# 6 String Fretless Bass Build



## RV350ALSCYTHE (Oct 25, 2012)

I am in the process of buying wood and hardware for a bass build and would like any input from those with experience. Wasn't planning on a build this year but I was given the option a couple days ago and need to start on it next Wednesday 

This is the current plan

*6 string fretless neck through bass
5 ply neck Purpleheart/maple/P/M/P 1inch/ply
Flamed Maple or Purpleheart or Ebony Fretboard
36inch scale, flat radius fretboard
1 inch Walnut back 1 inch flamed maple top for body
Flamed maple matching headstock
Forest head and body shape
Clearcoat finish
Pickups/controls undecided
*

Other wood options available to me are Ash, Basswood, Iroko, Jatoba, Mahogany, Padauk, and Poplar. If another combination of woods will be easier to work with and/or finish I am open to suggestions.

*1)* Is this a decent wood combination for a bass tone on the brighter side?

*2)* Being Fretless should I align the individual saddles evenly or stagger them properly in case I fret the neck it in the future?

*3)* What are some good websites to order hardware in north america? (im in canada)

*4)* Is a scarf joint necessary for an angled headstock? Or can it be cut out of the 2inch thick rough neck shape?

*5)*Should I order reinforcing rods for the neck? Or use two trussrods instead of one?

Thanks for the help!


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## mwcarl (Oct 25, 2012)

RV350ALSCYTHE said:


> *1)* Is this a decent wood combination for a bass tone on the brighter side?



Not completely sure for a bass, but from the neck woods, I'd guess it would be plenty bright.



RV350ALSCYTHE said:


> *2)* Being Fretless should I align the individual saddles evenly or stagger them properly in case I fret the neck it in the future?



I think you answered your own question, although it depends on what bridge you choose (individual bridge or otherwise). I'd say place the bridge as if it wasn't fretless.



RV350ALSCYTHE said:


> *3)* What are some good websites to order hardware in north america? (im in canada)



You probably won't find any good sites in Canada. Allparts and direct from Hipshot are good choices that I have personal experience with.



RV350ALSCYTHE said:


> *4)* Is a scarf joint necessary for an angled headstock? Or can it be cut out of the 2inch thick rough neck shape?



Of course it's not necessary, but I personally consider it a gigantic waste of wood not to use a scarf joint for angled headstocks. Especially for a neck-through. Remember that your bass headstock is going to be pretty long, so you may need more than a 2" thick neck blank for a completely one piece neck. Also consider the neck angle (if any).



RV350ALSCYTHE said:


> *5)*Should I order reinforcing rods for the neck? Or use two trussrods instead of one?



You've chosen pretty stiff woods, so you might be able to get away without reinforcement additional to a single truss rod. I would do two truss rods for a bit of insurance though.


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## RV350ALSCYTHE (Nov 1, 2012)

mwcarl said:


> Not completely sure for a bass, but from the neck woods, I'd guess it would be plenty bright...



Thanks for the input!
Especially for the Allparts link, found most of what I wanted.


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## jarnozz (Nov 1, 2012)

Love the fact you´re making a 6 string fretless! I´m keeping a close eye on this one.


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## RV350ALSCYTHE (Nov 1, 2012)

I'm trying to keep the cost of materials down (and ease of acquiring proper strings and parts) and simplify the design due to time constraints so I've made a few changes.

3 Piece maple neck with angled headstock
35.5inch scale
2 Ply Purpleheart body wings

Spent a few hours scaling a small printout of a LTD F-5E into a full size 6 string template. Purchased lumber. Will soon be building!


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## iron blast (Nov 3, 2012)

Looking sharp bro. I'll be watching this thread for shure.


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## HaMMerHeD (Nov 3, 2012)

RV350ALSCYTHE said:


> I am in the process of buying wood and hardware for a bass build and would like any input from those with experience. Wasn't planning on a build this year but I was given the option a couple days ago and need to start on it next Wednesday
> 
> This is the current plan
> 
> ...



1) Tonewood...no comment.

2) On a fretless bass, fine intonation is dependent upon finger placement, not saddle placement. You need to get as close as reasonably possible to the correct scale length (which varies with a few factors), but precise placement is not critical.

