatched swamp-ash headplate.
Truss rod adjustment at the head
Hardware:
2.03" (~52mm) Graphtech Black TUSQ XL Nut
Hipshot A-style brass bridge, 0.640" spacing (~16.25mm), chrome
Hipshot Ultralight Y-key tuners (3/8" posts), chrome
Jumbo nickel-silver fretwire (LMII FW57110)
One double-action truss rod
Two pultruded carbon fiber reinforcement rods
Dunlop dual-design locking strap buttons, polished nickel
D'Addario XL light stainless steel strings (.032-.130)
3/4" (19mm) vol/tone knobs, chrome
5/8" (16mm) EQ knobs, chrome
Electronics:
One passive MM-style humbucker pickup
Aguilar OBP-3 onboard pre-amp
18v wiring
Active/Passive switch
50K EQ pots (low, mid, high)
500K master volume and passive tone control
.100uF Sprague orange drop passive tone capacitor
Finish:
Black pore-fill and purple dye job
High-gloss clear lacquer
It's meant to be something of a double-cut big brother for this bass. The spacing is narrowish because I'm old and my fingers aren't as stretchy as they used to be. Also I want to do more tapping and chords and such, so there we are. This will be my first time working with Swamp ash and quartersawn timber. I've only ever used northern White ash before, which is very hard and very heavy. I'm excited for the look of ash without the pain of carving the hard, heavy northern shit.
Regarding quartersawn wood:
I believe it is wildly overrated for neck building. Wood warps and deforms according to its orientation to the bark, which on a perfectly q-sawn neck, means that it is more likely to bend laterally, perpendicular to the strings, which can't be corrected by a truss rod. In practice, single-piece quartersawn necks are more likely to twist than flatsawn. But I like the straight grain look of properly quartered maple, so here we are. I'll be ripping the maple and making a 5-piece laminated neck with opposing grain and such, just like I would with a flatsawn board. The truss rod will be installed in the center laminate (5/8" thick), and the carbon fiber rods will be epoxy-bedded into the two stringers (3/8" thick). I may or may not glue some walnut and/or mahogany veneers between the maple pieces. I haven't decided yet. I like the look, but it's a lot of very fiddly work.
Here's the design:
It's a big bass. It'll be about 46.5" long, 13.5" wide. I changed my standard headstock design for this build. I'd been using the old one for ~6 years, and I felt it was time for an update. Here's a side-by-side comparison (new on left, old on right):
What do you fine folks think?
And here are all the bits that have arrived for it so far:
It's not much, because I just ordered everything on Thursday. The wood and Hipshot stuff hasn't even shipped yet, so I think it'll likely be another week and a half before I can make some sawdust. I ordered everything but the lacquer and the dye from these vendors: bestbassgear.com, bellforestproducts.com, kieselguitars.com, hipshotproducts.com, and bassstringsonline.com. I am not being compensated by any of them for this thread, but I know a lot of people struggle with where to find stuff. I've used all these vendors for a long time, and I know them to all give great customer service and stand behind their products. I bought the lacquer at Autozone, and the dye from Woodcraft.
Here's hoping I can get started soon.
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