Winter Build Off 2018 - Walnut Reprobate

Beej

Beej

Supporting Member
Feb 10, 2007
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Vancouver Island
#1
So, looks like I'm in like sin again... Winter Build Off 2018 - Walnut Free For All

This will be a high walnut content version of my "Reprobate" body style. It's another design of mine that takes cues from retro designs. There are probably just a handful of things that will be stepping outside of my comfort zone on this one, but we'll see where it goes in the end together. :)

Body style: Chambered Walnut solid body
Construction: 5 string Bolt on
Fingerboard: Fretted edge grain walnut, possibly bound, possibly also blocked. Zero fret, tilted headstock, 3+2 design
Neck: 5-7 laminate walnut with maple accents and walnut/maple veneers
Materials: Black Walnut billets, boards and veneers, Black Walnut Sapwood, Flamed Maple, Plain Maple veneer
Scale: 34"
Pickguard: Cream solid plastic, or possibly "honey" acrylic "swirl" sheet
Pickups: EMG Select Jazz, with custom oval covers
Electronics: Guitar Fuel Tone Monster SBK-3 onboard preamp (5 knobs, 3 channel)
Bridge: EBMM Copy
Tuners: Gotoh
Finish: Tru-oil, very likely applied right over a mild gold flake

Woodpile Pic:
Walnut Reprobate Build

Walnut Reprobate Build

woodpile pix

Body drawing:
Walnut Reprobate Build

Walnut Reprobate Build

draft design

A few things will probably change as I get going. Thanks for looking! :)
 
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#3
RBS_Johnson said:
Welcome aboard! How chambered are you planning on making it? I'm still working my details out, but mine is beginning to look more like "thinline" than "chambered" :eek:
Click to expand...
This will have a sandwich construction with a 1/4" thick bookmatched walnut top and back over a 7/8" walnut core with thin accent veneers between the layers. The core will be cut out about 3/4" from the sides and about 1/2" from the neck pocket. There will be a small block left below the bridge as well. I'm always aiming for around 7lbs or less in an instrument, but we'll see how this one goes. :D
 
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#5
RBS_Johnson said:
I'm thinking along similar lines, my favorite basses to date are around 8lbs, I'd like for this one to come in similar(or lighter)
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For me, the recipe of extra thin necks, thin(ish) tops/backs and heavily chambered body cores, along with light hardware, has worked out to give me light basses. There are some tradeoffs - necks can be weak, and neckdive can happen even with good instrument geometry. I combat these by using neck stiffeners and laminate construction, plus I use an upper horn that extends to the 10th or 9th fret, and placing the bridge as close to the butt of the body as possible. Has worked for me... :D
 
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#6
Checked all my orders and things are still on track to be here next week. I'm waiting on tuners, trussrod, binding, bridge, preamp, fretwire, a nut and pickguards. Soooooo.... pretty much everything except for the wood, pickups, knobs and jackplate. :D

That's what happens when you change your entire game plan with less than a week before the buildoff starts... :D lol
 
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#7
Beej said:
For me, the recipe of extra thin necks, thin(ish) tops/backs and heavily chambered body cores, along with light hardware, has worked out to give me light basses. There are some tradeoffs - necks can be weak, and neckdive can happen even with good instrument geometry. I combat these by using neck stiffeners and laminate construction, plus I use an upper horn that extends to the 10th or 9th fret, and placing the bridge as close to the butt of the body as possible. Has worked for me... :D
Click to expand...

This one won't be a super light weight. The hardware I have is kinda heavy(but robust and cheap), and I won't be carving the neck really thin as it's my first build. I do intend to build a feather weight eventually, just to see how light I can go and still be happy with.
 
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#11
Slow and steady, right? :) Today I worked on truing up some walnut billets before resawing. Here is one in my version of one of @Bruce Johnson 's router planing fixtures.
walnut billet

walnut billet

inside the router planing jig

You can also see my cheapo neck stiffener lying on the right. 1/8x3/4" aluminum stock that will shortly become 1/8"x 8mm. I've also been cutting neck stringers so I can shortly start working with mockups.
 
#13
RBS_Johnson said:
Got any more info on the cheap stiffeners? I'm curious now.
Click to expand...
I've only used them on a couple of guitars so far, this will be my first bass with them. I got the idea from a post by Bruce Johnson regarding the stiffness of carbon fibre rods vs aluminum and also cost between them, and how much stiffening a stiffener needs to impart in order to function well in a guitar neck.

I have used carbon fiber rods and also the pultruded tubes available, along with multilaminate construction, and so far that has allowed me to make pretty thin necks. The CF stuff is costly, and I'm not in this to make a bunch of money, so little bits help. :)

Basically, I cut it to 24", and then cut it down the centre with a metal jigsaw. I spend about 15 minutes with a metal file and straightedge to get them smooth again. I rout a 1/8" channel in the neck (or run it down the table saw which I did on the last one), and then epoxy it into the channel. I haven't experimented too much, I've installed them 3/8" away from the trussrod channel in each case. So far, my necks have continued to work just fine, so I'm not looking back. I can get the 3/4" x 1/8" x 36" aluminum stock for 6 bucks vs the quite-a-bit-more-spendy CF. :D
 
#17
RBS_Johnson said:
I do intend to build a feather weight eventually, just to see how light I can go and still be happy with.
Click to expand...

I built one recently that wound up around 6 pounds. It sounds good, and is comfortable, but - it’s actually too light. I can’t really explain why, but it’s no fun to play because it’s too light. :(
 
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#18
Slow working over the holiday weekend, but got in a few hours here and there. Here's a shot of the neck stringers before I ripped them up into neck-sized pieces.
stringers

stringers

stringers getting ready

And here's the jig I use to get them all even. :) It's a variation of another of Bruce's jigs. You basically just clamp whatever it is you want leveled into this jig and route away.
neck routing jig

neck routing jig

jig for routing stringers, necks, fingerboards, etc.
 
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#19
Some work on the body pieces as well. The one furthest from the camera will be resawn into the bookmatched top. The two closer boards will become the body core. I'm thinking that this bass will not have a bookmatched back, but instead, I'll just chamber out the body core and glue the top down with some contrasting veneers.
body cores and top

body cores and top

cores and tops for walnut build body

Another shot of them. They started at 1" (25mm) raw and ended up at 21mm after being planed flat.
body cores and top

body cores and top

cores and tops for walnut build

I have a few more pics to get up, but I'll need to resize them after work, so they'll be up a little later. :)
 
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#20
And here's a couple of mockups. I tried a couple of different things. The one on the top is not for the walnut build of course. :D I think these will both get a few veneers in between the laminates as well.
neck mockup

neck mockup

mockups of neck stringers

Edit: Boy the lighting in my shed is terrible for pictures. Bright fluorescents and LEDs make for some weird photos... :)
 
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