Thought I’d done this

While it’s definitely easier and faster to post photos to Instagram, for some reason it doesn’t automatically generate a complete blog post here simultaneously. Possibly because WordPress is a completely separate entity. So you’ll have to pay attention to two different locations to get a more complete picture of what’s going on. I’m sure you can handle it.

Enough of that. You’ll have seen this first photo already, I suspect.

Bass body in a vise, after rasping most of the edges.

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Update time, I guess

Not as much progress over the holidays as I’d like, but that’s what happens around this time of year. All the help migrates south for the winter.

At least the first two photos have already been posted to Instagram and Facebook, so unless you’re interested in reading about the details, you can skip this post. Both of you.

Fancy-schmancy flush-fit control cavity cover.

This bit didn’t come out quite as nicely as I’d have liked.

Rough shaped neck

Since the nut end was more-or-less the right profile, I worked on the body end.

Inefficient?

There is probably a better way to do this.

I think the real solution is to not use maple for necks. I can tough it out for one custom neck, I guess.

Some small progress

A tiny tiny amount of work on the bass neck. Maple is a lot harder to carve than mahogany. And of course, the real job has forced a temporary relocation of the entire workforce (well, at least all that can be trusted with sharp tools.) So nothing is likely to happen for a while yet.

Geometry FTW

I was concerned about blowing out the front of the body while drilling the hole from the control cavity to the neck pickup cavity. Needn’t have worried, because Pythagoras. Below is the destination end.

Pretty much what I was going for

Lots of routing this weekend.

Mostly done neck

Not contoured, but the outline is done. The blue tape is where there was some tearout; it’s to hold the patch in place until I glue it.

The brown tape is just a place to write notes. Just out of frame is my 4th version of the headstock template, which is what I ended up using.

Neck and Routing Template for Bass

In case you needed more confirmation, the masking tape trick really works. I used it to shape the outline of the neck.

Apply tape to both pieces and then superglue them together

Rout, using a template (flush-cutting) bit. Not aligned like it’s shown here; this is after the routing was done.

Peel it apart and remove the tape.

Not using masking tape, I also cut a template for the neck pocket and pickup routing on the body. Material is 1/2″ MDF.

Here’s another shot of the neck.

This is what a Saf-T-Planer leaves on the back of the headstock when you thin it. Not bad. No blood.

Ears!

Cut the end off, split the cutoff bit, square it up with a block plane, glue, and clamp.

It sounds so easy when you see it written down like that.