Music, Art and Idea: New build, misc...

I find myself snapping lots of random things I am doing, so these next few posts will be pic heavy. I really ought to space this out to see me through the inevitable drought, but I am in a good mood, listening to Tower of Power and feel motivated to do this.

In the past few days I did a few interesting things:

Started a new bass/guitar build

Made/retro-fitted a replacement nut (it is interesting... really)

Learned how to lie more convincingly - see above!

Repaired a broken neck

I found a piece of Ash from a build I did in 05/06 - it was large enough to make the wings of my bass design from, so I decided to try the bandsaw out for what it was intended. Bear in mind that Ash is pretty hard, it is the reason my old cheapo Ryobi bandsaw is hosed - just couldn't manage it.

2 1/4" Ash, semi flamed on inspection! Beautiful!

My design:

My templates have an extra inch or so on the edge to allow me to attach them to an over-sized blank for the sake of stability when routing to finish the edges. This is why it doesn't' matter that they are over-hanging.

This is the final shape from the cutting. This was done about an hour faster than normal - minimum! I remember cutting that Ash the last time - it was a nightmare!!

I got a rather fancy looking bass in to repair. To the naked eye it was made with a burl wood and lots of exotic materials, but it sounded TERRIBLE. I refused to believe that woods which would have cost £300 for the build were going to sound soo bad, so I reckoned that they had somehow put an image on some plastic wood (not an oxymoron... Ibanez use this), or used MDF or something. It still baffled me, but the grain was all wrong. Anyway, I HAD to know. I opened the back plate and found this:

CONFIRMED! Injection moulded chipboard! I am amazed at how real they make this look. I bet 95% of people are fooled. I am disgusted! Anyway, I wasn't paid for my opinion, but to replace the nut... more rant.

The nut was in to be replaced because it was wearing out (plastic nuts are horrid, weak and have NO tone - but then I am just a little biased). So I took the nut off - gentle tap with a hammer:

Cheap ROT!!! Injection moulded plastic, and not even solid!! People, if you have a plastic nut - do yourselves a favour and replace them, the benefits are seriously worth it!

This is the replacement blank - rough sketches to show you how it will look - these are not my measurements... just rough! The nut I am using is bone which is legally sourced (ie not Ivory), and it weighs a lot - for it's size. 10x the weight of the plastic nut I reckon. It works nicely and smells HORRIBLE!!!