2013 ExplorerBird...there's gold on them thar basses.

dadagoboi · January 09, 2013, 06:58:08 PM

Quote from: TBird1958 on January 09, 2013, 06:37:43 PM

In green with a blocked, bound lefty J neck

You need to post that in here http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f8/bass-who-tribute-946845/

Thanks for the heads up, Mark! I'm out of the guy's price range by quite a bit. I will be posting the build over there when I get around to it.

gearHed289 · January 10, 2013, 09:14:29 AM

Looking great! Love these build pictorials. I wish I had the time and patience...

dadagoboi · January 10, 2013, 11:20:42 AM

Quote from: gearHed289 on January 10, 2013, 09:14:29 AM
Looking great! Love these build pictorials. I wish I had the time and patience...

Thanks, Tom. I always had a lot of patience when I was young, hours spent building model planes and cars, then designing and building furniture after giving up the Rock n Roll dream. After closing down my design business my ability to concentrate seemed to be going. Short term memory was slipping. When I started building basses an hour of steady concentration was about it. I'm a lot better now...but how can I be sure about the memory part?

No cable or broadcast TV frees up a lot of time for me.

Anyway, I'm having fun and making some money. I've joked with a number of old friends that I wish I had started building basses when I stopped playing instead of going into the furniture business.

godofthunder · January 10, 2013, 08:12:30 PM

Insata-GAS! Dammit Carlo. And I hate gold hardware but for this I'd make a exception.

Highlander · January 11, 2013, 03:31:59 PM

Ker-ching...!

dadagoboi · January 11, 2013, 03:32:39 PM

Here's the setup I use to set rough intonation. This used to take about 2 hours when I first started building, now it's usually just a routine check. It used to be, "WTF went wrong?" and lots of head scratching.

Just about ready for paint, pup covers still have plastic on them.

Tomorrow I'll drill for the bridge studs and pup wires, sand bodies and shoot sealer.

drbassman · January 11, 2013, 05:07:06 PM

Wow, breathtaking. You just keep getting better with each bass.

dadagoboi · January 11, 2013, 05:33:50 PM

Quote from: drbassman on January 11, 2013, 05:07:06 PM
Wow, breathtaking. You just keep getting better with each bass.

Thanks, Bill. It's getting easier. Having Steve as a resource and collaborator has been a tremendous help.

Rob · January 11, 2013, 06:20:34 PM

Quote from: drbassman on January 11, 2013, 05:07:06 PM
Wow, breathtaking. You just keep getting better with each bass.

I agree and it seems like leaps and bounds!

clankenstein · January 11, 2013, 10:39:32 PM

fooeee that looks really good!

drbassman · January 12, 2013, 05:42:05 AM

I love natural finishes and think I might lean that way in my future builds. This one is a knockout.

Lightyear · January 12, 2013, 10:03:45 AM

Man, that looks nice! And I absolutely loathe gold hardware!

I agree with the doc - nice hunk of wood. I would be tempted to pull of a trans-orange finish on the one you're keeping.

drbassman · January 12, 2013, 10:28:28 AM

Quote from: dadagoboi on January 11, 2013, 03:32:39 PM
Here's the setup I use to set rough intonation. This used to take about 2 hours when I first started building, now it's usually just a routine check. It used to be, "WTF went wrong?" and lots of head scratching.

Just about ready for paint, pup covers still have plastic on them.

.
Tomorrow I'll drill for the bridge studs and pup wires, sand bodies and shoot sealer.

Please describe your intonation setup for us and how it works!

dadagoboi · January 12, 2013, 12:10:39 PM

Bill, you asked about the ballpark intonation setup. Here it is with stud anchor drilling procedure:

My other body front templates have the proper bridge mounting hole positions drilled in them as well as the pup routes. These were taken off the back 'master template' which involved a lot of trial and error.

You can see where a line crosses the body centerline and 4 holes are drilled. the smaller two were for a previous bridge version and the larger 2 are for the current one which uses #14 wood screws. The white is where holes were filled with plastic dowels and redrilled when they weren't correct

I line up a front body template with the pup routes and body centerline and use a transfer punch to dimple the body. Excuse the crazy angle of the picture.

Tailpiece gets located with center screw on centerline. The two dimples get connected with a line. Tailpiece is lined up parallel to the line and outboard screw holes drilled and filled. Bridge with E and G saddles moved to extreme positions is lined up with dimples. Bass gets strung and tuned. Tension holds down the bridge. I check intonation, I want to be slightly sharp on the G and flat on the E.

Drilling for the bridge starts with a 3/8" brad point bit to get the most accuracy. Center hole is for ground wire. Tape on bit is a depth stop.

Then a 15/32" HSS bit which centers itself on the 3/8" hole for the metric anchor.

And finally a very shallow counterbore to allow the collar of the anchor to be flush with the top of the body using a 9/16" HSS, being careful to make sure it centers itself.

Done

The cutouts in the bridge channel are big enough to allow the entire bridge to be relocated slightly fore or aft . Height adjustment is done by the saddles, not the studs. Their only function is to hold the bridge tight to the body for increased sustain, magical tone, amazing clarity and maximum potency. Your mileage may vary.

dadagoboi · January 13, 2013, 02:19:26 PM

Quote from: Lightyear on January 12, 2013, 10:03:45 AM
Man, that looks nice! And I absolutely loathe gold hardware!

I agree with the doc - nice hunk of wood. I would be tempted to pull of a trans-orange finish on the one you're keeping.

Thanks! It's tempting. I just ordered a few hundred dollars worth of mahogany, I'm sure I'll be doing a natural one sometime.