Finished pics of the bass.....

stacked volumes, master tone. the PLAN for this bass is to be able to switch in & out scratchplate assemblies to try out new pickups.

this scratchplate needs redone as the neck pup is a hair out of line, but this white polythene sheet is about £2 a sheet (and the sheet is big enough for about 6 scratchplates) so I'm not too worried!!

This plays really well, and I think I'll be keeping it for a while!!

right, the top......

the outside is rough carved first, to an arch (whoda thunk it?)


then I set the pillar drill to about 15 mm and drilled a bunch of holes all over the inside. I removed the wood on the inside down to the depth of the holes

Then a LOAD of fine carving to smooth the inside.

Now, the top is roughly 12 mm thick all over, but it needs to come down to about 5mm before I start fine tuning.

I need to do 2 things. sharpen my chisels, and rig a set of calipers to measure the thickness as I go, because after about 8 hours work, I REALLY don't want to stick the chisel through the top!!

Archtop!!

OK, here goes on an archtop. On the cheap, as I haven't a clue what I'm doing!!


The back (Ovankhol) is flat like a regular acoustic and the front is carved from spruce bracing stock that I got from madinter for pennies..

the sides are bent, the linings glued in with neck & tail blocks and the back is braced then attached.

So, another few coats of clear, sanded out, then two coats of blue again, thicker at the rim. Once the Blue had a chance to dry, I sanded out the middle sections and then it's getting another few coats of clear over that.

I cut a scratchplate from a sheet of 1.5mm polystyrene sheet that was laying around and once the finish is dry I'll get things assembled.


I'm contemplating putting the two volumes on a stacked pot.........

we'll see!!

So, next step with the bass.... sand out the blue wash from the denser winter growth to leave the dark lines on the summer growth and then seal it all in with clear lacquer.

A couple of coats of clear, then a thin coat of translucent blue to follow.

Wow, it seems like MONTHS since I've posted anything here......

OK, it IS months as I was off on holiday and locked out of my workshop, but anyway!!

right, current work on the table is an electric bass for myself.the Idea is to make it a testbed for pickups to test various types until I get the "perfect" setup. hence the "swimming pool" route.

the body is Ash, the neck maple and the fretboard is a synthetic one I got off ebay for very little. allegedly from a Kramer bass........

Still, I decided to liven up the grain a little. I washed it with my usual water based varnish with a few drops of blue dye, then after it dried sanded it off again. the less dense summer growt absorbs more of the dye than the more dense spring/autumn growth so the grain is enhanced.

still needs a fair bit of sanding.

Haven't decided if I'm going to clear coat it now or go with a paler blue..........