Latest Project... Arrived!!!

[Orpheo]

uhm, whats the deal with the linseed oil? will it harden, will it stay sticky? is it neccasary to repeat the process every year or so?

 

[ByteFrenzy]

That's looking rather sharp there Rene..... :icon_thumright:

I got a kick outta how you said.... "just spent a week in the southwest of France".  It just sounds as though your a "jet-setter" millionaire....  :dontknow:

Well, it's about ten hours driving from where we live. I have a company car so it just costs me the gas and the toll on the french roads, all in all about $300 both ways. The place where we stay belongs to my sister-in-law. It's for rent in July-August but during the easter, autumn and christmas holidays we can stay there in exchange for doing some maintenance. And millionaire... it's going to be just the opposite, we just signed a contract for having a small wooden chalet built down there. That's going to take all our savings of twenty-five years, and just about every penny we can spare for the coming fifteen years. That will have a serious impact on my guitar building. I'll be abe to buy parts with what I earn selling completed builds, but nothing more.

 

[DangerousR6]

That's looking rather sharp there Rene..... :icon_thumright:

I got a kick outta how you said.... "just spent a week in the southwest of France".  It just sounds as though your a "jet-setter" millionaire....  :dontknow:

Well, it's about ten hours driving from where we live. I have a company car so it just costs me the gas and the toll on the french roads, all in all about $300 both ways. The place where we stay belongs to my sister-in-law. It's for rent in July-August but during the easter, autumn and christmas holidays we can stay there in exchange for doing some maintenance. And millionaire... it's going to be just the opposite, we just signed a contract for having a small wooden chalet built down there. That's going to take all our savings of twenty-five years, and just about every penny we can spare for the coming fifteen years. That will have a serious impact on my guitar building. I'll be abe to buy parts with what I earn selling completed builds, but nothing more.

Are you moving down there permanently, or is it just for a summer retreat? If you're moving down there to satay, then why not sell your place you live in now...Make some extra $$$$$.... :dontknow:

 

[ByteFrenzy]

uhm, whats the deal with the linseed oil? will it harden, will it stay sticky? is it neccasary to repeat the process every year or so?

No, the linseed dries completely (linseed oil is used for getting artist oil paints to the desired consistency - if it didn't dry completely there would be very few oil paintings today still looking the way the artist originally intended). The reason I use it for the first two or three coats is that it penetrates quite deep, and I have the impression that it brings more life to the figure of the wood. The last coat, which is when it's penetrated as far as it'll go, takes ages to dry but eventually it does (with a lot of hand rubbing). That's when I'll switch to Tru-Oil, which I really like for the final coats because it builds a firm, sealing film (enough to count as a 'real' finish for warranty purposes on a neck) which you can bring to a beautiful mirror finish with some elbow grease. This one will be a bit special because I plan to do a grain fill between the linseed application and the Tru-Oil.

 

[ByteFrenzy]

That's looking rather sharp there Rene..... :icon_thumright:

I got a kick outta how you said.... "just spent a week in the southwest of France".  It just sounds as though your a "jet-setter" millionaire....  :dontknow:

Well, it's about ten hours driving from where we live. I have a company car so it just costs me the gas and the toll on the french roads, all in all about $300 both ways. The place where we stay belongs to my sister-in-law. It's for rent in July-August but during the easter, autumn and christmas holidays we can stay there in exchange for doing some maintenance. And millionaire... it's going to be just the opposite, we just signed a contract for having a small wooden chalet built down there. That's going to take all our savings of twenty-five years, and just about every penny we can spare for the coming fifteen years. That will have a serious impact on my guitar building. I'll be abe to buy parts with what I earn selling completed builds, but nothing more.

Are you moving down there permanently, or is it just for a summer retreat? If you're moving down there to satay, then why not sell your place you live in now...Make some extra $$$$$.... :dontknow:

We might move there permanently when I retire, which should be in fifteen years (unless they raise the retirement age, as they've just done in the Netherlands). Selling the place where we live now would be a bad move since it belongs to my mother-in-law. It's a house with a large garage on the ground floor, an appartment one floor up (we call that first floor but in the US I think it would be second floor) where my parents-in-law live and above that there's another identical appartment where I live with my family. It's a purely practical arrangement that came into being a few years ago: now, when my father-in-law and I have opened a few bottles of wine, either he just has to crawl down one flight of stairs or I just have to crawl up one...

