Finished! Bubinga Fretless Bass Build

BigMonka

TTony said:

BigMonka said:

Let me know if you start teaching luthier classes, as that's looking fantastic. I don't know much about basses and I've never seen a thumb, but I love the way you can see the next sticking out the bridge end, especially with the dark wood stripe 

I don't want to undermine Andy's yet-to-be-established business, nor take the bread out of the mouths of those who depend upon him ... but if you've got any interest in the guitar building process, Mark Bailey's new on-line course is available at a ridiculous discount, only available to theFB members, until next Saturday.

Just a thought

A good plug there @TTony! I've seen the course details and it does look amazing but I'm not realistically going to be in the position with time or money to build my own guitar for a good few years - unless I can get my kids into boarding school on a free scholarship... off to google if that exists ;-) 

mart

I love this thread! It's inspired me to pick up my own thumb much more and remind myself how majestic it sounds.

Anyway, I promised a shot of mine, to show how the neck is visible at the button end, and here it is at last:

http://oi62.tinypic.com/2eupk44.jpg

And also, seeing your comments about the neck joint, I thought I'd show a pic of the joint on mine:

http://oi62.tinypic.com/dq1661.jpg

Note how the bubinga rises up to meet the fingerboard - it's a beautiful piece of work, but I'm sure yours will look even nicer.

mart

Oh and note how in the top picture you can, if you look very closely, just make out the joins in the body wood between the middle piece on top of the neck and the two wings either side. Looked at from the front it is quite a challenge spotting those joins:

http://oi58.tinypic.com/2vv9vk4.jpg

Andyjr1515

TTony said:

BigMonka said:

Let me know if you start teaching luthier classes, as that's looking fantastic. I don't know much about basses and I've never seen a thumb, but I love the way you can see the next sticking out the bridge end, especially with the dark wood stripe 

I don't want to undermine Andy's yet-to-be-established business, nor take the bread out of the mouths of those who depend upon him ... but if you've got any interest in the guitar building process, Mark Bailey's new on-line course is available at a ridiculous discount, only available to theFB members, until next Saturday.

Just a thought

)   Yup - I agree with @TTony here.  My style is more 'make it up as you go along'.  I'm pretty sure Mark Bailey actually knows what he's doing 

Andyjr1515

mart said:

Oh and note how in the top picture you can, if you look very closely, just make out the joins in the body wood between the middle piece on top of the neck and the two wings either side. Looked at from the front it is quite a challenge spotting those joins:

http://oi58.tinypic.com/2vv9vk4.jpg

Great to see this detail @mart.  I searched high and low when I did the tribute to find end shots like this to see how it is actually constructed.  The real Warwick ones like yours are top-drawer stuff.  Brilliant  

mart

No problem. If there are any other details you want to see, let me know and I'll do some more photos.

Andyjr1515

mart said:

No problem. If there are any other details you want to see, let me know and I'll do some more photos.

Thanks, @mart     That's a lovely bass you have there, by the way 

mart

Andyjr1515 said:

Thanks, @mart     That's a lovely bass you have there, by the way 

Thanks, I really love it - the look, and the feel - it's got an absolute baseball bat of a neck but it fits me perfectly. And now that I've taken the preamp out, and just wired the pups directly to a volume control and then to the jack, it sounds fantastic, with everything from a whisper to thunder available just by plucking differently.

Andyjr1515

Been a bit of a lull with this while I've been busy with other projects but I've had a good morning's progress today 

Got the bandsaw out and shaped the side and top of the neck.  Starting to look like a real bass!

The body will be carved back and front to create the curve.  While I've got a flat surface, though, this is the best time to cut the inner chamber for the EQ and pots:

The outer rout for the control chamber will be done once the carving's been done.

With a curved back, the bubinga covers will also need to be curved.  May be able to do that on my electric bending iron.  In the meantime, I managed to cut a few slivers from some bubinga offcut.  Chuffed with this - bubinga is very hard and this is the cheapest entry level bandsaw on the market 

Finally, routed the pickup slots and the cable run in the neck:

Next step is carving the curve into the body 

Thanks for looking

Andy

mart

Even more wow! I love seeing updates on this thread.

Andyjr1515

Bit more progress today.  Started the back carve.

First I set up my little routing rig:

This was to rout the carving contours.  There was a lot of fiddling about, but eventually, I had this, ready to finish-carve:

Then I tried two recent tool acquisitions.  I was dubious with both of them how they would cope with tough old bubinga.  First was this small plane from China:

It was much better than I expected it to be.  But then tried my new absolutely diminutive Ibex curved sole plane:

This was FANTASTIC!  Unbelievable - and within no time at all, I had this (and please note this is just with the planes - not used any scrapers or sandpaper yet!):

Well impressed.  And it really is tiny

paulnb57

Fab stuff, this will be epic methinks.... 

 Paul

Andyjr1515

paulnb57 said:

Fab stuff, this will be epic methinks.... 

 Paul

Thanks @paulnb57  

Epic in that it seems to have been on the drawing board an awfully long time, certainly! )

Neck is presently being glued in place:

Andyjr1515

Next is starting the carve of the curve on the top.

I started it using a jack plane:

Notice the high-tech method of stopping the workmate from walking round the patio 

Then with a combination of spokeshaves and scrapers, I've started to curve the edges:

I put some wire in the bridge-earth channel cut in the neck before I glued it in, to make sure I could keep the channel clear of glue but then decided I may as well leave it there as the actual earth.

Next jobs when I get a bit of time will be to finish off the carving/sanding of the body, add the truss-rod, glue on the fretboard ebony blank and then start carving the neck profile 

Thanks for looking!

Andy

Andyjr1515

Just a quick update - fingerboard is thinned, slimmed, sanded flat, glued and clamped 

You just can't have too many clamps:

Andy

JohnB

Looks fantastic Andy

Andyjr1515

Thanks @JohnB   I decided on the headstock shape today and have done the rough cut prior to the ebony headplate being glued.  Next big job is the neck and fretboard carving...and then it's getting really close to finish 

Andy

Andyjr1515

I love carving necks 

I start with spokeshave, then scrapers and then cloth-backed abrasive:

Still got to finish the volute and headstock back, but this is how its looking:

Next, I shaped the ebony fretboard using a scraper, followed by 80 grit to 120 grit paper on a 12" radius block:

This is how the top is starting to look prior to the ebony headstock plate:

Getting close-ish! 

paulnb57

That, is a thing of awesomness.....

normula1

Very nice indeed