# Multiscale Chambered 8-string Hybrid Singlecut - build thread



## Erik Hauri (Sep 26, 2009)

BH-8 chambered singlecut multiscale 8-stringer

OK so this is a collaboration with Ben to build a chambered singlecut 8-string bass/guitar hybrid instrument  and a multiscale on top of it (why not, right?). The design borrows from some obvious influences, but also benefits from some improvements to the body design, neck joint and layout of the multiple scales. There are some cool features to the build that will be good to document.

Heres the menu:
Walnut chambered body core
Figured claro walnut top, back & headstock lam with wenge accent layers
5-piece maple-walnut neck with CF reinforcement
Tru Oil finish
29.5 to 25.5 scale, 7th fret perp
Bartolini humbuckers and paired P-bass pickups (passive)
Master Vol (push-pull coil tap) & Tone, 3-way switch for humbuckers
Stacked Vol-Tone for bass pickups
Separate outputs for bass & guitar pickups

Ben will be using this for pursuing some new directions in jazz guitar  I am almost as anxious as he is to hear what he can do on this thing.

Here are some shots of the claro top with the body outline superimposed  the knots in the center will be mostly routed out in the pickup routs by angling the bookmatch seam.











Gotta have a template:






Neck lams are individually milled in the drum sander.






This might be the first photo I&#8217;ve shown of my glue press &#8211; pretty simple, a set of 2&#8221; high aluminum angles to keep everything dead straight and distribute the pressure from 8-10 bar clamps. Trigger clamps at the ends and in the middle (through a hole in the table) keep all the lams firmly down against the table. Wax paper underneath so I don't glue the neck to the bench....










Carbon fiber bars routed and installed. I like the System 3 epoxy adhesive for all my epoxy gluing tasks (resin 105 and slow hardener) &#8211; it is very forgiving in the mix ratio, so that you can use pumps instead of measuring with a scale.


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## hufschmid (Sep 26, 2009)

wow, awesome so far, keep us updated please


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## Empryrean (Sep 26, 2009)

Yes


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## vansinn (Sep 26, 2009)

This will be very interesting to follow. Beatyful walnut you have there..
I have a problem understanding the fairly small cavities; are those based on calculations or practical experience? Or mainly for weight reduction?


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## Erik Hauri (Sep 26, 2009)

Those cavities are the cutouts for the sound holes in the top - the chamber underneath will be much larger. We will also chamber the treble side, still trying to decide how much.

This week I am in Oregon for a conference, but had a free day to drop by Gilmer Hardwoods in Portland to pick up the Madagascar ebony for Ben's fretboard. Gilmer has been in Portland for ~25 years, and Jim MacDermott at the warehouse was very helpful in guiding me to exactly what I needed - a solid straight quartersawn piece that is black as night.


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## Fred (Sep 26, 2009)

Sweet jeebus this is going to be a good looking guitar, looking forward to more updates!


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## Apophis (Sep 27, 2009)

Cool project


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## MF_Kitten (Sep 27, 2009)

this is going to be cool, and that is some black ebony!


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## Mundas (Sep 27, 2009)

Nice looking project


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## hairychris (Sep 27, 2009)

That walnut top =


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## TheSixthWheel (Sep 27, 2009)

Looks fantastic. Is it just the photo or is that Gilmer building far from straight and level...in a fantastically skewed way. I'm a fan of observing the effect gravity has on things over the years.


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## Erik Hauri (Sep 27, 2009)

Yeah the Gilmer building has clearly been there awhile, at least 22 years in that location they say. It is funny, the white sign points you to the front door, and on the front door is a sign that says "<---- Use other door" 

The place is stacked floor to ceiling and 2 pallets deep with every kind of wood imaginable, and another stash stored outside wrapped in tarps. In one way it is very disorganized since they do not sort their wood by species - but everything they have for sale has been trimmed, planed and/or sanded S2S, then sealed in a thin layer of shellac - then each piece has a unique ID number like they list on the website and is stuck on a shelf. So if you're looking for a specific kind of wood, you have to pick through the shelves to find it.

I think it would be tough to buy stuff in the rough like I usually do - and I think this is why you pay a little bit more at Gilmer, because of the work already put into each piece.