3) Bestbassgear.com

4) Scarf joint is stronger. It "can" be done by just sawing the angled headstock out, but it will be weaker than if done with a scarf joint.

5) With those woods, a reinforcement rod should not be necessary. Two truss rods is a good idea with such a wide neck, but it will necessarily make the neck profile a bit thicker. Ibanez's GV1006 is a very expensive 6-string with a single truss rod. It can be easily done with one rod, and you get to have a slimmer neck, but you do sacrifice some adjustability.

A note about truss rods:
Truss rods are not for strength. Indeed, one could easily argue that truss rod slots make the neck wood weaker. The rods themselves don't make the wood stronger. They only provide the neck with adjustability. The strength/adjustability compromise is worthwhile, simply because of the nature of wood. It moves around and changes shape with changes in temperature, humidity, string tension (tuning changes), etc. On an ERB, two rods are useful because the narrower strings will generally apply more tension to the neck than the fatter ones. Thus, there is an uneven gradient of tension applied to the neck across a 6-string bass. With two rods, you can deal with that. With one, you can't.


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## Navid (Nov 4, 2012)

HaMMerHeD said:


> 4) Scarf joint is stronger. It "can" be done by just sawing the angled headstock out, but it will be weaker than if done with a scarf joint.
> .



Disagree.
It would be 100% correct if the neck wasn't laminated, in this case it wouldn't be much stronger, also he can carve a volute which makes it just as strong and sexy.


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## RV350ALSCYTHE (Nov 8, 2012)

HaMMerHeD said:


> 1) Tonewood...no comment.
> 
> 2) On a fretless bass, fine intonation is dependent upon finger placement, not saddle placement. You need to get as close as reasonably possible to the correct scale length (which varies with a few factors), but precise placement is not critical.
> 
> ...




I've decided on two truss rods for the added adjust-ability. Humidity and temperature change drastically here so I'll probably need it on a home-made instrument.



Navid said:


> Disagree.
> It would be 100% correct if the neck wasn't laminated, in this case it wouldn't be much stronger, also he can carve a volute which makes it just as strong and sexy.



I don't know why I didn't look at a few multi-ply necks to realize that 
My neck wood is not very thick so I kept a scarf joint as an option to get a better headstock angle. I think it will be more work (time constraints) so I accepted a slight angle cut into the neck as is. 

If you look closely to the small paper template in the pics you'll see a sharp thick volute 

I have a lot of ideas floating around about the final design of the volute and back of the headstock so it is sure to change.


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## RV350ALSCYTHE (Nov 8, 2012)

Purpleheart has been planed/jointed/cut to size for the body. The leftover will be used to widen the headstock. Bridge arrived, which is a Solo Pro for 6 string. Reasonably priced and no sharp edges.

































I've come to the decision to *rough-cut the neck and headstock profile Before Laminating due to no band-saw*. I have no way to cut the neck profile after lamination because of the blank thickness. I think a Jig-saw will do fine for a rough-cut through 1inch of maple (1 inch per ply).

I plan to mark the fretboard side of the neck blank so i can align the 3 neck ply afterwards. For each ply I will draw out the neck and head profile and use a jig-saw to rough-out the profile with excess to rasp/sand away once glued.
Once all 3 are rough-cut I will lay them fretboard side down across the clamps to try and get it as flat and uniform as possible, let it set then continue with the body lamination.

All feedback is welcome, and I understand this is not the correct way to be doing this, any suggestions would be great.


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## blaaargh (Nov 8, 2012)

Headstock profile, ok, but you really shouldn't cut the neck profile with a saw. Just use a big ass file or rasp... It'll take a lot of elbow grease, but you'll be way better off in the long run.


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## ECGuitars (Nov 8, 2012)

blaaargh said:


> Headstock profile, ok, but you really shouldn't cut the neck profile with a saw. Just use a big ass file or rasp... It'll take a lot of elbow grease, but you'll be way better off in the long run.



It'll be way better to cut the profile beforehand and be quite a lot more accurate, the more accurate you cut it the better, the flatter your starting point for carving the better.


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## blaaargh (Nov 8, 2012)

Makes sense, but when cutting three separate laminates I'd be reaaaally worried that the cuts wouldn't line up right. Seems like it'd be pretty easy to get off, even if it was just a little bit. But hey, if you're confident you can cut it out and line it up correctly, go for it.


