LeftyBassist.com

has the day finally come?



O yah! O yah!

now to get my shop reorganized and new circuits added before the delivery truck arrives in two weeks

all the best,

R

CNC incoming?!

with a full load of licensed Rhino CAD/CAM and Mach3 software to boot!



25" x 39" working area with 5" of Z travel - plenty for the bolt-on style bass I build (including the single-cut I never brought to production)


I guess that Dupli-carver isn't going to see any action in my shop ... time to get it ready to offer up for sale

all the best,

R

Ohhhh My!
Watch out Carvin!!

will prices be adjusted if you can make them easier?

good question, and one I don't have the answer for just yet. I do know that at list prices this is about a $20K US type of tooling investment (no, I didn't pay list ) I need to see how much time I'll be saving (should be considerable) and weigh this against ammortizing the cost into a per build kind of rate.

I'll also be contracting outside work to help pay it off sooner. just yesterday I contracted to machine the honeycomb core inserts for a local company that builds custom carbon fiber composite skateboards. the quantities aren't huge, but it could initially bring in $300-500/month and grow as their business grows. I'll start this work beginning sometime around late April

as with all new tools, there's a learning curve to get all the basics down and a secondary curve to become proficient all all the software tools. once I get proficient with Rhino (should be easy as I'm an advanced CATIA user) I'll start building my library of bodies/necks and their associated hold-down tools. of interest to some will be that I'll eventually have all the design details in place to offer blocks-n-binding on my necks

all the best,

R

HELLS YES!!!!

yes, probably upwards!!


All kidding aside, that looks like a great investment.

Remember to give the taxman his due and depriciate the whole cost next year at tax time

fwiw - my first homegrown CNC production project will be to replicate an early 60's P-body. I have access to an all original 'transition' P (late 64 body, early 65 neck), and can say that bodies of the 60's are quite a bit different than what is offered by Fender and aftermarket parts vendors today.

I'll be replicating the contours, thickness, cavities, and might even include the lower cutaway 'router hump' just for grins. offering this as the new foundation for my VRB-P4 should add to the vintage vibe I already have going with it. having hand-built several bodies to this reference I can say that there's something special to its dimensions and construction - the resonance is definitely there in ways that get lost on a thincker body

look to see my M-Series bodies come next, followed by my VRB-P5/Heritage Tribute 5 body. I don't plan to utilize this for neck construction until late this year or early next, when I bring my single-cut 5/6-string units into production. there's a load of detailed surfacing design work to get a neck feeling just right, and I need to find where the trade-off is between the depth of the contours I cut with CNC and the finishing details I nuance by hand

all the best,

R

WOW.

Congrats!!!

Do I see a fretless J fiver in my future?

Hmmm...

Sign me up.

I LOVE my VRB-P4, it needs a new friend.

... and that friend needs a blocks and binding neck.

YES!! I am beyond excited that I'll eventually be able to offer B&B without the need to outsource it to an inlay artist. same said for custom pickup covers that use matching (or contrasting) wood on the M-Series

sorry - I'm still a little giddy from all of the new opportunities that this tooling upgrade will be allowing me to consider (I'm totally ignoring all the additional processes I'm going to have to learn in order to make use of these new possibilities gulp!)

R

Factoring in life/work/learning curve, do you have a rough idea when you'll have your CNC working Rod?

I'm hoping to have rightly and lefty tool paths for my first body (a rendering of an early 60's P) ready to cut by early June. a body is pretty simple to do, and the forearm/tummy cuts are relatively simple surfacing. as I'll need to cut several test bodies to optimize my cutting tool speeds, you might just see a couple of these test subjects offered up here on LB in their "fresh off the CNC and ready for detail sanding" state

from this point it's just a matter of available time to get the rest of my bodies optimized. I'm hoping to have this done for my current line-up by the end of this summer.


once I have my bodies accounted for I should have gained enough Rhino CAD surfacing experience to take-on my neck designs. this part may end up going a little slower since I have to also develop the tooling to support machining both sides of the neck, and also a third jig to hold the neck while I cut the fret slots, face dots, and eventually blocks-n-binding. this is the part that gives me a headache today, since there are so many details that have to be executed flawlessly. where a body might take 2-3 hours of CAD time to get right, a neck can take days to get the first version ready.

I'm guessing I'll be working on necks into the coming year

after all of the above is done ... then I can finally get to work on my single-cut model I've had in testing since the mid 2000's

all the best,

R

the more lefty builders out here, the less we have to "suffer" << well maybe not suffer but you know what I mean.
Between your posts here and TB I get a little confused, but there or here, I'm glad your on "OUR" side...the lefty side that is :)

feel welcome to drop me a note (email or PM) if you're ever confused on something I post. odds are I've typed something in poor form and you're not the only one who's confused. I'll definitely clarify/correct any misguided postings

off the record - I do tend to post more openly here on LB than I do on TB, and I usually have more of the juicy details included in this openness

all the best,

R

Considering the taper that's built into a neck, I can see where it would take days to get the program right. And that's probably for just ONE neck profile! But, as you know, the more you do something the faster and easier it gets. I think it's called experience!

Keep on fighting the good fight.... I for one appreciate all of your explanations and pictures, as it gives me more insight into the design process, and ultimately what it takes to produce a Bass guitar that not only looks great, but plays well too. Thanks!

I'm looking forward to posting videos in the future, as I'm certain that seeing a tool in motion will help to reduce the amount of info that's lost when posting only text and images

now to see if I can somehow get James Earl Jones to do the voice overs

all the best,

R

if you did your bass pricing would shoot thru the roof for money to go back to JEJ to use his voice.