Wednesday 15th August '07

Well, back on track and not on too much pain I manage to put in a good afternoons work..  This Vox is in dire need of a replacement neck.. the original has warped in three or four different directions and is totally unserviceable..

I utilise an old template that I no longer need to get one the size we want

the fit and orientation are checked

next up I recess the custom truss-rod head

get a fright from the 8 fighter jets overhead.. the dogs weren't best pleased either!

The headstock is marke out and the string-pull matched to the original..

the main section is choped out

the dogs.. waiting for the next courier...

and then the headstock is ripped out

Bud having a funny five seconds, he loves playing with the rope, but sometimes it trips him up!!  No pain no gain as they say..

the template and a small bearing cutter are used to out the outside edge of the neck

and then the shallow break-angle of the headstock is cut

while it was still flat I drilled marker holes for the tuners.. here I plane the headstock flat.. and the grain starts to come through

the truss rod is installed and then a strip of masking tape put over it to protect against glue getting in the cavity and fouling up the thread

Now I'm getting paranoid!!  They're watching me!! .. wait.. no, you're watching me..

the rosewood fingerboard is glued on, and that's that for this one today.

On to some custom pickup work being undertaken with Wizard.  We want three humbuckers for bass guitar with a slightly larger spacing than standard covers allow for.. the lugs on one side are removed with a Japanese saw

then chiseled and scraped flat

a chunk of 8mm ebony is thicknessed down to 7mm

and three seperate pieces shaped and sanded to size

this is the look we're after

after oiling the visible sections the piece is glued in between the covers

cut, paste, repeat.. and here we are.. lookin lovely!

after a false start last week I will continue featuring a different previous project every day.. this is the prototype for Charlie Jones' Signature Bass.. a completely perspex one-piece instrument with a sound that will blow you away!  Hotter than a strip-joint in July!

VB,

B