slingblader

Hey, there was a sale at Adorama... what can I say?

Man, so far it is just killer. I've made a few passes dialing things in. I cannot believe how much quieter this is than the little benchtop planer. Granted, the type of electric motor makes a big difference, but the cutting sound itself is very quiet, not to mention the quality of cut is super nice! This is going to make processing stock so much more enjoyable.

I would love to have a CNC machine, and at some point I probably will, I just don't have enough space at the moment... although I could put it in the dining room. But yeah, that's another tool to learn with a fairly steep learning curve, but I think I could do it, even it would be to just make templates, it would be a serious advantage for me.

LOL, thanks! Now I just need to sell some!

New tool day.... I've been saving for one of these for a while now and I put in the order back in February. A 16" Jointer/planer combo machine, all shiny and new. I had a planer, but sold it last summer. It was very loud and didn't handle figured woods very well. This unit has a helical segmented cutterhead which helps to reduce tear out on figured wood. I've always jointed with hand planes, but of course I always wanted a proper jointer. This machine will let me process full-width body blanks. I'm still tinkering with fine tuning and setup, but the build quality looks very good. Very excited to use this on future projects! This is not an industrial grade unit, but it is aimed at the higher level hobbyist (not sure of the spelling)... anyway, it will probably be the nicest machine I'll ever own!

Congrats on retirement and that gorgeous guitar!

Are those more or less like recessed plates, or are they thicker? That's a cool design!

I'm not really sure if it would have a benefit in a regular guitar or not, but it seems like there would be some difference. Whether the difference is better or not is completely subjective... and it is the same with basses I think. My feeling (I'm not an engineer, physicist, acoustician, or smartypants) is that overall stiffness/flex plays a fairly big part in the overall tone of a bass. In my experience, very rigidly built neck-through designs tend to have longer sustain and great clarity in the low end and perhaps crisper highs. At the other end of the spectrum, most bolt on basses tend to have a little fuller bottom, a little more harmonic content and less glassy highs. So, the stiffer neck-through design may be clearer sounding, but the less rigid bolt-on may have more thump. To me, this attachment method (along with the laminated neck) makes for an ultra solid and rigid joint, but still allows a little bit of flex in the body/neck pocket area. I have never measured this, but I'm betting once the strings are up to tension, you'd see a little flex in the body, just like an acoustic guitar loads up and changes shape when brought to pitch. This may be especially true in this design as the body is very thin; less than 1 3/8". The other thing that I feel contributes to the overall low end note clarity is the longer scale of the low strings. This may be the single biggest contributor, for sure. Remember, the B string scale is 37" on this bass, which is pretty long. By the way, I want to be clear that I am not the originator of the embedded brass bars, I very much borrowed that idea from a bass builder, Bruce Johnson. He makes his own version of the Ampeg scroll basses and he uses this method; although I think he uses shorter pieces of brass to save weight (he is an engineer and not a dumbass like me), but his are a 4 bolt design and not 6 bolt like mine. Anyway, with all of that said, I think that all of these elements add up and each makes some difference. It is a rock solid neck joint and once snugged down, cannot be moved... unlike ANY Fender that I have ever owned. And no hate toward Fender at all, I love my Fenders, but the neck joints never feel rock solid like this one. At some point in the near future, I'll try to make a recording of this bass. I'll make all the disclaimers about crappy playing at that time.

Yeah man, that finish on the black one turned out better, I think. I'm not sure that I would do the multi-ply binding again... looks cool on the fretboard, but I think solid black binding would look more stealth. Live and learn! Thanks! I seriously cannot believe how well these play and how comfortable they are. I know these are unconventional and in that Firebird/Thunderbird/Explorer/RD shape realm and most folks are unsure about that. I'm just amazed at how natural they feel when sitting on the knee with my forearm laying along the top of the body... it just works!

Yeah, I don't either. They're both beasts.

Thanks, Chris! Good to be back. I'll be starting a P bass next month for a buddy of mine, I'll be sure to post the progress. Its going to be a unique mash up of sorts.

And a few shots from the sofa. This is definitely one of my favorite builds so far. I like the changes that I made to the body and it is still very light at 7lb 12oz. The 6 bolt neck joint with the inset brass bars is super solid and makes the fundamentals very strong, but to me it has more character than my neck through designs. Hard to put my finger on, but it sounds amazing and it rings like a Steinway.

Prior to this stage, I had used wood bleach in several applications to lighten the maple as much as possible. After that, I applied black dye a couple of times to get to this stage. I used denatured alcohol to strategically wipe back some of the black and to specifically highlight the figure lines. The picture below is after the dye application, but before the wipe back and cleanup. Scraping the bindings here. Next, I shot everything with a coat of Simtec sealer, which is a catalyzed sealer. Once that dried overnight, there were a lot of open pores in the quilted maple (that stuff can be a bit spongey), so I put on a few applications of Aqua Coat, which is a clear pore filler. I didn't want a super heavy build of the Simtec sealer, so I tried this to shorten up the process. That dried quickly, then I block sanded everything flat. I shot one more coat of sealer on the top, then shot the back with black base coat. Then I shot 3 coats of clear on everything. I used the 3M Perfect it 1 Step program to polish it out. That consists of damp sanding with their 2000, 3000 and 8000 grit foam pads and their 1 step polish. It works fine, but I think their original 3 step program is a little better, just more messy. Some better finished pics in the next post.

Daaaayyyuuuuummmm, they totally rocked it!

OK, much of the drama around here has ended, so here is some more progress from this project. Pattern routed the body to its final outline, then used this rig to route the binding channel. Got the bindings installed with lots of cussing, some patience and a heat gun. Bindings were trimmed flush. I laid out reference lines and carved the neck using the facet method. Here it is mostly complete and finishing up the volute. Drilled for bridges, routed pickup and neck cavities. Working on the belly carve here. Got it all assembled, then tore it back down and prepped for finishing. I'll cover the finishing in the next post.