FINISHED!! EB-3 style bass

Andyjr1515

Hi, here's a summary thread of my present build.  It's another bass for our old-gits-band's bassist, Pete.  

Still a little obsessed with Jack Bruce, Pete's asked me to do a custom build in the style of JB's EB-3.  I say 'in the style of' because he wants certain changes (34" rather than 30") and I want certain changes (neck dive avoidance features, through-neck, fancy top, mudbucker alternatives, etc,etc).  Happily Pete isn't a purist

There's a detailed build thread on Basschat, but I'll pop a few WIP shots up to present if anyone's interested.  Shout if you want any more detailed 'what and why''s

To offset the extra neck length and short horns, the bridge will be set well back and the top horn is further forward than an SG bass:


Fancy mahogany for the top.  Will be stained purplish red:
 

There's always a first time for everything.  I'm going for conventional wings and joined top!


Some chambering to reduce weight.  To help the balance, I left the top left hand unchambered:
 

Wenge veneer demarcation for neck and top:


Basic components glued:


I'll post a bit more of the progress shortly...

Andyjr1515

Here's some further progress.

Truss rod installed, fretboard glued with maple demarcation veneer and neck profile rough finished:




Wings added to headstock, 'swifts' inlays cut and installed to ebony ' in the style of' plate:


Pickup chambers forstnered and chiseled:



Volute shaped:



Next post will bring it up to date.  Thanks for looking!  

Andyjr1515

And up to present:

Frets and dots installed:


Body dyed with (of course) ink.  This uses raspberry calligraphy ink to give just a hint of purple in the cherry red that Pete is after.  Initial finishing in tru-oil.  This will eventually be gloss varnished for the body and headstock, leaving the neck tru-oil slurried and buffed in my stained wood variation of @WezV 's excellent method  :




And the first gloss coat just put on this afternoon.  Standard polyurethane varnish, thinned a bit with white spirit and wiped on with a microfibre cloth:


Thanks for looking, folks  
 

mart

Looks very nice indeed!

I was thinking the top fret access was going to be a bit limited, but then if it's for an old gits band, it's probably fine as you'd never want to play up that high anyway.

And that got me thinking ... I wonder if you could design a bass where nothing above the 5th fret was accessible. I could see a lot of guitarists buying one of those for their bassists.

(Full disclosure: I am a bassist who regularly plays above the 12th, although 95% of the notes I play are much lower down).

Andyjr1515

mart said:

Looks very nice indeed!

I was thinking the top fret access was going to be a bit limited, but then if it's for an old gits band, it's probably fine as you'd never want to play up that high anyway.

And that got me thinking ... I wonder if you could design a bass where nothing above the 5th fret was accessible. I could see a lot of guitarists buying one of those for their bassists.

(Full disclosure: I am a bassist who regularly plays above the 12th, although 95% of the notes I play are much lower down).

    

It's actually a fairly easy reach to 21st although 22nd is a bit of a stretch.  Having said that, Jack Bruce's EB-3 only had 20 frets anyway...  

Andyjr1515

Not sure what happened to the emoticons there!

mart

Wow! You are clearly a magician as well as a superb luthier!

JezWynd

Beautiful work, the top is stunning. Are you going to incorporate a Varitone?

Andyjr1515

mart said:

Looks very nice indeed!

I was thinking the top fret access was going to be a bit limited, but then if it's for an old gits band, it's probably fine as you'd never want to play up that high anyway.

And that got me thinking ... I wonder if you could design a bass where nothing above the 5th fret was accessible. I could see a lot of guitarists buying one of those for their bassists.

(Full disclosure: I am a bassist who regularly plays above the 12th, although 95% of the notes I play are much lower down).

Actually, a 6 string electric built to where the deaf old lead guitarist git's strings are 17cm away from the pickups might be an even better enhancement....

Andyjr1515

mart said:

Wow! You are clearly a magician as well as a superb luthier!

