Summer Solstice Sunburst Triple J - Summer Build Off 2024

[Barticus]

I think the carbon rods will be overkill.

When playing aggressively while gigging, I often pull so hard on a neck that it straightens it out. I won’t even consider a neck that doesn’t have some type of stiffening rods, carbon, titanium, whatever and/or multi-lam to stiffen.

So in my opinion, on my build, I’ll be using the carbon rods to stiffen the neck as much as I can.

 

[MovinTarget]

When playing aggressively while gigging, I often pull so hard on a neck that it straightens it out. I won’t even consider a neck that doesn’t have some type of stiffening rods, carbon, titanium, whatever and/or multi-lam to stiffen.

So in my opinion, on my build, I’ll be using the carbon rods to stiffen the neck as much as I can.

Makes me think of Maxim #37:
The Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries

 

[ardgedee]

I could possibly offset 2 of them (E & D) a bit forward to accommodate, but then I think of the practicality of the small head on a small screw (2.5-3mm) and think it's not that valuable, for a string change I'd rather have the torque of the allen key.

It also crosses my mind that with a thumbscrew you'd probably want some kind of screwlock too. It would suck to have the strings go BWAAANG! because the thumbscrews were slowly loosening every time you propped the back of the neck up against an amp or something. Maybe Riviera's gadget does that? Not enough information.

 

[Beej]

When playing aggressively while gigging, I often pull so hard on a neck that it straightens it out. I won’t even consider a neck that doesn’t have some type of stiffening rods, carbon, titanium, whatever and/or multi-lam to stiffen.

So in my opinion, on my build, I’ll be using the carbon rods to stiffen the neck as much as I can.

I think sometimes one can get hung up on the word 'stiffening rods' when really they are also stabilizing rods. In a thin neck with woods that don't have a high MoE, they can add needed stiffening, but for a neck like yours that has woods with high MoEs, they may not impart extra stiffening, but they will be considerably more stable than the wood they replace.

 

[Topkat13]

That’s amazing! I can almost smell your wood shop + your workmanship is artful. Not to mention an actual bass related post! Keeps those pic’s uh comin’!

 

[Engle]

The ones you’re referring to are the headstock string lockers, which are pretty big and would be used on a false head stock. I’m using the petite version which requires a route through the headpiece and the clamping screw is accessible from behind. In my designs, I always opt for lightweight vs big and bulky where possible.
View attachment 5485288View attachment 5485289
View attachment 5485283

Cool! I look forward to watching this.

 

[BunchyMutt]

This will all make more sense when I start posting photos of the sun burst that I’m working on

I call red herring

 

[MovinTarget]

I call red herring

I call a celestial body busting through the surface, "Kool Aid Man-style"... a real "Sun Burst"...

 

[Barticus]

I call a celestial body busting through the surface, "Kool Aid Man-style"... a real "Sun Burst"...

to quote @Nightsprinter
*my man*

"anti old-school traditional sunburst"

my man

 

[Barticus]

Well yesterday and this morning have been productive… multiple stages of progress.

Here’s the sun bursting through “like Koolaid” out of the cardboard test.

Then I cut the maple as step 1, but it’s the same bland color.

Next step was to repeat the cutting on the wood with a little more color (Chakte Kok, love saying that = Redheart) and scrap pieces of Yellowheart and Purpleheart to add more color... and playing with tints.

And I thought I have the Hipshot headless system, would it look better on this one? Nah it will cover up too much goodness, so the Riviera system will be perfect

Then starting adding some color, knowing that most of this will get sanded back, but I want to get into the grain of the maple to give some depth. I added the blue tint to that piece of Maple to give a little pop for the ring.

I also wanted to do this before I epoxy everything together and laminate the top with the veneer to the ash body. Once that is all done, it’ll get run through the drum sander to level it all down. I won’t deal with any more tinting or color until after it’s all carved, but my goal is to really focus on more of the purple hues.

I had to throw this template on top of it to see what it’s gonna look like, and I’m pretty happy with how it’s shaping up so far.

See? Now that’s a proper SUN-burst

 

[gormsby]

It's gonna be a shame to cover that up with clutter like a bridge, pickups and strings.

 

[Barticus]

This afternoon I’ve been adjusting cavity sizes to ensure a snug fit for pickups and tuners. The EMG pickups have a bevel to them, so they’re wider at the bottom and narrow at the top, which means that the route has to accommodate the bottom width. I also noticed that in the 3 pickups, I have one is a little bit fatter than the other two??

I bought a piece of cheap Fir 2”x12”x12’ and cut it down into 22 inch lengths I had plenty of scrap to perform test carves on. I never understood why they’re so liberal with calling it a 2 x 12 when it’s really a 1.5“ x 11.187” . And of course the piece of Swamp Ash I’ll be carving from is a true 8/4” or 2“ x 12.5” so I’ve trimmed that down to start out with a 2“ x 12“ x 22“ solid body blank.

I did some test carves to make sure that the pickups are going to fit snuggly and also wanted to make sure that the Riviera tuners were going to fit well. I’ve designed this for a cavity on top of the body for the tuners to fit down into but on the backside, I just have a 1/4 inch holes for the strings to be able to guide up through. I didn’t want big openings on the back of the body.

Here’s the scrap wood carve, it’s actually pretty wood underneath.

 

[Barticus]

It's gonna be a shame to cover that up with clutter like a bridge, pickups and strings.

Yeah, that’s been my challenge that there’s so much hardware going on here and it’s such a petite body (10.5” tall) that it definitely will take away from the design a bit, that’s why I chose to go with the jazz pickups and the Riviera tuners to reduce it as much as I can.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

All I’ve got is DANG! Gorgeous stuff.

 

[Barticus]

And now? A reality check, taking a little break to cut 2+ acres of grass and brush whack a 20’x150’ bank on a 30 to 40° slope. The joys and reality of living on property that’s surrounded by trees and brush.

I’ve taken a week and a half of vacation starting next Wednesday to work in the Makerbarn for that entire time so I want all of my domestic duties out-of-the-way before that graceful period begins.

 

[MovinTarget]

My daughters jaw is hitting the floor as we looked over those pics of the development!!! Another beauty coming alive!

 

[Barticus]

My daughters jaw is hitting the floor as we looked over those pics of the development!!! Another beauty coming alive!

So she agrees that it is a proper “sun burst” then?

 

[MovinTarget]

So she agrees that it is a proper “sun burst” then?

You had her with the inclusion of purple!

 

[Barticus]

You had her with the inclusion of purple!

Yep, love me some purple, you’ll definitely want to pay attention to the other build as I start to make progress on it because that gigging machine is going to mix in with my other two purple gigging machines in my NBD posts last week.

 

[Beej]

Jiminy Cricket!