4 String Driftwood, Cherry, Maple & Walnut

#101
Well I have been slammed at work this past week, taking on a couple of additional projects related to covid preparedness, but I've got a few days off now so I can focus on my life's work: making barely playable guitars and basses. :D I've done a couple of fretboard related tasks, but I'll post them when it's done. In the meantime, I had a little time to make the control cavity cover and the walnut bridge block.

The bridge block is just a 1" thick block of walnut in the same dimensions as the Hipshot bridge. Because of the radiused top, I need to make a flat surface for the bridge to sit on, and a driftwood flat surface would not be advised. Just too soft and punky for a nice reliable bridge/body coupling. This block will be set down into a rout and glued in place to allow the bridge to be mounted on top.
Walnut Bridge Block

Walnut Bridge Block

  • Media owner Beej
  • Date added
  • Tags walnut
bridge block

The control cavity cover is a sandwich of solid pickguard material and a veneer of the driftwood. Usually I'll just make a cover out of whatever wood, but I suspect the driftwood is not strong enough for this task on it's own. So I sandwiched a thin sheet to a hunk of cream ABS pickguard material using a lot of CA glue on the driftwood and a lot of activator on the ABS. :D It will eventually be a uniform grey when it's sprayed with shielding paint.

Here is the plastic side:
Control Cover ABS Back

Control Cover ABS Back

control cavity cover plastic back

And the driftwood side:
Control Cover Driftwood Front

Control Cover Driftwood Front

control cavity cover

And stuck to the routing template. I stick it down with double sided tape or the masking-tape-superglue-trick and then run around it with a router. I can stack up a bunch (up to 4 safely) and do them at once this way too. Makes a tight fit.
Control Cover on Template

Control Cover on Template

control cavity cover

Here it is in the body. I've also sanded it flat before this pic - the veneer was not perfectly flat before being glued to the ABS. It is much lighter in colour in the sanded back spots at the top, but they will darken back up when the epoxy is applied.
Control Cover Fitted

Control Cover Fitted

control cavity cover

This build will now slow down a bit as my extra spare spare-time will be occupied by the WBO 2021. :smug:
 
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#102
Beej said:
Thank you kind sir, I hope it turns out well. :)

I also love to read build threads and have been a little starved for them this year - there just don't seem to be as many, or my expectations have increased! :D Some of my fave threads are by @rudy4444 and @Drake Custom as they go into tons of detail and great explanations.

Hopefully the upcoming Winter Build Off 2021 will satisfy the building voyeur in me. :woot:
Click to expand...
Beej, thanks for calling me out. I actually have been too busy with the business to post as much as before, but I will probably get back to it this next year. I have a lot of custom orders on now, so maybe after the new year.
 
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#103
I'm feeling a little guilty for not updating this thread in nearly two months. :D I haven't done a ton on this bass as I've been focused on it's five string cousin. I'll update soon with the fretboard, but here's a shot of it's cousin. Nearly finished now, just waiting on some properly-sized frets to replace the missing ones. :woot:
image0.jpg

Build thread here: 5 String Bleached Maple

And @Fat Freddy ... please note the lack of chicken head knobs. :smug:
 
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#104
Okay, back on track. I cut and shaped the driftwood inlays, and then put the fretboard into my square inlay routing jig and routed them all. This is a pretty janky jig - happy to answer any questions about how it works.
fretboard inlays

fretboard inlays

fretboard inlays

And after setting them in place and gluing in with CA, I filled the spaces around them with walnut dust and more CA, then sanded the board flat. Next will be sanding in the 20" radius. This has a wipe of denatured alcohol on it, and a terrible image from my terrible camera.
fretboard inlays

fretboard inlays

fretboard inlays
 
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#106
Beej said:
Okay, back on track. I cut and shaped the driftwood inlays, and then put the fretboard into my square inlay routing jig and routed them all. This is a pretty janky jig - happy to answer any questions about how it works.
fretboard inlays

fretboard inlays

fretboard inlays

And after setting them in place and gluing in with CA, I filled the spaces around them with walnut dust and more CA, then sanded the board flat. Next will be sanding in the 20" radius. This has a wipe of denatured alcohol on it, and a terrible image from my terrible camera.
fretboard inlays

fretboard inlays

fretboard inlays
Click to expand...

That works a treat! To set up you just set the distance from the edge of where you want to the inlay to be, to each side of the square you've made, by the amount of offset from the router cutter to the edge of the router? That is one confusing sentence....
I guess the key is keeping the board square in the jig, how do you accomplish that if the board is tapered? I see a centre line on the board but can't see what it lines up with on the jig.
 
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#107
Yes! :D basically, I roughly line up the edge of the inlay rout with a couple of pencil marks on the upper surfaces, and when they are close, I set the trim router down so I can see the bit's path. I tweak the alignment of the fretboard under there until its lined up on the two fixed sides (right and front in this pic), then I clamp down the board. I check it again after its clamped, and if it looks good, I rout it. The whole fretboard takes about an hour and a half including chiseling the routs square. There are three clamps, and between them I can usually clamp the board down well as it moves along.