Lol (if in doubt revert to old technology)

Andyjr1515

JezWynd said:

Beautiful work, the top is stunning. Are you going to incorporate a Varitone?

Thanks, Jez

Yes.  I'm discussing on the other forum whether I can incorporate a few more choke options by putting in a 6 way rotary rather than 4.  At worst it will be as the EB-3: bridge only; both; neck only; neck with choke.
  At best it will be: bridge only; both; neck only; neck through full primary coil choke; neck though 1/2 primary coil choke; neck through full secondary coil choke.

Sporky

Very nice - I really, really like that maple line betwixt fretboard and neck in particular. The finished top looks excellent too.

With the cavities, is it forstner bit then hand work with a chisel or similar?

Deadman

Absolutely gorgeous. But hardly surprising when I saw who the maker is.

Andyjr1515

Sporky said:

Very nice - I really, really like that maple line betwixt fretboard and neck in particular. The finished top looks excellent too.

With the cavities, is it forstner bit then hand work with a chisel or similar?

Thanks, Sporky

Yes - both pickups have generous skirts so this is by far the lesser risk way  When I am putting in pups with no pickup ring, it's template and router... and crossed fingers

Andyjr1515

Deadman said:

Absolutely gorgeous. But hardly surprising when I saw who the maker is.

Flattery will get you everywhere, Deadman.

Thanks - very much appreciated

Andyjr1515

Just a slight diversion for those of you who have followed some of my previous explanations of how I personally do wipe-on varnishing (I'll repost a link if I remember to!). 

(The "why" by the way is that I don't have the facilities to do a decent job of spray finishes and for my own guitars and basses and - with full prior explanation of the advantages but also shortcomings - generally for other folk's instruments, my preference is wipe-on polyurethane varnish.)

Anyway, back to those who may have tried - one thing I can't remember if I covered in my previous 'how-to' explanations. If you remember, every two or three coats and before the final coats, I lightly flatten with c 800 grit used wet. This serves to:

• flatten off any ripples in the finish, that can become cumulative with too many un-flattened coats

• take out any dust bunnies that, again, will cumulatively create a hill of accumulated coats around them

• take out any runs, etc

But - and this is the bit that I don't think I've covered - it also sorts out this (the varnish here is still wet):

I've purposely left this like this to illustrate the point. What it is NOT is brush marks (actually in my case microfibre cloth slub marks). You could run over this with the finest lacquer brush and these lines would still appear.

So what are they? And how can you prevent them?

Well, what I THINK is happening is that the sloppy wet varnish, applied on top of three coats of shiny and hard varnish, is bonding better to itself than to the surface that is being coated. So it is creeping away in fairly random places, aligned to the direction of the application. I say that because:

• it is probably a total guess from someone who is completely ill-informed and wrong (what moi? )

• the same thing happens to my wife's pottery glazes if the bisque fired pots have a composition or firing issue

The cure is the flattening - in fact this effect isn't, in my view, a bad way of judging when to flatten. The flattening roughs up the surface as well as the above things and allows the wet lacquer to adhere to the surface more strongly than to itself.

This is the body - exactly the same number of coats applied at the very same time with the very same bit of microfibre cloth but I had flattened this before the coat (the varnish here is also still wet):


I'm sure there are better and more accurate explanations but, from a practical point of view, the above is fairly representative.

Jalapeno

Lovely job ! A beautiful instrument

paulnb57

Oh Lordy! Another stunner!

Andyjr1515

Thanks, folks.  It's coming along nicely so far.  Still plenty of time to c**k it up

Andyjr1515

Nearing the attempts at the final coats, I think.

Sometimes it goes a bit squiffy at this stage, but at the moment this is the front:


...and this is the back:


In both cases they only had one flattening and one of two thin final coats.  What will often happen at this stage is that something will squiff, in which case it is another flattening followed by at least two thin final coats.

AustrianJohn

Lovely guitar, lovely finish. Well done!