The pickup in most of these images (and on the recorded examples) is an EMG 45DC. In practise the EMG was good, but it was not quite the sound I was chasing for this axe. A little harsh in the treble, and also lacking lower mids. I have since replaced it with one that I custom made for the instrument (lower left image). The cover was machined from a piece of mahogany, then stained black and sprayed with satin polyurethane. I had little choice but to hand make the bridge from brass stock. The tailpiece is slotted for quick release, and the saddles are adjustable for intonation. The nut and string trees are also brass, while the machine heads are the common Gotoh variety, and the buttons are Schaller Strap Locks. The upper strap button is placed on the back of the bout so that my wide strap can hang without twist from my left shoulder. After a fret dress I've been able to set the action very low, and most people who try it are surprised by its playability. The ebony thumbrest was a final touch. Its been coated with CA glue and polished. For what is essentially a prototype, I am very pleased with this bass. The fretted range of over five octaves is almost overwhelming, and the tone is very clear with enormous amounts of sustain. |
Fretted 7-String |
Here's a bass that I constructed in the last few months of 2001. Although the actual design was not really "formalised" until May of that year, I'd been thinking about its various features for several years. The instrument has a carbon fibre reinforced Grey Ironbark neck with dual trussrods and a Cooktown Ironwood fingerboard with 31 frets. The body is Silver Ash with a New Guinea Rosewood top. Its unusual shape allows me to hold it in a similar position while seated, as I do when standing. The extra cut-away on the treble side of the body rests on my right thigh, and with my foot on a footstool, the guitar feels well balanced and comfortable to play. The main cut-away is big enough to give full access to the upper range and the neck has a uniform thickness for all of its playing length. (You'll see what I mean if you look at the images showing the rear views of the completed instrument.) And believe it or not, the axe fits snuggly in my standard Fender bass gig bag. |
I began construction by roughing out the body, machining the mating faces of its central join, then gluing up. Next the two halves of the top were glued in turn to the Ash. The edges were then sanded and rounded over with the router. My oversized router base (about 10" in diameter) is invaluable for this job. |
Next the body was put aside as I turned my attention to the neck. The neck blank was routed for three carbon fibre (graphite) rods and two trussrods. I have made jigs and special router bits to maximise the accuracy of this task. As usual, I inlayed the graphite rods through into the headstock as well. Even though much of this is lost when the face is machined, I feel that it doesn't hurt to reinforce the headstock itself and the "transitional" area under the nut. The rods are hidden by the headstock vaneer anyway. With the neck joining the body at around the twelfth fret, standard 24" rods were fine. After the neck was cut out, sanded and drilled, these rods were epoxy inlayed. The face of the headstock was then machined and this beautiful piece of Burled Myrtle was bent, glued up, then trimmed. |
After the trussrods were installed, I the slotted fretboard. At this stage, I also inlayed dot markers in the front of the board. I don't normally bother with dot inlays here, but I felt that the width of the fretboard, particularly towards the body, would lead to difficulty with fret selection on the treble side of the board. The side dots were going to be around 3" from the F-string! To fine trim the edges of the fretboard, I simply use a flush trimming bit with the router table set so that the bit's bearing follows the edges of the neck. Cooktown Ironwood is quite prone to tearout, so I had to take care here and just ease off the excess in several passes. |
For me, one of the most satisfying tasks of constructing a guitar is shaping the neck. After the back of the neck was thicknessed as far as the headstock, it was clamped in a holding jig and I started making curly wood shavings. No power tools here, just a spoke shave, a chisel, and a couple of cabinet scrapers, all razor sharp. Next the neck was flipped over and I scraped and sanded a compound radius on the fretboard. With this job you have to be a pefectionist! I use an engineer's straight edge and check my work with a 0.0015" feeler guage. The body was then marked and routed to receive the neck, flipped over then routed for the battery, electronics, and the jack. After a long search I found a battery case that had the cell laying on its largest side. This allowed me to install the single volume pot above the battery case. This particular battery box has no contacts, so a battery clip is required. I feel this is actually a positive feature as it means the battery cannot be disconnected by a bump or a knock as with the Gotoh type boxes. On the other hand, Allparts ship this item with no screws (or clip for that matter), and the price for two, shipped to Australia was around $70! Boy I wish StewMac or LMI listed this part. The jack has a separate route and its own round cover. Along with a couple of G-clamps at the heel, I also used a few band clamps when I glued the neck and body together. I found that joining two together made them long enough to fit around the upper bout and neck together. I also carefully masked off the edges of the gluing areas, so that squeezed out glue would not be seen under the finish. The image on the right (blue background), shows the guitar during the finishing process. I started with several coats of clear sanding sealer, doubling or trebling the passes on the body. Both body timbers are quite porous and I didn't use any paste filler. After flattening, the top coats were applied. Then, after a few weeks, I flattened and polished the top coats, then fretted the neck, and installed the hardware and electronics. Its hard to beat the look of polished nitro-cellulose lacquer. |
Fretted 7-String |
The pickup in most of these images (and on the recorded examples) is an EMG 45DC. In practise the EMG was good, but it was not quite the sound I was chasing for this axe. A little harsh in the treble, and also lacking lower mids. I have since replaced it with one that I custom made for the instrument (lower left image). The cover was machined from a piece of mahogany, then stained black and sprayed with satin polyurethane. I had little choice but to hand make the bridge from brass stock. The tailpiece is slotted for quick release, and the saddles are adjustable for intonation. The nut and string trees are also brass, while the machine heads are the common Gotoh variety, and the buttons are Schaller Strap Locks. The upper strap button is placed on the back of the bout so that my wide strap can hang without twist from my left shoulder. After a fret dress I've been able to set the action very low, and most people who try it are surprised by its playability. The ebony thumbrest was a final touch. Its been coated with CA glue and polished. For what is essentially a prototype, I am very pleased with this bass. The fretted range of over five octaves is almost overwhelming, and the tone is very clear with enormous amounts of sustain. |
