Prostheta Posted October 18, 2011 Report Share Posted October 18, 2011 Well this one has become long in the tooth. A quick update on the background for poster(ior)ity. Last June my wife, son and myself moved from the UK to Finland. I sold pretty much every electrical tool I owned and kept only a bare minimum of hand tools for building. As I started this project I had nowhere to work, no tools to work with and no money to even get back on the ladder. That is the way life is when you are a student again. I heard about a kansalaisopisto (community college) course in the village I live in, so I started planning my project with this course being the supplier of all things tool-y and space-y. The original choices for this instrument were either a Red Special replica (that's been on the boiler for a long time also), a Rickenbacker 4003, a Jazz copy, a G&L copy and the Aria SB-1000. Obviously I chose the Aria. On researching the SB range and Arias in general I came across the matsumoku.org forum and various others "in the family" and have been drawn into all things Mat. A lot of history has been read, research carried out and facts cross referenced. A real propellorhead job. So anyway....the build.... ------ The bass I am building is a hybrid of a few basses within the Aria SB range from 1980 - 1985. Originally I was planning on it being an SB-1000 however I am not too convinced by the narrow string spacing. Perhaps on a shorter scale bass, but that is another story. The actual instrument is an Aria SB-R60. This was a single pickup bass with a wider string spacing and a very simple "bombproof" vol/tone control. The pickup was essentially a P-bass configuration, however its real quirks will be discussed later. I've changed a few of the specification details on the basis that I think some are unnecessary and some are purely financial considerations. I'm doing this on a budget using my gung-ho techniques learned from many years of throwing instruments together fairly well. Essentially the majority of SB basses were neck-through with Ash/Alder/Oak/Chestnut wings. The necks were always 5-piece laminates of QS Maple and FS Mahogany with either a Rosewood (most common) or Ebony fingerboard. The various incarnations during the SB's golden era ('77-'87) all stuck to this formula, even when the laminates went under paint. Some basses came with a simple active buffer circuit, most were passive. Cosmetically, this bass will have more in common with the famous "Black n' Gold I" as played by Mr Clifford Lee Burton: http://www.matsumoku.org/models/ariaproii/bass/bg/bg_bass.html The electronics will be somewhat more custom. I plan on making the bass active/passive switchable with a nice low battery indicator circuit. Awoogah. The fingerboard is Ebony (kind of speaking in past and future tense interchangably here) and will have no fret markings....maybe.... PS. Before anybody mentions the Aria SB-CB....it is not a patch on the original MIJ Matsumoku-era Arias. I have a lot to live up to in that respect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted October 18, 2011 Author Report Share Posted October 18, 2011 (edited) Preliminary CAD plan (3wks ago): Edited October 18, 2011 by Prostheta Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted October 18, 2011 Author Report Share Posted October 18, 2011 I am also in the custody of a 1980 Aria RSB-600 bass which is essentially an SB-700 but with a 4-in-line headstock. From this I am taking exact measurements for tweaking the final CAD plan. The RSB is in for a bit of restoration work and an electronics overhaul with an active/passive switchable circuit similar to the SB-1000 minus the varitone. http://s13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Prostheta/Aria%20RSB-600%20restoration/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted October 18, 2011 Author Report Share Posted October 18, 2011 First homebrew replica of the original SB-1000 active buffer circuit: Schematic of the Aria MB pickup internals: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted October 18, 2011 Report Share Posted October 18, 2011 I know very little about basses from a technical point of view so cannot comment from that angle. From an aesthetic point of view however I applaud your choice. Very nice lines on this one. I'm very looking forward to seeing how purdy you make it . SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpm99 Posted October 19, 2011 Report Share Posted October 19, 2011 Basstastic! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted October 19, 2011 Author Report Share Posted October 19, 2011 (edited) My first task is to prepare the neck blank. Unlike the originals which were a 5-piece lamination of 2x ~23mm QS Maple, 2x 6mm Mahogany and 1x 6mm Maple I have decided to ditch the Mahogany laminates in favour of a simpler 3-piece Maple neck. Whether the Mahogany contributes anything significant to the characteristics is debatable. Unfortunately I haven't brought my brick wall tonight for this purpose. Feel free to to smack your head onto this instead: ʘ Now you're seeing sense. Paint will cover the neck laminations anyway, and I frankly can't justify the extra expense useless laminates in the build. If I were in a better financial position, I would have replaced the centre lams with 18mm of Bubinga or whatever. The laminates were machine planed oversize and surface prepped immediately prior to glueup. To reduce creep from hydrostatic pressure I dowelled them with cocktail sticks. The locations were chosen at even points across the laminates either in cutoff areas or embedded within the body. The first laminate was drilled and a clipped tack inserted as a marking pin. The neck laminate was lined up and pressed into place marking a the location of the corresponding dowelling hole. In all, two cocktail sticks were used and it took two minutes. Far easier than unnecessary extra clamps or risk of slippage. The blank will be left to sit for a week whilst the moisture introduced by the Titebond dissipates. The blank will be run through the humongo-planer again next week. Edited March 30, 2012 by Prostheta Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted October 19, 2011 Author Report Share Posted October 19, 2011 (edited) The fingerboard is a fairly average piece of Indian Ebony. Moderately brown but consistent in colour. I have already jointed the edges, removed them for later, slotted the fingerboard and sanded in a rough 12" radius. I plan to self-bind the board and carry out a full semi-hemi fretwork job on it using Jescar EVO wire to fit in with the Black n' Gold theme. The SB plan you can see in the background is one I bought from eBay. It is NOWHERE NEAR anything like a real SB. The seller should refer to my last post and smash his head again that target until he specifies that his design is "NOTHING LIKE A REAL ARIA SB". Bitter? I just don't suffer fools gladly. Especially ones making a blatant profit off somebody else's work. That and the laminating plan for a "stable warp free neck" stated is complete HS. Nobody can guarantee that. Edited October 19, 2011 by Prostheta Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Workingman Posted October 19, 2011 Report Share Posted October 19, 2011 Good to see this here. I have been following it at the Matt board and on your blog. I think your simplifications make sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddiewarlock Posted October 20, 2011 Report Share Posted October 20, 2011 where in Finland did you move to mate? I have a friend who is from Spain and moved to Espoo, the municipality runs a work shop, where you pay only 5 euros per hour and you have about every kind of machine you need to build guitars... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted October 20, 2011 Author Report Share Posted October 20, 2011 Espoo is a municipality of Helsinki which is on the south coast. We are on the west coast near Pori, which is about 300km away. Much cheaper to live here than it is in Espoo. We have friends there though. Just difficult travelling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpm99 Posted October 20, 2011 Report Share Posted October 20, 2011 Espoo is a municipality of Helsinki which is on the south coast. We are on the west coast near Pori, which is about 300km away. Much cheaper to live here than it is in Espoo. We have friends there though. Just difficult travelling. Shoot fire, son! Out here in Texas, that's walking distance! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted October 20, 2011 Author Report Share Posted October 20, 2011 Walk more than ten metres here from your home without a knife and you get eaten by penguins. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpm99 Posted October 20, 2011 Report Share Posted October 20, 2011 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted October 20, 2011 Report Share Posted October 20, 2011 Walk more than ten metres here from your home without a knife and you get eaten by penguins. I would be more concerned about the polar bears...don't they tend to follow seals,who follow penguins? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddiewarlock Posted October 20, 2011 Report Share Posted October 20, 2011 well, maybe in Pori they have something similar... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted October 21, 2011 Author Report Share Posted October 21, 2011 Next year I am studying woodwork and specialising in CNC. I should have free access to a LOT of equipment then. :-D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted October 23, 2011 Author Report Share Posted October 23, 2011 (edited) Today's work is a small but important task prepping for the semihemi fretting; cutting the damn wire! My first job was to print a base list of calculated fret wire widths. These are the absolute widths from edge to edge on the fretboard and serve as a good guide for the rough cutting. Obviously the fingerboard will be slightly rolled over at the edges meaning these values will leave the wire too long creating overhang. This is not important at this stage although this will be taken into account during the fret shaping work. Which I dread. The two tools for this work are my heavy-duty side cutters, a modified plastic ruler and my carefully drawn-up list. My three tools for this work are my heavy-duty side cutters, a modified plastic ruler, my carefully drawn-up list and masking tape. Four. My four tools. The plastic ruler's rear face was scraped into a shallow angle using a craft knife blade so the edge fits between the underside of the fret crown and the top edge of the tangs. This allows the ruler to conform to the radius of the wire and take a non-linear measurement of the wire's length. First (last) fret cut measured just a hair over 62mm which is leaving it a bit close. Those cutters are not accurate so I would prefer to aim for 64mm. 23rd fret went great. A little margin as I wanted. The 22nd however ended up shorter than required. This is why I start from the top end and work downwards. Shorter cuts can be recovered for lower frets. The key to this work is repetition and patience. The repetition (negative word) is important for consistency, however the positive connotation is that it teaches you a system of working. No shortcuts here. Measure the fretwire to the cutting point, clip the wire and re-measure! If unsure of whether you lost the cutting point or not, measure and re-measure again. Don't tape down a piece if you haven't checked it for accuracy. The usual things. If you feel impatient and start cutting corners (no joke intended) then come back to the job after a breather and a cup of coffee. Right. I have work to do. Well... it's... it's not much of a philosophy, I know...but... well...I can live my own life in my own way if I want to. Don't come following me! Edited October 23, 2011 by Prostheta Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted October 23, 2011 Author Report Share Posted October 23, 2011 Ta-dah. Two cups of coffee later: The note "raggy" is from when I started a new length of fretwire. The end was rough cut losing about 2mm or so, in which case I overcut that piece. Good to make notes to yourself. Makes you feel good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orgmorg Posted October 23, 2011 Report Share Posted October 23, 2011 Very nice, what kind of coffee are you using? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Workingman Posted October 23, 2011 Report Share Posted October 23, 2011 Looking good. Beyond that they look good, what is the advantage to doing a fret job this way? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted October 23, 2011 Author Report Share Posted October 23, 2011 Very nice, what kind of coffee are you using? Two pans of Presidentti made strong. Stuff of champions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted October 23, 2011 Author Report Share Posted October 23, 2011 Looking good. Beyond that they look good, what is the advantage to doing a fret job this way? The fret ends are not felt at the edges of the fingerboard making the neck feel smoother to play. Some say "vintage-y" on the basis that old guitars are naturally rounded from use. It is mostly cosmetic, however it does offer a degree of luxury in the feel of the neck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted October 23, 2011 Report Share Posted October 23, 2011 The note "raggy" is from when I started a new length of fretwire. Oh! Raggy. I thought it said Rally. I thought you were giving yourself a pep-talk at that point. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted October 23, 2011 Author Report Share Posted October 23, 2011 Let's not get ahead of ourselves here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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