 

[Nando Vallart]

Looks good :icon_thumright:


Good about the move, but bad about the retirement, is there 60 years old too??? Here is ¬¬

 

[ByteFrenzy]

Looks good :icon_thumright:


Good about the move, but bad about the retirement, is there 60 years old too??? Here is ¬¬

65... There is no icon that really shows how that feels, maybe a bit of  :tard: mixed with  :sad1:
If they bring it to 70 I'll probably just explode or something...

 

[Nando Vallart]

that's just retard :tard:

 

[Orpheo]

thanks for the explanation. I might do that too on my guitar, eventhough it will take ages for me to get it to a state where it's playable, and I'm afraid I dont have the patience. I want it done, as SOON as possible. 1 day, 2 at most for the wait. not a week, not a month.

 

[ByteFrenzy]

thanks for the explanation. I might do that too on my guitar, eventhough it will take ages for me to get it to a state where it's playable, and I'm afraid I dont have the patience. I want it done, as SOON as possible. 1 day, 2 at most for the wait. not a week, not a month.

Well, I'm in a bit of a luxury situation in that I have a choice of seven other basses (of which five Warmoths) to mess around with while this one takes its time to dry. In fact, I decided to rip the neck from the Thundermoth and recycle it for this build. I've still got some regrets, the Wenge worked really well on that body, but right now I can't afford to buy a new neck. Maybe in a couple of months, maybe longer, I'll get an all-Wenge 13 degree paddle neck and make something a bit more along the lines of a real T-bird (and a bit more what I originally started out to do with that one).

In the meantime, the neck is off the Thundermoth, the tuners and the trussrod cover are off, I've re-glued the nut (oh what a wonderful combination Gibson-style nuts and these slippery-thingy-impregnated materials on which normal glue won't grab do make) and started on the points that were different for this build.

The fretboard sans dots was OK, but I wanted a double dot at the 12th only:

Still need a bit of work to get the fretboard matching with the untouched portions. Under natural lighting its OK, it just takes a different tint under the flash.

I removed my old sticky letter logo, I wanted my new laser-cut logo on the headstock, but instead of just sticking it on like I did on the Canary bass (which I still have to post pictures of) I routed a recess so the logo's level with the pegboard.

Still quite a bit of work to do before I can really get down to finishing. I have discovered that although the description of the top really specified 5/16" thickness, it's really barely 1/8". Since I removed 8mm from the body blank before the top arrived, it means I lost a good 2mm in the process. That means the neck pocket (and the pickup routs) is too shallow. I'm feeling very much like taking 4mm out of the neck rout, 2mm out of the pickup routs and rout a 2mm recess for the bridge, a bit like the 720 mod. I did a test fit of the neck to the body and it really is noticeably tall, so obviously I want to do something about it. If I'd noticed or measured the top when it came in, I probably would just have added another laminate layer to make up for the thickness.

 

[Nando Vallart]

Cool!

 

[DangerousR6]

Pretty cool there Rene, the recessed logo is pretty trick too....I think that will look righteous with the custom body.... :icon_thumright:

 

[Orpheo]

That's looking rather sharp there Rene..... :icon_thumright:

I got a kick outta how you said.... "just spent a week in the southwest of France".  It just sounds as though your a "jet-setter" millionaire....  :dontknow:

Well, it's about ten hours driving from where we live. I have a company car so it just costs me the gas and the toll on the french roads, all in all about $300 both ways. The place where we stay belongs to my sister-in-law. It's for rent in July-August but during the easter, autumn and christmas holidays we can stay there in exchange for doing some maintenance. And millionaire... it's going to be just the opposite, we just signed a contract for having a small wooden chalet built down there. That's going to take all our savings of twenty-five years, and just about every penny we can spare for the coming fifteen years. That will have a serious impact on my guitar building. I'll be abe to buy parts with what I earn selling completed builds, but nothing more.

Are you moving down there permanently, or is it just for a summer retreat? If you're moving down there to satay, then why not sell your place you live in now...Make some extra $$$$$.... :dontknow:

We might move there permanently when I retire, which should be in fifteen years (unless they raise the retirement age, as they've just done in the Netherlands). Selling the place where we live now would be a bad move since it belongs to my mother-in-law. It's a house with a large garage on the ground floor, an appartment one floor up (we call that first floor but in the US I think it would be second floor) where my parents-in-law live and above that there's another identical appartment where I live with my family. It's a purely practical arrangement that came into being a few years ago: now, when my father-in-law and I have opened a few bottles of wine, either he just has to crawl down one flight of stairs or I just have to crawl up one...