I whipped it together in a flurry after hand cutting inlays in a fretboard and barely being able to feel my hands. :D This is 2.0, also janky but more refined than the first one. I'm going to build 3.0 with 3/8" thick lower boards so it all sits lower. :)
 
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#110
I'm feeling guilty that I'm back on this bass, but I'm also building another more urgent guitar, so it's not getting worked on as much. But I did get the inserts sorted. I used standard knife edge furniture inserts like people use to retrofit screw-joint instruments, but installed them from the top of the neck under the fretboard.
inserts

inserts

inserts

One good smack with a rubber mallet and in they go. :smug:
inserts

inserts

inserts



Well, not really. Wouldn't that be awesome? :woot:

Instead I drilled them out starting with a 1/16th pilot hole and then had fun going up through my entire range of bits to the size of the outer rim at the top, before cranking them in with a hex key.
 
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#113
That stinks... but it is the nature of this sorta thing, $!%# happens :smug:

Give it 24 hours before you plane it off, you're pretty clever, there might be a "make it a feature" play to make :smug:

If not, we'll, remember if it was easy, everybody would do it :D
 
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#114
RichterScale said:
That sucks.
What happened?
Click to expand...
Well, now that I can talk about it... I glued it down a little crooked on the nut end, so the whole thing sits cockeyed. But, I planed one edge flush to the neck beam before seeing it, so now its definitely too narrow on one side. It's not the first time I've had to throw away a few hours work, but stings nonetheless. I'll put up a pic once I can bring myself to do so.

Reedt2000 said:
That stinks... but it is the nature of this sorta thing, $!%# happens :smug:

Give it 24 hours before you plane it off, you're pretty clever, there might be a "make it a feature" play to make :smug:

If not, we'll, remember if it was easy, everybody would do it :D
Click to expand...
I've been racking my brain... I could add back a sliver of walnut board to the edge, but then I'd have to make something match on the other side. Doable but now I'm weighing the time against just making a new board. About 2.5 hours to get back to the point I was on this one. :facepalm: Actually that doesn't count the 1.5 hrs to make new inlays. :banghead: Plus finding more inlay pieces. :eek: Dammit! :dead:

What about taking up golf? Golf's not too expensive, is it? :whistle:
 
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#115
Beej said:
Well, now that I can talk about it... I glued it down a little crooked on the nut end, so the whole thing sits cockeyed. But, I planed one edge flush to the neck beam before seeing it, so now its definitely too narrow on one side. It's not the first time I've had to throw away a few hours work, but stings nonetheless. I'll put up a pic once I can bring myself to do so.

I've been racking my brain... I could add back a sliver of walnut board to the edge, but then I'd have to make something match on the other side. Doable but now I'm weighing the time against just making a new board. About 2.5 hours to get back to the point I was on this one. :facepalm: Actually that doesn't count the 1.5 hrs to make new inlays. :banghead: Plus finding more inlay pieces. :eek: Dammit! :dead:

What about taking up golf? Golf's not too expensive, is it? :whistle:
Click to expand...

Stabilized drift wood strip? You would have to trim the other side and add one there too of course. Worth the added effort... could be...
 
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#116
Beej said:
What about taking up golf? Golf's not too expensive, is it?
Click to expand...
I've already got a backup plan if my bass project goes off the rails.
Cigar box guitars!
Single piece necks and I've got a ton of white oak.
The edibles and smokeables never really agreed with me. But I have a script for phuckitol. So I should be able to get through a few hiccups.
 
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#118
Well, after sleeping on it and staring at it for an hour... I'm resigned to removal. Here's the offending offense.
Garbage Neck

Garbage Neck

  • Media owner Beej
  • Date added
  • Tags neck
Garbage Neck

Right now what you are looking at is only 2mm wider than Jazz bass width at 1.5" so I can't really go any narrower or it becomes a little absurd. To make it even distance to the inlay on both sides of the neck will make the neck 36mm wide. That's 1.41", which is just too small. Originally this was planned to be 40mm wide - a little wider than a Jazz, and that's how wide the nut area is currently.

No, it needs to come off. Just a pain in the backside is all. :)

Here's the old board, new board and bag o' driftwood offcuts from which I will make new inlays this week. Oh well, luthiery is luthiery and it's all good. :thumbsup:
Garbage Neck

Garbage Neck

  • Media owner Beej
  • Date added
  • Tags neck
Garbage Neck
 
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#120
Tim Barber said:
Good attitude, and I feel your pain. I once lost focus and routed a random shape into the side of a pickup cutout on a flamed myrtle top - on a commissioned bass where the customer had chosen that specific piece of wood. My family will attest I was not good company for a couple of days.
Click to expand...
Its loss, and I think we grieve it like loss. Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and eventually, Acceptance. :) Like when I planed down the edge and turned it over to see how thin it had become. "No!!! Dammit!! (kicks leg of workbench) I wonder if I can do this? No... Or maybe try this? No... Augh! I can't believe how much work just went down the drain! Oh well, I'll make a new one. :D

Speaking of which... here's the new sheet of driftwood prepared for inlays and new fretboard. The driftwood sheet is thinned down to 3.5mm, coated with CA and sanded smooth to 220. It's from a different board, but not too far off this bass and headstock.
New Fretboard

New Fretboard

  • Media owner Beej
  • Date added
  • Tags walnut
New Fretboard

The fretboard was planed flat on both sides and is at 5.5mm thick sanded to 220. It's wiped with alcohol in these pics.
New Fretboard

New Fretboard

  • Media owner Beej
  • Date added
  • Tags walnut
New Fretboard
 
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