All eight of the tuner/bridge assemblies are wired and grounded and attached o the bass. Feels good to have this done. Almost have a functional instrument!

Time is always short but I was able to drive out to Palm Desert with this bass to get some important decisions and guidance on the internal wiring challenges. Back home now and will continue with the electronic hardware and wiring installation and when it's all installed I'll take it back for him to make all the internal connections!

Now that I am assembling hardware I need to go consult with my electronics guy to make sure we have all the necessary hardware in place and to establish the best internal wiring plan (there will be quite a lot of wires)!

As anticipated it's very difficult to get these wires round tight corners and through a small internal channel due to the fact that they have molded plastic connectors on the ends - and I do not dare cut those off and try and re-solder them. Only two more and I'm done with tuner installation!!!

Gathering up some of the initial controls for the top cavity of the instrument. I'm hoping to get them all situated in place to help when my electronics guy wires everything up. VERY complicated and a LOT of stuff to install in a limited space!

The bottom 6 tuner/bridge units have piezo wires that need to run to the lower control cavity WITHOUT removing the plastic contact ends on each wire. I managed to get the furthest one through by using a copper wire! moving on!

I am currently working on installing electronic hardware components and running wiring through the body of the instrument at least to the point where everything is ready for my electronics guru to connect things all together!.

Lots of different jobs going on at the same time. I'm working on the best positioning for the leg support on the bottom of the body.

I need to get grounding wires set up for the 8 tuner asseblies abd then get them permanently installed onto the body. I'm also working on the install and wiring of the pickup/cover assembly for the magnetic pickups.

The spraying process left a lot of epoxy resin in the slots I cut for the piezo wires (and ground wires) so I have to grind that out before tuner assemblies go on.

Have been working on getting these output sockets assembled and fitted into the recesses in the body of the bass. These two are done and just need to be screwed in place.

Installing two 1/4 inch jack sockets and two selector switches that allow MIDI program selection. Not a lot of room in there but getting it all set.

This photo shows the nameplate in the back of the headstock after it was permanently installed. I'm also working on fitting the string retainer unit at the far end of the headstock.

I cut the mounting plates for the two outputs on the bottom side of the body. I need to grind out some of the finish in the recesses to get the black plates to full depth but after that I can install the two output assemblies.

I neded to get the bass up on the CNC so that I could machine a recess for the nameplate.

Ongoing copper shielding application. Worth it in the end as we have a lot of internal systems working together.

Finishing of the bass came out very well. Lots of work to do to get it all ready for assembly and electronics installation. Body is gloss and the neck is a nice slinky satin finish!.

One of the hardest jobs has been getting copper shielding into all of these confined cavities before we install the electronics. Most of it is now done and I will update when complete.

One of the hardest jobs has been gerring copper shielding into all of these confined cavities before we install the electronics. Most of it is now done and I will update when complete.

I cut a special nameplate for this bass and I now have to machine a matching recess in the back of the headstock to make it part of the instrument.

Taking the bass to finishing and really looking forward to the end result. Will post something as soon as it is ready!!!!.

Instrument back from finishing and the color masking and gloss and satin areas all seem to have worked out very well.

I have all the component pieces ready for the finishing process. It will be awesome to get this bass back looking fabulous and get all the hardware and electronics assembled!.

It needs to be noted that the finish will bring out the beautiful colors of the on the body and the tinted area will slightly darken by the same degree. They will remain relative in difference to each other. I will try to illustrate something but I think we are giving the finishing team the very best references for the finishig results!

I refined the neck thickness and profile a little bit and now only have to work on the finish to get it smooth and even enough to be ready for the finishing process.

Might be doing a slightly more subtle trans tint on the front of the bass - discussing right now and will update.

Doing the final sanding all over the body of the bass. I will do a quick rendering of the darker center tinted area running the length of the body. It ws an idea that my customer wanted to incorporate at the finishing stage.

The finisher will be applying a darker trans tint on the center of the body to reflect the wenge wood on the back of the bass. I am not sure yet whether a soft blended edge, or a hard masked edge will be preferred, so my customer and I will need to discuss that!!!.

I am happy with the modification on the pickup area - just have to glue it together and get it ready for finishing.

Quite a tricky gluing challenge getting this thing assembled. When it's set I will unclamp and blend all the sides together and all should be good.

Playing it safe and testing the geometry by cutting a test piece in spare material. If all is well I will use the same program to cut the final wooden piece.

I tested the first piece, made some minor adjustments and now will be running the final piece.

I am working on the entire instrument firstly to sand to a nice smooth consistent finish. In doing so I am als checking blends, radii and verifying neck thickness and profile. Goal is to get it off to finishing.

This is a small enhancement to the pickup coil support under the pickup cover plate.

Cutting the final control plate. Will probably establish a couple of recessed holes in it for the rotary switches and the stacked pots, and will do the holes etc for remaining switches and other controls after finishing so that my electronics guru can place these based on the best wiring plan!.

I removed all the hardware from the body so that I can spend some time sanding this instrument to its pre-finishing condition.

Doing a little additional machining to make space for a couple more pots and switches - this will allow us to get all the electronic controls built into the instrument body.

Finally have enough cavity space for all the required controls. Happy about that! I'm making a new cover for this area and moving as fast as I can towards bringing the whole instrument to finishing.

I have 7 switches and pots to locate on the available space on the nstrument body. I want to get them placed so that I can get the bass off to finishing. As far as I can tell - 4 can go in existing cavity and I'll be able to nest the remaining three based on that.

based on required pots and switches and knobs I am designing a slightly revise control plate which allows space for all the necessary controls!

I wanted to meet with Mark so that we could explore the layout for the rest of the controls to make this bass work as projected. My next goal is placing and fitting the remaining pots and switches.

I didn't want to send this instrument to finishing until I had assigned locations and recesses for all the remaining Rolan, GraphTech and mixing controls. I have pretty much all the data I need to get that done now so moving forward. Can't wait to get this project to the finisher!!!.

I'm liking the new control plate and it's now fitted into the body recess. This takes care of four critical controls on the instrument. I now will move on to placing a few necessary switches then prep for the finishing process!

This is the standard hardware layout for Roland an dGraphTech electronics. We need to add a couple of specific switches and there may be a could of these that we don't actually need. I'll visit with Mark to establish all that - after which I can prep for the FINISHING process!

Ran the programs on the CNC to check sizes before running each of the features to full depth. Will post a photo when completed.

The plate came off the machine nice and clean and it is a good fit in the body recess. I just have to sand down its thickness so that it fits flush in the body. Will update of course!.

I'm double checking a few sizes then will go ahead and machine the complete plate and make it part of the instrument. It will be good to get all hese controls established.

Control plate programmed and ready to cut - will post some results soon. Despite a couple of unknowns on counterbore depth I'm hoping ( and planning) to get this right the first time!

Last machining op on the slot was to machine some clearance for the end pot since we are moving those two controls a little forward. Glad this is done - I have a little space to work in and allow for all the internal wiring!!!

Now have our material, a couple of programs and a set up on the CNC so that I can create the control plate for the top selector switches and controls.

I worked on the area of the cavity where those two pots will live - added a little more depth and width for clearance!.

This slot allows the electronic hardware to be installed through a top plate. The end result should work well and look very nice and clean!

Yes I am being super careful because I need to remove enough material to get these pots safely installed without compromising the intergrity of the body/cavities/covers etc. I am about to machine a slot that will provide clearance for pot installation. After that I will create the insert on the CNC!.

Got the rotary pots to comply and load into the cavity. Actually might trim this cavity a tiny bit larger just for safety. Anyway - good to get that done.

I'll program the holes to compensate for the rotary switches and get this plate done. Once it's fitted and working I have a few more switches and controls to place but they will be comparatively easy. THEN we can finish this beast!!!

Just getting rthings ready to machine a recess that will accept the top plate assembly including new rotary selector switches and stacked volume/tone pots.

I kept the spacing as close as I dared without them interfering with each other. It'll be a tight fit but it should end up wprking.

Rough sawed a couple of pieces of matching wood which will ultimately be out little side control panel insert. Next will be surface sanding and then machining to the spacing that will match our new selector switches and other controls.

Will post more information related to the electronic components this plate will be housing but I'm moving ahead with getting it machined.

This is pretty close to the layout of the two rotaries and the two stacked knobs so I will be moving forward to get the plate machined and create a nice ergonomic control panel.

First task here is to create enough cavity width so that these rotary switches can squeeze into the cavity and fit upward into the holes. Once I achieve that we'll look at everything else but this is the most demanding part!.

The diameters of the rotary pots are such that the center distance between the holes in the body will end up being to narrow, placing the pots a little too close together. Rather than machine the cavity and make a new lid I am going to have to create a new control panel instead. This might work out MUCH better.

In order to enlarge the back upper cavity a little I will have to mount the instrument on its front face so I am better off removing hardware for safety and re-attaching when done.

I had to remove the main pickup assembly but other items installed can stay on the body while I do the necessary machining.

I had a feeling these larger dual pots might need a little bit more space in the cavity, so my next task is to get them to comfortably install and move on to the next set of controls.

I will be re-machining a part of this cavity so that the new selector switches can be inserted and installed without interfering with each other. Will probably have to slightly modify the cover too. I do have low profile black knobs that should work well with these.

This was probably the hardest area of all the electronics to resolve. At this point we have magnetic pickups all working together with multiple tone options on each set! We have the switching through to 1/4" jacks resolved and now are fairly confident on piezo and MIDI mixing (which is our next goal).

