Finished! Through-neck headless

Sarge

Just Wow! 

Andyjr1515

Bit more progress on this.

The upper rear wing needed just some weight relief and then it could be glued.  I did this the same way as I do pickup chambers - I hog out with a forstner bit, then straighten the edges with a sharp chisel and then use my diddy bottom bearing router bit to bring it to final depth.  I've left the wings a couple of mm oversize at this stage:


Gluing, I used a couple of standard clamps to keep the neck join line tight and then used spool clamps to clamp the edges:


Looks OK - no gaps:


A got the Sims Superquads sent to me direct.  That's a lot of pickup!



And a lot of options!  Each pickup is made up of 4 coils and a 3-way switch for each gives the option of 'P' Bass (Offset Split); Jazz Bass (Single Coil); Humbucker with a different colour LED for each option


Fitting is actually very easy - they are passive and so the switch PCB simply has a ground, a hot out and in input for the 9v feed for the LED. 

A is opting for a simple toggle on/off for each with a master volume and master tone.  It will be something like this:
 

The battery will have locating recess built into the lower wing.  The other thing the lower wing has to have is VERY wide cable access to that I can feed those large connectors to the pickups.  Again, most of this was done by forstner and chisel using the router just to increase the depth:


So lower wing ready to glue.  Then it's time for the pickup chambers...a job for next week

As always, thanks for looking and for the kind comments

mart

That really is a *lot* of options. I used to own a Warwick $$ with two humbuckers and three options for each, and I felt that even that was more than I needed. 

Still, this should make for an incredibly flexible bass.

prowla

That's coming along nicely.

I've got an old Status Graphite bass and its tuners are fine.

I've also got a couple of Steinberger Spirit (ie. the budget range) basses and a guitar, and their tuners seem OK. The guitar is ridiculously small; I may couple it with the 5-string bass to make a doubleneck.

And then I've got a Chinese 4/6 doubleneck with the "Overlord Of Music" tuners; they are utterly awful complete rubbish! I picked up the instrument cheaply because the previous owner had given up on it. It's actually quite nice and playable, but the tuners are junk and I'd never trust them to survive any serious use; I don't know if any better ones will fit in in a straight swap, but some are prohibitively expensive anyway.

Andyjr1515

prowla said:

That's coming along nicely.

I've got an old Status Graphite bass and its tuners are fine.

I've also got a couple of Steinberger Spirit (ie. the budget range) basses and a guitar, and their tuners seem OK. The guitar is ridiculously small; I may couple it with the 5-string bass to make a doubleneck.

And then I've got a Chinese 4/6 doubleneck with the "Overlord Of Music" tuners; they are utterly awful complete rubbish! I picked up the instrument cheaply because the previous owner had given up on it. It's actually quite nice and playable, but the tuners are junk and I'd never trust them to survive any serious use; I don't know if any better ones will fit in in a straight swap, but some are prohibitively expensive anyway.

Nice collection!
Yes, Steinbergers are great, but quite expensive.  And yes, someone sent me an 'Overlord' for one project and I had to buy another one to make one workable set from the two...with a couple of spares for inevitable future issues

Andyjr1515

With the back lower wing routs done, it could be now glued on, the sides trimmed and rounded and the control chamber deepened:



Those of you who have seen some of my other builds will know that I HATE routers.  But there are times when only a router will do.  So what I do is try, wherever I can, to use them 'captive' where they cannot go off and do their own thing (which is usually destroying things you don't want destroying ).  And for pickup chambers, there are some aspects that need a router.

The method I generally use (remember, this is me just showing what I personally do, not that this is the way it should be done!) is:
Mark the outlines of the pickups+0.5mm accurately on the top.  Then drill the corners with a brad-point drill 1mm larger diameter than that of the corners of the pickups:

Then I hog out right up to the line with a forstner to about 5mm shallower than the final depth:


I use a sharp chisel to the line to a depth of about 10mm - this is what the router bit bearing will run along.  Notice the slots I'd previously put into the back wing to feed the large loom connectors through:


Then I use a bearing flush cutter (this is on a table but hand router also OK) to tidy up the sides and bring it to final depth:



And then, finally, I chiselled out clearance for the connector block that sits below the bottom of the pickups so that the pickups are now capable of dropping down to the lowest practical position:


So now I no longer need the flat surface of the top for the router, I can glue the fretboard on...and then I can start carving the neck...and those are the next two jobs

prowla

Andyjr1515 said:

Nice collection!
Yes, Steinbergers are great, but quite expensive.  And yes, someone sent me an 'Overlord' for one project and I had to buy another one to make one workable set from the two...with a couple of spares for inevitable future issues

Cheers!

I had that same experiance with the bass Overlord one I had: bought another and managed to make one working one out of the two.

The bolts in the tuners are just stock ones from a hardware shop with a knurled knob attached; unfortunately, the bolts are way harder than the string pull claws and they just mash the thread.