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## Elysian (Sep 27, 2009)

Erik Hauri said:


> Yeah the Gilmer building has clearly been there awhile, at least 22 years in that location they say. It is funny, the white sign points you to the front door, and on the front door is a sign that says "<---- Use other door"
> 
> The place is stacked floor to ceiling and 2 pallets deep with every kind of wood imaginable, and another stash stored outside wrapped in tarps. In one way it is very disorganized since they do not sort their wood by species - but everything they have for sale has been trimmed, planed and/or sanded S2S, then sealed in a thin layer of shellac - then each piece has a unique ID number like they list on the website and is stuck on a shelf. So if you're looking for a specific kind of wood, you have to pick through the shelves to find it.
> 
> I think it would be tough to buy stuff in the rough like I usually do - and I think this is why you pay a little bit more at Gilmer, because of the work already put into each piece.


I <3 Gilmer Woods. Marc Culbertson is the guy I always go through when I call in an order there, he's just a cool guy all around, even has a UV777BK now, getting into 7's. I'd love to be able to go to the shop some day, maybe if I go visit my sister in WA I will.


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## Erik Hauri (Oct 12, 2009)

Lots of progress today - routed for the truss rod (Allied), I like to rout after installing the CF bars so that I don't have to have 3 open routs side-by-side with thin walls between (increasing chances for blow-out).

I cut the scarf joint, then brandsawed the neck taper (just outside the line) and routed the final taper using my trusty neck-taper template. If the neck I'm working on doesn't fit an existing template, then I will make a new one from 3/4" (which I did for this build). I double-stick the neck onto the top of the neck-taper template then rout the edges using a pattern-following bit with shaft bearing.














I glued the scarf with the joint within the headstock rather than underneath the fretboard - tape front & back to hold the piece in place, then clamp with a flat caul on the front. The clamps help to keep the tape from slipping on both sides and effectively squeeze the joint tightly. Once I add the side-ears, headstock lam and backstrap the joint will be invisible.






The Madagascar ebony fretboard will have "integral binding" which is binding of the same wood made from off-cuts of the board sliced off after cutting the taper.






I cut the taper - and trued up the edges on the jointer - so that the cut is directly underneath the outermost strings (so that the scale is accurate when I slot the board). The edges of the offcuts were trued up by sanding on a flat marble door threshold (c/o Home Depot).

I print the fret layout from CAD (using "hairline" mode so the fret lines are very narrow), stick it to the fretboard, and cut the slots on the radial arm saw.






After all the slots are cut, I'll go back and enlarge the nut slot.






Then the offcuts are glued back onto the board and clamped - I'm using epoxy (West System) in this case, apply to the offcuts, let it sit for 30 minutes to tack up, then clamp. I like it better than Titebond for ebony.






Another 30 minutes later, I go back and clean out the slots while the epoxy is still soft.






Today I also started laminating the walnut top & back to the underlying wenge accent - I started with a 1"+ thick piece about 12" wide, resawed it into two 1/2" thick pieces, planed them flat, then glued a top (or back) panel to both sides, and clamped the whole works in the press with a big piece of limba as a caul.














Once the sandwiches are dry, I will trim them and resaw them again to yield a thin veneer of wenge underneath the walnut top & back plates.


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## Empryrean (Oct 12, 2009)

looks to be coming together quite well


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## Hollowway (Oct 13, 2009)

Very nice! It is a shame you don't have any tools though.  
I'ma break in there and build myself something when you're asleep!


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## Andrew_B (Oct 13, 2009)

where did that bench mounted clamp (in the last pic) come from?
i wouldnt mind getting my hands on one of them lol...

the integral binding idea is sweet, takamine uses it on some of their acoustics...

its coming along nice, keep the updates coming


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## Erik Hauri (Oct 13, 2009)

Hollowway said:


> I'ma break in there and build myself something when you're asleep!



Well the bedroom is right above the garage/shop, so as long as you don't fire up the compressor or the dust collector, you should be good to go! 

Yeah, that press clamp is true - I got it here:
H5510 Shop Fox® Deluxe Press Clamp


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## thinkpad20 (Oct 13, 2009)

Awesome, dude... your hand-made multi-scale bridge has convinced me to get one on the one I've got planned... major props, you've got skills and creativity out the wazoo!


