Andyjr1515

I think this says it all, @carlsim Stripping it to natural is possible, with relatively few tools, and a decent natural refinish can be done wipe-on with something like Osmo Polyx. But it is NOT easy. After the full strip down of electrics and components, you will probably find that the rest of the metallic comes off relatively well with a heatgun and decorators scraper. It will be a false sense of security. That white you see underneath? It will probably be an industrial-grade primer-sealer and will be VERY hard work to get off down to the wood. Sanding is pretty much the only way and, I kid you not, that can take days if you are trying not to dig in to the wood surface. And then, as @Bigguy2017 says, you don't know what it's going to be like underneath. If you like Lake Placid Blue, I would personally do what @ezbass suggests: a small amount of thin CA wicked under the raised flap (too much and it will come out through the cracks and set on the paint finish...and that is very difficult to make it look good again) to keep it from lifting and snapping off, a spot of humbrol enamel to hide the white of the exposed surface where it's chipped and then I would treat it as mojo.

And so we're onto the final carve. The paulownia is very interesting wood - some of it is very soft...and some of it is VERY hard. So the challenge, especially because everything is curved, is not for it to end up as a classroom demonstration of "how erosion created the Grand Canyon". And at this stage, much of it is by feel. It is almost impossible, in the sanded state, to visually see the lumps and bumps...but you can feel them. So my first step is very focussed scraping with, sometimes, the gooseneck card scraper: ...sometimes with a single-edged razor blade: ...and a variety of home-made sanding blocks. The variable curve one is useful as I can sand across the grain and the emery rides on, and sands off, the hard lumps of the peaks rather than digging into the softer troughs that a conventional sanding block, sanded with the grain, will tend to do: It will take a while until I can't feel any lumps or bumps any more...but I know, that some will still be there. What I will probably do - before I give it the CA treatment - is then give it a light gloss colour coat to highlight the remaining hills and hollows, then sand that all off, CA treat it and then, hopefully, move onto the final finishing.

Very sad news indeed

Just a few more things to check and do, and then I'm probably ready to do the final carve over the next few days. The mockup probably doesn't look much different to last time, except this time the neck is actually fixed using 4mm S/steel machine-screws: With a neck temporarily fixed in place, I could balance the bass, with all the components excepting only the strings, on the scales: 6lbs 7 1/4ozs - with the weight of the strings and finish to add, but the extra carve wood removal to come off. So sub-7lbs is an almost certainty, and we may even get to the original target of 6.5lbs (6lbs 8ozs to you modern metric folk ). The Centre of Gravity with everything broadly balanced in the right places is just forward of the 17th fret. I get back my own basses from Matt Marriott on Thursday, so I can check how that compares then, but a bass I have in the cupboard waiting attention has the CofG at just behind the 17th, so fingers crossed!

This small hand router isn't used that often, but when it is it's a godsend. Perfect for this job! So this is decently thick to resist warping that you sometimes get with thin covers, especially when the finish is applied: But it's nicely curved and flush Next job is the neck pocket. Oh - and a helpful 1/8oz sanded away...2lbs 6oz with hatch

For the hatch, I have the shape of the body recess but not yet the finished depth...but there are a few things that need doing first: - The hatch will start off quite thick - it will be eventually carved to the same shape as the back. - But the recess will also be deepened so that the bottom of the hatch just clears the pots and EQ And I find it a lot easier just to make the hatch first and do it by actual measurement than calculate it off measurements and hope for the best! Well, that's my excuse, anyway. There is a very helpful piece of offcut that is just the right size that will be used. I cut that to around 7mm as the initial thickness. First is to make a paper template of the outside edge using the highly sophisticated 'paper and fingernail' technique: Using the cut out template, I cut the blank a mm or so oversize and then work my way round, gently sanding the excess away in a long series of try, mark, sand, re-try, repeat, repeat, repeat. I usually do this with a sanding block as it is less prone to overdoing it and ending up with a gap, but for this I need square sides and so am using my little disk sander on 'dead slow': After half an hour or so, I have a hatch that is square-sided and close fitting to the shallow recess: What I will do now is, using a measuring rod through the EQ pot drill hole (the EQ pot is the deepest component), chisel the body recess deeper until the hatch has around a 2mm clearance from where the EQ circuit board end will be, once fitted. After that, with the whole hatch then sitting deeper than present... : ...I will plane and sand the hatch flush, with the curve matching the back profile. Weight sitting at 2lbs 6 1/8oz inclusive of oversize hatch Once that is done, I will shorten and shape the neck pocket and make a start on the final slimming / shaping.

