Finished! Through-neck headless

Andyjr1515

This particular project is a shortscale bass -  but bits of the thread may well be of interest to electric 6-string builders too because of the headless tuner system I'm going to be using from Nova Guitar Parts.  They do a number of electric versions as well as bass ones 

I was approached by A to build a headless shortscale bass.  He was after something modern in function (headless, 3x SimS Superquads (each can be configured to P-bass, Jazz-bass & Humbucker with the flick of a switch.  They are eye-wateringly expensive but they work a treat)   But, he also wanted a traditional vibe.  He mentioned Alembic as a vibe and my thoughts immediately went to @impmann 's electric build a few years ago and still one of my favourite builds:



And, of course, Alembic produce/produced fantastic basses too.

So this is what I came up with as a start off point as a broad shape:


I found a nice piece of bookmatched walnut in my small 'stash' that A was pleased with the look of:



But I couldn't go any further in committing the build until I found a decent headless tuner system. 

Because there seemed to be two types:

- unaffordably expensive

or

- very cheap but (from experience in using them) very un-fit for purpose.  A chap I built a bass for a few years ago sent me one in this category to use.  In the end, because I had designed the bass around the unit, I had to buy a second one to make one workable one from the best bits of the two! 

But I had in my mind that I'd seen a new product - on either this or one of the other major forums - that looked like the bees knees.

And I tracked it down - Nova in Brazil:


More in the next post (and that includes a cautionary "Beware Chinese Knock-offs" tale)

webrthomson

Subscribed - love your build threads

Andyjr1515

webrthomson said:

Subscribed - love your build threads

Thanks

PeteC

I’m in !  Looking forward to this one. 

Passini

Very nice Andy, thank you for your support!

Andyjr1515

PeteC said:

I’m in !  Looking forward to this one. 

Thanks, @PeteC ;

Andyjr1515

Passini said:

Very nice Andy, thank you for your support!

Welcome!  And no problem - it's a nice looking and well engineered solution.

impmann

I’m watching with great interest!

Andyjr1515

impmann said:

I’m watching with great interest!

Thanks Tim.  Hope all well with you and yours

Andyjr1515

So the spec is:

30" scale
Triple SimS SuperQuads
Multi-laminate neck (9 piece)
Walnut Top
Mahogany back

The wings will be chambered and it will have a teardrop 'f' hole

Folks who watch my builds know that I go about things a bit unconventionally - I tend not to use templates and so start with the joined top, cut out with the bandsaw and finished with files and sanding block and use THAT as the template. 

Not saying this is how it should be done - but it is the way that works best for me.

WezV

Love that walnut

Andyjr1515

Next job was to work out neck angles.  Trouble with through-necks is that this has to be right and I find that the only way of getting that right is to : 
 
- have the physical hardware to hand (the bridge) to confirm the heights and usable adjustment limits

- draw it full size to work out the string path over the fretboard and, given the adjustability of the bridge system + a few 'fiddle factors' work out what angle the body needs to be.

So I needed the headless bridge/tuning system.  And the Nova system still looked like the most attractive one, functionally and aesthetically.

While I'd seen in the past a Nova system on e-bay, I had also noticed some Nova systems there coming from China...which was a bit odd, because the original I had seen was definitely from Brazil.

A bit of googling found me a web site www.novaguitarparts.com but that doesn't yet have an order system in place.  And yes - it's in Brazil.  So a bit more googling got me to Nova Guitar Parts page on Facebook and I was able to message Andre Passini (who's just found us, see above post) from there.

It turns out that a 'private' customer in China had ordered a set and - literally weeks later - ebay was swamped with 'Nova Headless Tuning Systems' made in China.  Thankfully (and maybe a touch of surprise) ebay have taken them off but I'm pretty sure they were complete with Nova's logo!!!

Anyway - through the Facebook page I was able to order a set and it arrived quickly and painlessly.  And - while the proof of the pudding is in the tasting - it looks very encouraging indeed.  Ball-races, folks



Compared with an earlier headless system I have tried, this is in a different league altogether.  The adjusters are smooth, the machining and finishing is excellent, the intonation adjustment is massive - and (for alternative string spacings) Nova also supply individual bases that the same tuner/bridge assemblies fit onto.

As I say - I won't know for sure until the strings are on and tensioned up - but conceptually and in the way it's been made I am very optimistic.

And that let me draw my neck angles:


And that let me start cutting the timber for the neck - which I will cover shortly

As always, folks, thanks for looking.

JohnS37

Those Nova tuners look great.  I always liked the idea of headless, but when I finally got one (Hohner G3T, Steinberger copy with licensed hardware) I couldn’t get along with the tuners, much too fiddly.  However, the inclusion of ball races should be a game changer.  I’ll be very interested to hear how it turns out.  Also love through-neck.  Good luck!

Andyjr1515

JohnS37 said:

Those Nova tuners look great.  I always liked the idea of headless, but when I finally got one (Hohner G3T, Steinberger copy with licensed hardware) I couldn’t get along with the tuners, much too fiddly.  However, the inclusion of ball races should be a game changer.  I’ll be very interested to hear how it turns out.  Also love through-neck.  Good luck!

Yes - I agree.  Strings are very easy to fit too and the headstock is a clamp system so no fiddling about trying to get double ball-end strings.

I'll show a bit more on the intonation range and ease of stringing in some later posts.

Andyjr1515

WezV said:

Love that walnut

Hi @WezV ;   Yes, thanks - a lucky find in my embarrassingly untidy shed.  I bought two sets years ago and used one on a project I can't for the life of me remember which.  I'll try and recall.  I just remember that it came out in the end even better than in this raw-form
  

Andyjr1515

And so, having worked out the neck angle, I could start cutting the neck blanks and laminating them all up.  A's preference was a 9-piece neck using mahogany and maple.  Ideally, I wanted to make sure that the inner splices wouldn't break through the taper from the heel to the nut and so I opted for a variety of thicker and thinner splices:



I then brought it down to final thickness and cut the neck angle:



And routed the slot that the top will fit into:



There will be a 1.5mm maple constructional veneer used as the demarcation of the main components - between the top and the back wings:


And between the back wings and the neck.  The back wings here are rough-cut oversize:


And so we now have most of the main components of the bass:


Next step is to radius, slot and inlay the fretboard.  Hopefully over the next couple of days.

paulnb57

Nice! I always enjoy your builds..

Andyjr1515

Season's Greetings, all

Well, that was one of the more surreal Christmas's wasn't it?  

Anyway, the initial '5-days of covid-secure contact' preparation and then the late redistribution of all those preparations (presents, food, etc) when we were all told it wasn't going to happen after all, is done and the building has re-started.

A, who I am building this for, has opted for an 18mm string spacing at the bridge, as opposed to the more standard 19mm.  Another great thing about the Nova Guitar Parts headless bridge system is that you can either fit the tuner units to a multi-string base, or the same units will also fit on individual string base units too.

I ordered a set and they were with me faster than our presents got to our cancelled visitors!  Neat solution...:


For radiusing the fretboard I used my G&W routing rig - it's much more accurate and easier to set up than my original home-made version:


And likewise the G&W mitre block:


Added a couple of mother of pearl swifts to the 12th fret position:


And then this afternoon, fretted it up with Evo Gold fretwire.  Starting to look like a bass...   :

Roland

That’s looking good Andy

WezV

Looking nice

Andyjr1515

Thanks, folks.  Slow going but so far so good.  Plenty of time yet for me to c**k it up