6 String Rainbow « JC Basses

6 String

Black Walnut/Padauk/Curly Maple/Koa/Ebony Body

Ebony Fretboard

Maple Neck with Padauk “stringers”

Walnut Headstock Cover

Set-neck construction

Warwick Bridge and Nut

EMG Pickup and Electronics

Hipshot Tuners

All black hardware

June 21, 2008

I started work on the full size design today on MDF including drawing and cutting.

June 27, 2008

Busy, busy day! I cut out all the walnut, koa, padauk, maple and ebony. It was a lot more work than I expected. 43 different pieces so far. I haven’t glued anything up yet. I also very rough cut out the fretboard.

July 16, 2008

After a few days gluing the body together I finally had them all as one. The body blank was too wide for my planer sadly, so I had to do it all by hand… 4 hours later I had a piece of wood that was pretty much flat on both sides. I couldn’t make it completely flat and smooth since I didn’t have my belt sander. I started cutting out the body and rounding the edges. As you can see it got burnt a little bit from the router, but that is easily fixable. Besides some minor sanding, I am very pleased that I cranked out this body all today. I like the closeup picture of the upper horn how the different layers come together. On top of that, there wasn’t a single glue line in the entire body. It is perfect. I will never do it again since it was such a pain, but I am happy with the results. Ok, ok on to the pictures.

July 20, 2008

I was able to sand the body down to exactly 1-3/8″ thick and then rounded over the edges completely. It still needs quite a bit of sanding, but now I can start on the pickup, bridge, neck and control cavity placement.

I think I am going to go with a maple neck with padauk stringers and the thin ebony stripes between them. Also, most likely a padauk “tranny block” between the neck and body.

July 23, 2008

Well today I routed out the spots for the bridge and pickup. Yesterday I ordered all the electronics, string ferrules, straplocks and truss rod. I also glued up the neck and it is drying right now. I ended up going with a maple/padauk/maple/padauk/maple laminate with black veneers between the layers. I forgot to take a picture of it before I left my shop though.

July 30, 2008

Today was yet another productive day in the shop. My neck blank was all dry and I could start getting it ready to become a neck. I ran it over the jointer and then into the planer. Then I started cutting out the neck shape for the back, sides and headstock angle. I also made the channel for the truss rod and glued on the fretboard.

Next I will trim the fretboard to the final size and start shaping the back of the neck. I will also make the neck pocket very soon.

August 5, 2008

It was a short day in the shop. There just wasn’t much I could do while parts were gluing/drying. I was able to make the neck pocket and glue on the padauk tranny block on the neck. Here is how I make my neck pocket for those of you who were wondering.

I start by taking the bulk of the wood away with the drill press so it doesn’t kill my router bits.

Then I clamp on a guide for one of the sides of the neck pocket.

Then while keeping the first guide in, I put the neck in place and pinch it with the other sides guide to get a tight fit.

Lastly, I do the back to make it straight.

Then you are left with this:

With it all put together:

You obviously can’t tell, but here is the neck being glued up with the ebony/padauk/ebony tranny block.

One just to see how things are fitting…

August 6, 2008

Here is a little update on what the woods will look like with an oil finish:

I started on the tranny block, still needs some work though:

I also made the control cavity, but not the recessed part for the cover.

August 13, 2008

Although it looks like not a lot happened since last time, it did. Just not major things. The bridge, pickup and neck pockets have all been made to the right sizes and fit them perfectly.