Finished! New Project - lightweight solid walnut-bodied bass

Andyjr1515

It's been a while since I did a major build and now I have two! One is under wraps at the moment (mainly because it may not work  ) but the other is a challenge in a different way.

I want to break the back of the under-wraps project, so it might be a little while before I make much progress on this other one but it is to try to build a lightweight body (Cort Curbow sort of light!) from a chunk of solid american black walnut.

Yes....quite 

The plan is to strip a Cort's bits and just replace the body. The outline will be similar to the Cort but the carve will be something like this:




The depth of carve will be quite deep, something like two of my earlier 6 strings...one I did a few years ago in solid mahogany:






...but probably with the top of the lower bout more like the one I did in Yew:



Two reasons - firstly because I think those kind of shapes bring out grain patterns of nice woods out a treat...secondly because it takes a lot of wood (weight) out of the proceedings.

But, the Cort Curbow is made out of light plastic-type material and walnut is b*****y heavy! So I know that won't be enough.

With a two-piece (back and top) like the yew / mahogany six string above, chambering is an option. However, with a solid it's a bit more tricky. So my thought is two control chambers at the back...and both quite generous in dimensions - with chamber covers using the same walnut as the body itself. It will end up like half of a centre-blocked semi-acoustic.

Additionally, I will minimise the depth of the body to that just deep enough for the controls. It will probably end up about the same thickness as an SG. The density of the walnut SHOULD (fingers crossed) still retain the mass needed in a good bass.

To achieve the matching control panel covers, I got Kirk (great bloke) at www.exotichardwoodsukltd.com to bandsaw a 4mm plate off one of the blocks of the two-part body wood I bought for the project.

Balance in theory should be a big issue. Interestingly, the Cort balances beautifully...it shouldn't. The neck is set in as far as it can without the bridge hanging in fresh air, and the headstock is TINY. So, the theory (yeah...right) is that if the walnut body can be made the same weight as the Cort and have the same geometry, it will balance too! 

Well, without a few challenges, where's the fun??

I'll post a shot of the timber and doner bass soon, and then there may be a long period of silence...

Andy 

hobbio

Looking forward to this one mate

Andyjr1515

hobbio said:

Looking forward to this one mate

Thanks, @hobbio   Me too 

Megii

This is going to be seriously good Andy! Tru Oil finish maybe?

Hertz32

I love my Curbow! Weighs in around 7lbs as a reference
Anticipate great things from you here, looks like it might turn out looovely

Andyjr1515

Megii said:

This is going to be seriously good Andy! Tru Oil finish maybe?

Yup - done in the style of @WezV :-)

Andyjr1515

Hertz32 said:

I love my Curbow! Weighs in around 7lbs as a reference
Anticipate great things from you here, looks like it might turn out looovely

Looks like it might turn out heeeeavy!

Andyjr1515

So, got my hands on the donor guitar, got the walnut and the 'other' project is temporarily paused while I wait for some info and bits relating to it. So if it stays dry this week, I may be able to make a proper start on this one.

Here's the Cort:

Actually, I reckon it's a bit heavier than the owner's identical Tanglewood, which might give me a fighting chance to get the weight down enough.

First jobs are to:

• Strip the Cort down
  
• Work out the thinnest body I can get away with compatible with the controls depth
  
• plane down my 2 walnut halves to that thickness - this will give me an idea of the figuring too...
  
• square up the join line and join the two halves
  

Thanks for looking, all!

Andy 

Andyjr1515

It was dry today so I was able to plane down the walnut halves to the initial thickness of 1.5" I'll see how the carve and weight goes - it may come down to more like 1.25" but I don't want to get it too slim for the electrics to fit...

For the thicknessing I used my new Makita planer - the first 'proper' tool I've bought - superb.

Walnut is a nice wood to work with and these pieces have some interesting detailing in them:

The edges were fairly straight but angled.  I have spent a bit of time reading up how to set and use a hand plane and used a second hand jack plane with a shooting board to square them up...just look at them shavings 

To my great surprise, it worked and, with a final little bit of sanding with my straight sanding bar, resulted the joint above.