These 2-level rotary switches were the only ones that could do all the mixing options we wanted to achieve. They are a little larger than the ones I thought we were going to use so I am going to find a way to get them to live in that space!

There's a lot of bench work involved so I don't expect to get the bass back the same day. No worries though - all I care about is good results and getting this monster to finishing!

The two pickups have the ability to be wired in multiple ways and we were trying to define which method of splitting the four pickup coils would yield the best sound options. It helped for me to be there and hear everything! These rotary selector switches are a little larger than the last ones I ordered so will need to do a little machining for extra internal clearance!

We want to wire up the MIDI and test that in combination with the other sound sources and switching options on the bass!!!!

The roland system has always worked for me in MIDI instruments so I am fairly sure we will be OK. If we are successful in testing I get to take home the bass and do some minor machining to provide space for the new hardware and then take the instrument to my finisher!!!!!

These are just some of the components that my guy has been able to acquire. The wiring goal is slightly scary for me o look at because I don't have that level of technical knowledge. Lots of wires but it should all work!

Big technical step forward here - some of these components were hard to locate but we have them all now and they have been wired up together and tested for use on the instrument. We now need to combine this setup with the MIDI output and if that wprks happily we will be done!

I was informed that the center detent can cause signal issues with all these other circuits inter-connected. We're getting some special stacked dual concentric pots to take care of this.

I spoke to my Electronics guru for quite a while today - we have new electronic parts coming that werehard to find - these will finally allow ALL the circuits to talk to each other - he wants me to go over there early next week and we will plan any necessary cavity modifications.

We are building and inter-connecting the whole electronics system on the bench which is quite a big job but these new rotary controls have helped!

So far so good on the electronics. We're doing some final (MIDI) testing very soon. I have also prepped my finisher on the finishing requirements and he is ready to work on this beast!!

No - not the parts in the picture, LOL - but I trust my electronics guy to get the best out of every electronics challenge. Will try to post ohotos of the work he will be creating.

Based on some changes to the hardware we are using there may be a couple of small modifocations to the back cavities I have to make. I want to get out there and see what needs done so I can prep the body to take to the finisher!!!

I drove the bass out to Mark's shop so that he can start working on the inter-connection of all the sound sources on the bass. Pretty complicated job but VERY valuable stage in getting this bass finished!

The two rotary selector pots required so much wiring to provide all the mixing options, Mark is getting hold of pots on a circuit board that will simplify and reduce the eiring connection challenges!

Fitting some of the Roland and GraphTech boards into the control cavities.

Taking this instrument to my electronics guy so that we can check all the sound sources and then try to make them all work happily together.

I am now attaching the string retainer in place on the end of the neck.

Working on getting the remaining electronic controls fitted inside the instrument.

Just about done with the task of creating the string retainer. Will get it attached to the end of the headstock and then will be able to get strings attached!

Thank you Kalium for sending me a cool custom set for my customer!

Got most of the string retainer established . Now have to thread the holes I just drilled!

Tapping the 3rd of 8 holes for the retaining screws. Will be glad when this component is done!!!

There are some critical angles to consider in order to make this string retainer work. It will be worth the effort though!.

This setup was a pain in the "you know where" but almost done with it. I should have ir done just in time for my Kalium strings arriving!

I discussed tuning, scale length and some other factore with Kalium and we established what we believe will be a good balanced set of strings for this bass.

Lots of compound angles in this string retainer and I have to be really accurate and careful about every feature but so far so good! It's an important piece of the instrument.

The machining work on the string retainer is pretty complicated and I'm working on the many required features in a very careful order. Strings have been ordered so we're definitely moving forward on all of this.

I want this assembly to be very secure on the end of the headstock. It will be held in place by 4 strong screws.

I wanted to get the nut and retainer slots established before I machined the corresponding parts of the string retainer itself - just to make sure everything lined up perfectly.

These little laser-cut templates are a huge help when setting up and cutting string slots!!!.

Lots of geometry to consider in the creation of the string retainer. I'm working on getting a nice clean fit first - next I will cut relief angles and establish holes for strings, string clemping and securing onto the neck itself.

I created a scale drwing so that I can accurately place the string slots at both the nut and the end string support.

Just wanted to show a rough idea of the color of the wood after the clearcoat finish ws applied.

One of the features called out on the original plan was a space at the back of the nut where the player can manually bend the strings to achieve a tremolo effect. I tried to make it long enough to overcome the natural tension of the strings.

My electronics guru will be testing everything on the bass from magnetic, MIDI and piezo sources to the complicated array of blending options we have been planning. When he has hooked everything up and tested and knows it will work in one big happy unit I will remove all the gardware and get the finishing done on the entire instrunent.

I have this component partially made already but I now have better information to establish the ideal spacing and retaining screw pattern.

Looks like 4 switches and a pot still to be installed, I need to be very careful to place these so that they do not hget in the way of the player's arm or fingers. Fortunately the switches are super small and don;t extend far above the surface - and I can nest the potentiometer pretty low as well.

It's complicated but we're working through all the individual switches we will need. Some come with Roland and GraphTech, some we need for mixing and blending purposes.

I will place the Roland up/down scrolling buttons in the location the stacked pots would have occupied. They are flush with the surface and well out of the way!.

Will be machining the two Roland scroll buttons on the lower part of the body near the Roland pickup.

Kinda tight space in there for machining but I was able to remove enough material to achieve a good fit for the two output sockets.

Moving the two stacked tone pots up next to the pickup selector switches because they may otherwise slightly too close to the player's fingers - having experimented I feel that is a good decsision as it also keeps all the tone selector controls together and very accessible. Those knobs pictured may not be the exact ones I end up using.

Installing the two 1/4 inch output sockets into the body. Most of the wiring can be external for testing but it will all have to fit inside the body after finishing!

Quick CNC machining operation to remove a little material to allow these two sockets to be firmly attached into the body.

Finally got the assembled pickup ramp mounted into the instrument body! Was NOT easy but glad that's over!

Getting started on loading up the body with all the required controls and internal wiring and components. When it's all in there I can take it to my electronics genius!!!

Thanks to some careful preparation I was able to get each pair of the pickup wires through the body and into the chambers inside!

Not a big deal - just have to grind a little more wood off the inside edges!

Starting the assembly of the pickup array so that I can get it installed in the instrument.

I got the pickup bobbins back into the cover without too much trouble - have the wires all chanelled to the right platce - now need to get it all bolted in with the wires threaded through into the right area of the body!!!!

I'm making sure that the ideal height for the pickup assembly matches the depth that the screws engage in the body. Once I have the ideal adjustment balance I will assemble all this pickup stuff into the instrument!

A quick session on the CNC to slightly lower the bosses for the height adjustment screws!

This material is very hard and cleans up to a beautiful solid black surface.

I marked out and drilled four holes for the height adjustment screws. I countersunk each of those holes so that the heads of the screws will be recessed below the surface of the plate.

Bobbins are being secured to the pickup cover plate. A very unique design which should work out pretty well.

I now have a complete pickup assembly on the pickup cover ram, and I;ll be setting up the vertical adjustment and then carefully setting all this onto the body.

The back of the pickup cover is almost completed and I will be able to get the pickups securely installed for testing.

This photo shows the pickup cover fitted and in place - I will now attach the four pickup bobbins and try to get the wires sefely threaded through to the inside of the instrument.

Getting the structure of the bobbin retainers all glued together. Biggest challenge after that will be getting all those pickup wires threaded through the body!!!

Almost done with gluing the back pieces - now will set up the vertical adjustment screw locations.

I needed to figure out a good solid and reliable way for the pickup bobbins to be held firmly on the ramp plate but at the same time allow for any possible future removal (even for finishing after testing!)

Another piece of uncharted guitar building territory almost done. It'll be great to have this instrument all one solid piece!!!!

It was necessary to create more space in the pickup recess for wiring and support when everything gets assembled!

Working on the best possible string retainer geometry so that I can get this beast strun up for testing!

I need to create just a little more clearance as things will be pretty busy under the pickup cover!!.

Machining some extra space in the pickup cavity area.

Roland pickup will be attached such that it covers the lower six strings. The magnetic pickups need to be physically attached to the wood cover plate then the wiring needs to be threaded through the body and finally the cover assembly will need to be fitted with screws and vertical adjustment options.

Working on the attachment of the pickup bobbins onto the wood cover. This assembly will then have to be carefully fitted and installed on the top of the bass body.

Wires for the piezo pickups are now threaded through the body slots and internal channel to the control cavity.

Tuners are mounted and grounded and all Piezo wires are now fed through to be connected with GraphTech electronics.

Slots in moving bridge saddles and in tuner mainframe now complete and we have piezo saddles now aboe to feed signal through to GraphTech processors.

Each of the 6 lower ABM units has a piezo wore and a Ground wire going through to the control cavities. The top two only need grounding wires.

I have to make the opening elongated to fit the hole in the narrow saddle slot. Tricky and a pain but it can be done!

Just about ready to machine slots for Graphtech piezo wires into the ABM saddles.

OK - got the wiring holes cut into the body. These connect with an inner channel we already machined before the top of the body went on!.

Getting ready to drill through 6 of the tuner saddles for the piezo wires. Hole has to be large enough to let the connector pass through but there's not a lot of room in there so I have to be super-careful.

I marked out the locations on the top where I need to drill holes for the Piezo and ground wires through to the wiring channel below.

Back on the CNC this time to accurately machine 8 slots for the wiring from each ABM tuner through to Piezo electronics and common grounding.

