Moving on, a chambered 5-string medium scale fretless

[Jarno Verhoeven]

Figured, with the first full neck through build under my belt, to move on to a fretless, bolt-on this time.

Medium scale, 5-string, bolt-on
Neck from meranti (keen on seeing if that works, figured I can always replace it with something sturdier), with two 5.5mm carbon tubes (carbon rods for kite building), and a trussrod.
Fingerboard TBD
Chambered body out of something (mahogany, likely as I still have some) with a spruce top.

[Jarno Verhoeven]

Started the neck, using predimensioned lumber, and no laminations, so that is easy
It is a bit of an experiment, the meranti is VERY light so keen on finding out how it behaves. I have glued in two 5.5mm carbon tubes (kite rods), in addition to the trussrod.
Also glued on the veneer for the headstock.

This will be the chambering. The body is shaped like a cylinder, so it is 40mm in the middle section, going to 20mm on the sides. Ordered an Engelmann spruce top, so it will be acoustic-esque

Medium scale fretless 5 06MAR2024.zip

(985.06 KiB) Downloaded 295 times

Changed the drawing somewhat, and I've added the drawings for body and neck. Will say that in these calculated fret positions, there is a bit of a rounding error in the calculations of my 3d model (max 0.044mm so, maybe not dramatic ).

[Jarno Verhoeven]

Headstock veneer

Trussrod and carbon rods

Thought about having them fan out, but they'd be right where the neck attachment screws would, caught that one in time few.
It helps to make a drawing of everything....

[Jarno Verhoeven]

Cut the baseplate with locating holes to cut the fret slots.

Accuracy is pretty good, the saw guide bridge with magnets I made for the little travel bass.

The wood for the fingerboard will probably delivered somewhere the end of this week.
Need to change the model for the pickup position, I had the "MusicMan Stingray" position in there, but from pictures it seems that the Gary Willis bass from Ibanez has the pickup a bit closer to the bridge, so I'll change that (and also correct it for the 32" scale, rather than 34 from the Ibanez).
Might rig something up to put string tension on it and see how the neck behaves, before building a complete bass.

[Jarno Verhoeven]

I had ordered the wood from Maderas Barber in Spain, came very well packed. The fingerboards were right off the bandsaw however, and one of them is pretty warped so that is a bit of a bummer.
The Engelmann Spruce top was also not sanded, but I think out of the thicknesser, pretty rough.
I assumed these items were all ready to go, but that takes a bit of work (and really not that much work, and the ebony boards were 11 euro each so, not a lot of money).
I am nearly done handplaning one of the fingerboards, and then it is on to sawing fret slots.

[Jarno Verhoeven]

Sawn fretslots, front and sidedots drilled. Made a "mistake" for the sidedots, it is going to be a fretless, so thought about shifting the sidedots to on the fretposition, rather than in the middle. They are aligned with the front dots now, and the fretlines will be deeper so they are visible from the side. No worries.
Also made a little test with two types of veneer for the fretlines, also ordered polystyrene, still need to try that.

Will fit lines after radiusing, as the black dust from the ebony gets in the pores of the veneers.

[Fernando Esteves]

Interested to listen how it will sound

[Jarno Verhoeven]

Me too! I did some rough contouring of the headstock and rear of the neck, and it is uncannily light, so I am interested to see how it holds up. The fingerboard is, even after radiusing still pretty thick, so that'll help in stiffness. Oh, and I went for fretlines from a styrene sheet, felt that the veneer was to variable.

[Jarno Verhoeven]

Fretboard prepared, sidedots fitted, headstock routed (will need to do some repairs because of a few blown out corners, The bigger follower bit I have is not as sharp anymore, will need to give that a go on the diamond plates.
Glued on the fretboard on the neck, and started neck shaping, a very enjoyable job, who doesn't love a sharp spokeshave?
Will need to be careful, because apart from the trussrod, there are two carbon tubes buried in the neck.

The neck does feel considerably more substantial now, so confidence of it holding up is rising (until it drops sharply again, let's hope not ).

[Jarno Verhoeven]

A year already?!?!? No real progress on this instrument. Have built another, and started yet two others (5-string Fender Urge inspired bass, and a 6 string guitar/bass hybrid).
Primarily because I have some things that require further thought. Not sure how to make the bridge and tailpiece, or what to use if off the shelf, I'd like a piezo pickup, and I have bought piezo material that might work (and designed an onboard preamp to buffer it). Also stepped away fro putting a radius on the body, why complicate things...

[JC Whitney]

I noticed your earlier post re: experimenting with a couple of veneers and polystyrene for the fret line inlays. I'm (very) slowly approaching the time when I'll have to commit to a fretless line material for an ebony electric cello fretboard. What material did you end up using... is it polystyrene?

[Jarno Verhoeven]

Yes, I went with the polystyrene, as it was the most consistent in colour, easiest to see, and also pretty easy to work with. Can post a closeup of it if you like.

Are you going to go with full fretlines or partial ones (think I've seen those also, not on a Steinberger though, not sure)?

[JC Whitney]

You hit my current conundrum right on the nose. The cello fretboard differs from a guitar’s (single arch) in that it has a pretty severe drop off angle (maybe visualize something like a 1/2” x3/8” chamfer full length of the base edge). Initial thought was to only line the “chamfer” face… but that will leave me with open line edges all along the ridge. I’m gearing up to try a couple test bits, but life/work has gotten busy as of late.

[JC Whitney]

… also, looking back it seems i completely missed the opportunity to say how beautiful your fretless is turning out. I’m particularly smitten with the relationship of body size to neck length.

[Jarno Verhoeven]

Thanks!
This body shape evolved from my shortscale basses, and is based on the Alembic Stanley Clarke model, but then, better proportioned (IMHO) and with extended upper horn to counter neck dive. This is the first medium scale I am building with it, so let's see how much it likes to dive. And how well the neck holds up, because the "hardwood" I used is really super light, left the fingerboard quite thick to give the neck some rigidity, and added a pair of carbon rods.