Finished Pics! Andyjr1515's Piccolo gains a couple of strings

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  • It's a bit easier to show how the back will be carved out now the wings are glued.  Ignore the bottom dotted line...it will be the added top that follows this radius.


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  • paulnb57paulnb57 Frets: 3044
    Wow! That looks thin! Excellent contours!
    Stranger from another planet welcome to our hole - Just strap on your guitar and we'll play some rock 'n' roll

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  • paulnb57 said:
    Wow! That looks thin! Excellent contours!
    Clearly, the top will be on too, but that will follow the same curve.  It will be a touch under 1" thick across the whole width.
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  • I've actually got Pete's piccolo bass with me this week to go to a show - I'd forgotten how nice it is to play.  If the 6-string electric works out as well I'll be well chuffed :)
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  • This is wicked. Such a unique melding of ideas. What's the plan pickup wise?
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  • This is wicked. Such a unique melding of ideas. What's the plan pickup wise?
    A pair of sd p-rails :)
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  • Andyjr1515Andyjr1515 Frets: 3127
    As @impmann 's build is progressing OK, I thought I ought to dust down my own sister build.

    I used the last of my 2mm wenge constructional veneer on Tim's, so am using a slightly thicker 2.5mm version:


    Glued and clamped between two flat, substantial sets of cauls:


    A small but important step...because after a tiny bit of routing, I can glue the top to the body :) 
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  • Andyjr1515Andyjr1515 Frets: 3127
    Still working up the courage sorting the final preparation and checks before gluing @impmann 's fretboard on so, while the clamps are still free....

    Finished the prep-work for gluing the top to this.  Basically, routing the cable run, routing the back of the 'f-hole' chamber, darkening the inside of the chamber:


    And glued, ready for bearing flush-bit trimming.  Again, I'm a bit weird in that I will use the top as my routing template.  Generally NOT recommended but (usually) works for me:


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  • rsvmarkrsvmark Frets: 1373
    Loving this. Great work. Question- will the reduced depth result in any tuning instability?
    An official Foo liked guitarist since 2024
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  • Andyjr1515Andyjr1515 Frets: 3127
    rsvmark said:
    Loving this. Great work. Question- will the reduced depth result in any tuning instability?
    Thanks :)

    And no, not at all, as far as I'm concerned.  I learnt a lot about what matters and what doesn't with a build called 'Tom's African Bass'.  When I get back to the desktop I'll try to summarise the conclusions and explain why I think what I think.
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  • Andyjr1515Andyjr1515 Frets: 3127
    While the router was still out from @impmann 's build, I quickly trimmed the back of this using the very not recommended method of using the expensive figured top as my template:


    - and started the curvature of the top.  All still just roughing out at the moment:


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  • With the focus on @impmann 's build, this has taken the back seat somewhat.  Still, while Tim's Alembicesque's gloss coat was drying, I spent and hour cutting the pickup chambers and rough-curving the edges.  I've also given the body its first tru-oil slurry coat:


    Next job on this one is slotting the snakewood fretboard blank.  I'm going for a PRS-style 25" scale...
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  • Having finished @impmann 's Alembic-esque build, I'm heading back to the sister build above, which will be for my own use.

    Other than the lack of the carve through arm relief forming the 'sucked lozenge' on , the woods are the same, so the overall look should be similar - I hope so, anyway, because Tim's looked sooo good... :) 

    This is the start of the convex/concave carve:

    _MG_3143thumbJPG99c8e62ba5ba495911334c076a5c8ad2JPG

    There's a bit further to go but hopefully you get the idea.

    Now one thing I'm really, really bad at is spending the time to build jigs.  BUT, I've come to the conclusion that life is too short for hand radiusing fretboards!  Hand radiusing is problematic too.  Even on Tim's - radius was fine, straight all the way down at all points of the radius, no dips at either end...but treble to bass ended up with an angle!  Doesn't affect the feel or the playability one jot, but heck! 

    So, I've cribbed a design from LedBelliBass on HomemadeTools.net and modded it a bit and here it is in progress:

    _MG_3715thumbJPG31754182e0817a8540beda1862415c33JPG

    I'm undecided whether or not to put roller bearings on the lengthways slide or just use guide strips (the whole thing will be mounted on a flat, smooth box-plank.

    For indexing, I will use a simple peg and hole system.

    I'm hoping I can finish it tomorrow and so kick off re-commencement of this build later next week.
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  • Bit of progress on this.

    I'll do a separate thread about the radiusing jig, but it was a decent success in the end.  The snakewood fretboard was accurately radiused in around 1.5 hours, including  set up and final sanding:



    And after that short time, it is straight, un-dipped at the ends, accurately radiussed and square.  This compares with @impmann Tim's Alembicesque which took 3 days, after which it was straight, un-dipped at the ends, accurately radiussed and not quite square! (the whole thing was thicker one side than the other.  Didn't affect the playing at all, but after all that time and care and effort!!!!)

    So "I declare the radius rig as fit for purpose." :)  

    And that meant I could slot the fretboard with my G&W mitre box.  I've gone for a PRS-type 25" scale


    On Tim's build, I was pleased how the retro-fit binding worked so on this one I've decided to go radical and fit the binding BEFORE fitting and fretting the fretboard


    The binding on this is actually acoustic guitar body binding with a b/w/b feature - easier than laying down veneer sheets on top of the neck!


    Similar to my last two or three builds, I've gone for swifts at the twelveth fret.  Here they are cut out before routing and fitting - and yes, it's an optical illusion - the dots are straight and even :)    :


    And this - inlays set in with epoxy mixed with some snakewood sanding dust - brings you up to date :)


    Note the router base rub mark on the 13th fret in the shape of a swift! ;)  This, and the MoP and the binding will all sand smooth once it's all fully set.
     




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  • PhilKingPhilKing Frets: 1473
    I love that snakewood fingerboard.  I'm sure it will look great against the body wood.
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  • PhilKing said:
    I love that snakewood fingerboard.  I'm sure it will look great against the body wood.
    Thanks :)  It's lovely...cost the same as a very decent entry-level guitar, but lovely =)
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  • And so here we are - with a fretboard ready to fret:


    So next question is do I fit it then fret (as I normally do but sometimes with mixed results) or should I try a change and fret it then fit?

    Nowadays, with a tiny bead of titebond along the tangs, I lightly hammer just to get it in the seating slot but then then clamp a radius block very tightly to fully bottom it...that bit would certainly be easier with the fretboard off..

    What do you reckon?
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  • And so here we are - with a fretboard ready to fret:


    That looks amazing - was the Snakewood hard to work with - I've heard all sorts of horror stories about it splitting etc.

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  • That's some of the snakiest snakewood I've seen.  Very nice!
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  • And so here we are - with a fretboard ready to fret:


    That looks amazing - was the Snakewood hard to work with - I've heard all sorts of horror stories about it splitting etc.

    The last one I did on the piccolo bass it was fine. This one, so far, also good. I pinged a corner off the (thankfully) oversize blank on my radius jig but that was over enthusiastic use of the jig. The testing time will be when I fret it ;)
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