Getting ready to cut wire slots in the base of six of the ABM tuners for the piezo connections.

Can't rush this too much but so far the slots are working and the look good.

Marking out the exact position of a hole that will allow the Roland pickup wire to feed down from the pickup bas and through to the control cavity.

This photo shows the piezo saddles and the approximate size and location for piezo wire solts in the base of six of the ABM tuners.

I'm going to try to give Mark a working instruments with strings so that he can do all his testing on the Piezo, MIDI and Magnetic outputs.

I'm in the process of making knobs to fit the available space and spacing of the controls. You just can't find custom stuff like this out there!!!!.

Got the spacing set and that allowed me to mark all the remaining 16 clamping screw hole positions!.

Different challenge every day - I'm looking at all the internal cavity space to see if I can get everything to fit in the current space. I have a little room to excavate more if I have to.

I want to guarantee slacement of each of the eight tuners and make sure each has good material support underneat. Also need a carefully placed hole under each one for the exit of the piezo saddle connecting wire!!!.

Setting up the spacing on the ABM tuners.

Just received the GraphTech package. Will post photos of the contents.

There's a lot of electronic stuff in these packages. There may be components supplied that we don't actually need but at least we have full GT capability with the kits supplied. Testing will let us know if they all can work cross-connected with MIDI and Mags!.

There are certain specs for height, string spacing and distance from bridge saddles which I have to take into account for the Roland MIDI pickup. Just need to be very careful with everything.

Once I have the 8 tuners attached at the front I will repeat the process at the back since they are very slightly fanned relative to the actual taper of the neck.

Everything is custom on this bass - I may end up buying or making custom knobs to guarantee space for everything to fit together. Right now emphasis is on electronic function.

All the hardware has been ordered and is on its way - we are hoping there will not be any major conflicts when it's all hooked up.

GraphTech sell these in sets of four but I believe they can provide a set of 6 for our purposes. They are designed to fit into the ABM tuner hardware we already have.

I'm marking out accurate positions for these tuner assemblies. I will then have to machine a slot in the base of each one to permit the passage of the Piezo wires through the body to the GtaphTech electronics.

We are exchanging specs with GT on a set of circuitry and grounding options that have not yet been explored. Hoping to hear back soon - chances are it will cost a lot of money for compatible (possibly custom) hardware!

Of course it's just about the most expensive system GraphTech provides but we're hearing that it is best suited to all the demands we will be putting on it to integrate with other systems!

One of the nice things about haviing a CNC is if you can't get something commercially - there's a good chance you can make it!.

We don't yet know what Graphtech will advise in terms of additional pots or switches but I am allowing space for those that we know we will need and will modify the instrument body accordingly.

First stage here is to get all the outputs set in the bottom, cavity and then install the two stacked pots just next to that.

These two switches give us all the requested pickup blending options.

Installing the two 1/4 inch outputs and moving on to installing the two concentric pots. Once these are in place I'll re-attach the MIDI output carefully as there is not much room between these coverlapping components.

The 4-bobbin pickup assembly is a pretty scary task on its own. I'll attach the bobbins to the cover plate and them make sure it all fits into the body area and that the wires can be threaded through. More on this as I make progress.

Trying to place and install a few switches where they will not get in the way of the player's fingers. Thankfully the 2 and 3 way mini toggles are pretty small!

Not much info available on this combination of systems so Mark wisely suggested that we build everything that we KNOW is OK and that will give us the chance to test the remaining unknowns!

Frets are all dressed and look and feel great. I also gave the ebony fingerboard a nice cleanup treatment so that everything in that area is DONE!.

I have confirmation on all but a couple of switches/pots for the controls which helps me a lot in getting the remaining hardware placed and physically installed in the body. Now waiting on GraphTech for the last pieces of the big puzzle!.

Busy getting all the pre-finishing work done on the neck and body.

Just about done with the fret dressing task. Once that's done and all polished up I will also do a cleanup surface treatment on the ebony fingerboard.

Good news that Mark was able to spend time with GT to engineer the best way to get our wiring challenges resolved. I'll know more on this soon..

Dressing both ends of all the frets befor the bass leaves for finishing.

A couple of recent modifications to the wiring plan which helped cut a few electronic corners. More data on this coming.

GraphTech products will do the job! Note that I will need 6 Piezo saddles to ADD to this order - approx $200 more!.

This diagram is Version 6 of our wiring plans. We have been revision parts of it as we dig deeper into ways to allow sound source signals to mix without the constant threat of grounding and conflicting phases between the different systems.

The screws and plates are not the final ones (!) - I'm just getting the two output assemblies set in the cavity so that I can accurately evaluate the space for any other electronic hardware.

I'm installing output boards and some other hardware to get fixed and final placement for some of the critical pieces of electronic hardware.

Using these temporary plates to install the GT and Roland output assemblies. This will allow me to best use the remaining cavity space for careful placement of switches and any other necessary hardware.

This is a very difficult job as there are so many demands on overlapping circuitry. Mark has been able to minimize the required controls and I am doing my best to place all these components so that they can fit in the body and don't get in the way of the player's arms and fingers. Wish me luck! I believe this layout is pretty close and will allow me to get holes drilled prior to final finishing.

As soon as I verify physical compatibility with the potentiometers, switches and circuit boards I will get holes drilled and get the final sanding completed. Not an easy job but we are getting close.

Top end of body has been slightly modified to remove the undercut. Bottom end of body rounded off a little more.

It's great to be able to quantify all the required controls and from that list have a chance to distribute and place the hardware in the instrument in the best possible way. Not an easy task but I'm working on all of that right now.

This image shows the initial pickup selection process and the mixing options available between the 4 sets of poles. Each pickup has a wide selection of options on their own BEFORE we involve MIDI and Piezo blending. I will post more images of the ongoing signal paths down the line from this initial magnetic pickup set of controls.

The combination of this and the previous image will give us the BEST and most manageable scenario for mixing of the sound sources. Only requirement that has to remain is that the piezo system will have to have a 9v supply to prevent it from having numerous problems with the other two sound sources!

I am working on breaking down all of Mark's research work and drawings here in the next few posts to better illustrate the BEST possible package of sound output options in a passive bass that has three sound sources that need to me mixed and controlled in several different ways.

We are working on maximizing the magnetic , piezo and MIDI outputs to multiple outputs while at the same time trying to minimize the complexity of the controls. Looking at our best options right now.

Active mode allows much of the circuitry to work together. Passive mode simplifies some features and avoids reliance on battery power. Our dilemma is that some of the grounding and circuitry that permits the MIDI and piezo to work independently in passive mode does not like to overlap and share output devices. We are working around that. From what I hear from Mark and others, we may be able to remain passive for Magnetic pickups and MIDI, but we are strongly advised to keep Piezo active to allow signal overlap and create a usable piezo sound signal quality.

I am rounding off the top horn and aligning it to the E fret on the low B string. Similarly with the lower horn I am aligning that curve with the C fret on the high Bb string.

I'm hoping Mark can find ways to make these systems switchable and overlapping given that there are a host of grounding challenges in passive mode.

Rounding off the edges of the pickup cover/ramp - might get a little more off it but I DO NOT want to get too close to the inside recesses!.

I will round of the upper edges of this ramp plate as much as the inner cavities will permit!.

I met with Mark today to discuss switching options for the pickups and he told me it could be done based in active - not sure about passive. Will keep info coming on this. In passive mode it can get very complicated.

The tuners each have a couple of retaining holes for screws at the back. I'm looking at what edges I can round off a little more based on that and available material. We are also close to internal cavities!

My customer is considering a dark tint on the top to emulate the wood pattern on the back of the bass. This is an artist's impression!.

This photo shows how the final color of the Sapele top would look after a clearcoat application.

The arrangement and layout of these last 3 or 4 controls depends upon feedback from Roland, GraphTech and my electronics guru. Roland will tell me if the selector and blend for the MIDI will operate as anticipated in passive mode. My trusted electronics guy will then advise on what is possible related to mixed source outputs going back to 1/4" outputs and piezo output.

Although I can proceed with finishing of the instrument and eastablish all the switching hardware holes after finishing is done, I sm still hoping I hear back on their advice soon.

GraphTech output on the left and Roland output on the right. I'll post a photo soon of the plates that will fit these into the recesses in the body.

I will round off the edges of the pickup plate as much as available material permits. It will blend nicely with the top and will perhaps have a more organic feel.

I'm working on the ONLY way that seems possible to incorporate all the required controls in the avilable space! So far it is working out and I am almost finished!!!.

It was a difficult job to allow all the necessary hardware to co-exist in a pretty limited space. These holes and recesses display the best and only way I was able to make it all work!

I felt it was wise to machine the recesses into spare material first so that I could make sure the through holes were the correct sizes. Did some small adjustments and now feel confident enough to cut them into the instrument body!

Kinda tricky to hold the tapered body at 90 degrees to get this machining done but I have everything set up now and will do the machining in the morning!

Measure twice cut once they say! Being VERY careful!!

These are the vector drawings of the recess and through hole for each output assembly. I'm using these to create CNC programs.

These plates have been designed based on measurements from the hardware I have on hand and will allow the components to be placed as close together as possible. I will be cutting these on the laser.

A very busy area at the bottom of the bass body where we will have a leg rest plus two 1/4" jack output sockets, two stacked vol/tone controls, a Graphtech output assembly and a Roland output assembly! I'm trying to establist firstly the best arrangement and secondly the best spacing. Note stacked knobs will be black like the rest of the hardware - just using these gold ones for measuring purposes!

