Night terrors

I woke up early this morning convinced I had made a mistake in the sides of the neck. I figured the best way to calm my nerves was to make a template for the wings. Sure enough I had made a mistake, but the mistake means there's is too much wood left on the neck, which is a lot easier to fix than the opposite. As I said I'm making this body smaller than others I have made and I had accidentally started doing some measurements from the back end of the bass - the body on this one will be a couple of inches shorter, so measuring from a common point is important.

I got to cutting out my template - highly confusing for a bit there, but I got it figured it out. I'm not 100% sold on this exact shape, but it will be something like this.

The fretboard isn't cut yet, so it looks a little wonky, but here's what it looks like with the fretboard resting on top.

I need to figure out what kind of wood to use to fill in the fretlines. Its the one issue with the cocobola that I'm using for the fretboard, its not really dark (which would mean light lines would stick out, or really light (where dark lines would show).  I'll probably go for ebony, but that's a decision for later.

Neck - the long cuts

I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but I've never built a neck before. I've built two basses and one guitar, but I have always bought the neck from Carvin. Its adding a level of difficulty for sure, but so far so good!

I made the cuts on the back and sides of the neck. I wasn't sure how I would do this but I went with the tried and true (but slow) way. I did a rough cut with the band saw then use the belt and drum sander to bring it in and hand sanding to finish it off. It came out really good - nice and straight.

I had a few "crap, I didn't think of that" moments, once you remove this material you lose any square edges to reference off of. I had a few saves where I almost did the wrong cut first. after I cut the back off I realized that my plan of using the sanders was kind of shot. I figured out a solution by double stick taping the cut off part on the back of the neck back in place. While it wasn't perfect, I had a reasonably square edge to run through the sander. 

I also carved the volute - in pretty much the same way I did the rest of the cuts - rough cut with the band saw and final forming with the drum sander. It looks pretty good, but will look a lot better once I the the back rounded. Right now the whole neck is looking kind of 2 dimensional.

I'm still unsure how I'm going to do that rounding, I don't have a spoke shave, I think I'll have to get one to finish the neck off. I can probably get some of the way with a sander and/or power plane. 

Getting stuff done!

I did a bit more tonight - I sanded the headstock flat (nothing to see there) and I cut out the bottom of the neck blank where the body will go. Now its starting to look like something and I can really see why I cut those small cuts the other night. I swear sometimes I look at what I cut and I can't figure out why I made that particular cut. Its all coming together now.

Tomorrow is the long cuts down the neck. This will be interesting! The maple is so hard I wonder how I will form it into the neck shape. More challenges and I can't wait!

The Small ones are the worst

These two small cuts have had me thinking for a long time - its not a lot of wood, but its very hard maple, so using a chisel seemed like it was going to be an eternal job (and not guaranteed to come out straight). My second thought was to use a drum sander in the drill press, we talked about it and decided that with a carefully placed fence we could use a router. A bit terrifying, but it came out perfect. I know these look out of place, but trust me it will all come together. I have to square off the upper end of this, all the wood below this point will be removed. Essentially this is where the wings will attach to the neck.

When you really look at the lines on the neck blank it really is amazing how much wood you remove from it. Its probably more than 40% of the total wood by the time all is said and done.

Probably won't get to more before the weekend. The next steps should end up showing a bit more dramatic progress.

First cuts

I got over to my father's workshop today to start the bass build. These first cuts are the most stressful, ah what am I saying, all the cuts are stressful.

First we put the neck blank through the sanding planer to get two square edges and remove some imperfections, then I cut the angle for the headstock.

I wish there was a better way to cut it, I just used the bandsaw, which had no problems with the wood, but its not very accurate. It just means a lot of sanding to get it perfect.

Next we cut the slot for the truss rod, a few small issues, but nothing a little shimming won't take care of. With the two ebony stringers in the neck blank, I really doubt I even need a truss rod, but man it would suck to have this thing built and find out I did need one. The depth of the channel for the truss rod is 7/16" and the neck is only 5/8" or so thick at the end, so there's not much margin for error there!

