rubis

Best wishes fleabag

Thankyou kindly Maestro

All things considered, that's quite reasonable for expert guidance on building your own handmade bass Very nice looking bass it is too

That looks fantastic @Hobbayne Seeing your bass has spurred me on, I must get my finger out and finish my self-build off, it will be pretty much the same spec as this lovely thing Thanks for posting the pictures

I rounded the fingerboard edges off a bit more than Musikraft did, at the business end where I think it would wear more, and then used some of this leather dye, which others have recommended for darkening the fingerboard. It also darkens the 'clay' dots down a bit which I prefer the look of now. I may add some boiled linseed oil later to give it more of a shiny, gunky old look. I also rounded the end of the fingerboard off a bit at the neck pocket end, as they also seem to wear down there. I have done the date stamp on the heel of the neck, as I said at the start I purposely made it to show my date of birth, rather than copying the manufacturing marks Fender would have or still do, put on their necks. The Fender decal was given a light coat of amber, the instructions advised doing it, but I have noticed that the decal on old Fenders is often slightly darker than the headstock Then I give the neck a light dusting of amber lacquer before masking off parts of the neck, the same way I did on the body, that would discolour differently, due to not getting exposure to light, and then applied a bit more amber. Again, I know it's not going to be seen, but a big part of the enjoyment for me is seeing how these little touches are created and applying them to something of mine. It makes a difference to me. I also made a decal with 'Rubis' on it, my date of birth and a little shamrock, in plain view and to be clear coated over to permanently seal it in, a bit like Limelight do on the back of their headstocks.

I was just going to make do with a bit of modern house dust from the hoover

I have a mint green Spitfire guard which I got from a fellow BC'er, he had ordered it and then had a change of plan, so it was posted to me when he finished making it. Very nicely made and looks great. I'm almost finished this build and it will go on a Sonic Blue P bass. I didn't realise that Spitfire made mint guards, they seem best known for the tort ones, and as others have said, appear to be a bit hit and miss. Very happy with mine though. spencer.b, if mint green could be an option for you, these ones below, which came recommended by Rick's Fine '52, look really nice and I would have bought one, had the Spitfire guard not been offered. I will probably try one of his single ply guards for a future build I am contemplating...…….half the price and no import duties! https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Aged-MINT-GREEN-CELLULOID-NITRATE-62-PRECISION-BASS-PICKGUARD-3-Fender-P-Bass-/323079925413?hash=item4b39106ea5

Great stuff, I didn't dip the pots directly into the acid, the idea is that you lie the hardware parts in a plastic tub which goes into a bigger tub containing an inch or so of acid, the smaller tub is floating on this acid and when you put an airtight cover on the bigger tub, you seal in the fumes, which tarnishes the finish on the hardware. It works best with nickel, and in the case of the pots, they were in there less than half an hour, just long enough to take off the sheen and not look quite so brand new. I will try a dab of the acid on an old scrap pot with solder already on it, to see how your idea works, sounds great if it works ok and doesn't compromise the solder joint. If there are any little tricks like this, I'm all for trying them out, I think it's the sum of all the troubles and efforts you make over little details which give you (or me at least) the most satisfaction when you're finished. thanks for replying

I'm so glad you said that Rick, because I couldn't agree more, I honestly thought those countersunk holes were an aftermarket mod carried out by the owner. I agree with you and the Black and Decker can get back in his box! Thanks again, and if I had any Belgian beer in the house I would be toasting your encyclopaedic knowledge, red wine will have to do...…..cheers

T Thank you so much for replying Rick and Soledad So just to be clear before I get the Black and Decker out, March '64 would have had holes drilled in the back like this to allow the tuners to sit flush? I love the availability of cool little details like this, god bless the internet (sometimes!)

Went off on a trip to Ostend and found this cheeky little tipple, well...… if it's got your name on it, you have to try it, right? Very decent it was too, god bless the Belgians and their beers! Now it's time to get on with finishing the neck on this project, and I wonder if anyone can help me out with a small detail on the fitting of tuners. I have a set of Gotoh tuners, all period correct looking with nickel finish and the turned over ears on the back, like this The thing I have noticed is this...…….did Fender in and around 1964 make any kind of recess on the back of the headstock to allow the tuners to sit flush, like this which is on a 1966 neck, and looks like an aftermarket modification to me, or were they made like this, where the tuner looks like it has compressed the wood as it was screwed on? As ever, all advice and opinions are most welcome folks

Very nice

Thank you Jez

That's very kind, thank you and a Happy St Patrick's Day

Thank you kindly sir

Thank you very kindly Pea Turgh 🍻 A very happy one it is too, I didn't know that this arrived on Friday while I was at work, just in time for today! I took a couple of quick photos this morning when I saw your message, thanks again and have a great St Patrick's Day everyone!

