Finished Pics - Alembicesque Bass in need of serious attention

Andyjr1515 · June 2016

TTony;1117340" said:
This is going to be Trigger's bass ...

)

Andyjr1515 · June 2016

ICBM said:

I admire your determination, but really it would be far easier and probably produce a better end result just to draw round it and make another one the same shape.

There's some method in the madness which might come clear when you see what's going in there...

Andyjr1515 · June 2016

Andyjr1515;1117358" said:
ICBM said:

I admire your determination, but really it would be far easier and probably produce a better end result just to draw round it and make another one the same shape.

There's some method in the madness which might come clear when you see what's going in there...

Correction...I was at crossed purposes. Yes, I quite agree, @ICBM. A new build would have been as easy and a more certain outcome. That's not what the owner wanted, though, so it was worth pursuing what he was after until it became obvious that was not going to be viable.

TTony · June 2016

Tease ...

But I'm not going over to BassChat to get a sneak spoiler of the ending, I'm staying here.

BigMonka · June 2016

Progress is looking interesting Andy! That new walnut back is also much more attractive than the old one, IMO

WezV · June 2016

Cross grain is never a good idea... Getting rid of that bit is the right thing to do

randella · June 2016

That walnut's going to look a treat with a bit of finish on it, lovely grain pattern.

I bet it weighs a bit, this instrument! Enjoying this thread - you just don't see Alembic (or Alembic-shaped) basses about so much these days.

Andyjr1515 · June 2016

randella said:

That walnut's going to look a treat with a bit of finish on it, lovely grain pattern.

I bet it weighs a bit, this instrument!

You might be interested what happens to the walnut soon @randella ;

Ref the weight, not too bad in the end (8lb 12oz)

Onto the rebuild, one of the things I like about these kinds of unconventional builds and rebuilds is the input from the owners.

I should point out here - and to an extent it answers the discussion above with @ICBM - that I am a hobbyist and not a commercial builder or repairer. If I can simply cover the cost of the hobby I'm happy. Therefore, there are things I will consider that - providing I think it is structurally sound or that the owner FULLY understands the risks - I would be willing to try that would be a no-no as a commercial venture or would end up just too darn expensive for the instrument owner.

The input/requests from the owners is often like home projects discussions with my wife:

Her: "I'd like to box in the boiler"

Me: "OK - no problem. I'll get a cupboard unit that matches the kitchen units, sort the ventilation round the side and that should do it"

Her: "A cupboard unit? A CUPBOARD unit?? I don't want one of those! I want it flat like it's behind a wall!!!!"

Me: "But there's another wall in the way! And how is the ventilation going to work? And what about when it needs servicing?"

Her: (Stands there saying nothing; the result is what matters)

Me: (Stomps around a bit; huffs and puffs; has a cup of tea; starts thinking; well, I suppose we could put a beam in here....and you'd need a hole in the wall there, but that could work...)

Result is - even with practical considerations and compromises incorporated - the final result is almost always better than if I'd been left to my own devices.

And so it often is with my builds. It is usually the 'Oh, my goodness...he wants WHAT? How the hell am I going to be able to do THAT?? No, no, no....that's CRAZY' features that I am most pleased with when it's been done

)

Mick had some other requests....:

Could the back be scooped a bit like a Warwick?
Could the edges be carved to show the laminations?
Could the front ash panels be done in an aged orange?
Could the (now curved) control chamber lid be held on with magnets?
Could I fit some fancy (but eye-wateringly expensive) SimS Super Quad pickups in it that he would send to me?
Could the neck pickup be set back further away from the neck...but recognise that would leave a big hole where the old one used to be?

I gently pointed out that we couldn't be sure that this would actually hold together in one piece yet and did he really want to put frighteningly expensive pickups in a bass that, even if it doesn't fall to pieces might well play like a dog?

I went for a cup of tea to think through if and how any of that could or should be done ...

Andyjr1515 · June 2016

The answer to most of these requests was 'probably'.

Scooping the back?

Yes - for those who followed my bubinga fretless build, that's what I did with that. Coincidentally, I'd bought a Veritas pullshave a few months ago. It made short work of that job and there was plenty of body depth to play with:

Carving through to show the laminations?

