Andyjr1515

[quote name='martthebass' timestamp='1479736108' post='3178836'] Same question from me Andy [/quote] PM sent

...and we have a playable bass Here it is with the extra two spacers...SURELY it doesn't need to be that high?? Well - even with these I've had to raise the saddles 1-2mm to get to my nominal action height. But it plays. Nicely and buzz-free. The extra height of the bridge doesn't show at all on the fully assembled instrument: Later this week I'll have a go at putting the new electrics ... and, assuming all goes well, it's then pretty much ready to return to Stuart

Wow - this is so much like a finished bass, it's spooky Next job won't show much of a difference but is super-critical .... squaring-up the top surface of the neck. I'll do that by hand-plane and sanding beam and then run the back through the thicknesser to square that up too. That way, I should have perfectly square datum surfaces to do the follow-up routing operations.

Here's what the headstock looks like. Not perfect, but the main objective - to soften the look of the crack without jeopardising the very delicate decal is, I think, achieved: The Schaller spacers are due today so we will soon know if we have a physically playable bass

[quote name='Andyjr1515' timestamp='1479659579' post='3178206'] I'll PM you Andy [/quote] PM sent Just for general interest, by the way, here is the same veneer - this time applied to one of my own 6-strings electrics - dyed red :

[quote name='T-Bay' timestamp='1479659130' post='3178204'] Looking at the supplier you mentioned I can see why you would want to see the exact piece as there is so much variance. I haven't really thought about this before but do love that green birch burl finish. What sort of money are we talking about to do one? And how long does it take? I won't be able to afford it in the short term but would be interested once I have collected all the other bits I need. And you are close to me too (I grew up in Spondon and still visit my Mum yo there at least once a month). Feel free to pm me if you don't want to put figures on an open forum. [/quote] I'll PM you Andy

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1479658245' post='3178186'] There's a couple of good places in London that I've used. [url="http://www.exotic-veneer.co.uk/"]http://www.exotic-veneer.co.uk/[/url] [url="https://www.capitalcrispin.com/"]https://www.capitalcrispin.com/[/url] Both have an amazing stock of veneers including impressive burls. They vary in prices. The burls can get quite expensive (IMHO). [/quote] Yes - they are good suppliers. too. With veneers, I always like to see the actual piece I'm buying and tend to avoid 'generic' photos suppliers. To be honest, some of my best veneers have been got just by keeping a weather eye open on ebay for ones that catch your eye

Veneers done this way work great for flat-topped basses and guitars with simple (ie, curved in one plane only) curves such as arm relief, etc.. For compound curves (think of the multi-plane curves of the carve of, say, a Les Paul 6 string) this way doesn't really work - you are generally into vacuum presses or similar. Always happy to talk about any project you might have...or help to pick up the pieces if you want to have a go yourself Seriously - if anyone does have a go themselves, feel free to contact me anytime for hints and tips along the way.

[quote name='T-Bay' timestamp='1479657489' post='3178173'] They are beautiful, what veneer is the green one? [/quote] It's a birch burl. Bryan found the supplier with a web search (DesignHolz, based in Germany). The quilted maple I used on this orange one was ordered at the same time. They've got some great veneers and they are delivered, flawless, rolled up in an impossibly small box! I haven't done much veneering recently but they would be my first port of call...

[quote name='T-Bay' timestamp='1479655310' post='3178148'] That looks stunning, would there be other options for the curved edges if the ply didn't look as good? [/quote] Not really with veneer. If the sides and/or back aren't great you'd usually stain it dark and do a back and front burst, or a dark back and sides and burst for the top. This is Bryan's (allighatt0r) Westone: Depending on the state of it, it is sometimes even possible to leave the back and sides original paint job on and just do the top. I did that with this Epiphone Junior: Doing that does tend to lose the illusion of a solid fancy wood, however. Even if you ignore the stripes, it is clear this is a thin veneer on top

[quote name='TheGreek' timestamp='1479652326' post='3178118'] Lovely - I'm sure that Charlie will be more than happy.... [/quote] Thanks, Mick

[quote name='blablas' timestamp='1479645802' post='3178037'] Fantastic transformation! [/quote] Thanks, blablas !

Finished and, waiting a week to let the varnish cure properly, ready to go back to its owner. In the end, I did a single wipe of Ronseal over the excellent tough and quick surface-finish the Melamine gave me. It would have taken me too long to learn how to achieve high gloss with the melamine...I'll try that on one of my own guitars in the future rather than risk someone-elses. Not bad for an entry-level jobee. This: Becomes this:

Bit more progress. The body top is joined: ..and after gluing the rosewood centre splice onto one half of the neck blank last night, the other half is being glued as I type. Remember the mantra...."you can never have too many clamps!". The two workbench clamps can put on a huge pressure too Over the weekend, I'll slim and true-up the glued blank and start sketching some thoughts of headstock shape to bounce off Nic.