I will need to figure out how to expand the hole at the end of the neck to be able to put an allen key on the truss rod nut, but that's down the road.

Probably no more time this weekend to work on it - I have to figure out how to shape the neck, there's a lot of really hard wood that needs to be removed. A saw sounds like a good idea, but I think I'll be using a planer of some kind. There will be a lot of staring and comparing going on this week.

Work, work, work

It was a rough week at work, I was pretty burnt out by the end of the days, so I didn't get do much work on the bass. I don't want to start on this with less than a clear head.

I took some hard looks at the pieces and my completed basses and talked to a few people who have built guitars. So based on that I have started a build process list:
  - Square off sides of neck blank and fretboard
  - Scribe a square line where the nut/fretboard will be
  - Route slot for trussrod, create access to truss rod adjuster

  - Cut headstock angle
  - Shape neck

After I get to that point I'll figure out the next steps. I think the most challenging part will be figuring out how to drill the headstock to get access to the truss rod for adjustment. I have to find some videos, the basses I have all had that cut by a CNC machine, not with the kind of tools I have access to. 

Unfortunately it looks like this weekend will be pretty busy, so I doubt I'll get to work on it. I have a vacation week coming up in 3 weeks, I have a feeling that's when I'll make some real progress.

Video from the weekend

Sharing video KT and Millstone

Pieces, I got pieces

I am still missing the pickups and preamp, but I guess I am ready to begin the build! I'll take a few days to consider the process and then off to the shop!

Fretboard

The wood for the fretboard for the new bass build is amazing. I can't wait to get started!

I hope I can do it justice! Not the greatest pictures, but I think you get the idea. I had the company I bought the wood from slot it for the fretlines. I had hoped to get them to radius it for me as well, but apparently this piece of wood is too wide for their radiusing machine. I'll have to do it myself - which is a bit scary. I'll have to make a jig to hold it square while I sand. I hope that doesn't become a nightmare. This wood is remarkably cheap, so I guess that part of it removes some of the stress.

Back from VT!

Dawn and I just got back from Vermont, we spent four great days up there riding - 3 days at Kingdom Trails and one at Millstone. Both places were great, Millstone is a lot like the riding around here in CT - a lot of rocks and technical riding. Kingdom Trails is a lot more smooth and flowy. There is nothing in the world like cruising down a twisty trail through the woods at mach stupid speeds. The way the KT trails are laid out you can do that A LOT!

During the four days of riding Dawn and I rode about 50 miles, I did another 25 or so on my own. I hate having the camera steal away from the "real" moments on the trail, so we didn't take a lot of pictures. I have quite a bit of video and will put together a music video using some music from Plato's Cave (a band I was in 20+ years ago!).

This is a classic photo op at Kingdom Trails - in front of a sugar house. If you go here later in the year (or early Spring) you will see a spider web of tubing leading to the sugar house.

Dawn rolling down a nice section of singletrack trail.

I went out on solo rides a couple of the afternoons we were there - I got lucky on one ride (though that luck came with a good soaking from some rain) and caught a nice rainbow:

On that same ride I came around a corner and scared a black bear that was walking down the trail - I am no expert, but I think he was a young adult - he was probably about 100 pounds. He scooted up a tree that was less than 15 feet from me. At first I thought "how cool!" and grabbed my phone to take a picture.

It was far less cool when the bear heard the shutter noise and he dropped back down out of the tree keeping an eye on me. I was off my bike and terrified that he was contemplating a run at me. I had no idea what to do. I said aloud "I felt a lot better when you were up in that tree" and the bear turned his head and ran full speed down the hill away from the trail. Whew. I had a million thoughts running through my head, I had always heard that black bears were more afraid of us than we are of them, that was DEFINITELY the case!