Yes - and this made it look considerably less clunky:

This exposed some more cracks (I don't think they were new - I think I simply filed away the gunk hiding them):

Gallons of thin cyano wick'd in and huge clamping pressure sorted that:

The SimS Super Quads arrived and Mick gave me the positioning he wanted. I shaped a couple of pieces of walnut offcut from the back as fillers:

The control chamber lid would be ideally walnut matching, so from another offcut of the back, I cut a couple of slices on my very cheap but remarkably OK bandsaw:

Hmmmmm......aged orange.....with a walnut back, oak middle, walnut infills....how was this NOT going to end up looking like a dog's dinner?

TTony · June 2016

What happened next ???

Get on with it!!

Andyjr1515 · June 2016

TTony;1118674" said:
What happened next ???

Get on with it!!

)

Andyjr1515 · June 2016

For no other reason than to calm @TTony down

Aged orange....well first I had to find a decent orange. And yes - we're talking Andyjr1515 here - of course we're talking ink.

I got a few samples from diamine from reddish oranges to tango oranges all the way to amber. Before toning down and 'dirtying' this was the sort of tone I was looking at:

This would compliment the mahogany ....but it really clashed with the brown-brown of the walnut infills.

And that got me thinking. Was it worth trying staining walnut orange?

I had a go with some scrap:

Now that was a bit of a revelation!

Would that work on the back too? I could always sand it off....

While I carried along fiddling around with stains and finishes, I took all of the old frets out, flattened the fretboard, re-radiused it and deepened the resulting shallow slots:

I refretted it with EVO golds:

...and cut a triplet of swifts:

Notice where a previous owner or builder had been indecisive where the tuners should go!

Is that better @TTony ?

)

TTony · June 2016

DartmoorHedgehog · June 2016

Orange, brown and white stripes - very '70s

Looks like a (nylon of course) t-shirt I seem to be wearing in all the photos of young me. Or the interior of an Allegro.

The look must be coming back - I quite like that (at least on a bass, not sure about the shirt

)

Andyjr1515 · June 2016

DartmoorHedgehog said:

Orange, brown and white stripes - very '70s
Looks like a (nylon of course) t-shirt I seem to be wearing in all the photos of young me. Or the interior of an Allegro.

The look must be coming back - I quite like that (at least on a bass, not sure about the shirt )

I've stopped looking at photos at the young me...'70s wasn't a good look, was it

)

Andyjr1515 · June 2016

Compressing the finishing stages to avoid this becoming another Andjr epic...

...and also reflecting that Mick had asked if there was any chance it might have been finished for a Herts Basschat Bash in early June?

Mick wanted an 'old-look' satin finish. Not relic, but a look that it had always been the shape and colour it was going to end up.

This is where my 'I wonder if...' you can see on my Tru-oil and Stain thread came from.

The best polish-worn, real wood satin I know is @WezV 's slurry tru-oil approach. But I'd always shied away from doing it on stained wood for obvious reasons. I tried it...and it worked a treat.

Here it was after some gentle slurrying and lightly buffed coats before a bit of ageing:

...and here it was after a coat of tru-oil mixed with a few drops of mahogany spirit stain dabbed about in randomish places, followed by a final toning down and satinising gentle slurry and buff:

It was starting to look like a well kept but original 70's bass

>-

Mick was pleased with this, so we went for the SimS pickup install...

I'll post the final fancy pics AND VIDEO of a great player playing it very shortly

Andyjr1515 · June 2016

...and here it is:

...and here's Nick Smith, who did a demo at the Basschat Bash, demonstrating the Super Quads on his own basses and, around 4 mins in, playing Mick's rebuild.

I'll do a post shortly on the Super Quads in the bass section - some of the folk there might be interested

As always, thanks for sticking with me through another tortuous journey (tortuous for you, not me

) )

...and feel free to fire comments and questions like: why is the stop tail so close to the bridge; what's the little gold button just under the bridge; am I on medication; etc

Shark_Eyes · June 2016

Nice Cameo there Andy.

Sounds great, what do all the switches do?

Coil split for each pickup? Active / Passive?

nutbox · June 2016

Well they say "you can't polish a turd" you have just proved them wrong.
Well done buddy

TTony · June 2016

It feels like it all happened too quickly for me ...

Seriously, very nice rescue there Andy (of course).

I think my favourite pic was this one;

Just seeing how that Walnut sprang to vibrant life with a bit of a finish on it. I should really use some walnut. I should really do anything at all ...

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Finished Pics - Alembicesque Bass in need of serious attention

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