Last Build - Personal Thompson

#43
H0Rl8xn.jpg


Ok, well maybe not *that* good.

This project has been waiting on a lot of things. First, it's been waiting for me to have time to go out into the woodshop. Second, it's been waiting on me to find the motivation and get myself into the right headspace. Depression is a m***erf***er. So my new job is going great. The pay raise has enabled me to satisfy my true dietary needs (that being ketogenic), which has done wonders for my state of mind.

So, moving on.

When last we spoke, I had just glued the headstock on wrong. A dopey mistake, to be sure. But glue slips from time to time. Ain't no shame in makin' a dodgey glue-joint every now and again, so long as you don't ship it.

So last weekend I went and got some boards with which to build a new neck. I wasn't really loving the look of the bubinga, so I decided to go a different route. The new neck will be made primarily of padauk, with a bit of walnut and hard maple tossed in. And of course, you know I gotta be me, so there'll be loads of layers. Color-wise, it'll look something like this:

mhqS48a.jpg



The headstock will be made of the same lamination, and I'm planning on gluing a layer of katalox into the scarf joint.

I'm going to get started on the cutting and gluing tomorrow.
 
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#45
Hey Look! I did some stuff.

13Gn7SJ.jpg


I jointed the walnut and padauk boards and ripped the pieces I need, and then I found that the maple I was going to use for this is too short. So...the core will just have to be walnut. I had hoped to get a different color in there for contrast, but c'est al vie.Now I just need to cut about a million little strips of maple veneer and glue some s**t together.
 
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#48
Definitely want to see how this turns out. As Dark Horse said....you've got your priorities right. Family, job to support family, then hobbies.

It can be a big bonus when your kids start to grow up if you're lucky enough to combine family with hobby. I gig with my daughters while the wife does the FOH mix. It won't last for too much longer with the eldest finishing school next year so i'm just trying to enjoy any time I get to play with them at home or gigs.
 
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#49
Good afternoon Luthier's Corner. I hope the new year finds you all well.

Shortly after I glued the previous neck lamination up (in August), I had some pressing family things to attend to, and didn't get to it for a long time. Unfortunately, I kinda b0rked the glue-up, and it came out all twisted. So it's scrapped.

Very frustrating.

So I've returned (again) to the proverbial drawing board, and came up with a (-nother) new-ish plan.

Firstly, I had never really completely solidified my plan for the body's vertical lamination, so I shored that design up:
bzls48t.jpg


Starting from the center, moving out:
  • 1/42" (0.6mm) maple veneer
  • 3/8" (9.5mm) peruvian walnut
  • 1/42" (0.6mm) maple veneer
  • 5/32" (4mm) purpleheart
  • 1/42" (0.6mm) maple veneer
  • 3-1/2" (89mm) padauk
  • 1/42" (0.6mm) maple veneer
  • 1/2" (12.7mm) monkey pod
  • 1/42" (0.6mm) maple veneer
  • 2-1/4" (57mm) padauk
The horizontal laminations are unchanged:
  • 3/4" (19mm) padauk
  • 1/42" (0.6mm) maple veneer
  • 3/4" (19mm) sapele

Only the padaul/sapele bits have horizontal laminations. The narrow vertical lams do not. Just so:
e9vklrJ.png


So the neck:

First, I'm changing it from bolt-on to deep-set. The neck will go all the way into the pickup cavity, like so:
xLqrkpY.png


Which brings me to the neck lamination (from the center out):
  • 1/2" (12.7mm) Monkey pod
  • 1/42" (0.6mm) Maple veneer
  • 1/8" (3.2mm) Wenge
  • 1/42" (0.6mm) Maple veneer
  • 1/8" (3.2mm) Padauk
  • 1/42" (0.6mm) Maple veneer
  • 7/8" (22mm) Wenge
The fretboard (also from the center out):
Nd8K8wD.png

  • 1.28" - 2.06" (32.5mm - 52.2mm) Bird's eye Maple
  • 1/42" (0.6mm) Mahogany veneer
  • 1/42" (0.6mm) Maple veneer
  • 1/8" (3.2mm) Katalox binding
The headstock (from the top down):
Z1f634M.png

VKv7G09.png

  • 1/16" (1.8mm) Padauk plate
  • 1/42" (0.6mm) Maple veneer
  • 0.45" (11.5mm) Wenge
  • 1/42" (0.6mm) Maple veneer
  • 1/16" (1.8mm) Katalox plate
The headstock will also have a vertical lamination. The .45" wenge bit in the center will be split down the middle by a Maple veneer.

The scarf joint:
  • 1/42" (0.6mm) Maple veneer
  • 1/4" (6.35mm) Katalox
  • 1/42" (0.6mm) Maple veneer
The bridge:
  • Katalox body (1)
  • Maple saddles (4)
The pickup cover:
  • 3/4" (19mm) Sapele
  • 1/42" (0.6mm) Maple veneer
  • 1/16 (1.8mm) Katalox plate


So there are:
  • 27 total pieces of wood in the body (not counting the pickup assembly or the bridge and saddles)
  • 13 pieces of wood for the neck beam
  • 7 pieces of wood for the fretboard
  • 7 pieces of wood in the headstock
  • 5 pieces of wood in the bridge
  • 3 pieces of wood in the scarf joint
  • 3 pieces of wood in the pickup cover
So that's 65 bits of wood. Lots of gluing. I'm not completely sure why I do this to myself. I mean, I love the look of all those veneers in there. But it's really fiddly work.
 