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## HighGain510 (Oct 13, 2009)

That is shaping up nicely, love the walnut top too!


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## leandroab (Oct 13, 2009)

This is amazing!


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## xmetalhead69 (Oct 13, 2009)

thats so awesome. Someday I'd love to try building.


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## Apophis (Oct 13, 2009)

looks great so far


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## phaeded0ut (Oct 13, 2009)

Really looking pretty! Thanks a bunch for posting links for the folks from whom you purchased your wood. Wow, that could really be taken out of context couldn't it?  Awesome picture story, looking very forward for more updates.


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## Erik Hauri (Oct 15, 2009)

Got the fretboard cleaned up today - slots are clean and no joint can be seen.


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## phaeded0ut (Oct 15, 2009)

Looking really beautiful, man.


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## Erik Hauri (Oct 17, 2009)

Today I resawed the claro top & back plates off from their wenge cores, leaving a layer of wenge underneath which - after cleaning up on the thickness sander - serve as the dark veneer layer underneath the figured plates. After cleaning up the jointing surfaces, it's time to glue up the bookmatches.






Also starting the chamber layout on the body core:


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## Neil (Oct 17, 2009)

Awesome, sweet idea with the 1/2" wenge with the top and backs stuck to it thats re sawn, I guess you can get wenge slabs cheaper than just buying the veneer straight away?

and how come you use epoxy to glue the fretboard bindings back on?


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## Apophis (Oct 17, 2009)

I really like how it's going to look like


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## Erik Hauri (Oct 17, 2009)

Veneer is probably less expensive, but I also find it a bit of a hassle to apply in large sheets like this, as it is not easy to get it to glue down perfectly flat. Also, this layer at ~0.1" is thicker than a typical veneer sheet (~0.045").

I like to use epoxy on ebony because it makes a joint in ebony that is less visible than Titebond, and I feel that it adheres to ebony better than Titebond. I haven't done any break tests to prove this, just intuition.


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## Neil (Oct 18, 2009)

So will you glue the fretboard to the neck wood with epoxy as well then?

(is it black epoxy or clear?)

Cheers


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## Erik Hauri (Oct 18, 2009)

Yep - I will be using the same epoxy to attach the fretboard to the neck. I actually do this with all of my fretboards - since the epoxy has no water in it, it avoids the little bit of back-bow that I tend to get on a perfectly straight neck when using Titebond. The moisture from the Titebond tends to soak into the neck wood a bit (not so much in the ebony), and this is avoided when using epoxy.


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## vansinn (Oct 19, 2009)

^ eloxy also make eventual repairs fairly more difficullt.. (a luthier once had to mashine-off an epoxied fretboard on a electric 12-stringer I used to have).
AFAICT from various build threads, the glue/moisture issue can be resolved by using a very sturdy rig for the glue job, and leaving the parts in there long enough.


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## hufschmid (Oct 19, 2009)

There is no problem with titebond, thousands of luthiers around the world use titebond including myself....

Thing is, the neck must be clamped on a flat surface and left in that position to dry for at least 48 hours, then it dries perfectly flat....

I clamp it on a marble table.


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## Erik Hauri (Oct 19, 2009)

The System 3 epoxy is reversible with heat - it does not respond to steam like Titebond does - just heat.

Titebond certainly does work well - I used it to glue the neck lams together - but having glued up ~8 fretboards with each, it is a fact that for me, for the order in which I do things, I consistently ended up having to use the truss rod to tweek out backbow when using Titebond but not when using epoxy. Its not very much - sometimes its so little you could almost get rid of it when levelling the frets - but its there. And I think it tends to be worse when the moisture-absorbing properties of the neck & fretboard woods are very very different (like ebony on mahogany) - though I am data-limited in this observation.

There are many ways to skin this cat and end up with a fine neck in the end. My own personal build style is to radius, taper and fret the board while it is off the neck - this way I can press the frets in while the board is resting on a flat surface and work out any backbow that comes about due to the fretting. I also rough out the back contour of the neck while the board is off. So then I have a flat stress-free neck blank and a flat stress-free fretboard that I glue up (with epoxy) in a long maple glue caul that has the same radius as the fretboard. When the neck comes out, it is stress-free and dead flat, and if I've done a good job on the fretboard, typically the only fret levelling I have to do is the upper-fret fallaway.