Sanding almost done and I'm just looking at whether I should establish all the control holes befor finishing. I much prefer to get them done before so I will probably shoot for that!

I am VERY carefully measuring the required distancing between electronic components so that I can cut holes before finishing.

Sanding in areas like this is a lot of work and removes skin from your fingers after a while - almost there with the final hardest parts which are nice and smooth now.

I am creating a radius at the back of the machined area to maximize access to tuner knobs.

Ready to run the tuner clearance machining on the CNC. I think this is the last machining operation on this instrument body.

Finger clearance has been established. Back to sanding so that the body can be ready for the finishing process.

Sanding all over the instrument body right now.

The yellow area on the left will be machined slightly lower to maximize access to the string tuners on the bridge units.

Doing some machining to the string retainer unit.

I will create a little finger relief under the area where the adjustment knobs for the tuners will be. It will be subtle but just enough to make adjustments comfortable.

I ammachining a pattern of 4 adjustment holes in the pickup cover piece so that we will have some vertical adjustment under the strings.

I also have sat down with the bass to best figure out the leg support based on the overall balance of the instrument. I need to temporarily attach the 8 tuners to get the final center of gravity and resulting placement. It DOES help when you are sitting down to play!.

I want to have the installation hardware ready when the bass returns from finishing. The two rotary pickup controls will be partially recessed in custom housings.

Each tuner needsand elongated slot for the piezo wire which permits lateral movement of the saddle for intonation. Also need 8 through holes for the piezo wires into the channel leading to the control cavity.

Decided to take a little more off the back of the headstock. Have also been sanding the neck a little thinner!.

DSanding is always abig job - working with rough grain paper right now to get the whole body feeling right, then I will refine with smoother papers.

Trying to achieve the best balance between a thin neck and sufficient strength to hold up to the tension of 8 bass strings!.

Lots for grinding and sanding going on right now.

Good results with the last cover - my calculations worked out correctly! Now it's a mad rush to finish sand everything on this instrument!

All covers complete - they all need trimmed to allow a little bit of space for build up from the finishing process but that's fairly easy to do before it goes off to finishing.

Plate is glued together and sanded both sides. I will now machine the perimeter in such a was as to make sure the division between thetwo woods matches that of the back of the bass.

Machining the outer profile of the new cover on the CNC. I did alot of measuring and testing before I committed to the final cut!.

Cllamping and gluing some white maple veneer onto the joint face of the material for the replacement cover.

This plate will look very nice on the back and will blend with the existing wood pattern.

Doing some testing with the leg support unit to find the best placement based on the bass center of gravity andcomfort of playing.

Making sure that the tuners and Roland pickup and end up having the right relationship on the body.

I am creating a new cover using more of the same materials already used on the back of this bass. Happy that I now finally have a formula that will accommodate everything we need!

Image text coming soon!

I found these knobs on the internet and bought them because they had great outer grips and were small enough to work on the recessedsetup for the top controls!

After some careful re-planning of the overall layout I am able to machine locations for both the momentary switches for MIDI and the pickup rotary selectors!!

Setting up to cut a modified chember on the back of the bass. This will allow everything else to finally FIT!!!!

I'm planning to have the bass stay at the electronics shop for a few days so that we can look at the best wiring plan, installation layout and get hold of any other electronic hardware needed to fit inside. When it returns from the finishing process we want to be ready to do a quick and efficient install of pickups and electronics.

This is not physically done yet but will have to take place before finishing. I found away to include the rotary pickup slectors on the top surface next to the Roland program scrolling momentary switches. Parts are kinda expensive but I have no other way of getting all the required hardware in the bass. The good thing is that they will be easily accessible, they will not be disturbed or acidentally rotated while in use and since they will be recesses, they will be low profile enough not to be very noticeable from the front. Image is an artist's impression of the two knobs so they may end up a little smaller and closer together (they are only 12mm diameter)!

On the CNC where I am re-machining the upper recess. This will help tremedously.

Ifwe dont go active on the Piezo feed we will not oly have a very poor and weak signal but will have problems blending signals.

I need to get this bass into my finisher's shop as soon as I haveworked out all the electronic issues. My electronic dilemmas are mostly based on overcoming significant grounding issues with so many components inter-connected. Not an easy job!

Current questions I am trying to answer: In passive mode, can I blend both pickup outputs to the Roland and retain the independent signals to the 1/4 inch jacks. This would, if possible at least give us Roland and Mag pickup blended options without having to go active.

With all the controls required, and the finite amount of space, I would definitely benefit from moving the two 13-pin outputs to the far end of the bass, and in doing so, create room for all the other internal hardware. This is only a mockup to show the goals related to placement - in reality each output would have its own mounting plate for stability. Doing this would give me a chance to fit in all the other required controls.

I need to get this bass into my finisher's shop as soon as I haveworked out all the electronic issues. My electronic dilemmas are mostly based on overcoming significant grounding issues with so many components inter-connected. Not an easy job!

Doing some sanding to get the neck feeling as comfortable as possible - also sanding at the transition with the body to get that area ready for finishing.

Two compact rotary selector switches which may solve many of our integration challenges in the wiring of this instrument.

Ground out the access to the two truss rod ends -still need to sand it down and get it all cleaned up.Also sanding neck profile and some other areas..

CGreat to get these controls in the mail. They will provide a very important space-saving solution for the magnetic pickup volume and tone controls.

The electronics are complicated and work-intensive in this project for 3 main reasons. 1) All 3sound sources have to work together without grounding or signal strength issues. 2) Pickups need to have multiple selection options and go to dedicated output sockets while still providing magnetic signal feed through Roland. 3) Physical space based on size and shape of body is pretty limited, we are almost at the max!.

It was worth the drive to take the bass out to my electronic guy's shop so that we could evaluate the space we have to work with and how some of the controls might be best arranged.

Customer wants to not only have the magnetic pickups go to separate outputs but also beable to separate the feed from each of the 4-string coils! Mark came up with this solution. I have to however make sure I can fit this in the body!!.

Mark and I are talking every day on this challenge. Passive pickups have a hard time integrating with systems that need to be active and we're looking at what electronic systems might provideus all with the right and most flexible capabilities.

Getting close with some creative plans to make everything work. Mark gave me a drawing to evaluate in terms of fitting everything needed into the existing body. The two passive pickups need the most attention.

RCrazy day but I had a little time to create the lid for the (possible) battery cavity).

Battery cavity for two 9v units has been created should we happen to need that.

Keeping things moving - bettery compartment will be machined and I'll create a matching grain lid for it.

Ready to get this cavity cut. Glad I have some space I can use on the back. Will look fine with its matching grain cover.

Just about to machine the two holes for the Roland program selectors.

One more pre-finishing task done. Will get the rest of the holes in and finish neck and headstock carving!.

This area blends really nicely now. I still have to open the areas up for the truss rod access butdefinitely gived the headstock a much more finished look!.

Ready to establish two holes for the scrolling buttons for Roland.

I want to get the back of the neck at the body shaped in such a way that the upper frets are as accessible as possible for the player's hand.

In my efforts to keep things moving and based on some feedback I am getting I will create a cavity on the back of the bass that can hold a couple of 9v batteries. If by some chance they are not needed it will be a gear cavity for picks etc!!!.

The Roland is a closed system that will do its job per their circuitry guidelines, but since we are trying to isolate pickup signals and bend some of the Roland rules, we are investigating. Similarly with Graphtech, the piezo signals need to be combined with other systems signals and I may need a specific circuitry! Mark has cautioned me that some of these systems may not work together without electronic conflicts.

TI'm going top veneer this headstock forward area under the bending area so that it matches the darker grain on the center of the instrument.

This is part of the Roland wiring diagram without the power supply components. We are investigating whether the circuitry will permit all the blending we want to achieve without the need for the Roland to have a 9v power supply. It gets complicated and I am very lucky to have a musical instrument electronic tech to assist me with this stuff!

My finisher saw the bass and can mirror the back colors onto the foront of the bass (which my customer really liked) so we are going to do that.

We're hoping to have piezo output from 8 strings to one of these outputs while the Roland MIDI feed comes out through the other. We are looking at the technical requirements of the Roland to see if this can all be achieved in a fully passive environment.

It seemed very sensible to move the two 1/4" scockets as far from the player's hand as possible. We are looking at the various combinations of sound outputs right now - the Roland only really permits one wiring scenario so we're looking at ways to combine mag signals and piezo.

I'm final shaping and sanding the entire body of the instrument.

Now machining the holes that will permit fitting of the electorics after finishing is done.

Three cavity covers have now been machined to very close to their final thickness. Last couple of tasks before finishing will be sanding the final neck thickness, and blending the transitions between neck, body and headstock area.

I am now sanding the back of the neck to get it to the optimum thickness and profile. In doing so I will be also working on the transitions between the instrument body and the headstock area too..

The back of the bass is now done with the cavity machining work. I will thickness and fot the three covers next and start some sanding work.

I will be machining and sanding the three covers to their final thickness.

Grinding off the extra material on the beck plate to blend with the rest of the instrument.

I am starting a little undersize on each one as I want some control on the final size that I end up cutting.

Gluing and clamping of back plate in progress. I will leave it overnight to make sure it all sets perfectly.

Back glued on - now I have to create the cavity openings and then I will finish necktransition and body profile.

Final sanding and alignment checks done and I am now going to get the back plate attached to the body.