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## RV350ALSCYTHE (Nov 9, 2012)

blaaargh said:


> Makes sense, but when cutting three separate laminates I'd be reaaaally worried that the cuts wouldn't line up right. Seems like it'd be pretty easy to get off, even if it was just a little bit. But hey, if you're confident you can cut it out and line it up correctly, go for it.



There will be plenty of excess around the profile for final rasp/sanding, and I'll be able to line them up by shaping the final neck profile into this.

I just want to remove the excess so I'm not rasping this thick maple slab by hand.


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## RV350ALSCYTHE (Nov 29, 2012)

BOOO, no ebony at all from Exotic Woods, so I'm stuck with smelly rosewood.





















The brown doesn't look as bad as I expected beside the white and purple.


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## Winspear (Nov 29, 2012)

Oh my god this build <3


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## BlackMastodon (Nov 29, 2012)

So when does the fun part start?


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## HaMMerHeD (Nov 30, 2012)

^^ Seriously.

Let's see some fucking sawdust.


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## RV350ALSCYTHE (Nov 30, 2012)

The sawdust is usually at the shop and these pics are taken at home (The shop has claimed 2 projectors, a camera and a laptop due to dust clogging. I won't bring my nice camera there ever).

So far I've only used the table saw to split the maple into 3, flipped the middle board to offset the grain pattern then laminated the 3 pieces together with C-clamps. I glued and clamped two 1inch thick purpleheart boards to make 2inch thick body wings, which were then planed down, along with the neck blank, to the same thickness.

I had planned to Jigsaw the rough headstock shape to save time, but the problem of lining up the 3 maple neck strips after jigging seemed more difficult than hand-rasping the entire head and neck profile as suggested earlier in this thread. 

I now have a vertical Bandsaw so I'll be able to cut the entire bass profile out and complete this project at home.

As a bonus I am now able to get more detailed progress of what I'm actually doing instead of these boring after shots of clean wood.

Planed the rosewood fretboard down and I'm really liking the grain now, there's a lot of stripes/striping which is what I wanted from an ebony board.
I could upload/link some boring after Planing pics of the sweetgrain 
but you'll see it when I glue it to the neck.


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## RV350ALSCYTHE (Dec 28, 2012)

Routed the channels for the two truss rods today. 
It is -10.1°C outside not ideal working environment but it isn't getting any warmer.





Late 1970s Black&Decker Router and a 2012 Black&Decker work bench...the workbench is already crumbling from use 
I used a 1/4 straight bit and did 3 passes on each channel. I set the guide on the Router so it would follow the outside edge of the neck blank. I also laid out the location of my rods so that I didn't have to adjust the Router to cut the second channel. Followed the edge down the neck, then flipped to the other side and cut the second channel up the neck. Lower the router a bit and repeat. To get the proper depth on the third cut I sat the truss rod beside the bit and adjusted by eye until they appeared even.
The paper towel was to wipe the condensation off the inside of my safety goggles  repeatedly.





I've never been a fan of or a skilled user of the Router, despite having the guide locked I still managed to leave some wobble in the edges. I also did a single pass because the 1/2inch straight bit was in as far as it would go and the router was set as high as it could go. I should invest in more bits...I was lucky to find a 1/4inch straight bit for metal, which matched my truss rod thickness perfectly.





I moved everything inside out of the cold.
I ended up chipping the ends of the channels when I widened the top area to fit the adjustment tools.





Sloppy looking, but this is my first full build and first ever neck build. It can only get better with experience.





The threaded end of the truss rod turned out to be slightly larger than the rest of the rod. The chipped ends of the channel mentioned earlier will need to be cut out to fit this thicker end of the rod. Two problems seem to have solved each other.





Moving the thicker part into the adjustment channel it is easy to see both rods sit firmly into their respective channels.















Plenty of room for tiny wrenches and sockets.










More updates next week, hopefully get a lot more done during my week off.
Later


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## RV350ALSCYTHE (Feb 17, 2013)

Never did get any work done during my holidays. I caught the plague that was going around and ended up sick for 3 weeks.
Finally got my hands busy on this project again after more than a month away.

Used the bandsaw to cut the angle into the headstock, then this plane/rasp/file tool to smooth out the saw marks. I don't know what this tool is called.












