Thread: Build weight reduction question

So I'm seriously considering carbon fibre as a layer on the headstock of this bass, both for strength and for visual effect.
I've had a bit of a look on the 'net and most of what you see relates to cars and applying CF to non-wood parts. Or the posts I've seen talk about using it for bracing.

Has anyone done this on timber? Or any suggestions on previous posts?

Michael

Originally Posted by bassbuilderman

So I'm seriously considering carbon fibre as a layer on the headstock of this bass, both for strength and for visual effect.
I've had a bit of a look on the 'net and most of what you see relates to cars and applying CF to non-wood parts. Or the posts I've seen talk about using it for bracing.

Has anyone done this on timber? Or any suggestions on previous posts?

Michael

On my steel string acoustics I'll often run CF bars (from LMI) either side of the truss rod and run them across the scarf joint into the headstock to reinforce same.

Are you talking about just laminating a layer of carbon cloth onto the face of the headstock?

This is a pretty simple operation. Start with a nice clean headstock. Grab a piece of mylar (or even glass if you're only laying a flat piece of cloth), wax the mylar then lay up your cloth onto the headstock and wet it out with laminating epoxy. Place the mylar over the top of the wet out cloth and clamp it up with a caul over the mylar. If you can get hold of some vac bagging equipment you'll have more luck ensuring there are no air bubbles in your layup.

The epoxy should have no problems adhering to the wood so once it's dry peel the mylar off and you should have a nice glossy carbon fibre surface.

Here's a layup I did a while ago, it has a layer of 3/4 oz glass cloth on top of the carbon fibre and a couple of layers of 4 oz glass cloth under the carbon fibre. You can just see some air bubbles on the side of the canopy between the carbon and top layer of glass as it was a very broad weave carbon fabric.

Attachment 150676

I've used it successfully on both foam and balsa wood but haven't tried it on any hardwoods. A nice tight weave fabric and plenty of epoxy, you should get a good result but I'd probably do a few test runs before you commit it to the headstock.

Hope it's helpful though I can't see it reducing the weight of your build, unless you're planning on a thinner headstock.

You can find carbon fabrics and other reinforcements at Ironbark Composites in Torquay. They do small quantities of fabrics by mail order. The epoxies sold by Ironbark are quite expensive though so I'd suggest just looking for some West Systems stuff elsewhere for small quantities.