Everything always wants to move when you put glue on it and I don't have any places to drill locating holes & pins. Just need to take it slowly and it should work out fine.

Carefully gluing the inserts intpo the recesses on the inside surface of the back plate.

Back plate has been filled and leveled.All it really needs is asanding all over to clean it up from glue marks. I'd like to get this on the instrument body as soon as possible.

The three recessed areas inside the back plate have now had material fitted. I will glue these in and sand everything flush.

Back plate with the recessed areas for the three lids.

These three recesses should work out fine - I am anxious to get the back plate on the instrument and consider that part done!!!.

I am in the process of creating the three filler pieces that will fit into the recesses I cut in the back plate. Will make a lot morse send whan I post the completed pictures.

First of the three recesses cut. I'll be installing material into these recesses which I hope to be able to cut on the laser. If not I can machine them on CNC.

Getting started on the third recess which I'll need to be very precise and careful with due to wall thickness.

Second wiring channel is done so I can start working on prepping the back plate and getting that attached.

Gettig started with the little switch cavity. I will becutting a recess into which I will glue afiller piece to create a step (around .150") for the lid.

Just about to machine a few wiring channels on the back so that the body is ready for the back plate to be attached.

One of the wiring channels cut - the other one is a bit more involved but should work out fine..

Top pate now part of the instrument assembly and looks good so far. Need to do some cleanup sanding and then get wiring channels on the back finished up.

Using the spindle sander to clean up glue and blend the edges of the top plate to the rest of the body.

It's a quick safety precaution, but a paper impression of the milled out areas helps a lot once the top has been attached.

Top plate of the instrument is now being glued on. Once this is dried and set I'll clean up the perimeter and machine the back face of the body to finish recesses for wiring etc..

I am getting ready to cut wiring channels for the scroll buttons and mostly for all the wires coming off the PCB.

I am gluing the dark veneer onto the back of the back plate.

To the best of my calculations this operation completes the work on top of the body and I should be able to glue on the top plate.

Back plate needs two things - one is a dark veneer, the other is to have recesses cut for the lids. As soon as the veneer is on I will do that.

I will be machining these two channels for wiring related to pickups, piezos and grounding wires. Afther doing these the top can be premanently attached!

I am going to machine a set of three wiring channels based on the anticipated locations of all the other controls.

Top plate in the vacuum press getting some dark veneer attached to the bottom (joint) surface.

Dark veneer applied and cleaned up and now I have to cut a wiring channel on the top of the body. Once that's done I believe the top plate can be glued onto the instrument!.

So far so good on the cavities. Once I apply a veneer to the joint surface of the back plate (to match the front plate which already has one) I will do some machining to provide a location surface for each lid.

Since the top and back plates are matching up with a maple center core on the body I will probably add a dark veneer to both top and back for a fancy double contrasting pinstripe.

This cavity will provide space for the Roland momentary scroll switches.

Third cavity will house potentiometers and switches. Once this feature is done I will set up for machining connecting channels for the wiring between all these electrical parts.

Each of these openings has to be recessed and then plugged with another piece of wood accurately cut to fill the recess. It will make more sense when I post pictures of the end results!.

Now cutting the second stage of the control and output cavity..

These lid pieces will be thicknessed and configured to fit beautifully into recesses in the back plate which Iwill be machining next.

This is pretty much the last complicated machining task I have to do before I move to final shaping and other prep for the finishing process.

The two aread in blue/green are the lid perimeters and cavities for the remaining controls.

Removing the top two cover pieces from the back plate.

I would call this a success - the cover has been harvested out and I can now go ahead and machine other parts of this lower cavity.

First op in the cavity done. Have a couple other cuts to do to finish this one.

Making the best possible decisions as we go here - it's all new territory and this bass requires a great deal of planning as we are very limited on space.

All this came to me while I was supposed to be sleeping last night - it makes more sense to get the cover cut and the cavity below it machined out in one opearion. Might do the other two this way. It will all make sense when I post more progress pictures.

This is a vector drawing of the cavity shape and lid shape. Should leave a thin enough wall at the bottom for the 13 pin assemblies.

THis shows the toolpath for the main cavity. I will also create paths for the two sections that will be full depth plus lid cutout areas.

For anyone interested, this area in green is safe to remove material from the back of the body although the pots and 1/4 jack outputs will need to be cut deeper than the other areas!

I'm going to run the bottom cavity first. Might need a couple of operations/programs to allow me to customize the specific depths for the various features.

Will end up with two covers and two cavities of varying depths to house the various controls. I have another toggle switch to place somewhere but at least that will be small! Enough to make my brain explode and I will be glad when I have resolved and cut all of this!

As I work though this cavity issue I realized that my only reasonable way to accommodate all the controls is to move the two selector buttons to the upper side of the body. They are very low profile and to me it seems as if anything needs to be on the upper side it should be these two as they would not be seen and would free up some very valuable space!

I'm trying to determine how deep that first cavity can be to still akkow the 13-pin outputs to sit in place but still leave me enough material relief for access to the tuner knobs. Everything is so tight on this instrument there's no room for error!!

Spent a good chunk of the day on this as there are so many variables to consider. I wantto keep the lids to two if I cando that so I have to consolidate and arrange the electronics fairly accurately where I have space to do so!

Have the back plate accurately placed on the center line of the existing body. Will cut and sand edges to match and then I can start cutting lid openings etc.

Back plate is now shapes and danded to accurately match existing body shape. I need that accuracy to position the cavity covers..

Brown areas are existing features (on the front of the instrument) and green are the areas I am working on to refine for cavities. Need to check on retaining screw lengths for tuners. Also will be establishing other areas for circuit board etc.

On the surface of the instrument the placement will look ok, in the cavity it will be very tightly packed. I'm looking for the most compact 1/4in jack sockets available. Those gld knobs are there just for my reference!

If I can verify all the hardware will fit in their deignated places I will get all the cavities machined accordingly. Stacked pots for Volume and Tone on the magnetic pickups look like they will be ok.

Establishing cavity perimeters and writing programs for them. It will be tight but I think we can place everything the way we wanted.

This is the Graph Tech option for no 9v battery. They also have a PE-0240 system but that is active and would require a 9v battery.

I believe that based on the sized of the various internal electronic components this is our bet bet for control layout. I have enough depth now in the body to use stacked pots for Vol/Tone on each pickup. Looks loike Roland stuff will fit in the upper back corner. Biggest components will probably be the two 13-pin assemblies and I am assuming the worst case on this drawing. It's enough data for me to get the cavities programmed!!!!

Establishing a final carved thumb space allows me to define the available material the set of upper knobs can start. Should not be a problem.

I'm checking and measuring to see if this could be done. It would be nice to get these controls in a more traditional location if possible. I talked to GraphTech regarding passive Piezo feeds from the bridge units - they told me they should be connected to magnetic output(s) via a special blend pot they make. This would perhaps help in us not needing a second 13-pin output but I will discuss with my customer.

Audere has three stacked knobs but they have really small potentiometer bases which will allow me to place them on the upper surface of the body. I will have two 13pin and two 1/4in jack outputs. The 13pin circuit boards are bulky so it looks like the best distribution is as ahown above where there will be a jack socket between the two larger units. The two small blak Roland dots are ush buttons for scrolling through MIDI menu items. I'm looking at all the electronic packages right now to get a correct inventory of all the switches and knobs.

We are using passive circuitry for the two magnetic pickups and that allows me to make the top controls a little more discrete on the upper surface which helps me a lot. I'm also going to trt to use the available space to group all the Roland controls together.

I'm guessing that I will have three cavity covers on the back to provide access to all the electronic components and battery power supply.

IPicture of the front and back of the instrument. The back plate has the same Sapele material alongthe edges and the Wenge part blends perfectly with the taper of the body laminates. The finish will bring out the grain of all these woods and it will look spectacular..

Marking out the final preimeter of the back plate after which I will rough saw the shape. This will all allow me to get back to the task of chambering out the body for the electronics and wiring.

I'm working on the back plate now to bring it into size with the body profile. I can now define cavity areas and will use this plate to create blended continuous grain covers - should look very nice.

Maple veneer attached to both joint edges. Next I will be gluing on the Sapele.

The cobination of the woods and the decorative veneer looks awesome and that's before any finish is applied. This panel will do an excellent job to provide fully blended access covers.

I am machining accurate joint faces onto the sapele side pieces of the back plate.

Gluing maple veneer to the two side joint faces of the wenge back plate. When that's done I will glue the two outer pieces on and sand everything nice and level.

Cutting the ptapered shape of the Wenge to match existing geometry on the back of the bass.

Tapered center piece has been cut and I will go ahead and assemble the Sapele sides..

I will be doing a couple of machining operations to this piece of Wenge and ultimately adding the two Sapele side pieces.

Machining down the Wenge to metch the thickness of the sapele.

I have some Sapele left over from the top plate material and I am planning to combine that with some wenge to create a very fitting artistic back for the body inside of which I can creat all the required contuinuous grain covers!.

These two woods should combine to do a beautiful and artistic back plate which will also incorporate continuous grain covers!

I'm busy quantifying how many pots and switches will actually be needed to make this thing work. What is shown in a minimum configuration. Also actual locations not yet finalized. A is Audere, R is Roland.

The back plate would be a huge help to placing internal components and will allow the addition of beautiful decorative continuous grain covers.

I have 4 outputs to configure in the lower right area of the body- working on that right now to make sure I have space for all of that hardware!!.