The replacement bridge I got had an issue that the top plate sat too low and the claws wouldn't retract under it.

As for the guitar bridge with trem; it's trem adjust screw was sheared, so I got another of those, but actually it couldn't be adjusted to pull the bridge back to position, let-alone stay anything like in tune. So I just keep it locked in position.

There is no way that you could use them on a gigging instrument, as they'd just fail on you sooner rather than later.

Andyjr1515

It won't be too long, @prowla , before I'm able to string this up with the Nova system and see how they perform.  I have high hopes - they seem to be very nicely designed and engineered... 

Andyjr1515

And on to positioning of the tuners.  Other than the added dimension of the two strings being able to move independently, I do it similar to with a fixed bridge - I fit the headstock equipment (in this case the clamp) and then fit some 'sacrificial' strings to the top and bottom positions to line up with the scale length + intonation and with the fretboard/string spacing:


Having positioned the two outer ones, I marked the front screw positions and then the two for the middle strings:


Then fixing the tuner bases by these front screws, I could string up to get the splay angle, taking advantage of the individual tuners being able to follow the taper of the string runs, and mark the position for the back screws:


Which then could be screwed in place.

It was effortless to tune the strings to pitch - in fact it was so smooth I ended up 5 or 6 semitones high on a couple of strings just in straightening them.  The last headless system I used would have involved quite a bit of effort to reach the same tightness!
 

Andyjr1515

I don't think I'd realised how far behind I was with this thread. 

Bringing this up to date.

With this propped up against the cupboard, particularly with the three large pickups in place - it was missing something.  I realised that the original backplate for the tuners added something visually.  Clearly I couldn't use the plate because of the smaller string-string distance I was aiming for...but I could add some visuals:


Yes - that looked better:


Next was the neck carve.  A was after a fairly chunky feel so we've gone for a 'D' profile at a mm or so thicker than, say, a Fender and some luminlays for good measure:


And then onto finishing.  And here, it being walnut, it simply has to be the @WezV Tru-oil slurry approach.  The neck is going to be slurry and buff; the body will be prepared on the same basis but then a couple of extra coats of Tru-oil wiped on to give a light gloss finish:






And then the preparation for the installation of the electrics which I'll cover in the next post

As always, thanks for looking

normula1

That looks so good Andy.

Andyjr1515

normula1 said:

That looks so good Andy.

Thanks!

PhilKing

It's looking great Andy

Andyjr1515

PhilKing said:

It's looking great Andy

Thanks, Phil

PeteC

Very nice indeed.  Those flamed maple lams in the neck are a superb contrast to the other woods.   Very classy bass Andy ! 

Andyjr1515

PeteC said:

Very nice indeed.  Those flamed maple lams in the neck are a superb contrast to the other woods.   Very classy bass Andy ! 

Thanks, Pete.  This is turning out to be one of my favourite builds

Jazzthat

I don't know how I missed that thread .

Absolutely stunning skills and well thought out build ! Walnut top is eye-catching too  .

Andyjr1515

Jazzthat said:

I don't know how I missed that thread .

Absolutely stunning skills and well thought out build ! Walnut top is eye-catching too  .

Thanks.  Much appreciated

Andyjr1515

And...it's finished!

I'll post the finished pics next post, but just a word on a couple of the things fitted:

First the headless system.  And what a nice, great to use and looks good too is Andre Passini's Nova Guitar Parts headless system!  String fitting (2 minutes for a full string change - I timed myself) and tuning up is effortless.  The tuners are as smooth as silk and very accurate.

The only challenge I had was getting enough height adjustment of the saddles while still being able to clamp then in the normal way - but I have some thoughts how this could be easily and cheaply improved which I will bounce off Andre shortly. 

But for 'best bang for the buck' - the system absolutely gets my vote and I will be fitting them on all future headless builds.  And that includes guitars because the guitar versions are just as good  

 

The other is the SimS Super-Quad system.  They are fully passive pickups - the 9v battery is simply there to light the LEDs to tell you if you are in 'Split' 'Single' or 'Humbucker' mode.  All the tech happens in that fancy switch, including some very clever work that means that there is NO volume change from the humbucking to single/split coil modes.  And this is fully passive - remarkable.

Here are the options:

 

The three switches at the bottom are the SimS Tri-logic switches, then the 3 at the top are simply on/off toggles for each.  There is a master volume and master tone and that's it.

They are a synch to fit - for each pickup you attach the loom and then solder an earth, the hot out and the 9v feed for the LED.  Mind you, it does take up quite a bit of real estate...especially with three!!

 

And this, to SimS's and my knowledge, is the first bass in the world with three of these remarkable pickups  

Andyjr1515

And finally, the finished pics.

Before the arty farty stuff, this is a more typical 'leaning up against the amp' pose.  Yes - the tuners are clear of the ground









As always, thanks for looking, folks