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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?
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Thanks for the input and explanation!
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:
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:
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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....
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!
I got a quote a little while ago before I decided to have an extension built instead.
https://soundcertified.com/speaker-ohms-calculator/
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...
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That's amazing - it looks like a space-ship!
Stunning work.