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[drbass]

yes but I have to go by 2pm.

See you Friday.

Regards,
Michael

[basshack]

Nice work Blaine, the Uke is looking terrific and can't wait to see the mouse come together. Gee you've done a lot of work in a relatively short space of time.

Thanks Ivan, I've been putting in a lot of hours there while off work, but I am getting faster as the skill level picks up. Tonight I am building a jig to make the scarfing joint for the neck to headstock extension. If I get that done and the neck glued up I might have time make the neck pocket template ready for a bigger day tomorrow.

[Classic5]

Nice work Blaine, the Uke is looking terrific and can't wait to see the mouse come together. Gee you've done a lot of work in a relatively short space of time.

Thanks Ivan, I've been putting in a lot of hours there while off work, but I am getting faster as the skill level picks up. Tonight I am building a jig to make the scarfing joint for the neck to headstock extension. If I get that done and the neck glued up I might have time make the neck pocket template ready for a bigger day tomorrow.

That all sounds really well planned Blaine. I’m hoping to kick off another build myself, but will have to get over a few mountains at work first. So it will most likely start later this year. Have a great day on Friday. Cheers

[basshack]

Thursday evening I took the body out of the vacuum bag. Success!



I then built a scarf joint jig to offset the headstock from the neck. I'd cut the timber down to size to give me three necks and enough headstocks and wing pieces to match on Tuesday.



Glued up the first neck and let it sit overnight under clamps. Didn't want to find it wasn't going to work and blow all the stock at once.



Took it off this morning and it's looking really good.

Today I repaired the nut on one of my wife's schools guitars. Somehow it'd broken in half and no-one cared or noticed till she tried to tune it for a student. The top 4 strings were buried in the fret board. Took me a good 15-20 minutes to clean the board down and a lot of persuasion to remove what was left of the nut. I could of have gone harder on crowning the frets etc. but it's an old instrument of very little value so not worth the time.

This is it after the clean up. Check out the Gorgomite cloth to the right. Thats 2 off 1" strips, both sides blackened with years of crud.



But today was more about catching up with friends. Pete (Sneakyjak) was down from Canberra with stuff he was working on and Michael (DrBass) was in to use the machinery. I got to enjoy playing on two of Michaels newer basses and was very impressed. The set up on them is very nice and there are lots of very useful tones available. Photo's on the forum don't do his work justice. I am looking forward to seeing the newest one, having seen the laminates he was shaping up today. Also met Bassboy today, whom I've brought gear off in the past but never met face to face. It was a pity the shop was so busy as I would of have like to have listened to him noodle some more in a quieter environment.

[drbass]

LOVE that walnut top, Blaine!

And the jig looks pretty good too, might be very useful to "thickness" an agreed headstock as well.

Yes, very busy today so talking wasn't easy. Thank you for your kind words - let me just say that yes, the two basses I had on me today sounded rather less zingy than what you're used to from me but I'm preeeeetty sure the cab in the workshop doesn't have a tweeter, or it was turned off. There is PLENTY of zing trough my rig (time for a GTG methinks).

I wasn't able to reproduce the "funny B phenomenon" at home really not quite sure what was going on. Anyway, was good to catch up, and of course with Pete as well.

Regards,
Michael

[basshack]

Ok so it's my finger?

For those wanting to know what we are talking about on one of Michael's basses the G string 4th fret "B" sounded flat but the tuner says it wasn't. I play a little bit of the bass line to NIVRAM a Hank Marvin tune as my go to noodle. I know what it should sound like and the B wasn't right. So thinking it's me, my first thought in all situations, I checked the tuning on the harmonics and they were close enough. Still the B sounded off so I grabbed an electronic tuner and checked it. My ear wasn't quite right to standard pitch but the open strings and 12ths were close. But still the B sounded flat, not tone flat but tune flat. Michael then wandered across and heard the same thing but checking the tuner with me agreed it's not out of tune. Pete suggested that it might be overtones of other strings ringing as an acoustic can do on the fundamental of the instrument. The noisey shop today wasn't the best place to run this to ground but it was weird, I've not come across this before. Thoughts from the collective are welcome.

And yes a GTG is overdue. Maybe I better look at some dates.

[SneakyJak]

Was great to catch up and again thanks for helping with the build. Very much appreciated

[basshack]

It was wasn't it. Glad to be of some assistance and if I can help further then just leave instructions with the guys and I'll send the results back up to you.

[Classic5]

The top on the bass looks awesome Blaine

[basshack]

I’ve always liked Walnut too Ivan. Both Pete and Michael have given me some other tops to use that are very nice too.

[basshack]

Uke is finished and with it's new owner. Big shout out to David and Rob at MSGM who's assistance is always appreciated.

[basshack]

Did some work on the neck, installing the truss rods and carbon fibre stabilising rods. First time I've used carbon fibre in the necks I've done but they've always been beefier than this one will be.



I try not to snooker myself in a corner waiting for glue to dry etc. so here's the next build on the table. It's going to be in the same style as the last but I'm going with a Walnut bass and Maple burl above. The burl came from SneakyJak last time he was down and it's going to look trick on the Walnut. DrBass has passed across some lovely Koa too for the next build (No.8) Feeling rather spoilt for nice wood tops at present. I have a couple of meters of walnut left still.



The reason for the Walnut is I had a senior moment preparing the blanks for build 7. I cut the 50mm plank into 2 pieces of the right length, Rob then ran them through the planer and I then, for some reason, tried to resaw one of the pieces in half for two 20mm pieces to book match. I shouldn't of have done that at all and I don't know what I was thinking but it made sense at the time. Anyway I was meant to glue the two 50mm pieces together. So the one piece mountain ash I have left is useless to me but there is a fellow builder who is doing really smick solid body ukulele's and it's big enough for his use so I'll pass it across on Tuesday night and hopefully he can use it. The thinner pieces I'll try to make into electronics covers.

[Classic5]

That Ukulele turned out terrific Blaine

Really nice work.

[drbass]

Full steam ahead, Blaine,

Really getting into the swing of things. Everything’s looking great.

Why not turn the walnut into a bookmatched top rather than just covers?

Regards,
Michael

[basshack]

Hi Michael, it wasn't the Walnut I wasted but the Mountain Ash so not as big a deal as I have plenty of Walnut to move on with.

Ordered hardware and timber for the next two builds today. Better get that job soon....

Last night the neck for the first one was sorted out, radius applied to the finger board and the neck body shaped to fit the pocket and then the fretboard glued on etc. I'll start shaping the neck tomorrow night. Also rough cut the next bass body out while I was there. (Picture of the two bodies below.) The 2nd has only been rough shaped at present, it doesn't mirror the first and it should to a larger degree. It's going to have that burl top on it the best grain/figure is really in the back on the walnut on this one. It'll be chambered like the first too and hopefully I'll squeeze that in tomorrow as well but probably not. No shop on Friday! as the power company is doing maintenance and there'll be no machinery, lights or heating. I can live without the heating but not the lights or machines.