😅 I hope so Andy, they weren't in there for more than 1/2 hour to be honest, it's quite a slow process, perhaps because the containers I used were bigger than the ones I have seen people using on the YouTube clips I watched, so maybe the fumes are less concentrated? Some of the metal parts took longer than I was led to believe from the clips, and the chromed bits are very subtle, which is probably a good thing! Anyway, if the pots are buggered, they are fairly cheap to replace, fingers crossed, and thank you for your comments!

Next step was Dr Fakenstein's acid bath! Bought some concrete cleaner and some plastic tubs and put the metal parts in to tarnish. You put a bit of the acid in the larger container which needs to have an airtight lid, then float the smaller tub with the parts in, inside and place it somewhere safe outside, checking on it every 30 mins or so until you get the desired look. The process definitely works better on nickel coated parts, rather than chrome, and I resisted the temptation to soak them in the liquid, as I had noticed on the pre-relic'd bridge I bought that the baseplate looked a bit blotchy, as if some sort of liquid (etching fluid or acid?) had been put on it and globules had formed and left to dry. It didn't look all that authentic to me, anyway so I polished it up and put it in the tub and (to me anyway!) improved it a bit. this was before I re-did the baseplate This is after. I got a bit 'acid happy' and put in the brass pickup plate and the pots, just to take a bit of the shiny newness off them!

I've been having a bit of fun with the hardware, making it look 'less new' I took the pickup covers off and rubbed them down with fine wet and dry and then 0000 steel wool to give them more of a matt finish like this Then I read about using this stuff on the polepieces of alnico pickups On the photos of vintage P basses I have studied, some have rusted polepieces, some are blackened, I decided that blackening them would be both easier and kinder to the pickup! Here is a sort of before and after comparison

WOW, what a generous and interesting offer

I didn't know this gentleman, but he was clearly well thought of and will be missed by many RIP

Thanks Simon, I got some 4mm stamps after Bridgehouse very kindly measured the numbers on his own bass (lucky bugger). The neck plate will probably be the next little job I can do while I'm waiting for the neck to arrive. I did the aluminium pickguard shield tonight. I worked out the wording from various photos around to be 'ALCLAD 2024T3 Q' and '2 KAISER' ………...like this I found some stamps online which looked to be near enough same size and font, some red enamel spray paint, a plastic clipboard and one of them roller things for getting dog hair off your trousers! After masking off the shield at what looked like the same width of gaps, I applied the lettering and I'm quite pleased with the results.

If you are considering replacing just a neck, then Musikraft in the USA offer a customising service and from what I have read up on them are of a very high quality, equivalent to Warmoth and US made Fender necks I ordered a fat vintage spec one recently and I'm waiting for it to arrive, this is the link to the neck builder https://musikraft.com/product-info.php?pid208.html They offer a great service where you can spec pretty much anything you like, so I went on their site and was able to order a neck which will exactly meet my needs. These are the options I have gone for Options: ORIENTATION: Right for Right Handed Players HEAD SHAPE: J/P Style HEEL SHAPE: Rounded J/P Style NUMBER OF FRETS: 20 Fret (Standard) NUT WIDTH: 1-3/4 P Style (44.45mm) HEEL WIDTH: 2.4375 (61.91mm) Vintage Fender TUNER HOLE SIZE: 2 Step 11/16 X 9/16 Vintage Fender TRUSS ROD TYPE: Single Acting Adjust at the Heel FB RADIUS: 7-1/4 NUT SLOT STYLE: 1/8 Standard Fender Style SHAFT WOOD: Rock Maple FINGER BOARD STYLE: Veneer Vintage Fender (20 Fret Only) Will Come With 50/50 Side Dots + $80 FINGER BOARD WOOD: Brazilian Walnut - Reclaimed Lumber from The Coney Island Boardwalk TOP DOTS & INLAY: Imitation Clay BINDING: None SIDE DOTS: Imitation Clay 2mm FRET WIRE SIZE: 6230 Vintage Small FB EDGES: Semi Rolled Standard BACK PROFILE: Fat C 1.0 X 1.0 FINISH: Raw (No Warranty) MOUNTING HOLES: Do Not Drill Mounting Holes All vintage spec and with the fattest neck possible The fingerboard material is a little unusual....."FINGER BOARD WOOD: Brazilian Walnut - Reclaimed Lumber from The Coney Island Boardwalk"...……..sounds quite cool coming from the Coney Island Boardwalk but from what I can gather, it's a very similar colour, and I had intended to try using brown dye to darken the fingerboard for a more aged look anyway (apparently brown leather dye works well). The build time is 6 to 8 weeks, which is perfect, as it's going to be my birthday present. It's going on a Day of Birth build I'm doing at the moment, so I was after a 1964 spec with the veneer fingerboard

Mark Bedford has used them as well as other 'name' players His sounded wonderful on their recent tour