Indeed I am! Here was my kit for the trial - a gasses/vapours repirator, heavy duty marigolds and safety over-glasses. To apply the two coats, I used small squares of cloth cut from an old T-shirt. For the trial wood, I used some paulownia offcut that I planed and sanded on both sides so that I could do a comparison of 'with and without' with the same abuse metered on the surfaces. This was a couple of thumbnail crosses pressed hard into the untreated side: And then turned over and the same treatment on the side that had two thin coats of CA glue applied (around 30 minutes between each coat with no accelerator on this particular trial): Good result!

I know it would make it top amongst equals...but that has to be best yet of this series...

Totally shocked. I've been away most of the week and have only just seen this. Extremely relieved that you and your neighbours are OK.

That's looking very nice

Over the weekend I'm going to do some experimenting, starting with a bunch of cloth squares. First trial will be, though, which gloves are best to use. Last time I tried to be creative with CA I had to cut the fused gloves off my fingers!

Love it!

Yes indeed. Full double cannister respirator jobee.

I very much doubt that, judging by this build. Maybe I've used them more often ... ...so far

It actually doesn't need a lot. A 20g bottle should be plenty

The hatch rebate will be hand chisel finished (I find doing that easier with a curved back) but I use a bearing router bit to get an accurate outside line as my guide. I also chiselled a battery chamber: Don't worry at this stage about the fuzzy bits. The paulownia is a bit like an unresin-ed carbon fibre mat - very easy to part the fibres from each other, but the fibres themselves are as tough as old boots. Even with my super-sharp chisels (the test is being able to shave the hair off the back of your forearm) I struggle to get the fibres cleanly cut or even sand them to a clean fuzzy-free surface. But that will change Because in the background I've been doing some experimenting and asking around about hardening the wood as part of the final finish process. And I have the answer. It is to soak CA low-viscosity glue into the wood after filling and finish sanding. This effectively 'case-hardens' the surface of the wood. The CA treated wood will then be sanded with 600 or 800 grit to provide a key and also to sand off any raised grain (and fuzzy bits!) that will now be rigid and sandable. Then the nitro primer will be applied, followed by the nitro colour coats and clear coat. **Note the H&S warnings emphasised in following posts and especially at beginning of Page 6. Having now used this method - after lots of reading and incorporating the required H&S precautions - I would not recommend it to anyone who is not aware of ALL of the precautions needed** Oh.... 2lbs 5 7/8ths oz and falling (and yes - I have to add a paulownia hatch) That 1/8oz might make all the difference!

Great stuff - let us know how it fares. I had a look at your https://www.scavengermusic.co.uk/ website, by the way - great philosophy and some nice builds.

Tonetech (no doubt the joys of autocorrect)

Hi Dom Just spotted your post on TheFretboard and realised it is a two way and that the question is specifically about a recommendation of supplier rather than how to do it (you are clearly well capable of that ) I would recomment Tonetech for a few reasons: - they are simple and have the adjuster directly welded to the rod without the added complication of a shroud - they are, as a result, slim and so should be able to go back in where the last one came out (well done, by the way) - they are - unlike a lot of stuff that Tonetech sells - a reasonable price - I have never had a failure on guitars or basses - including 5 and 6 string basses fitted with a single rod Hope this helps

Probably @Dom in Dorset - is @JGTay right? If so, can you take a shot at what's happening at the nut end?

I'm struggling a bit here to see what I'm looking at, @Dom in Dorset. Which end was the adjuster at (presumably nut end?) and which way have you removed it (the photo with the drill and where that hammer is is throwing me a bit)? In the bottom pic, are we seeing the rod that has been knocked through from the nut end through a hole you've drilled in the heel end? And if so - and assuming it is a single-rod, one-way trussrod - what's happened to the retainer?

And - it's take a long time! - the neck's done I managed to find a mist overspray that didn't melt @funkle 's decal ! I haven't fit the hipshot-like string tree that @funkle sent to me as the three slots were narrower than the string spacing of the 1.5" nut and it would squeeze the G and A towards the D a touch. So - at last, ready to ship

I fully endorse the H2n too. Good choice