Tech Guys

Where do you get the decals for the headstock?

Sid, here's another cheeky use of Waterslide decals, the bass is an OLP and they were made by Ernie Ball MusicMan, they've been replace by the Sub now. This could be seen as counterfeiting but they are for my own use and I'd never sell them, however, I'll post some more pics of a guitar that I bought which was so good that I didn't spot it was a fake!

I wouldn't have even suspected, or ever figured out, that the guitar was not the genuine article. I still don't know why it isn't. Beautiful in any case.

So today has marked an actual bit of bass number two. Bass one is called ‘JazzRay Custom Bass’, I've decided to call this one ‘JazzRay Badaxe’. As can be seen, while the timber is still square, the truss rod channel can be cut, Mark the centre line and position of the rod and give two quick passes with the router. The access hole for truss rod adjustment will be drilled through the headstock behind the nut but the headstock shaping and thicknessing needs to be done first.

Thanks for watching Sid, do you fancy making your own bass? I recently helped IAmMark through his build but basically I got him from the talking to doing stage. One of the main things I suggested to Mark was the use of a router guide, I've scrapped that whole idea for number two cos it's such a pain in the arse, having to make accurate under size templates makes your head hurt. As you can see in the latest pic I've cut the headstock shape out, I had to do this now so I could use the template as a guide, the headstock face needs taking back around half an inch, I need to do it in order to drill the hole for the truss rod adjustment and cutting the shape now is easier than when the face is half an inch lower. I used the same 6.3mm straight router cutter that I used on the truss channel, I fixed the 9mm template to the work piece and adjusted the cutter so the shaft would run against the template and the cutter would take away the timber below this. This goes against everything that I told Mark to do as the shaft can ‘Burn’ the template, but as long as you work slowly, taking material away as you get to the template it works just fine. Once I'd made my first cut I was able to take the template away and use the cut as a template, gradually increasing the depth of cut. You might notice a spot where the cutter went through the template, luckily this is in the part of the face that gets removed. I was going to use a long guided trimmer cutter, with the bearing running against the template, but at the thick end of forty quid for a cutter I'd use only once I went with the cheaper option.