4005 facsimile-final shots

[drbassman]

OK Kenny. that's not too bad! At least it makes sense. I have a RIC 4003 with the same sharp edge but fortunately it never seems to bother my arm when playing. your mod turned out good.

[Daniel_J]

Kenny, I'm sure that's a very very comfortable bass to play. Doc is right, it does make sense. It might not look specially appealing and probably not a feature that's going to make it to a production instrument at Gibson or otherwise, but it does make perfect sense.
Maybe if you get to be a famous player or that bass lands on the hands of some future-to-be-rockstar-legend it would one day become a custom signature model? That makes sense too, doesn't it?

[drbassman]

Good points Daniel!  We all want to be rockstars, don't we?    Welcome to our forum too!

[Daniel_J]

Thanks, Doc. Glad to have joined this forum, people around here seems very cool and relaxed, not so much like in other forums where tension starts to develop when the thread reaches so little as 3 replys.

BTW Doc, I've been checking older threads and I see you gotta a lot of cool projects going on. And I must admit that I feel a little envy that you can do whatever you want, whenever you want because these are your own projects and you don't have to worry about customers calling every day to ask how theirs guitars are coming out and changing theirs minds about pretty much every little detail of the build.
You sir, have quite a lot of fun!

Oh well, I'm still young and relatively new to this luthiery business. I'll get there someday, when people would be buying guitars that I build wheter then me building guitars people want.

[Highlander]

And another welcome... everybodies fairly chilled round here...

Daniel, as I hit 50 in a few weeks my days of desiring "Rockstardom" are diminishing... Might be happy with a desire for people requesting a signature on a future publication or fifty...!

As a reference, the front profile of the RD has not changed a bit but she is comfortable to play...

[Daniel_J]

Kenny, your RD looks pretty sweet full frontal. If it wasn't for the unfinished look of the contour, I wouldn't be able to tell it was modded.
Oh, and the strap wraping from the front is a nice idea, it looks like it helps to counter the neck-heavyness, right?

Hey, Doc! No news on the development? New pics?

[drbassman]

New pics tomorrow, I added another 1/8" of mahogany so I can do some carving.........

[Highlander]

Daniel - she's booked for one of my custom refins, but I'm sworn to secrecy on this point due to the disgusdting finish on my custom "Tequilabird", but you'll have to do your research to find out why.. 

Either that or wait for the posting on her refin work..

And now back to the good Doctor... 

Ps the strap helps, and with my 'bird...

[drbassman]

Here's the update.  I added another 1/8" piece of mahogany under the current top so I'd have some more depth for carving the tailpiece ramp.  Turned out well.  I got a piece of mahogany from a seller who has Martin guitar rejects.  I really only need it for the edges and center sound block, so I glued it down as one piece and will carve it away with my router.  No seams along the edges this way!

Aren't those clamp marks a pain in the butt!

[Daniel_J]

Looking good, Doc!

But wait... did I get it right? That's a sub-top going under the top. The one that has the double cat's eye already cut is going to be glue on top of this right? Or did I miss something here?

Aren't those clamp marks a pain in the butt!

You're joking right? You're not getting clamp marks every time you do some glueing, right?

[drbassman]

Yep, this will be under the top piece with the cateye holes cut already.  Like this.........



And yes, I do get clamp marks just about every time I glue something except maple.  Wish it were a joke!

[Daniel_J]

Doc! You need to be using cauls under the clamps. Left over off-cuts wood of any shape would do.
Cauls actually distribute the force from the clamps througout their area, so you can put even more tension on the clamp and it won't get the wood marked.
Thinkg about it: if you take a hammer and tap a mahogany board with it, you definitely leave a mark. Now take a little piece of wood of about 2 by 2 and 1 inch thick, place it over the board and swing the hammer on it and I'm sure it's not going to leave any marks to show.

Then how about the fingerboard? How did you glue that to the neck without leaving any marks?

[drbassman]

I know I should be using cauls.  In this case, I used spring clamps (fast and easy) and there wasn't room for cauls.  I know I shouldn't be so lazy!

I glued the finger board with the same clamps, but it was before I sanded it to a 12" radius, so it didn't matter in that case.  The radiusing took the marks right off.  BTW, I'm a self taught tinkerer and don't always follow the rules when I should!  No formal luthier training here!   

[Daniel_J]

I don't think there's any real rules to follow, you should do whatever it works for you and get the job done. As long as it doesn't mean to give you even more work down the road to get rid of the clamp marks, right?

As for myself, I just got used to using cauls everytime I glue something, even if it's something that's not going to show later or will be sanded off.
But I see your point, Doc. To each his own.

Oh, boy... now I feel like a dork trying to "teach" the doctor...

[shadowcastaz]

HOLY CLAMPS Fatman!!!! Thems a bunch o' clamps!! I thought I had a collection !