Next project...The Foo Bass

[335clone]

Yeah the inlays are genius.

 

[Elias Graves]

Inspired by Hofner.

 

[newbuilder]

Foooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

EeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!

 

[Foo]

NNNNNNNNNNNNnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnBBBBBBBBBbbbbbbbbbbbbb

 

[Foo]

How's it going, brother?

 

[newbuilder]

Great, how are you?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Foo]

Doing good. A real homebody taking care of mom.

 

[Elias Graves]

How's it going, brother?

Sawright.

 

[BoomBoomBigelow]

Hi guys!

 

[sunvalleylaw]

Dang f-ing cool.

 

[Elias Graves]

Here's how the inlays work.
The slots are 1/2 the width of each fret space. That took a lot of measuring and marking and math and stuff.

Foo bought this block of burl Fromm an eBay seller.

 

[Elias Graves]

The 12th fret inlay is just a burl block I split and glued in a piece of ebony at an angle. Pretty simple.

Mostly it was just a matter of slicing out nice looking pieces and cutting to size.

Then epoxy in place.

 

[BoomBoomBigelow]

Should be sleek!

 

[Elias Graves]

Should be sleek!

The ebony is beautiful.
Under intense light, you see the coloring.

But polished, under normal lighting, you see this.

It's pretty crazy. I like it.
Foo found it on closeout from Stewmac. He bought two. One for the fretboard and one for the pickguard.

 

[Elias Graves]

Working @Foo 's place today and using the tailgate as a workbench. The task today is the Gluing Of The Fretboard.
This is one of the most nerve wracking operations in the build. There's zero room for error and one shot to get it right. I've been measuring, marking, clamping, re-measuring, re-marking and re-clamping for an hour and a half. I finally have it where I want it.
I left the fret markers out at the 1st and 12th frets and I'm using those spots to install locator screws. These will hold the board straight as I clamp it. Wood glue is slippery stuff and boards will wander easily. Can't have that here.

And now a dry run at my clamp-up procedure.

I'm going to stare at it for a while longer and re-measure everything a few more times before I glue.

 

[jelloman]

A little paranoia helps in moments like this...

 

[Elias Graves]

A little paranoia helps in moments like this...

Murphy is always lurking about.

But I think I kept him at bay. It looks good.

 

[Elias Graves]

Now I'll use a sanding drum to finish shaping it.

 

[BoomBoomBigelow]

Good thing you're using that really stable tailgate as a workbench.

 

[Elias Graves]

Good thing you're using that really stable tailgate as a workbench.

It's better than the wet driveway.