Used the sanding block to clean up the plane/rasp marks.






Gluing the purpleheart sides on the headstock to widen it.











Made the sides even with the face of the headstock and layed out the design outline.






I don't know why I left the rods in during all this.
I used the bandsaw to remove as much material as I could around the head.






It's a low-budget bandsaw as shown by the terrible sawmarks 











After rasping and sanding. Still some visible sawmarks left to remove.











Final shape still needs some refining.


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## RV350ALSCYTHE (Feb 17, 2013)

I rough-cut a bit of the bodyshape into the body blanks. I left the sides flat to make gluing and clamping easier.






Now that the headstock face was nearly done I could layout the fretboard position and therefore mark where I wanted the volute to be. On the other end of the neckblank I marked the location of the body-neck join, which is where the back-of-neck profile would end.

I used the bandsaw to cut as much of the back profile as possible.






Rough Saw marks galore.






Ran out of working room on the bandsaw so I tried handsawing the rest.






This worked but was difficult.






This worked much better.











After a lot of rasping and sanding the tool marks are almost gone. I marked a final thickness of 1inch to allow for mistakes of cutting too deep. Once the fretboard is on the neck will be plenty thick for final shaping.


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## RV350ALSCYTHE (Feb 19, 2013)

Used the bandsaw to trim down the sides of the neck.











Glued and clamped only one body wing because it is much easier dealing with the one seam with these awkward clamps.


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## AwDeOh (Feb 19, 2013)

Navid said:


> Disagree.
> It would be 100% correct if the neck wasn't laminated, in this case it wouldn't be much stronger, also he can carve a volute which makes it just as strong and sexy.



As stupid as this sounds, I never thought about the volute adding strength - only sex appeal.


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## AwDeOh (Feb 19, 2013)

Love the Purpleheart dude, and as always, nice white maple makes me feel tingly down there.

Are those Workmate benches any good? They're on special at my local hardware store at the moment, feeling a little GAS.


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## RV350ALSCYTHE (Feb 19, 2013)

AwDeOh said:


> Love the Purpleheart dude, and as always, nice white maple makes me feel tingly down there.
> 
> Are those Workmate benches any good? They're on special at my local hardware store at the moment, feeling a little GAS.



Great Hobby bench for the price.
Treat it with care and you should have no issues, the Chinese Steel is easy to bend.


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## skeels (Feb 19, 2013)

I'm really digging this build man!

Keep up the DIY!!


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## RV350ALSCYTHE (Feb 20, 2013)

Glued the other half of the body to the neck today.
I did some measuring and figured out I can squeeze some extra length into the scale and make this 37". I really like my Dingwall with CircleK strings, so I now have the option of using their strings and extending this bass' scale a little.






I'm not sure which side of the fretboard I like better. There's a curve in the grain on the body end which makes it look odd either way.
The rosewood has oil slicks in the darker areas. Is there a way I can suck a bit of this out?






Here is the other side of the fretboard.


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## canuck brian (Feb 20, 2013)

If your fretboard is already cut to shape, glue it on and flush route the rest of the neck to it before you radius it.


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## RV350ALSCYTHE (Feb 26, 2013)

canuck brian said:


> If your fretboard is already cut to shape, glue it on and flush route the rest of the neck to it before you radius it.



Great advice, this will save me a lot of time. I was planning on trying a spokeshave, but I know I won't get as straight of a finish.


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## RV350ALSCYTHE (Feb 26, 2013)

I cut out the body shape using the bandsaw much like the headstock. I couldn't fit the Bass around the blade all the way so I made a lot of smaller cuts to remove as much material as I could then finish off with the rasp.
















The fretboard had some remaining marks left from the bandsaw I needed to remove. Used a hand plane and sanding block to clean it up.











Used the hand plane and sanding block to even the faces of the body wings with the neck blank as well as remove any visible glue along the seam.






I cut along the carve line in my paper template, which will be used on the Bass to mark where the carve will start/end.


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## 72xmulch (Feb 27, 2013)

love it!


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## CaptainLuckeyBeard (Feb 27, 2013)

Have you decided what electronics you want in here yet?


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## RV350ALSCYTHE (Feb 28, 2013)

CaptainLuckeyBeard said:


> Have you decided what electronics you want in here yet?