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## Erik Hauri (Nov 18, 2009)

Alright - some measured progress over the past few weeks (another way of saying that other things have been stealing my time!!!)....

Fretboard is radiused @ 28" and is now ready for tapering:







This shot shows the bass-side chamber almost done, and the control cavity done. A few wiring channels yet to rout in, after that I will be routing the back for a brass string-thru stop for the ball ends (also serves as the common string ground) to inlay it, so that it will be covered when I glue the back on. Only the holes around the ball ends will be visible from the back.







The bookmatched Claro top & back have been trimmed just outside the body outline, and the waist offcuts bookmatched for the headstock veneer:






Here's how I go about cutting out the cavity cover from the back wood - first a small slice through using a Dremel cut-off wheel...






...just enough to thread in the blade for the scroll saw.






Like almost all my covers, this one will be screwless - held on with small neo mags.


Finally I printed out part of my CAD drawing to lay out the string-thru holes for the individual bridges - at this point we've crossed a bit of a Rubicon, as the distance from the bridges to the end of the neck pocket is absolutely fixed, almost no room for error now baby! Gotta get that neck pocket right the first time!


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## TimSE (Nov 18, 2009)

yummy


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## phaeded0ut (Nov 19, 2009)

Very pretty work! Keep the pictures a-rollin'!


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## Apophis (Nov 19, 2009)

awesome work.waiting for updates


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## Dusty201087 (Nov 19, 2009)

Very cool guitar man! Can't wait to see it finished


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## Erik Hauri (Nov 24, 2009)

The brass ball-end retainer plate, with ground wire soldered on, is inlayed into the back and now it's time to glue the back plate on.

For this I'm using - again - the West System epoxy adhesive. No special reason except that I like it, it has more "open time" on it than Titebond, and I'm relaxed and not in a rush today. Titebond would have been fine too.

In this shot notice that I've drilled the string-through holes through the back - I have an outline drawn that will allow me to line them up perfectly with the bridge plate inlayed into the body core once the two are laid up together.






The back goes into the press on a layer of wax paper.





Then the body core goes over top, being VERY careful to keep it well aligned as I tighten the press screw onto a black limba block to distribute the pressure. I don't need a ton of pressure here, just enough to close the joint and make sure I have squeeze-out all around the body. The green wire is the ground wire from the ball-end retainer.





Sorry for the blurry shots today - wearing rubber gloves and trying not to get epoxy on the iPhone....

The left-over epoxy is used to stabilize a couple of knots on the top, which will mostly be routed away for the pickups anyway, but still...






And now laying out the screw holes in the neck heel - want to avoid drilling into the CF bars! Pilot holes will be drilled here on the drill press, and once the neck pocket is routed, these will serve as guides as I drill through the bottom of the neck pocket. Perfect hole alignment will be the result.

There is an extra screw on the bass side as there will be more string tension there, and the treble-side holes are closer together because the heel underneath the neck pocket will be sculpted to improve upper-fret access.


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## Apophis (Nov 24, 2009)

really really nice progress  can't wait to see more


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## Sebastian (Nov 24, 2009)

Good work so far!


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## Erik Hauri (Nov 25, 2009)

Body with the back attached is out of the press - 






- needed to ream out the string-thru holes a little, and stabilize the knots on the back with a little epoxy






Fretboard is tapered *just* a hair wider than the neck (here it is taped to the neck taper template), and buffed out & ready for fretting






Also roughed out the neck's back contour today - for this I use my DIY duplicarver with the stylus pinned so that the router doesn't move.






7/8" roundover bit for this, set the depth so that the bearing rides on the neck taper template that the neck is mounted to.






In about 5 minutes the back of the neck is roughed out, leaving room at the heel for hand carving, and at the headstock for a small volute. This is far from a final carve, as the neck needs to get a little thinner toward the nut and I need to knock down the shoulders a little, otherwise it feels like a baseball bat.







One of these days I'm going to have a set of custom compound roundover bits made that will be very close to final shape - but today is not that day.


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## vansinn (Nov 26, 2009)

Lovely work, Erik. I so enjoy reading/seeing how different luthiers do it, technique, tools et al..