I do have space under the pickup area to create some space for electronics although I don't want to weaken the structure that has to hold up to the string tension. I'm wondering if it would be wise to create a back plate which would then allow me to create as many lid/covers as needed while helping add a little thickness to retain core strength. I love the laminates on the back but if I cut cavities in that I can't make matching lids. I may have some really nice material I can use that would look just as good. Lots of stuff in a very small space.

I think I got the recesses deep enough to work on the finished assembly. There are 8 wires that now need to have some clearance machined so they can pass through to the control cavity area.

I will be running 4 pairs of wires from the magnetic pickups, a wiring cable from the Roland pickup, six piezo wires and eight grounding wires from the bridge units. I have to account for everything that needs clearance or channels under the top plate.

I was right in the middle of cutting the pickup recesses when the old computer failed. Got hold of a replacement and busy setting it up and installing the software. Like I had nothing else to do today!

Machining pickup relief into the instrument body.

Once this relief pattern has been cut out of the body material I will be able to test fit the ramp/pickup assembly and make sure everything lines up and fits.

Getting ready to cut pickup recesses!.

This photo shows what the pickup ramp is planned to look like after all this hardware is installed..

IWhen I cut the recesses for the pickups in the ramp piece I made sure to keep the wood about the top surfaces of the pickups quite thin (around .050"). This allows the internal pickups themselves to be adjusted upwards as close to the strings as possible. There will be adjustment screws and springs etc to make the ramp behave just like one oversized pickup.

I will be machining clearance below the ramp for the bottom of the pickup array to provide the right height and adjustment range. I will also machine wiring channels before the top gets glued on.

IWhen I cut the recesses for the pickups in the ramp piece I made sure to keep the wood about the top surfaces of the pickups quite thin (around .050"). This allows the internal pickups themselves to be adjusted upwards as close to the strings as possible. There will be adjustment screws and springs etc to make the ramp behave just like one oversized pickup.

I could probably also use hot glue to make sure these pickup bobbins are very solid. Have a few options. This is ALL unknown territory so we will see what's needed as we assemble the ramp.

This photo is a testimony to accurate machining. The four bobbins fit in there just the way I wanted them to!

I just programmed the locations for the four pickup bobbins! Ready to do the machining..

INot mucg room for error on the back of this plate! Wish me luck!.

MDF ia a great material for incidental fixtures like this that I will only use one time. It will guarantee correct placement of the machined features.

Cutting the holding fixture on the CNC.

First job is to cut recesses in the back of the ramp to locate the pickups and place them as close to the strings as possible.

I wanted to see the actual pickups on the back of the plate - will keep them near the machine to make sure everything fits!.

This operation will separate the ramp material from the rest of the top plate.

Made it this far. Next I will be machining the back of the ramp in order to fit the 4 pickup bobbins in place.

I have to make these cuts in several passes to avoid the little carbide cutter breaking.

IThis is the first cut - about 1/4 inch deep.I need to reset the top plate on the CNC and machine from the back to release it completely. Then I will machine the ramp to house the 4 pickups.

This profile is a result of aLOT of measurement and calculation related to all the features that need to exist between the bridges and the neck.

I will use a very small .031" cutter to machine as deep as I can round the ramp. I'll need to flip it over and machine from the back to release it.

Setting yup to clean up and square off a couple of fairly important reference surfaces.

Since I need a greater than usual degree of accuracy on these features I'm making sure top/neck joint is accurately set before positioning and cutting ramp area.

This appears to be the best compromise for the ramp shape. Next move is programming and cutting it out of the top plate.

Working on the CNC setup where I will be cutting the ramp plate out of the top plate.

I'm checking with Mark to see whatthe absolute minimum distance can be between the two sets of pickups. I could always create more space by shortening the fingerboard by 1 fret but I would much rather not do that!.

Doing some actual measurements while duplicating the correctly sized components on the computer. Difficult job.

While I am working on all the top features I might as well add this little nameplate to the list!.

On the right side we have the tunets whose positions are pretty much fixed based on scale length requirements. On the left we want to leave a little finger space for slapping style playing. In between those two points we have a Roland pickup, the side walls of the ramp (which can be pretty thin) and two pairs of pickups which can't be too close to each other because of phase/polarity issues.

The top plate will have the ramp section machined out and that piece will have some machining done on the underside. I'll also have corresponding recesses machined for the pickups in the body below the ramp. I have to be very careful about placement!.

These replicas of the individual pickups will help me verify a few things related to the shape and size of the ramp.

Got the second pickup array from Mark and I now have what should be a great source for the magnetic pickup signal on the bass.

These are the new pickup units placed in the body and the resulting ramp perimeter drawn around them. I will be using this geometry to get the blank cut for the ramp area.

Heard from Mark that these bobbins have exactly the desired output levels and based on their copper gages and windings are well balanced. He need to add wiring and get then potted after which I will find a way to get back over there and pick these up!.

Mark has been amazing in this very difficult process of creating custom pickups for me. Looks like we finally have a set that will work in this unusual bass.

These are the redesigned pickups in the process of being assembled. Bottom bobbins allow me a means to attach the bobbins to the ramp plate.

My feedback from Mark on this batch is good so far - he is winding in such a way as to make sure the output from each set is suitably balanced. He has out a lot of work into this!!!.

OK - this pic shows the ramp area plus the pickup placement and spacing. I need to devise a way to lock the pickup bobbins into the ramp so that they are fixed firmly to the top surface. It's a complicated job..

I'm adding a clamping system to the bobbins to facilitate the locking of the pickups to the underside of the ramp. We're breaking a lot of new ground here and adjusting as we go and learn.

Bobbins are complete! I now need to get them to my winder who is a couple of hours away.

He's not real close but it's wirth the drive. I go through the mountains on smaller roads as it;s quicker than dealing with the freeway traffic!.

We had flipped the layout of the bass pickups but, as a result of exploring this from an electronics point of view, it will cause out of phase issues and I have been strongly advised to stagger them as shown for best results!.

In the middle of assembling the pickup bobbins and magnets!.

Assembling the four pickup bobbins.

I roughly laid the bobbins out to see how they looked on the top of the bass.

I roughly laid the bobbins out to see how they looked on the top of the bass.

II may modify this geometry slightly but basically it will be a plate under which all four magnetic pickups will live.

Each pickup is unique in terms of string spacing so I have to make sure they are labeled for the laser!

Cut the bobbins on the laser and they are now ready for assembly!!

Slight re-design of the bobbins so that I can keep them as compact as possible. It would be nice to just buy commercial pickups for this but because of the pickup angles, the small body and the need to save space plus the desired sound characteristics, there is no way I could purchase something like this. I am lucky I have a laser and I can custom create objects like this!!

I cut the new bobbin design and it seems that it should work fine. I'll be testing it in custom covers soon too. Should look and sound good!

TThe magnetic pickups will need height adjustment so I am looking for the smallest screws I can find that will do the job so that I can keep the pickup sizes assmall as possible since we want a lille slapping finger space near the fingerboard.

I cut a pickup bobbin to see if it's compact enough to work on the bass, but big enough to take enough copper winding. Also need space for the little wire terminals. This will tell me a lot and help me build these with confidence as they need to be fairly custom assemblies.

These bobbins and pole spacing are a product of my calculations. Now I have to manufacture the bobbins and collect 32 magnets.

The side dots got some daylight from my workshop and I noticed them glowing when I brought the bass indoors.

The placement and string spacing of the poles are important factors in laying out the phyical design and sizes for these pickup bobbins. I need to also leave enough space so that we have room for the best copper wire type/gage and number of windings. I will be cutting these soon on the laser.

All these calculations end up giving me the correct spacing for the poles on the pickup bobbins.

Mark was kind enough to send me some thoughts on how we might deliver all these different sound sources through the 4 outputs on the instrument. More on this coming.

It helps to know the magnetic pickup plan. Now I have to look at the challenge of how all these sound sources can be connected together and how the physical electronic components are inter-connected so that they can be built into the existing body of the instrument. I'm making a diagram of hardware for Mark so that we can study all of this.

We might do a reverse arrangement on the neck pickup setup. Also decided we could add a small extension to the Roland pickup to balance the visual appearance.

I don't know if we can do this yet but waiting to find out.

Just another option for the magnetic pickup layout so that we can provide the best and most diverse sound without phase issues or compromising body strength against approximately 600 lbs of total tension from the strings!.

Just another option for the magnetic pickup layout so that we can provide the best and most diverse sound without phase issues or compromising body strength against approximately 600 lbs of total tension from the strings!.

This image shows the combination of a single and a split pickup combination.

In this picture it shows two sets of split pickups.

I am machining a wiring exit slot in six of the AMB tuners for the piezo wires.

According to Mark we CAN wind copper on an 8-string bobbin so we do have a choice of creating two pickups similar in shape to J-Bass style. Doing this also avoids the possible structural cross section weakness of the sliding pickup recess that I was concerned about under the tension of 8 bass strings.

The blue area is the body shaope as it is right now. Brown area is the anticipated slightly shortened body shape. Green is the area of the revised body shape that is recessed for finger access to the knobs. For anyone looking at the bass the green area would appear as part of the body.

I am machining a wiring exit slot in six of the AMB tuners for the piezo wires.

This would work great from a manufactureing perspective but required too much linear space. I asked about reducing the same system to a 4 pickup layout to see if it would fit in the 3" or so that we have to work with. It might but he pointed out that if that were the case we'd be better off with the tonal diversity of two separate 8 string pickups.