Yeah I have it already planned and purchased the parts, I'm going very basic. I haven't gone beyond basic wiring at this point only having done pickup and pot swaps.

Ordered a *CTS P-Bass kit*, so I'll have an input, volume and tone.

I have a *Lace BassBar 4.0 or 4.5*. I'm not at home so I can't verify what size it is.

For now I just want to build on my woodworking skills and produce a working instrument and learn from the mistakes made from this first build...and so far I've learned a lot


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## RV350ALSCYTHE (Mar 5, 2013)

I couldn't see the pencil lines so I used masking tape to outline the end of the body carve. I clamped the bass to a workbench and used a Rasp to rough shape the contours.


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## BlackMastodon (Mar 5, 2013)

Oof. The purpleheart looks great in that second last pic! Dis gon' be good.


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## crazygtr (Mar 5, 2013)

Nice carve.


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## Winspear (Mar 5, 2013)

Coming along so nicely!!


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## foreright (Mar 6, 2013)

Holy crap - the purpleheart looks awesome in that last photo... I wish we could get it easily (and not for the cost of an arm and a leg... and a kidney) here in the UK!


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## RV350ALSCYTHE (Mar 8, 2013)

I used the same paper templates flipped and on the back of the body to match the carve on the front.











I wanted the edges sharp like a blade, but soon realized this would be uncomfortable to play sitting so I toned down the edge a lot.











Glued the fretboard on. I could have used more clamps.











There was about 1/8" Maple around the fretboard so I decided to Rasp it away/smooth. I used masking tape to cover the edge of the fretboard as well as show me when I've gone down far enough with the Rasp (rasp will chew the tape and leave the rosewood untouched).
I finished with the sanding block.


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## RV350ALSCYTHE (Mar 14, 2013)

Started working on getting the tuners fitted by laying out positions then drilling pilot holes followed by 1/2" drill bit. The actual size is 17/32 but I don't have that size or could even find it locally. I've only seen that size in the machine shop. I used a round bastard file and sand-paper to enlarge the holes enough.







I left the headstock thick as I plan to only remove enough wood to fit the tuners. I rough-cut one side using the Dremel and a sanding drum bit. The volute will continue up the head between the tuners.


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## Djentliman (Mar 14, 2013)

I love how this is turning out! My dream now is to use some purpleheart to make a guitar cabinet!


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## RV350ALSCYTHE (Mar 17, 2013)

Djentliman said:


> I love how this is turning out! My dream now is to use some purpleheart to make a guitar cabinet!



This is the first time I've ever seen Purpleheart and I'm amazed at the colour. The local lumber store also has Jatoba which is bright orange. I'm going to try making a body of Jatoba for my RG8 neck in the future.

A purpleheart cab would look so badass!

I used the Dremel and the 1/2" sanding drum with 60 grit to eyeball the other side of the head. It's a little rough and requires some finishing work before the tuners will fit properly. The volute will definitely be huge.


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## Tordah (Mar 17, 2013)

Ohhhhh sweet ice-skating Jesus that is a beauty to behold.


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## Navid (Mar 17, 2013)

OH MY GOOOOOOD


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## Tordah (Mar 17, 2013)

That is such a beautiful colour. What sort of finish are you going to put on it? (Please say natural).


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## RV350ALSCYTHE (Mar 19, 2013)

Tordah said:


> That is such a beautiful colour. What sort of finish are you going to put on it? (Please say natural).



I'm leaving the wood natural and trying a Tung Oil finish.
Hopefully the oil will enhance the purple.


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## RV350ALSCYTHE (Mar 19, 2013)

I used fishing line tied to the outside saddles so I can have a visual representation of where the outer strings would fall on the fretboard. I also made a temporary nut out of Maple with the outer strings slotted.

With double-sided tape on the bottom of the bridge I placed it roughly where I wanted it, then tightened the fishing line via the tuners until the line was taught. I measured and marked in front of the bridge once I had it 37.5inch from the nut, which will be my final scale. I then moved the bridge sideways until the fishing line had enough room on either side so the strings would not be too close to the fretboard edges.

Once in place I cut the fishing line and drilled holes for the mounting screws. Luckily a couple of my old Dingwall strings were long enough to string up the outer saddles and get a better idea of string placement.

Next I'll have to decide where to position the single Lace Bass Bar pickup.