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## TomParenteau (Nov 26, 2009)

I'm already diggin' the neck profile!


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## troyguitar (Nov 26, 2009)

That's a good idea for rough carving the neck, I might have to get a big roundover bit and do something similar. I did my other 2 necks so far by hand with draw knives - it works but the profile is not terribly consistent.


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## Apophis (Nov 26, 2009)

looks great, no doubts


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## Andrew_B (Nov 28, 2009)

looking good man!
i like the diy duplicarve.... i might have to do something like that 

looks great


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## hartguitars (Nov 30, 2009)

Erik, This is really starting to shape (pun intended). I can't wait to see the next step! 

And for everyone that is checking this thread. I must say, Erik is an absolute delight to work with. I'm already in the mental planning stages for my next instrument from him.


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## Erik Hauri (Dec 1, 2009)

More work on the neck carve today - I planed the back of the neck down to final thickness at #12, then carefully sanded a gentle graduation toward 0.05" thinner at #1. The neck will also have a subtle volute underneath the rout for the headstock truss rod access, so that is left thicker.

Then I mark a thin pencil line along the center of the back of the neck, and DON'T touch it until very final sanding. I still have a bit of work to do on the shoulders of the carve and around the heel & volute, but I don't want to touch the final neck thickness until I get to the finish sanding stage - so I avoid that pencil mark from now until then.







Yeah! Side dots!






On a multiscale fretboard with binding, where the slots don't protrude from the edge, it can be easy to mess up the side dots. The temptation is to look perpendicular to the edge of the board and mark the center between where the slots end - but no. What you want to do is to site down between the slots, at an angle to the edge of the board that is equivalent to the fret slot angle, then mark THAT center. So that from the player's position looking at the neck, the dot is centered between the frets. It would look messed up the other way.


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## Empryrean (Dec 1, 2009)

It's looking good

...too good


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## Dusty201087 (Dec 1, 2009)

Looking awesome man


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## Hollowway (Dec 2, 2009)

Many thanks for the explicit walk though on this. Very helpful tips!


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## dboulders (Dec 5, 2009)

awesome build man!! keep it up


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## Erik Hauri (Dec 27, 2009)

After a very busy trip out of town, and with the holidays under wrap, I have a blessed week off work to spend in the shop! 

Quite a bit done today. The board is now fretted, for this I first bevel the slot edges with a triangle file, and I use Titebond in the slots and tack the fret ends down with superglue, after first trimming the tangs off where the fret will sit over top of the binding. I like to press them in with an arbor press.






Ta-da! 






There's a little bit of back-bow induced by the fretting, but the binding helps minimize it and most of it is worked out by flexing the board so that the tangs bite into the edges of the slots. 

Before gluing the board onto the neck - comes the neck pocket template, out of 3/4" ply. I traced around the neck heel, rough-cut inside the line on the bandsaw, then fine tuned it with a spindle sander and hand file. The alignment is checked by sighting down the truss rod channel and marking a corresponding centerline on the template. This centerline is then used to register onto the centerline of the body when routing the actual neck pocket.






Neck pocket action - here I am screwing the template to the body to assure that it won't slip. The screw holes are located in pickup routs so they will be routed away eventually. Here I'm routing into the body core and later I will rout into the top.






Here the soundholes are roughed out using a scroll saw and cleaned up on the spindle sander.






Here is the top replete with soundholes and neck pocket.






First dry-fit of the neck looks great! 






Now - remember the screw holes I drilled through the neck heel? With the neck in place like this, these are extended into the bottom of the neck pocket and through the back as pilot holes for the final screw holes (including ferrules).


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## Andrew_B (Dec 27, 2009)

good stuff man,
looks sweet 

that fretboard is the cleanest i have ever seen


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## Kapee (Dec 27, 2009)

This build is as awesome as awesomecat, AWESOME!!


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## Fred (Dec 27, 2009)

Fantastic work so far, man! I'm dribbling a little at the thought of what's to come, haha.


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## drezdin (Dec 27, 2009)

looks great

clean work on that neck pocket template


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## Customisbetter (Dec 27, 2009)

Eggcellent!

man i wanna go home and work on guitars.


