Future Builds - Kinda Not Random

[drbass]

No time whatsoever to do any building at the moment (missed 4 weeks, and next week will be even busier with other stuff) but already planning the next move. Nothing terribly exciting, just building on existing plans.

The guy who was interested in a sibling of Kermit seems to have lost interest so the nice top is going to be put to use for me.



So it's basically Kermit but with an unlined fretless neck (wenge maybe with a wenge board, maybe with a wenge nut), different neck-body connection (like what I'm doing with 05 - maximising the amazing spalted maple top), 34" or 35" (not multi-scale), probably 6 strings, same pickups and electronics, same hardware, narrow string spacing.

Stay tuned.

Regards,
Michael

[billb]

That is such a stunning bit of wood.

[drbass]

As mentioned elsewhere I glued up a body (95 mm wide silky oak in the centre, northern ash wings) a while ago.

Today I cut a piece of walnut into two slivers (probably the worst bandsaw job I've ever done) and Rob (from the Melbourne School of Guitar Making) rescued the two bits by thicknessing down to about 4 mm. Currently being glued onto the body blank as a contrast layer (final thickness about 3 mm). No photos, sorry.

I'll treat the piece of spalted maple shown above with ultra clear araldite tomorrow to stabilise it (very fragile, that piece). Hopefully that'll work, and I should be able to glue the top on some time next week. Excited about this one .

Regards,
Michael

[drbass]

Lots of masking tape and 24 ml of ultra-clear araldite later:



Will sand it down at some stage and put on a little more just to make sure. Nice indication of what it will look like when finished.

Regards,
Michael

[Classic5]

So much going on in that spalted maple.....

[drbass]

Ahhhh, wenge. Had forgotten how nice that smells (NOT).

Second bass of the Kermit range is coming along nicely. As mentioned this will be a fretless 6 string (35" scale), one piece wenge neck and wenge fingerboard - no lines.

Neck:


Body (silky oak centre, northern ash wings, walnut contrast layer) with the "Extend" neck pocket:


And with the top on top:


And the fingerboard:


Some interesting coloration going on there, never seen this in wenge:


I'll try to have that at the body end of the board.

Regards,
Michael

[drbass]

Neck blank with two carbon rods already glued in, truss rod groove (almost) ready to go, headstock veneer glued on and levelled, and dimensions marked. Fingerboard to the left - disregard the outline, I thought I'd be able to get a second board out of it but it's not going to happen so I'll use the lot.



As mentioned previously this is going to be a 6 string fretless with a wenge nut and the Solo bridges mounted on wenge as well (provided I can find enough useable material).
56 mm wide at the nut, 82 mm at the heel, and I'll be aiming for 21 mm thickness ("fret" 1) to about 24 at "fret" 12.

I have a good feeling about this build. In all previous efforts there was something that I had to improvise with but this one has a good vibe to it - happy with how everything is coming together, learning from previous mistakes so fingers crossed. And then of course: what will it sound like?

Regards,
Michael

[drbass]

Unlined fretless - Luminlay to the rescue. Don't worry, won't be visible from the front (or that's the plan).

Regards,
Michael

[drbass]

While I'm at it.

Bandsawed off some bits of the neck that'll be the extension into the neck pocket. Did the same with the top side of the neck and linished as close to the line as I dared. Then sanded to the line at home - need a flat and straight surface:



Then marked fret positions and scored the side:



As you can see I tried to be very clever but then decided not to try to be too much of a smart-ass - not confident I can pull it off so I'm going with Plan B.

How about that grain though? Man, this makes wenge worthwhile and makes you forget what a PITA it is to work with.

So tomorrow some fret saw action and Luminlay glueing. Should be interesting. Should also be able to get the neck pretty much out of the "blank" stage to the point where the fretboard can comfortably be glued on.

Regards,
Michael

[drbass]

And more progress.

You can see that the neck is almost at the final shape (OK, about 30 minutes of work left). I left a couple of bits so I can fix the fingerboard with a couple of screws when glueing so it doesn't move - they will obviously come off later:


And here are the fret slots:


Don't ask, it'll get clear with further updates. This is a very exciting build, pretty much going exactly according to plan, fingers crossed it stays that way.

Regards,
Michael

[drbass]

Yes, that'll work - not 100% perfect (it's bloody hard to saw straight at a right angle, just a couple are a little bit off) but it'll look pretty good once it's all finished:





Regards,
Michael

[drbass]

Close to "according to plan". Neck fits, geometry fits. Really happy with that.

The inserts are placed to allow for the pickup route (yes, I'm starting to think a couple of steps ahead rather than just half a step). The pickups will be angled (15 deg) like with the Red Baron to get a warmer response for the treble strings, and a tighter response from the bass strings since this is a 35" standard scale (not multi scale) bass.

Couple of things of course had to happen: when trimming back the little notch I had left on the heel end of the neck it just broke off - that's wenge for you. Now there's just a little bit of material missing but I can fix that. And the top is a little too thick - 8 mm instead of the 5 I calculated the heel thickness for. That's my mistake but we'll simply thickness the top down to 5. Problem solved.

Next: fingerboard on (yes, I still need to put the truss rod in).

Regards,
Michael

[narcdor]

That is really coming together visually for a surfboard, very keen to see it finished.

[drbass]

That is really coming together visually for a surfboard, very keen to see it finished.

Thanks, Nick,

And apologies for misleading 's supposed to be a bass . Only waves it'll hit will be soundwaves .

Regards,
Michael

P.S.: when can we see your next project?

[narcdor]

That is really coming together visually for a surfboard, very keen to see it finished.

Thanks, Nick,

And apologies for misleading 's supposed to be a bass . Only waves it'll hit will be soundwaves .

Regards,
Michael

P.S.: when can we see your next project?

Runway then? I'm just ribbing you because I can't handle more than four strings.

Next project is still bouncing around a few ideas, mostly just trying to find the time.