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## RV350ALSCYTHE (Mar 26, 2013)

Found some old strings and did a mock-up of what's done and compared it to some other basses. The longer scale length doesn't really show as much as I expected, also at a glance it still looks like a standard bass. The shortest scale Fender bass is actually the second longest overall. It does feel more cumbersome than the Dingwall or Carvin.






I'm still planning how to shape the volute. Here you can compare the difference between the Fender and homemade.






The neck will remain massively thick with a profile similar to a D.






Trying for a neck profile with the same thickness throughout its length.
The fretboard will stay at an infinite radius (flat).






Next* on the do to list is route the pickup cavity and rear electronics cavity to get closer to a sound test. Also waiting on an order of Circle K strings, a .166 6 string set to tune this to F# B EADG


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## skeels (Mar 26, 2013)

Love the family shots!

Also, that neck does seem huuuge- not knockin' it, sometimes I like a big guit-box, but is it neck heavy?


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## RV350ALSCYTHE (Mar 30, 2013)

It's neck heavy but it doesn't suffer from neck dive, seems to hang balanced from a strap with the massive neck.


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## RV350ALSCYTHE (Mar 30, 2013)

Not a fan of using the router on this hard brittle wood so I did it the long way. Used a drill to hole out the pickup cavity, then chipped it out using a chisel and hammer. I cleaned it up using the dremel and a router bit to smooth out the rough chisel and drill marks.


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## iron blast (Mar 31, 2013)

cant wait to see this finished


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## RV350ALSCYTHE (Apr 9, 2013)

Using a leftover piece of Purpleheart I cut it in half length and widthwise to get two thinner "boards" which I'll use to make the rear cavity cover and design a truss rod cover.






The Cavity Cover turned out nicely.






The initial truss cover design needs a lot of work but the basis of the idea is there, trying to follow the outside lines of the headstock.






Rear Cavity roughed out with just enough space to fit the controls.






The Cavity Cover matches the body grain nicely.






Nearly Invisible 






Still unsure of where to go with this volute, I wanted to try and incorporate the style on Ran Crushers, but thicker.






Using the Dremel with the router attachment and straight bit to clear out the recess for the cavity cover. I had to use tape to mark the edges, pencil wouldn't show on the purple and it is near impossible to get sufficient lighting through that dremel router attachment.
















...close enough for a first try, maybe next time


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## Winspear (Apr 9, 2013)

Amazing work! This is so hot


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## RV350ALSCYTHE (Apr 26, 2013)

Thanks for the kind words!

I received my Tung Oil in the mail, as well as discovered I didn't have a long drill bit to bore out the holes for the pickup to control and bridge ground to control, so I picked up a 6 inch long 1/4" drill bit.





Once again using tape to mark where I want to drill so the wiring clears the pickup mounting screws.





Drilling at a weird angle from the pickup cavity to the control cavity.









I used a punch to make a small hole to start the drill bit straight into he face of the guitar. I then used the Dremel with a pointed grinding stone to shape the shallow hole to allow the drill bit to grab at such a bad angle.





I kept checking over and over again worried I would exit out the back of the guitar since this hole started farther from the control cavity than the pickup wiring hole. With some luck and eyeballing it the results turned out great.





I tried to use the dremel and a router attachment to cut the rabbet for the nut, but it wasn't precise enough. I ended up spending a couple hours using multiple shaped files.





Started shaping a bone nut blank to fit the rabbet.









Gluing the bone nut using specialized clamping tools


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## RV350ALSCYTHE (Apr 27, 2013)

Nut glue was dry today so I strung up the Circle K .166, and the .037.

Did some rough nut groove cutting to get some playability out of the outer strings as well as set the outer string's spacing.

Soldered the Lace pickup directly to the output/input jack as this is just temporary to try out the sound of the Lace Bassbar.

Tuned the 166 to F0 and the 37 to G1 and it sounds great so far.


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## CaptainLuckeyBeard (Apr 27, 2013)

Looks great!! Something worth noting anyways, have you thought much about rounding off the edge of your fret board? It makes a world of difference in comfort. Are you going to radius the board as well?


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## RV350ALSCYTHE (Apr 27, 2013)

CaptainLuckeyBeard said:


> Looks great!! Something worth noting anyways, have you thought much about rounding off the edge of your fret board? It makes a world of difference in comfort. Are you going to radius the board as well?