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## Erik Hauri (Dec 27, 2009)

Got the fretboard glued up today - West System epoxy for this, a thin coat applied onto the neck and spread evenly with an expired Starbuck's card. The strip of tape down the center is to keep the epoxy off the truss rod, which has its threads wrapped in a thin layer of plastic wrap (same goal there).







The fretboard is stuck on, then the whole works is flipped over and place into the neck glue press. The fretboard surface rests in a hardwood caul that is radiused to match the fretboard radius, then the whole works is clamped tight so that the epoxy cures with everything dead straight.






Here the devil is in the details - epoxy can be really difficult to clean up if it gets where you don't want it to. So the radiused caul is lined with wax paper. The fretboard surface and edge is covered with blue painter's masking tape so that the epoxy won't get on the board. Then another narrow white masking tape strip is applied to the fretboard edge, and flares out away from the fretboard to catch the epoxy squeeze-out, which I peel off (with everything still clamped up) after an hour or two while the epoxy is still soft but very tacky. That takes care of all the squeeze-out cleanup except at the nut and heel ends, which are taken care of with a 1/4" chisel to scrape off the excess. 






These steps are easy to take and minimize the sanding needed to clean up when the neck comes out of the press - 3 days from now.

Worked on the body as well today - routed some wiring channels into the body core before the top goes on.






The strip of wood between the soundholes is an area that can be prone to breaking if it takes a modest hit, so I reinforce it underneath with a thin layer of carbon fiber composite sheet.






I am not quite ready yet to glue the top on, as I want to finish the work on the neck first, attach the tuning keys, bolt it onto the body (with top tacked on), and check the balance of the instrument. We *may* think about some additional chambering of the body core if the balance works out.


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## Customisbetter (Dec 27, 2009)

that reinforcement was a great idea!


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## Dusty201087 (Dec 27, 2009)

Dude this build is *awesome*. Seriously man, major kudos


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## Internection (Dec 28, 2009)

this project is amazing. excited to see the finished project


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## polydeathsphere (Dec 28, 2009)

By god this is beautiful!!!!!!!


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## Erik Hauri (Dec 29, 2009)

Thanks for the mad props guys! 

Popped the neck out of the clamps today, cleaned up the edges and started work on the fret ends. Next will be to glue ears to the headstock and begin work on the headstock veneers.


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## Sponge (Dec 29, 2009)

Oh wow... That is impressive! This looks classier and better than expensive furniture and furniture looking basses!


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## phaeded0ut (Dec 30, 2009)

Erik, this beastie is really looking gorgeous! Many thanks again for giving us a blow by blow of what you're doing and why with this build.


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## vansinn (Dec 30, 2009)

Yummi! Great work, Erik, can hardly wait for more..
+1 on showing those details


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## Erik Hauri (Jan 24, 2010)

More progress over the last few weeks. Got the headstock laminates thickness & trimmed, engraving done (local laser engraver who I work with a lot) and filled with black epoxy, then glued up and trimmed.
















Here it is with the tuner holes drilled out. Still a bit of work to do to smooth the transition with the ebony fretboard, and clean up the truss rod access.






Finally, was able to install the tuners and check the balance, which is quite good - so I will not upset that balance by routing more out of the body core. Figured top is now in the glue press and should be ready for routing out for the pickups in a few days.


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## Internection (Jan 24, 2010)




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## Andrew_B (Jan 24, 2010)

beautiful headstock design Erik 

i always loved the conklins with the bass machine heads....
this is gonna look great 

i dont think i have ever seen epoxy used in an inlay that big....
thats pretty cool,
and i bet it beats cutting out and shaping some perfect stone or pearl 

geat work


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## Erik Hauri (Jan 28, 2010)

Body is out of the glue press, edge sanded and neck pocket profiled. Also drilled recesses for neck screw ferrules, output jacks and recessed straplocs. All that's left is the roundover, pickup routs, control holes and finish sanding prep for the Tru Oil finish.

These are prior to profiling the area around the neck pocket.









Here's a wet shot of the back - this is the most killer walnut grain I've ever worked with, Ben made an excellent choice! And this is not even a good pic.


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## Evil7 (Jan 28, 2010)

that is sweet contrast in the wood grain


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## Customisbetter (Jan 28, 2010)

thats an interest neck bolt design you got there. can't wait to see it finished.


