Premier Rock Forum

sharp indeed!

Weekly update. Lots of progress- Body has been routed to final shape, rounded over and have the recess for the receiver roughed-in. Next: finalize and route for pickups, maybe start on arm and belly cuts.

Headstock has been thinned and the angle has been milled, tapered the neck depth. Also got a start on weight relief of the neck and between the pickups. Next: attach tuner shims and start finalizing the shape.

DANG that is looking good!

Neck update: Great progress, got the final outlining done, laminated the spacers on the back of the headstock and finalized that shape. Got the back roughly profiled. Finished up the spacer for under the fretboard, Cut the fretboard to rough width. Next week should get the fretboard mounted and we can get to final shaping. Would also like to get the tuners drilled.

Let me know what you think of this headstock shape- I was trying to come up with something minimal and easy to machine.

Body update- Finalized all the routes and shaping. Control cavity, relief cuts, even control cavity cover. Only thing left is to make the string-thru cutout...which I need to drill the neck for 1st...so it'll be a bit.

I really love that headstock design. It's unique. Now that there's been more than one game in town for a while as far as aluminum necked instruments go, the headstock cutout is a major focal point or even "statement", whether you like it or not. That elongated oval with the little semicircle notch out of the top is something I've never seen before and I love that it's simple while still having an aspect of thoughtful design behind it. Also a huge fan of that latest body. Am I correct in thinking that it's the most symmetrical yet? Really looks sharp. All of your aluminum builds so far have been beauties, and very inspirational, but I think the refinement on this one is really putting it on another level. The notch on the headstock coupled with the body construction harken back to an early aluminum Kramer too, which is cool. Great work, as always. And thank you for sharing.

Lots happened this week- but hard to document thoroughly. I got the fretboard epoxied on. Sanded out the neck to #180, which is all the hard work. Got the bridge location finalized, string-thru holes drilled, and used that to locate the pass-thru on the back of the body.

If all goes well, I should get the tuner, bridge, pickup and body mounting holes all drilled and tapped. I can also now get started on finishing the body. I'd like to get the neck sanded out to #2000 before I get started on the frets.

I asked 6 months ago but wanted to follow up if you have any plans to do an aluminum (or other metal?) fretboard at some point maybe? Or are you planning on staying 100% wood? I can certainly understand why since I would think there are ways to deal w/ wood if things go wonky, but I wonder if it that is part of the "clang" that most of associate w/ alumi-neck instruments.

Also dibs on "Alumineck" when I come up with my own line of headless aluminum basses.

Garth wrote: Mon Jun 27, 2022 7:23 am I asked 6 months ago but wanted to follow up if you have any plans to do an aluminum (or other metal?) fretboard at some point maybe? Or are you planning on staying 100% wood? I can certainly understand why since I would think there are ways to deal w/ wood if things go wonky, but I wonder if it that is part of the "clang" that most of associate w/ alumi-neck instruments.

Also dibs on "Alumineck" when I come up with my own line of headless aluminum basses.

I think there's certainly a component, but Travis Beans all had wood fretboards and those are plenty "clangy."

Having owned a fair amount of them over the years, I think the most important thing is probably the pickups and how they interact with the neck. Any aluminum neck w/ single coils is immediate "skkkkkkkrrrrrring", and that can be toned down/reigned in w/ humbuckers fairly well (if you want to do so.)

Right and yes, anecdotally I'm pretty sure that the instruments I have associated w/ that sound were single-coils (if/when I was paying attention).

Also that series of videos about "where does an amp/speaker cabinet/guitar's sound/tone come from" mentioned in the bolt-on thread that feature the dude in the potentially sus 45 hat has me inclined to believe that the neck/fretboard material has almost nothing to do with what we hear out of the speakers.