Hi
Following my bubinga fretless completion, I got a pm from one of the members of the basschat forum to quote for a single cut, fretted 33" scale bass.
After a few email to-ing and fro-ing, we agreed the spec and the project was live.
The initial design was lovely but, by fluke, turned out to be too close to an existing UK maker's model - broadly a single-cut version of a jaguar top horn. Neither of me nor the customer wanted any aspect of the build to be regarded as a clone (even though it wasn't) but instead we talked through the other single cut concepts that he liked and didn't like. Through a process of elimination of PDF'd sketches, we settled on this, which he's very happy with:
The basic construction was agreed to be alder back, dark veneer separator and a fancy figured top, cutaway at the arm relief to expose the alder.
And did I have a fancy bit of wood for the top just waiting!
I bought this Camphor ages ago from Kirk at exotichardwoodsukltd and had been waiting for the right project:
Smells divine, too
It will be a thru neck (again) but - wait for it - I'M GOING TO BUILD THIS THE CONVENTIONAL WAY!
I know...me...building conventionally??? Well, I'm sure a lot of it will still get experienced luthiers shaking their heads and posting "why, why, why has he done it like THAT????" , but the bit that is going to be conventional is that I'm going to add body wings to the neck, rather than rout my normal slot.
I got a lovely bit of alder from guitarbuild.co.uk, that I promptly sliced in two, thicknessed and then band-cut the outline, cunningly leaving a space for the neck...
The great revelation, however, was when I had thicknessed the Camphor, squared and trimmed the joint line, glued them and popped the two pieces into the sash clamps...
...and then wiped the glue squeeze-out off with a damp cloth:
This is pretty much the colour it will look when it's sanded and finished...there's quilting, bird's foot-ing, lava flow-ing and everything going on in there! And it smells sooooo good
The rest of the wood is on order from David Dyke so next week, weather permitting, should see a decent bit of progress
Andy
Comments
Yup...building more is the only way I had wiped it before (ooh er missus) but the oxidisation was still there. Popping it through the thicknesser took that layer off and below was a figuring the like I've never seen before. To be honest, the photo doesn't even do it decent justice...
There's got to be dreadful pun somewhere about having Tunes on stage, but I can't think of one
Guessing how to do this stuff is probably closer to the mark...
Like the old joke goes, I pick 6 numbers, then discard those because none of those will come up, pick another 6 and throw those out, etc etc until I've just got 6 numbers left. My guitar builds are similar...you only see what I haven't chucked out trying to get there )
Like the old joke goes, I pick 6 numbers, then discard those because none of those will come up, pick another 6 and throw those out, etc etc until I've just got 6 numbers left. My guitar builds are similar...you only see what I haven't chucked out trying to get there )