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## Internection (Jan 28, 2010)

CANNOT wait to see this thing finished


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## Erik Hauri (Feb 6, 2010)

30 inches of snow on the ground - what to do? 

The shoveling can wait - time to rout for the pickups!






And do the finish sanding - body is now ready to dry fit the hardware....






...except I'm waiting for replacement tuners to show up. I bymistakely ordered lefties (doh!).


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## Ram150023 (Feb 6, 2010)

This is the most insane build i have ever seen!!!  Really intrigued on how this thing will sound?? Cant wait to see it finished!! Awesome work and great thread!


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## Colton165 (Feb 6, 2010)

oh. my. god.


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## SYLrules88 (Feb 7, 2010)

wow. i wish i had a fraction of a clue of how to do everything you've done here. i need to buy some books 

looking really good (duh you already knew that). ill be checking back frequently!


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## Apophis (Feb 7, 2010)

looks just amazing


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## Customisbetter (Feb 7, 2010)

Sex on a stick.

excellent routes man.


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## Erik Hauri (Mar 24, 2010)

The day job has been annoyingly consuming these past few months - but hey, if I didn't have it then I wouldn't be building I guess!

The nut is cut, bolted on the neck, and the tuners and bridges have been fitted. I strung it up to confirm all the various alignments  and now it is disassembled and ready for Tru Oil.

This thing will really come alive when the Tru Oil hits it. This weekend.


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## vansinn (Mar 24, 2010)

This is turning out really beatyful; can _hard_ly wait for that oiled wood 
The pup arrangement puzzles me, it'll be interesting seeing it all mounted up.


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## s_k_mullins (Mar 24, 2010)

This is a really interesting guitar.. I can't wait to see it finished!


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## pink freud (Mar 24, 2010)

vansinn said:


> This is turning out really beatyful; can _hard_ly wait for that oiled wood
> The pup arrangement puzzles me, it'll be interesting seeing it all mounted up.



You ever visit the Novax site?

Novax Guitars: Fanned Fret Guitars, Basses, Custom-Built


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## ry_z (Mar 24, 2010)

vansinn said:


> The pup arrangement puzzles me, it'll be interesting seeing it all mounted up.



Looks a bit Charlie Hunter to me. 

This guitar looks incredible.


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## Erik Hauri (Mar 24, 2010)

Yeah, interestingly Charlie Hunter was here in the area not too long ago. I was all set to go see him play, then that morning Snowmageddon started - 52" of snow in one week.


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## Cheesebuiscut (Mar 24, 2010)

Have you considered adding another fret or so on that little fretless corner of board?

Its yelling at me I hadta ask


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## Eddie Loves You (Mar 24, 2010)

Very Wes Lambe; can't wait to see it w/Tru Oil.


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## Andrew_B (Mar 25, 2010)

looks great man, nice one


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## Apophis (Mar 25, 2010)

looks just great  keep up good work


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## Erik Hauri (Mar 25, 2010)

Cheesebuiscut said:


> Have you considered adding another fret or so on that little fretless corner of board?
> 
> Its yelling at me I hadta ask



Those are the voices inside your head - ignore them and they will go away. 

As it stands, there are 22 frets - not enough room for 24 - and 23 would just be awkward.


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## Erik Hauri (Mar 28, 2010)

Yeah Tru Oil


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## Apophis (Mar 28, 2010)

looks incredibly good, I just love it


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## Erik Hauri (Apr 12, 2010)

Got it all together this weekend - fretwork done, neck on, hardware on, strung up, set up - and it made its first noise. I LOVE that moment, it is like a child being born.

Or Frankenstein coming to life (take your pick).

Only bummer - the dual-concentric pot I ordered for the stacked bass-tone knob for the bass pickups has a wierd center detent on both shafts, NOT what you want on a volume pot. :angry: So I ordered a Fender one, and they sent me the wrong pot! :angry: :angry: 

Updated pics.


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## paintkilz (Apr 12, 2010)

looks really great, and that walnut is insane!