The geometry of this bass with its narrow body and the combined tension of eight strings brings up a few questions about inherent strength IF we machine out a big cavity for sliding pickups. Most of the 8 string tension will be transferred to the area of the body below the pickup recess.

Mark and I are in regular communication to find the best way to produce a detectable difference in tone using the 3" wide space on the instrument. Given that a pickup has to have a magnet large enough to overcome the difference in string spacing, a copper coil with a minimum of 1/8 buildup and bobbin to provide spacing an clearance, the distance a pickup can move within that 3" space would be around 2.25" Based on the flux of a vibrating string that distance of travel yields a fairly subtle difference in tone. Mark has a concept he is working on of his own design to overcome this and the inevitable phase/signal challenges.

I sent these pics to Mark with a list of questions so that I could better understand his concerns. I will be updating this page as I learn and develop solutions with him.

The tuners have to be in fixed positions based on relative scale lengths but that still leaves some material that can be removed from the very back of the bass. The objective is to do that while retaining the curved feature. Roland pickup can't be more than 50mm from bridge locations. I have to bear in mind that the lower strings will have a lot more backward intonation adjustment but as long as the pickup is parallel and close to the tuners it will remain within that range.

We are thinking that if we have two bar magnet pickups (somewhat similar to above) moving independently this would hopefully defeat loss of volume and tone as the string separating varies from front to back of travel. Mark indicated that tp avoid out of phase issues they would need to act as single coil when separated and humbucking when aligned together.

May be able to reduce the length of the body slightly once I have done some calculations based on positioning of tuner units.

Mark is working on finding a way if possible to avoid two 4-pole pickups causing phase interference with each other. They also need to track the natural taper in the strings.

The tuners actually cost more that the finishing process. ABM have been very busy over in Germany as they are the only ones with a proven ptroduct like this.

Well. I don't have to worry about these any more. I had heard that they are hard to get and ABM have been saying repeatedly that they are out of stock and it would be some considerable time before they ware available again!.

The green area on the photo shows the area occupied by the tuners. We may slightly modify the end shape of the body.

Two 4-string groups of individual puckup modules which will be compact enough to pass by each other. More info on all of this coming soon..

The green area on the photo shows the area occupied by the tuners. We may slightly modify the end shape of the body.

I hope this image can illustrate the difference - based oin tuner locations I can take off a little bit at the end of the body.

Working on a very unique pickup design. Best scenario is an 8string split pickup that allows two separat 4-string sections to travel forwards and backwards. Some electrical engineering involved!

Tentative design on special pickups for this bass. We are currently working on actual string spacing to verify that the laws of physics will allow us to do this.

Not the cheapest or technically easiest solution since it requires the winding of four smaller pickups but it seems to be the closest formula to the goal.

I have to cut out a piece of the top plate and use that piece as the bottom of the pickup recess. To do that I am carefully establishing the maximum area the pickup parts can live in.

Because of the necessary overlap of copper winding it's not easy to creat e a split pickup where the travel on each half is able to overlap the other. Working on a few ideas - will update.

IBody is much more compact now. Next I have to look at the pickup recess based on maximum travel and how that split pickup is going to separate.

Body is much more compact now. Next I have to look at the pickup recess based on maximum travel and how that split pickup is going to separate.

Machining the outer (straight) edges so that we have finished surfaces on the top and bottom surfaces of the body.

I was able to do it this way thanks to having a milling cutter with long flutes.

Body is now trimmed in line with the angles of the sides of the neck.

Had to make anothere custom fixture to allow me to accurately place the threaded holes for string clamping!.

Retainer is drilled and fitted. Needs clamping and retaining screws but I can shape the remaining headstock material to reduce to the finished size and shape.

There is going to be very little room for electronic hardware and wiring inside this bass. The sliding pickup components and large recess they require will use up a lot of real estate.

Got things set up for the string retainer - I only want to do this once!.

Drilling the holes into the retainer. I'll need another little fixture to get the tapped holes for the clamping screws done too.

Lots of sanding going on but it wgets me a lot closer to finishing.

This holding device has to hold the string retainer very firmly at just the right angle so that I can use the CNC to drill the 8 string holes.

The length from bridge to string retainer is fairly important based on string winding diameters.

I am working on both the headstock and the neck/body transition because the neck thickness is a governing factor in both. Talking quite a lot of material off with the goal of minimizing the size of the overall body of the bass as much as possible.

I have lot sof little operations to custom build this component. Right now bringing the blank to length with the appropriate angles at each end. Next I will set up to drill the 8 holes for the strings.

Se seat for the design of the string retainer is cut and I can now streamline the headstock area. Neck itself needs to come down a little bit in thickness too.

Doing a few machining operations to the back of the headstock.

Rough machining the brass piece that will become the custom string retainer.

Nice to have the headstock finished to length - now looking at the cross-section to finalize that shape.

Doing a few machining operations to the back of the headstock.

I will be machining the material off on the cnc as there are compound angles involved and I can do everything much more accurately with a nice clean finished surface on the CNC.

Busy cutting material off the end of the headstock to create a final surface.

I'm removing material from the back of the neck to achieve the optimum thickness and comfort for playing!.

Moved string clamp to the back of the headstock which will help reduce overall length!.

Took a lot of unwanted material off the headstock - probably another 3/8 inch coming off after I machine the slot for the string retainer!.

Roland pickup needs a certain linear relationship with the bridge saddles. I want to get all of the milling and sanding done so we can get this beast into finishing!.

It will be good to get the mechanics of the string bending area and the string retainer done and out of the way!!!.

Next I will be cutting the headstock and adding a slot for the string retainer.

I'm going to make a suitabe recess for the string support bar on the left and then cut off the unwated length of headstock. I'll create a suitable recess for the string retainer.

This arrangement should securely clamp the strings but distribute the tension and pressure between the string retainer and the carbon fiber radius to break the cornet for the strings...

Clamping and gluing the nut retainer.

Nut blank rough cut and I will be getting this set into the instrument.

I now have the perfect assembly for the nut to live in. I'll trim this piece to seize and attach it and then cut the nut.

I have the nut base all prepared and I'm cutting a nut blank for the slot.

I wordered some special carbon material that will not only be more than hard enough for teh nut but also provide the viscosity to enable a little string bending.

The goal here is to create a very accurate surface onto which I can add another piece of ebony. This additional piece will hold the actual nut material.

Generating the right thickness and profile for the back of the neck is a gradual process. I evening off the rough grinding I previously did, measuring the sizes and will be doing a phase two of the rough grinding to get the neck section thinner.

I will be installing a pretty solid nut assembly to handle any strain caused by string bending (mostly changes in tension) and I'm also planning to insert a string retainer that I will have to manufacture for the very end of the headstock area. I'll end up removing a couple of inches of that extra material!.

Fingerboard looks really good on the neck of the bass. This helps in a lot of levels, I can now grind more off back of the neck to get much closer to the finished neck profile. I will also get the top plate ready for installation and be looking at cavities for housing the electronics..

Fingerboard looks really good on the neck of the bass. This helps in a lot of levels, I can now grind more off back of the neck to get much closer to the finished neck profile. I will also get the top plate ready for installation and be looking at cavities for housing the electronics..

After gluing the fingerboard I had to do a good amount of glue cleanup. With that done I was able to re-fit the top plate around the neck heel. Next will be some final shaping around the body contour..

I brought the outer perimeter of the top in to match the body dimensions and also slightly rounded the upper horn corner - just needed the top and body to be close to finished width since the pockets for all the electronics are fairly critical in terms of available space.

Removed a lot of material to get down to a shape and thickness of the neck much closer to its finished dimensions.

The electronics shown here are just those that relate to the Roland package. We have a MIDI output connector, a blend pot, a 3 way switch, two program scroll switches and also a standard output for the magnetic pickups only.

Always a fairly elaborate setup fpr gluing a finfgerboard on - have to have everything on hand and work fast before glue starts to bond.

Fingerboard looks really good on the neck of the bass. This helps in a lot of levels, I can now grind more off back of the neck to get much closer to the finished neck profile. I will also get the top plate ready for installation and be looking at cavities for housing the electronics..

Ready to get the gluing done to attach the fingerboard..

Takes a little setup time because you have to be sure to have all your materials right on hand before you start and mix the adhesive. There's no time for running around looking for stuff!.

Side dots are all done and the look pretty good in there.

Now that side dots are taken care of I can get ready to attach this fingerboard to the rest of the instrument.

Further to my customer's preerences, I'm going to try to keep the geometry functional for the tuners but try to avoid causing the bottom bout area to look like a bump or knob!

Testing installation of the side dot material. Once the adhesive is set I will cut them flush and sand flat and make sure they work. All being good I will go ahead and do the rest.

Drilling the side dots for the markers. Once this is done I will get them glued in and cleaned up.

The side dot material seems to be fairly responsive - better that I had expected actually!

Relieving some of the material in teh string bending area. It may not only serve as a spave to depress (bend the tone of) the strings but it should also provide access to the two truss rod slots.

Although I haven't seen this product in action they seem to have had the best reviews from users out there who want a side dot that can be seen if light conditions are low. I'm hoping they work out..

SI dresses all these frets down flush with the sides of the fingerboard so that the board is ready for machining of the side dots.

I looked at many options for glowing side dots - this company seemed to have the best engineered product.

First edge was carefully cut and looks good - now setting for second edge.

Some corner rounding to do but sides are in the rright place and I will be working on other features around the tuner area.

Planning the nut geometry based on string bending requirements.