Ho ho ho! I MUST jump in here! there hasn't been a final word on raising the retirement age. its still 65, but the plans for 67, over a course of 15 years, are there. besides, why is that a bad thing? My mum, who's 45, will have to work till she's 66, and for my generation,it will be 67. a lot of pooha, but no real knowledge about all the rules (thats talking about the dutch).

ps: nice neck!!!

 

[ByteFrenzy]

Ho ho ho! I MUST jump in here! there hasn't been a final word on raising the retirement age. its still 65, but the plans for 67, over a course of 15 years, are there. besides, why is that a bad thing? My mum, who's 45, will have to work till she's 66, and for my generation,it will be 67. a lot of pooha, but no real knowledge about all the rules (thats talking about the dutch).
ps: nice neck!!!

In Belgium there's not really talk about it. The VBO, which is the organ representing the employers (as opposed to the labour unions) has quite flatly stated that they are not at all in favour. It turns out that retirement at 65 is not absolutely mandatoryhere, but nobody is working longer anyway. So many people are going into early retirement (in the past there was a possibility to stop working at 53, now it's at 57) that the factory owners think it's the best they can hope for to have everybody working until 65. Anything over that is not realistic. Besides, like it or not, most people's performance drops of pretty steeply between 65 and 70, so the economic benefit is doubtful at the best.

 

[Orpheo]

Ho ho ho! I MUST jump in here! there hasn't been a final word on raising the retirement age. its still 65, but the plans for 67, over a course of 15 years, are there. besides, why is that a bad thing? My mum, who's 45, will have to work till she's 66, and for my generation,it will be 67. a lot of pooha, but no real knowledge about all the rules (thats talking about the dutch).
ps: nice neck!!!

In Belgium there's not really talk about it. The VBO, which is the organ representing the employers (as opposed to the labour unions) has quite flatly stated that they are not at all in favour. It turns out that retirement at 65 is not absolutely mandatoryhere, but nobody is working longer anyway. So many people are going into early retirement (in the past there was a possibility to stop working at 53, now it's at 57) that the factory owners think it's the best they can hope for to have everybody working until 65. Anything over that is not realistic. Besides, like it or not, most people's performance drops of pretty steeply between 65 and 70, so the economic benefit is doubtful at the best.

thats true. but the problem is, that people of my generation (20ies, 30ies) have started working much later than their parents and grandparents! I'm 22, and I am in university, not at a fulltime job. when my mum was 22, she did have a fulltime job, my grandmother even started at 16! the effective length in time which people still really work, has shortened. so; less tax for the government! so... just work a bit longer. I wont start working for at least another 4 or 5 years, and so, I dont mind working 'just' a 40 odd years, whilst my grandmother had to work 50 years; my mum 47 years...thats the way it works nowadays, and its the older generations that dont understand how the rules are made, and who are opposed it, but my generation welcomes this change wholeheartedly.

 

[ByteFrenzy]

Ahhhh... Some pretty relaxed work for a change... Routed the pickup routs 2mm deeper, the neck pocket 4mm. Now's waiting for the hardware. Once the bridge arrives I can mark the position, do a mockup of the neck/pickups/bridge and probably I'll recess the bridge 2mm as well. The logo on the headstock required routing to a depth of 0,5mm (5/64"). That was quite an experience, but routing to a depth of 2mm (or 4mm) deeper than the existing rout is also a lot of fun.

 

[DangerousR6]

So how's the bass coming along Rene?

 

[ByteFrenzy]

Just about there... Polishing the body was finished somewhere last week so I spent most of Saturday cleaning up the holes for the pots and the neck and pickup cavities, installing the pickups, the bridge,  the straplocks, the pots and the switch. Today I wired up everything, installed the neck, put on strings, and hooked everything to my B2 pedal and a set of headphones. I still need to let everything settle down a bit before I'll set intonation, and so far I've just messed around a bit through the hedphones, but I think I really got what I was aiming forwith the JB neck and MM bridge PU's combined with the 5-way switch. A lot of different sounds in there, from very round and mellow down to a nice rough growl. Later on I'll take some detal shots but for now here are some overall pics.

 

[mayfly]

Every once and awhile someone around here does something that just takes my breath away.

That's a fantastic looking instrument.  Congratulations.

 

[Nando Vallart]

Congrats comrade! It kicks some serious ass!