Final graduation....

Today I did the final graduation of the top -- with a 9mm plane and a single, low light to show the contours well. A couple of more steps and I can glue the sucker on.

Blocks, clean-up and label....

Ok, I've been readying the body for the top to be joined..... Shaping the blocks -- cleaning it all up -- making the inside smooth and sound-reflective -- and adding my letterpress label........

The upper block is shaped specially for two reasons. 1. It makes future repair easier (if the top needs to come off) as there isn't too much gluing surface, and 2. It increases the effective length of the top by about an inch -- and I like to think it's one of the reasons for these bass's killer bottom ends.....

ok

The Bassbar

Ok, now it's time to add the spruce bassbar. I chalk-fit it perfectly using dark brown conté and I don't stop trimming and scraping until it fits 100% and there is an even transfer of chalk from the top to the bar when clamped. This takes hours -- sometimes three or four -- sometimes eight or ten.

After it is glued in, the shavings fly and I get the satisfaction of big, picturesque curls of spruce. Sweet.

f-hole action

At this point -- when the top is ready for the bassbar -- I cut the f-holes just so. It is very important to me just how the f-holes lay on the arching -- and if the top is carved just right, they just work. I'm very sensitive to the fairness of curves, so here I really get into it and make their forms flow.

Top Graduation

Now things calm back down to hand tools (surprisingly small ones) for the graduation of the top (the process of making it all the correct thickness -- anywhere from 5 to 10mm). At this point, I'm aiming to get the area of the bassbar done. The chips pile up like mad -- every chip is a plane stroke, and there must be billions of them.

Top hogout...

This step is pretty intense -- Hogging out most of the wood on the underside of the top.

First I drill a series of holes to specific depths as guides for the nasty, noisy and totally unpleasant "Lancelot" tool to hog away on an angle grinder. Yee haw! It sucks. The mess is awesome.

Top is Shaped..

Ok, a lot of work (and life) has happened since my last post.......

So, this is the final shape of the top -- with the area of the lower f-hole wings carved down for better f-hole/arching goodness.

Notice the edges -- I like to do much of the edge fluting at this stage -- so the arching out to the fluting is pretty much exactly what it's going to be when finished.

Top shaping

Carve, carve, carve.

Top work

Ok, the top is joined and I'm starting to carve the outside arching -- which I do by eye without templates; now that I understand and know the shape of the arching, it's easy to carve it to the correct shape quickly with a plane.

I used to be interested in automated methods for duplicating a pattern precisely -- so that each top is exactly the same as the next, but I really can't see it saving much time, and I would miss a very important step in getting to know the wood -- and changing the arching to suit it......

The wood I use is Sitka spruce and the stock I am using now is all from the same log -- cut into bookmatched sets perfectly by a friend. It's very nice to get to know the qualities of the wood over the years -- so at least there is one variable eliminated from the vast array.