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#51
I must be a pantywaist slacker. Lost heat in the shop I share with my brother and bailed at around 30 degrees. My little pissant space heater can’t keep up. At 12 degrees my brain stops functioning. We are in the midst of a cold snap here in New England, average daily temp around 25 degrees for a high, which is 10 degrees colder than normal. Seriously, be careful, really cold weather and whirling blades is a bad combination, slower reaction time, numb fingers, etc.
 
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#53
Gilmourisgod said:
I must be a pantywaist slacker. Lost heat in the shop I share with my brother and bailed at around 30 degrees. My little pissant space heater can’t keep up. At 12 degrees my brain stops functioning. We are in the midst of a cold snap here in New England, average daily temp around 25 degrees for a high, which is 10 degrees colder than normal. Seriously, be careful, really cold weather and whirling blades is a bad combination, slower reaction time, numb fingers, etc.
Click to expand...

Nah. I actually do have a heater, but even running all day, it can't warm the garage up. And even if it did, lighting in my garage is sub-optimal, so I have the garage door open just to get some light in.

reverendrally said:
I have no appreciation of how you can even deal with 12F (-11degC). It never get's colder than about 32F here. We're all whining long before that. :sour:
Click to expand...

Working in the shop, with no wind, I quickly warm myself up and work up a sweat, so it really doesn't feel like -11C after the first half-hour or so.
 
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#54
HaMMerHeD said:
Sorry about the lack of updates. I've been crazy busy. I got a new job with a ~20k/yr raise which I start in a couple of weeks, so I've been working on making that a smooth transition. And the new baby has been very needy lately, so she's been soaking up a lot of my time and her mom's. I think she's got a couple of teeth she's working on pushing out. And I've been enlisted to make a couple of things for a friend, which have a fairly tight timeline.

View attachment 2600880

So for this build...all the time spent with the baby has given me a lot of time to think about this bass. I was originally going to have a set of templates made by CNC for the body outline, and the pickup block/cover/ramp. So I've been thinking about how it might be accomplished without that, and I think I have a plan. The real difficulty in making pickup covers is that the wood is necessarily thin, which can easily be destroyed by a router or a power planer, etc. So I've been considering processes for reducing that likelihood. Keep in mind that my pickup block is going to be composed of a mahogany "core", with a thin (~1/8"/3mm) katalox top and maple veneer accent.

Here's basically what I've come up with:

1) Plane the pickup block's board (Mahogany) to the correct thickness, to match the depth of the pickups. Importantly, the board is not to be milled to final dimensions of the pickup block here. The thickness (Z dimension) needs to match, but the width and length (X and Y dimensions) need to be left oversized for now.
2) Route the pickup cavities
3) Drill for the threaded inserts
4) Install threaded inserts
5) Epoxy pickups into place. Ensure that the top surface of the pickup is flush with the top surface of the wooden block.
6) Level sand the top, make sure that the top surface is perfectly flat
7) Attach katalox and maple veneer top
8) Mill X and Y dimensions to final size

I'm going to have the pickup height adjust from the back, using four #4-40 socket-cap screws, so the #4-40 threaded inserts in the pickup block need to face down, into the body. A small hole will be drilled all the way through, and then counter-bored for the screw head and a washer. So at this point, the only hangups on this process are finding the time to get out into the shop, and the #4-40 threaded inserts that will go into the pickup block. I can't find any locally, so I may end up going with a larger screw, like a #8-32 or something.
Click to expand...

Congrats on all of the amazing stuff going on in your life!!! She's adorable!
 
#55
Work continues on this thing.

After some frustrating/annoying issues with gluing veneers, I've taken a slightly more cautious approach, gluing on piece at a time. It's not going fast, but it's going well. By the end of the week, I should be ready to glue the neck beam all together.

Also, this kid gets more and more fun every day.
3S7dSE5.jpg
 
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#57
So, the Monkeypod neck piece I have revealed this little internal void as I planed it to the correct thickness:

YnhDGON.jpg


It is nonetheless pretty strong, but I still worry about using it as a structural member. I feel there must be other little weak spots I won't be able to see until it's too late if I glue it up.

So...looks like I need to pick a different wood for the center neck lam. I have a nice piece of American black walnut that is very straight and flat that I think would do the trick.

Sucks, because I was hoping to get this neck beam all glued together tonight.
 
#58
So, it's been cold and I've been sick, so this is as far as I've been able to get since last time.

uLB9Uwa.jpg


That's one side of the neck all glued up, and the other side in progress. In the morning, I'll put the other wenge laminate on there so that it's ready for the center piece to be glued in when I get home tomorrow. Then that'll be the neck beam gluing complete, and I'll start on the headstock.

BTW, since my Monkeypod was a bust, I'm going with Katalox for the center stripe. I had wanted to use something with a little more contrast, but I didn't want to use maple, and I don't have much else on hand that's suitable.

So...katalox it is. Tomorrow when I get home from work, I'll rip and plane the katalox piece to size.
 
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#60
I took the neck beam out of clamps yesterday and let it sit another day...so that I was sure that the glue on this most important structural piece was definitely fully cured.

No, that's not the case, I was busy and wasn't able to get to it until tonight. C'est la bébé.

Anyway, here it is:
wLu9CRm.jpg


I'm happy with it. Here's the orientation of the grain:
k9S6O61.jpg


These are all nice, straight, stable pieces, so the grain matches from end to end.

The beam ended up at 7/8" thick, which I'm happy with. It'll have a 1/8" heel cap (with veneer, of course), so the neck pocket in the body will need to be 7/8" deep for the right amount of reveal for my preference.
 
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