Hi
Following my bubinga fretless completion, I got a pm from one of the members of the basschat forum to quote for a single cut, fretted 33" scale bass.
After a few email to-ing and fro-ing, we agreed the spec and the project was live.
The initial design was lovely but, by fluke, turned out to be too close to an existing UK maker's model - broadly a single-cut version of a jaguar top horn. Neither of me nor the customer wanted any aspect of the build to be regarded as a clone (even though it wasn't) but instead we talked through the other single cut concepts that he liked and didn't like. Through a process of elimination of PDF'd sketches, we settled on this, which he's very happy with:
The basic construction was agreed to be alder back, dark veneer separator and a fancy figured top, cutaway at the arm relief to expose the alder.
And did I have a fancy bit of wood for the top just waiting!
I bought this Camphor ages ago from Kirk at exotichardwoodsukltd and had been waiting for the right project:
Smells divine, too
![:) :)](/plugins/EmojiExtender/emoji/fb/1.gif)
It will be a thru neck (again) but - wait for it - I'M GOING TO BUILD THIS THE CONVENTIONAL WAY!
I know...me...building conventionally??? Well, I'm sure a lot of it will still get experienced luthiers shaking their heads and posting "why, why, why has he done it like THAT????" , but the bit that is going to be conventional is that I'm going to add body wings to the neck, rather than rout my normal slot.
I got a lovely bit of alder from guitarbuild.co.uk, that I promptly sliced in two, thicknessed and then band-cut the outline, cunningly leaving a space for the neck...
The great revelation, however, was when I had thicknessed the Camphor, squared and trimmed the joint line, glued them and popped the two pieces into the sash clamps...
...and then wiped the glue squeeze-out off with a damp cloth:
This is pretty much the colour it will look when it's sanded and finished...there's quilting, bird's foot-ing, lava flow-ing and everything going on in there! And it smells sooooo good
![:) :)](/plugins/EmojiExtender/emoji/fb/1.gif)
The rest of the wood is on order from David Dyke so next week, weather permitting, should see a decent bit of progress
Andy
Comments
Yup...building more is the only way
There's got to be dreadful pun somewhere about having Tunes on stage, but I can't think of one
Guessing how to do this stuff is probably closer to the mark...
Like the old joke goes, I pick 6 numbers, then discard those because none of those will come up, pick another 6 and throw those out, etc etc until I've just got 6 numbers left. My guitar builds are similar...you only see what I haven't chucked out trying to get there
Like the old joke goes, I pick 6 numbers, then discard those because none of those will come up, pick another 6 and throw those out, etc etc until I've just got 6 numbers left. My guitar builds are similar...you only see what I haven't chucked out trying to get there