The two pieces are now in the sash clamps waiting for the glue to dry 

Andy

speshul91

Looking forward to seeing the progress on this man

Andyjr1515

Thanks @speshul91 ;

Today I used a cut-out to look at the best orientation for the best figuring in the final carve.  I think this one will provide a decent bit of variation once its carved:

It'll probably be the weekend before its dry enough to rough cut it out (much rain is forecast in the Derby area!)

JudasVigilante

@Andyjr1515 This is gonna be so f*cking amazing Andy. Love the shape and also if I could comment on the previous 2 guitars you posted pics of in this thread: They look so beautiful. Wow. You are THE man. I have a couple of questions if I may. Where does one get body templates from if say, I was ever gonna build a guitar from scratch. One surely just doesn't draw it freehand and hope for the best, do you? Also, thanks for the link to the exotic woods seller, I assume this is a one stop shop for guitar builders wood etc? Gonna visit it now and add to bookmarks. I don't think I have the skills yet, but would love to one day. Is the strat project, the ones that on hold? I was looking for it and found this by chance, All the best with this, I just know it gonna rock!

Andyjr1515

Hi, @JudasVigilante

Thanks for the encouragement!  

This time round, I have a great help of the original Cort to simply trace the shape from.  I will do that onto 12mm MDF, cut and sand to exact shape and then use that as a routing template with a ball bearing router bit.  The rough cut will be with a bandsaw.  Other times I've scaled up photos or just drawn freehand - the two at the beginning of the thread are freehand own designs (the mahogany and the yew ones)

The strat project is also progressing still - it's a couple of topics lower down at the moment 'New Strat Project!'.  I've been spending the last couple of days sealer/filling it with egg-white...   

Andy

speshul91

That's gonna be a beauty Andy, thankfully my bass gas is cured haha

Hertz32

See, there's 2 types of curbow. The Luthite superlight one like mine has a different body shape to your wood bodied one. The upper horn runs closer to the neck.

Andyjr1515

Hertz32 said:

See, there's 2 types of curbow. The Luthite superlight one like mine has a different body shape to your wood bodied one. The upper horn runs closer to the neck.

The white donor above is actually also Luthite.  The slightly bizarre thing is that the owner's Tanglewood - with an identical bodyshape (really identical) but thru neck and, I think, wood, is the lighter of the two!

They seem to be good basses - how do you find yours?

Hertz32

Simply superb! Planning on owning the fretless 6 string and the 5 string too. Really nice neck, although I had to shim it. A bit tricky to play sitting down but doable. It's a keeper, thats for sure! I only paid £170 for mine too with the bartolini pickup.

Andyjr1515

Hertz32 said:

Simply superb! Planning on owning the fretless 6 string and the 5 string too. Really nice neck, although I had to shim it. A bit tricky to play sitting down but doable. It's a keeper, thats for sure! I only paid £170 for mine too with the bartolini pickup.

Brilliant!   I have to say, even the white one above looks the dog's whatsits and sits so well on the strap.  I'm really, really impressed.

Andy 

Hertz32

I have to say, between my curbow and Harley Benton 7 string i have most of my bass needs covered. It's only recently that I've had GAS for a bass other than another Curbow, and that was in the form of Andy_C's 5 string basses that he made. But one thing led to another and now I'm after a Dingwall combustion!

Andyjr1515

It was dry this afternoon so I took an hour out to get the bandsaw out to cut the MDF routing template and over-size cut the walnut:

I have to sand smooth the template edges and rasp out the last bit of the lower cutaway that the bandsaw couldn't reach.

Then we can make some real progress:

•  stick the template onto the walnut with double-sided and then use a bearing router bit to get the walnut outline accurately cut
  
• route the neck pocket, control chamber & pickup chamber while I've still got flat, stable surfaces
• then start carving!

On this kind of carve, I usually add a 'go-faster stripe' feature on the top horn:

It's ever so easy to do - just using a router to 'contour' the carve in steps, you just go a little deeper than normal, then when you carve, simply progressively carve away the step to nothing.

I think on the walnut, it will add a nice visual feature...as long as I don't go too deep!

Andy 

Deadman

That's some of the best work I've ever seen. I LOVE it Andy. Inspiring stuff.