It's a design I'm going with for personal comfort. The edge of the fretboard is rounded moreso than my production guitars/basses though it doesn't show up in the pictures.

The fretboard is going to stay flat/infinite to go along with my idea of uniform thickness between the face of the fretboard and back of neck regardless of where I am positioned. I chose the thick neck to overfill my hand when it is in a relaxed fretting position, so I don't have to put tension on my tendons as I do on super thin necks. Overfilling keeps my hand naturally wanting to close, which in my experience makes relaxed fast playing easier (less conscious effort).


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## RV350ALSCYTHE (Apr 27, 2013)

Strung up the rest of the circle k set. Rough-cut the rest of the nut grooves.
Tuned it F# B E A D G and sounds great, and plays great despite no setup or finishing the nut.

Classic farty fretless sound sliding up and down strings, exactly what I was going for.









I'm going to play it for a few days and work out any issues, then tear it all apart and prep to apply the Tung Oil finish.


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## vansinn (Apr 28, 2013)

Lovely 
I'm normally not a fan of bodies with those types of edgy contours, but it works on yours 

Nice detail with those purple heart ears on the head.
Don't change that über cool volute going in-between the tuners, it's just so sexily different!


BTW, what's the string spacings at nut&bridge?


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## RV350ALSCYTHE (May 22, 2013)

vansinn said:


> Lovely
> I'm normally not a fan of bodies with those types of edgy contours, but it works on yours
> 
> Nice detail with those purple heart ears on the head.
> ...




Bridge is 5/8 from saddle centre to centre. For the nut I eyeballed it all. Ended up with 1 5/8 inch between outer strings. I placed the inner strings based on what looked close. First nut I ever made and it turned out decent having no gauged files other than one round.


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## RV350ALSCYTHE (May 22, 2013)

Dismantled and removed the hardware, then sanded the entire guitar with 120 grit a couple times to remove as many marks as I could find, followed by a couple passes with 220 grit.

Once the surface was clean of debris and dust I applied my first coat of Tung Oil and hung the bass to dry.

















I'm in a basement with fluorescent lighting, which doesn't reflect what it really looks like. Using flash didnt work much better. It is somewhere in between. I'll take nice outdoor pics once the finish is dry.


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## jarnozz (May 24, 2013)

damn you. Now I want to finish my guitar with tung oil.. Would look lovely on wenge/ash


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## vansinn (May 24, 2013)

What's your string separation on the bridge?


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## RV350ALSCYTHE (May 28, 2013)

vansinn said:


> What's your string separation on the bridge?



As I stated earlier it is *5/8" spacing at bridge.
*Solo Pro BB6 bridge


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## RV350ALSCYTHE (May 28, 2013)

3rd application of Tung Oil has been applied.
I'm finding Tung Oil is hiding much of the woodgrain in the Purpleheart by darkening everything, while enhancing the detail in the maple giving it a brown/gold tint.

The only issue I'm having is lint/dust/fibres, which cling to the Tung Oil as it is drying. They are easily removed with a light sanding between applications. My work area is quite clean making me think the fibres are coming off the cloth I'm using to apply the Tung Oil.

Any advice on making a cleaner Tung Oil finish or better rags/cloth for application would be greatly appreciated.

As of right now I'm using old cheap bathroom washcloths.


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## HaMMerHeD (May 28, 2013)

Buy Finish Applicator Pads at Woodcraft

They should have a similar product at just about any woodworking shop. I'm not sure if Woodcraft ships to Canada.


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## Pikka Bird (May 28, 2013)

I may be mistaken here, but isn't purpleheart one of those woods that turn a brownish grey when exposed to UV lighting? Perhaps you should look into a UV protective oil (like they use on decks)


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## Nag (May 28, 2013)

this thing is so purple 

Me likey !


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## RV350ALSCYTHE (Jun 2, 2013)

HaMMerHeD said:


> Buy Finish Applicator Pads at Woodcraft
> 
> They should have a similar product at just about any woodworking shop. I'm not sure if Woodcraft ships to Canada.



Neat! I'm sure I can find a similar product, thanks for the suggestion.