The next 2 operations will give me finished egdes on teh upper and lower body. I will then finish the remaining profile from there..

Doing calculations on string spacing, nut width and its relationship to the headstock angle.

Carbon fiber rods cut and redy to go into the neck.

The fingerboard is now off the substrate and I'll be looking at side dot options and getting this attached to the neck!.

CI wanted to see how the top plate and fingerboard fit together as I have to set up bridge locations, do some marking out and revise the cut at the back to assure adequate tuner access.

The string ending option needs to have some space below the strings. I'm trying to create that space and keep the ends of the truss rods exposed and accessible.

I will be adding a little undercut to guarantee finger access under the tuning knobs - just want to design that as elegantly as possible so it all blends with the shape of the body.

Slightly revised body contour at the back end based on how features fall in after the final placement of the fingerboard (which defines the various bridge positions) I may still have it slightly curved for aesthetic reasons.

Im in thr process of grinding the fret ends flush with the fingerboard edge. Right now they are flush with the substrate material so I am goin to separate the bopard from the MDF and finisg from there.

Frets now in the process of being installed. Using a LOT of fretwire for this one!.

Got all the frets into this fingerboard. Was careful to make sure each one was seated properly. Now need to dress down the oversize frets flush with the board!.

Fingerboard is now cleaned up, final sanded and ready for frets.

Frets now in the process of being installed. Using a LOT of fretwire for this one!.

This neck is now ready for its fingerboard. I'll get the frets installed first and then the board will be attached to the neck.

Doing a final dressing job to the fret slots to make sure the depth is correct before the frets get installed.

Carbon fiber rods cut and redy to go into the neck.

I bought sever 2ft lengths of fretwire for this fingerboard.

I will be sanding off some of the CF surface and glue to return joint face to a flat condition.

In the middle of working on the neck surface - messy job.

Gluing and clamping the carbon fiber rods into the neck.

Ready to install frets into the ebony fingerboard.

Nice to have the neck surface prepped. It will be ready for its fingerboard after the carbon firber work gets done.

Carbon fiber rods cut and redy to go into the neck.

For each rod I have to cut three slots of different widths to fit the rods inside the neck correctly. Got the first one finished and will start on the second one.

Working on the two carbon fiber slots.

Readt to machine slots for truss rods and carbon fiber rods.

I'm getting started on cutting the first of the two truss rod slots.

I removed a large amount of the headstock material based on calculations for string retainer, string bending and bridge allowances. I have a feeling it will end up shorter as we refine it.

Working on back of neck and front of headstock.

Didn't want to cut off any headstock real estate until I had seriously considered the mechanics of the entire headstock. We are trying to keep it as short as possible!.

This may be a very configurable solution for out nut. I buy two of these guitar bridges and employ the roller saddles in a vert sturdy ebony or carbon fiber housing.

All 30 fret slots have been cut into the fingerboard.

All 30 fret slots have been cut into the fingerboard.

It was quite a bit of work to get a decent graduation in light and dark from my available shell since shell is inherently reflective. I was able to make the color graduation look pretty cool - I like it!

Getting ready to cut the two long body sides to finished size.

All 30 fret slots have been cut into the fingerboard.

I sorted through all my dots that I cut from shell and geaduated them from dark to light.

I have set pre-sanded subtrate pieces into the inlay recesses. Shell will be next.

I will be using every ounce of space in this small bodied bass for the electronics that will live inside.

The cross hatched area is what I am planning to employ for string bending. This will shorten the headstock quite a bit - might even go a little closer but won't know till I test.

Fingerboard has been prepared for the sjell inlay and when that's done it will get its frets!.

This is the working area for the pickup travel. It should give us a lot of tonal diversity. I just need to be sure that the pickup geometry and the recess in which it travels are geometrically aligned.

Cleaning up the back area - I will need to recess the top a little for tuner access but it will look good.

I will be putting blue/grey shell inserts in the dot positions. If possible they will be graduated in color density from one end to the other so I am trying to cut them from various parts of the availale shell material to achieve that.

I tried to lay out some of the shell material based on color density - I think they will all look great in the ebony fingerboard.

I'm machining both sides of the headstock closer to the necklines. When that's done on both sides I will work on the length of the headstock and the thickness..

The headstock looks much better with the extra material removed. I now want to evaluate the length and see how short the headstock can be and still function with the string bender.

Roland MIDI package which I am measuring so that I can fit it into the body of the bass.

Hoping to use as much of the available space between neck and bridges as possible.

This is the layout of the top of the body - I'm in the middle of planning where things go (tuners, pickup geometry, recesses and wiring slots).

Not a great deal of linear space to work with so I want to make the most of what we have. Doing some calculations to maixmize pickup travel..

More material off the back of the neck - now it acutally feels pretty comfortable for the left hand way up there.

The space between the fingerboard and the ABM tuners is what I have to create a pocket for the sliding pickup design.

Some final perimeter shaping orior to establishing recesses for electronics/batteries etc..

I will be carving quite a bit of material out of this joint to blend it nicely with the neck and body and achieve access for player's hand.

All 30 fret slots have been cut into the fingerboard.

This shot of the headstock shows lines I had drawn to indicate the material I could afford to remove from the headstock. From tests I have done 2 inches seems to be an ideal length for creating a string bend (plus or minus a little depending on string size) Also depends on how we design the string retainer.

I may be using some of these materials to guarantee a strong headstock area.

Doing some calculations for layout of pickup and the space I will have to work with!.

All 30 fret slots have been cut into the fingerboard.

Ready to drill all the side dot holes along the fingerboard.

This is a big surface area to prep and get flat. I want it to be very level and smooth before I machine for inlay.

I took all the support material off except the lower surface so that I can fixture the fingerboard in the CNC.

We'er going to be adding regular shell dots on the board. Color to be determined..

Slightly revised dot pattern.

Fingerboard radiused and I'm now cutting the fret slots.

All 30 fret slots have been cut into the fingerboard.

Some tricky operations where I am checking board geomethry against the geometry of the upcoming fret slots to make sure everything works together.

Generating the compound radius on the top of the fingerboard.

GDoing some double checking on neck geometry to make sure what I cut is mathematically perfect.

Cutting some of the meat off the fingerboard to establish outer perimeter.

Looking pretty good with the top plate fitted!.

Fingerboard up on CNC for a bunch of machining work!.

Testing the program but cutting and fitting a scrap piece of wood. It was very close so I made the appropriate adjustments.

Got the neck relief cut out of the top plate.

Getting set up to machine nack relief in top plate.

Top plate glued and sanded.

Gluing the top plates together.

Machining a very accurate joint face for the bookmatched top.

Grinding and sanding the back of the instrument to refine the neck contour.

Figured Sapele top plates ready for veneer and machining.

Figures Sapele top plates ready for veneer and machining.

Body has been trimmed and will now get some final shaping.

Body has been trimmed and will now get some final shaping.

Establishing some physical sizes before cutting the radius at the back of the body.

Some really beautiful figured sapele for the top.

Machining on body complete for the moment. Need to now plan for tuner locations and refining body shape closer to finished size.

The top surface of the bass has now been machined.

I have now established the 30th fret geometry on the end of the neck.

Doing the math on the fingerboard so that I can be sure subsequent machining operations work out correctly!

Body shape revised and updated. I can now get the body closer to finished shape

Body shape revised and updated. I can now get the body closer to finished shape

Checking vector layout before I commit to machining fingerboard geometry.

The headstock area which will have a string bending feature added to it.

Removing extra material from meck and headstock areas so I can move things forward.

Checking vector layout before I commit to machining fingerboard geometry.

Clamping the first of the two body half blanks onto the core.

Machining and sanding the body halves prior to assembly.

Cutting pieces for the upper and lower body halves.

Ebony fingerboard now attached to MDF board and ready to go on CNC for several machining operations.

Gaboon Ebony for the fingerboard - rough cut and ready for machining.

Gluing on decorative veneer on the sides of the core section.

Some maple from which I can create the sides of the body.

Machined the edges of the core for the body half joints.

Proposed Roland GK-3B system.

Machining back surface of body.

Proposed Roland GK-3B system.

Neck-to-body angle has been machined.

Cleaned up the headstock angle area. Will need further machining but good to set a datum surface.

Core is set up on machine for a few operations.

Core laminates complete - now ready for machining.

Six out of seven laminates now glued together.

Getting the last few veneers onto the core section.

This is the core section with first laminates glued together.

Gluing 3 of 7 right now - pretty happy with it all so far.

Starting to glue the individual veneered core components together.

Gluing veneer onto Wenge laminate.

2nd side of center laminate getting its veneer applied.

Gluing veneer onto the center laminate.

The 7 laminates together, ready for veneers.

Gluing veneer onto the laminates already cut.

Two Wenge laminates ready to be machined to tapers.

Cutting the two Sapele laminates so that I can start the assembly.

Maple and Wenge laminates ready for machining.

Laminates are now set up on CNC for machining.

Drum sanding the Sapele laminates - messy job but they look nice!.

Sapele laminates cut, now to get them sanded and tapered.

ready to cut two more laminates - this time some really nice Shedua.

Two of the maple laminates have been cut.

Neck laminates and the Roland Synth package.

Revised template allowed me to cut the first core laminate and test it out.

Right in the middle of recalculating some of the dimensions if we change to 8-strings.

Looking at a method to allow the player to manually bend the strings.

Marking out template dimensions on some of the maple.

Curly Maple destined for neck laminates.

Wenge planks which will soon become neck components.