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## Durero (Apr 13, 2010)

Very nice


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## Andrew_B (Apr 13, 2010)

beautiful, 
i really dig the bass/guitar machine head combonation 

whats a centre detent?
not the lil tab next the shaft? i snap them off lol


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## thadood (Apr 13, 2010)

Andrew_B said:


> beautiful,
> i really dig the bass/guitar machine head combonation
> 
> whats a centre detent?
> not the lil tab next the shaft? i snap them off lol



I think it's one of the pots that have a "clicking" point, kind of like what a bass would have for active EQ boost/cut

This guitar is AMAZING looking. I can't wait to hear some clips!


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## Cheesebuiscut (Apr 13, 2010)

Yesplz.

the space for the last fret is still erkin me xD


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## BlackMetalVenom (Apr 14, 2010)

This looks so delicious..
Please make a video of you jamming on it. I bet this thing just oozes wonderful tone.


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## Erik Hauri (Apr 17, 2010)

The sun rises on the final day that the BH-8 is in the shop - Ben is coming today to pick 'er up.







The stacked volume-tone pot arrived the evening before, but I discovered this morning that the threaded part of the shaft was not long enough to protrude through the thickness of the top. So - of course - the day Ben is due to arrive, I am routing more wood from inside the control cavity!! 

All's well though. Finally, the man has the instrument in his hands. 










Clips to follow.


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## Despised_0515 (Apr 17, 2010)

That is ONE. CLASSY. AXE.

Bravo. 

Clips and vids if you can! Please!


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## xwmucradiox (Apr 18, 2010)

Incredible work on this instrument. Im also surprised to see that there is an ERG builder right in my town which I hadn't expected. Do you build for other people regularly or is this sort of a one-off project?


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## Erik Hauri (Apr 18, 2010)

Regularly but not often, maybe one per year or so. I've got like 4 projects of my own in various stages of completion as well.


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## cvinos (Apr 18, 2010)

Oh Ben is actually wearing a shirt with buttons while playing it, seams to be careful enough though. What a nice instrument!

Any chance for sound clips or later on, recordings, to get an impression how it sounds?
And if the question actually may be answered, how much was it worth in dollars finally?

Thanks for posting!


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## vansinn (Apr 18, 2010)

Gorgeus instrument  Big congrats, Erik! Looking forward to the clips.
What a cool place you have, with table tennis and cozy corner and all..


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## Skyblue (Apr 18, 2010)

Dude, that thing is freaking awesome. can't wait to hear some clips! 
Oh, and the basses on the wall look quite badass as well


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## Apophis (Apr 18, 2010)

just beautiful guitar, if it play how it looks it can't be any better


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## Stan P (May 6, 2010)

Great influences, great personality, awesome work!!!

The neck does not look big for a 8 string!!


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## hartguitars (Jun 1, 2010)

Hey everybody - 

Just wanted to give another shout out to Erik as well as everyone on this forum that has been checking in periodically. I've had the axe for a month now and I have to say we are still going strong. I ended up putting some 12's with a wound G on the guitar side, and it has really helped the tone. This guitar just sounds amazing. Played my first gig with her last weekend and I managed to get through 3 set's without dropping the ball. Give me a few years and I'll start to feel comfortable... Anyhow I have a few videos from the show that can be found here:








The video of the guitar is a bit dark/grainy thanks to bar lighting, but we recorded with a couple of condensors into an interface so the sound is all there. 

Thanks again everybody!


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## ViK-master (Jun 1, 2010)

Congrats! Excellent work and the result is awesome!

The chambered character is heard very well on the vids btw. Nice tone!


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## Erik Hauri (Jun 2, 2010)

Ben, you have really come along in just a month! It is becoming a natural extension of you.

It took me a long minute to realize you guys were a trio with NO bass player. Yes folks, that's Ben holding down the bass AND comping over top. Nice!


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## Ironbird (Jun 3, 2010)

Very impressive build!


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## right_to_rage (Jun 7, 2010)

Yes, this was amazing to see it all come together. Well done!


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## Chumple Spuzz (Jun 13, 2010)

wow...AWEOSOME job on that, man. thats one of the most beautiful guitars i've ever seen. reminds me of charlie hunter.


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## Dragonfly (Jun 13, 2010)

This is really sweet!


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## Despised_0515 (Jun 13, 2010)

Holy wow, playing the bass bit with the guitar over just sounds unreal to me!

Great playing and again, that is a GORGEOUS guitar!


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