The Neck
Now for some
pictures of the neck and body as construction begins. The neck
was begun almost two years go, at the same time that I started
the neck for the 4-string Spalted Maple Jazz bass that I finished
in the summer of 2004. Both necks were cut from the same piece
of flamed hard rock maple. Here are three pictures of the neck
after the truss rod was installed, and the fingerboard glued
in place: |
The truss rod is installed
to adjust at the heel, and I will be routing a cavity into the
front of the bass so that it can be adjusted with the neck installed
to the body. The truss rod is installed with a u-channel of thick
paper under it, and a strip of masking tape above it, so that
it will not rattle inside the neck.
|
Once the glue has dried thoroughly,
I will use the bandsaw to trim the neck to shape, but slightly
oversized. The neck will be trimmed to the final dimensions (1-7/16"
or 36.5mm wide at the nut, 2-1/2" or 63.5mm wide at the
22nd fretline). The nut dimension is slightly narrower than a
Fender Jazz Bass neck, which is 1-1/2 inches or 38.1mm--but
what can I say--I like narrow necks!
 |
|
This picture shows the headstock
and upper end of the fingerboard. Note the Birdseye and flame
figure in the two pieces of wood that make up this neck. The
headstock still needs to be shaved down to final thickness.
 |
This picture shows the heel
end of the fingerboard, and the slots that I have cut for the
fretline inlays. The slots are .023" wide, cut with a special
blade I bought from Stewart-MacDonald last year. The slots are
approximately 3/16" deep, and will be filled with some maple-dyed-black
veneer I got from Woodcraft.
 |
|
This is the back
side of the headstock, showing the rough cuts I made with the
bandsaw to start the profiling of the neck. In the past I've
used the oscillating drum sander to shape the neck, but these
bandsaw cuts will dramatically speed up the process.
|
The heel of the
neck from the back:
|
|
I spent most of
this evening working on the neck for the fretless bass. Here's
the headstock, which has been trimmed down to slightly under
5/8" thick, and the edges have been sanded more or less
smooth on the drum sander and belt/disk sander. The holes for
the tuning machines have been cut on the drill press with an
11/16" Forstner bit.
The neck has been
rough-sanded to a medium C profile, as shown in the next two
pictures. In addition, I have inlaid the 1/4" diameter Paua
Abalone position markers in the fingerboard, and black plastic
3/32" diameter side marker dots have been installed on the
edge of the fingerboard. |
|
|
The neck from the
back side. You can get an idea of the wonderful flame figure
in this neck:
|
This picture shows
the installation of the fretlines, made from Indian Rosewood.
I sliced these pieces of veneer from a fingerboard blank, on
the bandsaw. They're a little too thick for the fret slots, so
I used a Dremel Tool with a 1/2" diameter sanding drum to
sand them down so they would fit in the slots.
|
The neck is now completed,
except for applying the lacquer finish and installing a nut.
I've spent a couple of hours each evening over the last three
days sanding the fingerboard true, fine-tuning the neck profile,
and doing the final sanding. Interesting development: the neck
now has a pretty slender "Vintage V" profile, which
is what I prefer. Very nice. Also, the neck has been thoroughly
sanded, first with 100-grit, then 150-grit, and finally with
220-grit. It feels almost silky now. Next I'll use 320-grit to
get the fingerboard extra smooth, and to polish the abalone inlays.
|
|
|
|
I've been applying coat after
coat of lacquer to the neck, and finally got the point where
it's time to put the logo and other graphics onto the headstock.
This picture shows the two necks I'm working on right now, with
the decals applied:
The guitar neck at the bottom
is for the guitar that's being built along with this bass. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Body
The body is cut from a blank
that I made up last summer, and cut to the Oakhurst shape a couple
of months ago. It was originally cut with the idea that I would
build a 5-string from it, but since this will be a 4-string,
the area around the neck pocket will have to be reworked a little
for the narrower neck (2-1/2" wide instead of 2/5/8").
So far, the body is a full 2 inches thick, which is too much.
There are two possibilities for how I will deal with this problem:
- I will be scheduling some
time with Hank Mauel to use his thickness sander to get it down
to a more manageable 1/5/8" thick.
- Or I can shape the body with
my belt & drum sanders to taper it thinner as you get farther
away from the center line, and leave it 2" thick at the
centerline.
Another possibility I'm considering
is the apply a bookmatched spalted or quilted maple top to this
body. This would require planing or sanding the body down even
further than indicated in the first option above. |
|
I went with Plan
B and sliced the body down the middle, planed it to 1-11/16 inches
thick, and glued it back together. This is the top:
|
This is the back
side of the body after I glued it back together:
|
|
Now I get to show
off the new router. It's a Craftsman Commercial, 2-1/4 HP Peak,
with two bases--one is a conventional fixed base, and the other
(shown here) is a plunge router base. In this picture, I've just
completed routing the rounding of the body edges with a 1/2"
corner bit:
|
Another picture
of the body after the edge rounding was completed. Note that
the neck pocket has been cut as well:
|
|
Another picture
of the neck pocket:
|
This is the body
after the next stage: cutting the cavities for the pickups. This
bass (as I said before) will have a P/J set of pickups made by
Ronnie Sweet of Sweetsounds Ltd.
 |
|
This pictures the
control cavity, cut with the new template set I got last month
on Ebay. This set enables me to cut a recessed area for the cover
plate so that it's "inlaid" into the body. Very nice.
|
Another shot of
the top of the body, showing the line I've sketched onto it for
the forearm contour. Next step: use the drum sander to carve
out that forearm contour.
 |
|
|
|
|