Pikka Bird said:


> I may be mistaken here, but isn't purpleheart one of those woods that turn a brownish grey when exposed to UV lighting? Perhaps you should look into a UV protective oil (like they use on decks)



In my short time working with purpleheart it has browned whenever it is freshly cut or sanded and becomes more purple the longer it is exposed.

I have no idea how it will react to UV, most everything fades so I assume this will as well if left in the sun for hours. I don't think UV damage will be a problem as this bass will most likely never leave my house.


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## RV350ALSCYTHE (Jun 2, 2013)

Outdoor pics taken 3 days after 3rd application of Tung Oil.


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## Navid (Jun 2, 2013)

That volute is so simple and cool...


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## RV350ALSCYTHE (Jun 6, 2013)

Navid said:


> That volute is so simple and cool...



It makes working on this guitar easier as well. It's the same thickness as the body allowing the bass to lay flat on its back and head.


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## OfArtAndArsenal (Jun 6, 2013)

Here's that question again....
Did you use ACTUAL tung oil or one of the million "tung oil finish" products?


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## RV350ALSCYTHE (Jun 11, 2013)

OfArtAndArsenal said:


> Here's that question again....
> Did you use ACTUAL tung oil or one of the million "tung oil finish" products?



100% Pure Tung Oil - Lee Valley Tools

100% Tung Oil with no additives.

This stuff takes a long time to dry. The packaging says 24-48hrs but the first few coats needed 3+ days with wiping off excess. The purpleheart kept bleeding out the oil for days. It's been 6 days since the last application and the bass is done. It no longer bleeds and has a very slick feel all over.

I'm busy today but I should have time to take some final pics and a video on Wednesday or Thursday.


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## RV350ALSCYTHE (Jun 11, 2013)

The finish is complete. I then added the Copper Shielding to the pickup cavity, the control cavity and the back of the control cavity cover plate.
If you look closely you can see some oily beading as the purpleheart was still bleeding the tung oil.









I stuck the pots and input jack upside down into a chunk of Styrofoam as if they were in the cavity. I then soldered the Volume, Tone and Input in this jig. Later I soldered the bridge ground wire and the pickup wires before installing the electrical. All that remained was to re-install the hardware.


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## flo (Jun 11, 2013)

I somehow feel very much at home when I see your building process, I would have done most things very similar. Great work! And I love the colour


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## Lace Music Products (Jun 12, 2013)

If you could post a pic of the finished bass on our thread, we'd love to show it off! Love the build!


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## RV350ALSCYTHE (Jun 12, 2013)

flo said:


> I somehow feel very much at home when I see your building process, I would have done most things very similar. Great work! And I love the colour




Thanks for the kind words!



Lace Music Products said:


> If you could post a pic of the finished bass on our thread, we'd love to show it off! Love the build!



I sure will!


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## RV350ALSCYTHE (Jun 12, 2013)

Work Complete!

Some mistakes were made but I learned a lot and will make those adjustments for the next build. Glue Joints could be better with a different glue and better clamping. Two tuner holes suffered not Tear-Out but Tear-in? The drillbit caught the gluejoint and tore out a chunk as I began the bore. While roughing out the neckblank, specifically the bass side I slipped past the line and was left with that small indent near the upper body cutout and fretboard. The pickup cavity is not centered as well as I'd like leaning towards the treble side. The control plate fit could also be cleaner.

All this is aesthetic only. If you can find any other possible issues in the pictures please chime in.

I am extremely Happy with this build and the final product. I did an acoustic test with 4 basses laying on my bed and compared the B strings. The homemade fretless rings exactly like the Dingwall Combustion, which both smoked the shorter scale Fender and Carvin.

I'm still getting used to the sound and feel of an F# as well as improving the EQ settings for it, but it sounds and plays great for such a large string.
I'm currently using a .166 and will eventually try larger gauges.

Due to the massive neck profile I haven't touched either truss rod. I built the neck with a slight backbow because my wood warped after ripping it into 3 plys, under tension it stays straight, with higher tension strings perhaps the two truss rods will have a purpose


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## RV350ALSCYTHE (Jun 12, 2013)

More Pictures


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## HaMMerHeD (Jun 12, 2013)

I can't say as I would ever be able to play that mammoth slab of a neck profile, but it is definitely a nice bass, well executed, with some cool features.


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