During this trip I was reminded just how lucky Dawn and I are to share a passion for mountain biking. How great is it that we get to spend this time together doing something we love and getting to see all these great things in the woods?

KT is a well established mountain bike destination - the town of East Burke sees over 50,000 visitors per year just to ride their trails. Millstone is about an hour away from East Burke - I can see that they are trying to make Millstone into a similar destination for mountain biking - right now there are about 35(?) miles of really nice trails but the infrastructure just isn't there yet to make it a destination. It is a very cool area built around what used to be a granite quarry - there is rusting machinery, huge (I mean HUGE) piles of granite chunks and various other gear from the quarrying industry - it must have been quite the site back when it was active.

One of the many quarries we passed along the way:

Bookmatch for the "Pickguard" inlay

During last years "Snowtober" storm a large maple fell in a nearby forest I ride my mountain bike in. I noticed that the cracked pieces on the ground had spalting in it - similar to what I have on the front of the last bass I made. I paid a lot of money for the piece of spalted maple I used in the last bass, so I was psyched to find pieces just laying on the ground.

Unfortunately this tree is miles from the nearest exit point, so getting even these chunks out was a pain, I lost feeling in my shoulders from the extra weight in my Camelbak on one trip.

I carved a bowl out of one of the chunks. I have to finish sanding it and oil it. This piece had a lot of worm holes in it, which is cool for a bowl, but not so cool for the front of a bass.

I took one of the other chunks I found over to my father's wood shop today and bookmatched it. This seems like a fairly simple operation, but considering it was literally a chunk of wood, with no straight edges, it was quite a chore to get to the point where I could actually do the bookmatch cut. I had to work back and forth between the chop saw, the table saw and the band saw to get enough square edges that I could properly bookmatch it. Unfortunately the final piece is a little smaller than what I think I need. I'll keep it around and see if I can make the pickguard this small. Its off by about a half inch, a bit disappointing, but we'll see, maybe it will work out.

Now I'm thinking I need to get out there with a chainsaw and get more of this wood! Its on private property, so that would be a bit risky.

Return to fun

I spent the work week in Atlanta, uneventful, but tiring, while I was away brown santa delivered a few toys.

I wouldn't say I'm hoarder, but I do have a really hard time selling the old when I buy the new - I guess a bit of an emotional attachment. Over the last couple of years I've broke that cycle and sold off 4 or 5 bikes and 2 basses, which gave me a little play money to pay for some fun. I gotta say it feels great to get rid of stuff that I haven't even touched (except to move them out of the way) in years. Having some extra cash to use on new toys is a good thing too.

I got a new fork for my bike

I know a Fox would be the "right" fork to buy, but with a new bass build on the way, I needed to save some money for the parts for that.

While I was away I got some parts for the bass, and I ordered the rest. I am waiting for the pickups/preamp and the fretboard to arrive then I'll be ready to go. I can't really start the build until I get the fretboard as I need that for the first step.

I made a design on paper, then made a mock up out of cardboard. All my basses up until now have had very large bodies compared to other basses. I like the way they look, but this one will be more "normal" sized.

The neck is a seven piece laminate (maple, ebony, black walnut), the body will be black walnut with a tiger maple inlay, the fretboard is figured cocobola. I have a few things to figure out, probably about 80% of the design work is done - the rest will be on the fly stuff, I will have to see how things come together as I build.

I'll start work on it in the next couple of weeks - come on fretboard!

Start of the blog

I've thought about starting a blog for a while. I post enough to various bulletin boards that I figure I should just consolidate it to one spot. I expect this blog will be about the stuff that consumes my time - my family, riding bikes and playing music.

I guess the main impetus to start this blog is a new bass building project I'm about to start working on. I really don't have anywhere else to document it. I have documented build projects before, but it was usually on some obscure music related website bulletin board. I enjoy going back and seeing how the pieces came together. 

Moving day for Aaron today - off to the races!