Finished Pics! Ultra Modern Bass

Andyjr1515

WezV said:

It's Ritter I am thinking of and after a google  I see they do similar stuff with the R8 concept.  Calling the tuners a "backside tuning system".  Snigger

Just looked at the R8 again (think I saw it on NoTreble a while ago) to make sure it wasn't a straight copy and pleased to be reminded it's quite different.  

Having said that, you are right - it is an angled tuner block.  I'd forgotten that.  Mind you, it's without the Andyjr1515 fancy fill-in wedge.  And I bet it cost more than £24.  And you can see the pickups.  

I can see that Ritter will be stealing my ideas left, right and centre...well, with any luck.  How cool would that be?  

Bork

Andyjr1515 said:

That looks nice
Are your tuners at the back too?

Yes mine are through the back of the body. I had help in hacking the saddles off a set of ABM headless tuners.  The body rout also took a large amount of wood out of the back which was replaced with a screw in tone block on which the ABM anchors were mounted. The advantage of modifying the tuners was it alliwed the tuning knobs to be flush with the body so they won't get knocked or make it awkward when lying in a case. 

Bork

I also used a Moses neck which can only take a double ball head piece  I'm still thinking about a possible solution for that but it will almost definitely require modifying the end of the neck. For now i have an after market string clamp as a temporary solution.

Andyjr1515

Bork said:

Andyjr1515 said:

That looks nice
Are your tuners at the back too?

Yes mine are through the back of the body. I had help in hacking the saddles off a set of ABM headless tuners.  The body rout also took a large amount of wood out of the back which was replaced with a screw in tone block on which the ABM anchors were mounted. The advantage of modifying the tuners was it alliwed the tuning knobs to be flush with the body so they won't get knocked or make it awkward when lying in a case. 

Sounds like a good solution ref the tuner block angle.  I've no idea what kind of case Mick will use for this - the offset makes it very long and then you have the depth of the block and supporting wedge.  I think probably a large gig bad rather than a hard case.

Thanks for the input and explanation!

Garthy

This is a fascinating build thread, love the ideas around it too.

Andyjr1515

Garthy said:

This is a fascinating build thread, love the ideas around it too.

Thanks @Garthy

BigMonka

*cough* it's been a couple of days since the last update, do you not realise it's reading this that keeps me sane during days sat at a PC at work?

Andyjr1515

I thought I'd posted this!  Clearly forgot to 'press Go'!


Bit more progress.  I've finished the main carve and now have moved on to rounding the edges, etc..  This is a recent in progress shot:


I won't round the fretboard end until it's been glued in.  I've just had confirmation that the custom pickup coils are on their way, which is great timing because once I've got hold of those, I can make the shallow voids in the back of the fretboard and then I CAN glue it on   And then I can carve the neck!

Also good timing because I've just done the pickup cover at the back:

Andyjr1515

And a bit more progress since then.

The pickup coils have arrived!


Martin has wound them with progressive output to compensate for the stagger of the positioning.  They will be fitted from the back and have adjustable poles - again adjustable from the back

I've also fitted and capped the truss rod:


And just glued a strip of this black veneer onto the back of the fretboard to act as a demarcation line:


Here it is, between two substantial cauls.  I know it's only 0.6mm thick but "you can NEVER have too many clamps!!!!"  - so 12 big beggars isn't too many:

Bork

Looks good!

Ravenous

VERY interesting pickups... I've toyed with the idea of individual coils for various reasons over the years...

Andyjr1515

Ravenous said:

VERY interesting pickups... I've toyed with the idea of individual coils for various reasons over the years...

Yes - certainly the first time I've tried them.  Martin does MM-style humbuckers too with 8 individual coils inside a standard casing.  Well worth having a peep at his website here    Interesting stuff.

My experiments in the very early design phase of this project - taking my fretless bass and doing VERY odd things to the height of the pickups and slugs led me to the conclusion that the slugs have to be close enough to the strings, but to be honest, the coils need to be too. As such, knowing I've got 3-4mm gap between the string and top of the fretboard here, I knew that an added 5-7mm of fretboard was going to be too much. So from the start, it was planned to do something like this:

The change from a standard pickup to the individual coils has made this op less scary....but scary it is nevertheless

I have created coil chambers in the fretboard of 3 to 4mm - and then an additional slug chamber, to allow adjustment to balance the strings, of a further 2mm:

So now I'm going to sit and think and look and think and measure and think and look again and think.....because I think this is now the time to be attaching the fretboard. And all of that pause for thought is because, to paraphrase the supermarket cliche, "Once it's on... it's bloody well on!" 

Andyjr1515

And I sat and I thought and sat and thought again, and then glued it:


There are tonnes (literally) of force involved with those clamps.  at the back I have 3/4" marine ply lengths and on the fretboard itself I'm using radius blocks all the way down.  

I tried this on my last build and it worked quite well.  Where the fret slots are, I'm using a tighter radius of block than the fretboard itself so that the pressure is very much pressing on the sides, hopefully ensuring a tight, neat, gap free result.

This is an important (critical) glue job so I'm going to resist the temptation of unclamping before the morning....

Andyjr1515

Well, bar a bit of tidying up, the fretboard's on...and in the right place!  



Fair bit of shaping still to do - Mick, the prospective owner, wants some of the edge radii wider - and there is the fine-blending to do now the fretboard is properly in place.

The black veneer witness line between the fretboard and neck will hopefully add a bit of class to the end result:



And now, the neck carve has begun.  Yes - spokeshaving rock maple and ebony is knackering!

fretmeister

WezV said:

It's Ritter I am thinking of and after a google  I see they do similar stuff with the R8 concept.  Calling the tuners a "backside tuning system".  Snigger

Ritter would charge between £7000 and £12000 for something like this.

I got a quote a little while ago before I decided to have an extension built instead.

Andyjr1515

fretmeister said:

WezV said:

It's Ritter I am thinking of and after a google  I see they do similar stuff with the R8 concept.  Calling the tuners a "backside tuning system".  Snigger

Ritter would charge between £7000 and £12000 for something like this.

I got a quote a little while ago before I decided to have an extension built instead.

Well - there's my price quotes completely up the Swanee again!

Started on the neck and a bit more body carving.  The scooped back and thin body wings is something I've been progressing and developing over a few builds.  There are two major benefits as far as I am concerned:

1.  You get an ultra-slim transition of neck to body - these are great to play at the upper frets:



Also,
2.  You end up with a VERY light instrument - this approach seems to have significantly greater impact than 'normal' chambering.  This is a large-bodied single cut long-scale bass and is using pretty heavy woods - rock maple, sycamore, ebony.  And it's going to end up pretty much spot on 7lbs...

 

Bork

What about pot and pickup depths? It sounds like they'll need to be finely judged

paulnb57

Wow! It's more like sculpture than a guitar, so organic looking, fantastic, another cracker Andy!

Andyjr1515

Bork said:

What about pot and pickup depths? It sounds like they'll need to be finely judged

Very finely judged.  Sub-mm in places...

Sporky

Andyjr1515 said:

 

That's amazing - it looks like a space-ship!

Stunning work.