Finished Pics! impmann's Alembic-esque Electric

paulnb57

All the makings of another epic build....love it!

Andyjr1515

Those of you who follow my threads will know that sometimes my methods for thru-necks are...well...a little unconventional.

This one is actually going to be closer to a conventional approach in that at least I will be gluing the back 'wings' on first!

 This below is the piccolo bass to illustrate what I mean:


Basically, I cut a notch in the neck beam, broadly the depth of the top and along the length of the wings, do the main routs of the wings and neck before I glue the wings on and then add the top, with its demarcation veneer.

But, before I do any of that, I have to work out the neck angle - as it is the angle of the notch and the subsequent angle that the wings are glued to the neck that will determine the correct angle to suit the thickness of the fretboard and the height range of the bridge.

I've worked it out on paper, but there's nothing quite like double checking with the real components:


So basically, once I've confirmed the angle, I'll pencil along neck, using the mahogany wing as the ruler and then rout away the excess neck area for a flat but correctly angled surface to act as a datum for gluing the wings onto.  Which reminds me - I need to buy a couple more sash clamps....

 

Roland

Andyjr1515 said:

Sometimes, a lot of work doesn't really show.

This, you may say, looks just like the last picture of the neck beam


...  It is now at the finished width and is completely square on all sides.

What do you use to square it up Andy?

Andyjr1515

Roland said:

Andyjr1515 said:

Sometimes, a lot of work doesn't really show.

This, you may say, looks just like the last picture of the neck beam


...  It is now at the finished width and is completely square on all sides.

What do you use to square it up Andy?

Hi, Roland

Apols for the delay - been busy on this today (though not necessarily productive as you will soon see!)

I don't have a planer-thicknesser, which is what you would ideally use for squaring up a beam, but I do have a decent thicknesser, which with a bit of inginuity sort of gets me there.  Basically:

• The lengths from David Dyke are pretty square to start with
• When I laminate them, I try to keep one face square - especially the two outer splices
• I then use a carpenters square and a beam to check for square of that face and straightness
• I square off any skew or bow with a jack plane
• Once I know one face is basically square with the sides, I put it into the thicknesser, square face down, to create a square back face
• I then flip it over in the thicknesser and skip the top down to the inner slices

Then, as karma for feeling smug that I've sorted it, I get the router out and make a deep cut in the wrong place

Of which more anon....

TTony

Andyjr1515 said:

Then, as karma for feeling smug that I've sorted it, I get the router out and make a deep cut in the wrong place

  

I did that a while back.  And it turned out OK.  With your ingenuity ....

Andyjr1515

OK - today was routing the notch into the neck at the required angle to give me the correct adjustment range for the bridge.

You can probably see better now how the top will fit flush with the neck at the join, with the fretboard then sitting on top of both, and the mahogany wings at the back, to be glued to the through neck.



The observant amongst you will also notice that I've routed from where the upper cutaway joins....

...and the thinkers amongst you (clearly not including me in your company) will have pondered, 'Hang on, isn't supposed to notch from where the LOWER cutaway joins???'

Pity I didn't think that little thought before I set off the router on it...

Hmmmmm.....new neck wood needed....blast!

The good news, however, is that - having now got the details of how deep the P90 customs @impmann has ordered are, I was beginning to think it was just a bit too tight on depth anyway.  Redoing the neck is a bit of a faff and will lose me a week (especially as it's bank holiday ref placing a new order for timber), but at least I can make sure it's deep enough so I don't run into fresh air when I'm routing for the new pickups

...and I've got an idea what I might be able to us the scrap neck on....  

impmann

D'oh!
Im glad you can do something with the neck.

TTony

Just don't scrap the neck - I'd design and build something around it.

Andyjr1515

TTony said:

Just don't scrap the neck - I'd design and build something around it.

Yes - that's what I've got in mind.  And I'm pretty sure I know what it's going to be

  Anyway, with a smart smack on my wrist for such a rookie error and a grovelling plea to MrsAndyjr1515 to let me buy 'yet more wood' I shall put it down to experience and move on.

It actually won't delay @impmann's build at all.  While I'm waiting, I'll be getting on with routing the chambers in the wings and filling the voids in the top.  And I now know for sure I'm going to be able to have enough depth to fit everything in

impmann

Not worried about how long it takes, chap. No stress from me.

