NBD - Ergonomic Bass "Twisted Sister"

#42
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#44
I think you have singlehandedly redeemed a neck twist from being a problem to now being an advantage. :cool:

Extremely interesting thing you’ve built. It appeals to my inner geek engineering tendencies. Well done! :):thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

(I want one.)
 
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#47
TFM94 said:
Finally...after over two years of building this bass, it's new bass day! I call it "Twisted Sister".

This is a twisted neck bass. On purpose. It has -20 degrees at the nut and +15 degrees at the bridge, a total of 35 degrees of twist. The concept was invented Jerome Little (Torzal) and the idea is that it relieves strain or your wrists while playing, following your natural hand position as you move along the neck. And I have to agree, it feels very comfortable and is very easy to get used to.

This bass was built with the use of normal woodworking techniques, not with a CNC. If you're interested in the detailed build process, check out this thread in the Luthiers corner: https://www.talkbass.com/threads/ergonomic-bass-build-twisted-sister.1547342/page-9#post-28341274

Specs:
- Scale: 34"-36" multiscale, 24 frets
- Twist: 35 degrees
- Headless
- Radiused back, like a Spector
- Neck-thru-construction with a maple neck and wenge fretboard with ebony binding
- Swamp ash wings, wenge top with maple stripes
- Ebony headpiece veneers on the front and back
- ABM headless hardware in gold
- Nordstrand BigRig pickup wired in parallel
- Vol/tone control, passive
- Weight: 3.6 kg/7.9lbs

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I'm getting vertigo just looking at it. :D
 
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#49
Can I ask a technical question? I found it hard enough to keep a traditional neck flat and even as I radiused it. I can understand that for you the string paths would be the important part to keep flat but how did you measure to make sure your twist was correct? Also, how did you orient your truss rod? Is it positioned perpendicular to the flat part of the neck/body like a traditional truss rod or did you try to find middle ground in the twist?
 
#50
RJC1811 said:
Can I ask a technical question? I found it hard enough to keep a traditional neck flat and even as I radiused it. I can understand that for you the string paths would be the important part to keep flat but how did you measure to make sure your twist was correct? Also, how did you orient your truss rod? Is it positioned perpendicular to the flat part of the neck/body like a traditional truss rod or did you try to find middle ground in the twist?
Click to expand...
I have documented the build process in this build thread: https://www.talkbass.com/threads/ergonomic-bass-build-twisted-sister.1547342/

The trussrod is in a straight channel that is the middle ground of the twist. For details of the trussrod arrangement, check out post #57 in the build thread.

The twist is routed into the neck blank with a routing fixture of two oppositely inclined rails. I have discussed the router fixture here: https://www.talkbass.com/threads/planning-a-twisted-neck.1518462/.

I tried to use this fixture also for radiusing, but that did not work properly. I ended up radiusing the board by hand with files and sandpaper to a 16" radius, see #98. To check if all string paths are straight I used a thin guitar string suspended on a plywood beam as shown in #101 in the build thread. Going slowly and checking repeatedly is key here.
 
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