Friday, November 2, 2012

Truss rod cover and pickup template

I skipped yet another bike ride last night to work on the bass, I'm going to have some catching up to do to get back in shape once this is over. Its really the first trip to the shop that I don't feel was entirely productive.

I made a truss rod cover out of a piece of spalted wood. Tough to get such a small piece of wood so thin. I used the bench mounted belt sander, its kind of amazing I have all the skin left on my fingers. I am not 100% sold on this as a truss rod cover, but I guess it looks cool in one respect. I guess the reason I am on the fence with it is because its the only "natural" shape on the bass - not sure if it fits in with the  other shapes of the spalted maple. 

I guess in looking at the picture, it looks ok: 
I still need to shape that headstock a bit more, its too blocky, I will make the bottom swing in a bit more above that second hole and I'll take a little off the top in between the second and third hole. 

I also made the template for the pickup cavity routing. I'll go as deep as I can with the router (1/4" or so) then use the drill press and a forstner bit to pull out the rest. With the neck in the way, I can't get the router down deep enough to use it to clear all the wood. The forstner bit is a lot faster and less nerve wracking. I'll finish it off with a chisel like I did the control cavity. I did a test run with the template - I might need to adjust things a bit, it seems like there is too much space between the pickups, which is a pain, but a lot easier to fix now than after I get the holes cut! I'll draw in the bridge and figure it out once I see how it will all line up. I suppose that's the reason it didn't feel productive, making the template took a lot of time, I know it doesn't look like much, but there's always these little things that pop up.
I'm on vacation today (though calls this morning) and I have some yard work to catch up on, a couple of Craigslist sales to conduct (all to fund a new road bike!), then the work shop. Its going to be a busy day!

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