Andyjr1515

The other thing that makes me increasingly excited by this project....David Dyke found me a last fretboard of the right spec in his 'old stock' of pre-cut ebony boards.  

I was quite excited because old stock often means jet black ebony which is nowadays very difficult to find.  And jet black it is.  But more than that - as I was squaring it up this afternoon, I realised that it is quilted.  I've never seen quilted ebony in the flesh before...it's absolutely f*****g beautiful!!!!

I have a very good feeling about this project ....

WezV

I have had flamed ebony before but it tends to look less exciting than you expect.  The problem is that black wood doesn't reflect light the same way light wood does.

but it will still be amazing wood either way.


your mistake is reminding me of an early commission, a through neck firebird.  Didn't want to screw it up so started two.  Then got cocky and diverted the spec on the spare.  Then I really messed up the main one so had to start again.  I still have the unfinished spare in the woodpile

Andyjr1515

WezV said:

I have had flamed ebony before but it tends to look less exciting than you expect.  The problem is that black wood doesn't reflect light the same way light wood does.

but it will still be amazing wood either way.


your mistake is reminding me of an early commission, a through neck firebird.  Didn't want to screw it up so started two.  Then got cocky and diverted the spec on the spare.  Then I really messed up the main one so had to start again.  I still have the unfinished spare in the woodpile

It'll be interesting to see what it looks like in daylight, but in artificial light it looks astounding.  Fingers crossed but as you say, whatever it's going to be a nice board.

Yes - mess ups are part of the joy of the hobby.  I haven't actually made too many recently so I'm owed a few

stickyfiddle

WezV said:

I have had flamed ebony before but it tends to look less exciting than you expect.  The problem is that black wood doesn't reflect light the same way light wood does.

but it will still be amazing wood either way.


your mistake is reminding me of an early commission, a through neck firebird.  Didn't want to screw it up so started two.  Then got cocky and diverted the spec on the spare.  Then I really messed up the main one so had to start again.  I still have the unfinished spare in the woodpile

Hold on, so you're saying after all this time you have a half-finished firebird just waiting for someone to throw money at...?!

Andyjr1515

Look familiar?


Laminated neck beam number two, all glued up and heading for the bandsaw, thicknesser - and maybe even router again - in the morning

Andyjr1515

...and we're back on track.
Here are the components:


That will fit together like this:


The notch in the neck blank, which the back wings will line up with to give the top a full-width flat surface to glue to, incorporates a couple of degrees drop which will give the required neck angle to match the bridge.

webrthomson

That is awesome work - I'm not normally much for burls but that is very nice!

Can't wait to see more.

Andyjr1515

@impmann 's spec includes an enclosed (ie no f-hole) semi-acoustic-with-centre-block approach, trying to get it as light as possible but without compromising balance, etc..  This means a major chamber in the top half, most of which is routed into the rear mahogany wing:


Note truss rod slot is also now cut.

The wall thickness of the chamber thickens at the top horn to give plenty of meat for the strap button, but also thickens at the top of the lower bout to allow the 'sucked lozenge' (as @impmann describes it) cut through that he has also asked for.  This will be similarly done as on the camphor-topped bass I did a year or so ago:


@impmann has sent me his recently purchased Schaller pre-amp so that I can now work out the optimum size and shape of the control chamber to sort out the lower wing cuts and routs before they are then both glued to the neck.

Andyjr1515

This afternoon includes cutting the neck taper and the control chamber opening.

The Schaller FlagShip system looks the business but does take up a lot of real estate!


This is broadly how it will be laid out.  Plenty of time to sort all of the actual positions, but I need to make sure the chamber is big enough to accommodate it all, including the plug-in harnesses, etc..

Andyjr1515

Getting close now to being able to glue on the back wings:


You can just see the quilting on the ebony in this shot.  As @WezV said earlier, it's not a strong effect in natural light but it's definitely there.

Weight-wise, total wood content - if I account for adding a mahogany control chamber cover and taking off for the neck carve, final body rout, etc - is going to be around 5 1/2 lbs.  Tomorrow, I'll weigh some of the other bits I and guess the weight of the pups to guesstimate final weight, but it's not going to be a heavyweight!