Thanks, Paul A nice project on a very nice bass. And the trip to Northampton Services always gives me an excuse to 'just pop in to' Axminster Tools Andy

[quote name='Paul S' timestamp='1479545444' post='3177319'] Just to top this off - I picked up the bass on Wednesday and it looks amazing - just like it had come out of the factory. Cosmetically perfect. Used it a last night's gig and the sound has blown me away! The Aguilar P pickup is also perfect - mellow and old school exactly as I had hoped. Interestingly (or maybe not? I don't know enough) the MM pickup has been tamed by making it passive - nowhere near as aggressive as it is with the preamp driving it along and thus, for me, more useable. The blend will get some welly, too - it adds a bit of bite to the P in a very interesting and useable way. Different to a PJ, as you would expect. I really couldn't be happier. [/quote] Great to hear, Paul It's also worth experimenting with tweaking the bridge volume a tad when you're in the P-J middle position. Although it is still very sensitive even with linear volume pots, changing the bridge volume knob across the range of 8.5 to 10 produces a whole spread of quite different sounds. I'm not entirely sure what is going on with the interaction of the two circuits but I think it's akin to the old 50's wiring of a Les Paul single pickup junior where you can get from deep jazz to acoustic clean to roaring overdrive just with subtle tweaks of the guitar volume and tone without going anywhere near the amp...

[quote name='Paul S' timestamp='1479545444' post='3177319'] Just to top this off - I picked up the bass on Wednesday and it looks amazing - just like it had come out of the factory. Cosmetically perfect. Used it a last night's gig and the sound has blown me away! The Aguilar P pickup is also perfect - mellow and old school exactly as I had hoped. Interestingly (or maybe not? I don't know enough) the MM pickup has been tamed by making it passive - nowhere near as aggressive as it is with the preamp driving it along and thus, for me, more useable. The blend will get some welly, too - it adds a bit of bite to the P in a very interesting and useable way. Different to a PJ, as you would expect. I really couldn't be happier. [/quote] Phew!

[quote name='allighatt0r' timestamp='1479483256' post='3176930'] The body shape somehow suggests slanted soapbars to me... a bit like the Gibson Victory basses? [/quote] Some of them did - and if you look at the upper half of Nic's, that does too. But for this one, we're going for good old rectangular muscle. I think Nic and I have firmed up on the spec...perhaps we'll need to forewarn the National Geological Society so their seismometers don't record the event as an earthquake going on in S Wales!!!

(I think gelfin's happy) ^ Top successfully cut out (phew!) I'll be joining this together and assembling the sections of neck before cutting the back panels so that I can use the whole assembly as the cutting template. In the meantime, Nic and I are starting to firm up on pickups, etc., including discussing my recent dalliances with both Music Man pickups and the DiMarzio Model One - otherwise known as 'chalk and cheese' .

[quote name='allighatt0r' timestamp='1479467162' post='3176749'] Cool! It will be fine for anything other than close inspection :-) Are you leaving the broken screw in there? [/quote] Hi, Bryan Yes - absolutely. It's actually just covered by the trussrod cover

With the Schaller spacers due on Monday, I got the frets levelled, crowned and polished and scraped and oiled the fretboard: I also had a look at that crack in the headstock plate. One thing I love about working on old guitars and basses is that you can see the history. E.g., way back when, the then owner loses little screw holding the trussrod cover on, finds a screw in his toolbox, screws it into the rockhard maple, said screw is bigger than the old one and snaps, in the process, the larger diameter has forced the headstock plate apart, taking some of the logo with it. Just a guess, of course... : The whole logo, even the 'mother of pearl' BC Rich logo is actually a decal. This is why the bit of the H is missing above. Having established that the crack is only in the top veneer, I suggested we just tidied the headstack up rather than go for full filling and levelling, which would risk all of the decal being lost. What I have tried to do, therefore, is just deceive the eye. I.e.:[list] [*]darken the crack where it's on rosewood [*]paint some lighter fill where the crack is over the mock MOP [*]Stipple some light fill to trick the eye that the H is actually still complete [*]Fill the crack with clear sealer [*]wipe of tru-oil over the top to smooth out the irregularities without losing the mojo [/list] Here's the bit of stippling: Here's how it looks. It's far from perfect but, once the tuners and strings are on, it should cease to become the attention-seeking magnet it once was :

I like the rig, Kert! It's infinitely better than mine...I don't have the garage bit I'm not sure what others do, but I don't worry too much about taping the holes. Any that get too clogged up, I just run through with the right sized drill and things like pickguard holes, I just let the screws re-cut their threads in the paint. Can't wait to see the glitter bit

I've been racking my brains as to who it was who first put me onto Melamine - and I've just remembered...it was our very own scojack . [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/282086-2016-build-season-fretlessfretted-5/page__st__30"]I've just found the thread here where he mentions it[/url] - and got SUCH a great result Thanks for the lead, Ian. I may be PM'ing you soon to find out just how many coats....and just how much sanding....and just how much buffing It's tough old stuff!!!!

I don't know if the other builders are the same, but I agonise over decisions of expensive tools and bits of equipment. None more so than when I was trying to decide whether to buy a decent thicknesser. In the end, I did - I bought the superb Makita 2012nb. What a good gamble. Not only has a job that used to take me hours and hours of frustration turned into a 30 minute job (plus 10 mins to empty the shavings out of my extractor/vacuum), but these pieces are accurate in thickness to within 0.3mm of each other. They are nice pieces of mahogany :

Thanks, folks This has had about 6 thin coats of wiped on clear. You can see the difference already. I reckon it will end up with about twenty coats, sanded down from time to time. Quilt maple is remarkable stuff...