Andyjr1515

OK I've just had a quick look at Ben's videos using the same products and it is very similar to the stain/tru-oil processes that a number of us use. The thing I am certain about is that you won't want to sand it right now in its dry stained form - you will sand down to bare wood or lighter wood far too quickly. My method starts in much the same place as Ben's but might be different after the first couple of coats of oil. So I suggest that you follow Ben's method, which is now to go straight to the finishing oil. If you get to where you want to be with just that method, then that would be brilliant - and let us all know . If you get to where you are happy with the basic finish and colour but find the surface a bit rough then I can give you some suggestions of the options to retain the finish but make it smoother to the touch if that is any help

What I meant was what final finishing coating are you putting on it?

Yes - it sounds like either the truss rod has been overtightened in the past, or maybe tightened properly but then the strings left slack or removed for a longish time and the wood has eventually taken on some of that shape. There are more dramatic ways of sorting this, but often the same process is reversible by broadly doing what you are doing...but it will take time. So, if you have the time, I would go for thicker strings as @Supernaut says, and tuning up two semitones as @PlungerModerno says with the truss rod completely slack and leave it for at least a week then see if it gets you where you want it, because flat is very, very close to where it needs to end up and so it won't take a lot to give just that smidgen of relief...

I wouldn't buff it with sandpaper. The depth that stains go to is VERY low and so any sanding will quickly expose the wood again. But there are ways to get you where you want to get. I have a method I can recommend for certain finishes - what finish are you planning?

Don't judge the colour by how it looks when it's dry - particularly reds. The colour it will end up once the final finish is on it will be roughly the same as it looks when it is damp - so quite a bit darker than the 'dry stained' look. You should find that the pinkiness goes away too. Looks good! What stain have you used?

That would look very good

That looks very nice

Wow! (again)

Ah - OK. Mind you, you could always inset an ebony triangle... Anyway - it's going to look fab whatever

Lovely! Weird, though...no doors or table-tops yet as far as I can see. Presumably next time MrsJabba_the_gut goes out for her 30minute exercise walk you'll get the kitchen door off and planed down before she gets back?

Hmmm...not sure I understand that. The fanned frets don't affect the string spacing and so, as long as the Nova clamp is square to the strings rather than to the zero fret/nut (like on the string retainer on your original drawing below), then it should work fine... Incidentally, we did something similar on @TheGreek 's Psilos bass - just because it has a headless tuner system doesn't mean that it needs to be headless

A very good move

Wow. Magical.

With all three switched on, I reckon you will pretty much answer your original question with this

I've spent the last couple of days sorting out the oak, cutting the maple neck splices and getting all of the mating surfaces flat and straight: And on order from David Dyke are the two walnut splices, a purpleheart splice for the middle, some more purpleheart to use as the back/top demarcation and a 5-string AAA ebony fretboard blank

Remarkable!

It's beautiful, isn't it.

ACG's are the bass builders basses... Alan picks magnificent woods and transforms them into something that defies the 'form or function' clash to produce something that optimises both. It will be lovely.

Yup - count me in too

@Hellzero is quite right. As long as the neck heel is fitted to be properly against the back of the pocket it's the 'lift' you need to bolt against. Do you remember this one - I fitted a neck to one of @eude 's schooldays (?) projects. It was the shortest pocket I ever did (by necessity) - and it was a 6 string bass! The pocket was even shorter than @benh 's present one: For that, because I had no idea really what extra pull forces might be on a sixer, and the floor of the pocket itself wasn't all that thick, I went belt and braces and fitted an unglued dry biscuit joint into the front join area: It held fine and, to be honest, I think it would have been OK with just the bolts: So, @benh - best to extend the fretboard a touch in any case, as much for the 24th fret security as anything, and the resulting neck pocket should be perfectly adequate

Well...now there's a story... Not me for one I gave Matt the choice of the four configurations, and he chose one of the other ones. And I - ahhummm - had already cut it before I spotted Matt's question. Anyway, Matt has been extremely gracious and says he is equally happy with the way round I've done it. One for the 'ooops!' log I reckon. That said, it is going to look pretty splendid - this is one of the best figured walnut pieces I've come across in a long, long time. Here it is with a 5-string sized fretboard cutout: Once the proper finish is on, that figuring is going to positively come alive! Next step is to cut the oak blanks and order the neck laminates and bridge

I agree with @Jabba_the_gut. If the pickup was destined to be right up against your fretboard end, then I would have said that this is probably OK. But in that you have the room, I would - in any case - have more fretboard beyond the 24th fret and also to give you a bit more distance between the two fixing bolts on that side with the correspondingly longer pocket. The resulting 10-20mm extension look fine too. I like how the design is evolving and (on these things he always is) @TheGreek was spot on with that small tweak to the lower cutaway and horn.

Yes - walnut. It's beautiful in real life.

Small steps, but the first cut and glue of any project is an important one Straightened up the joint line of the top wood with a jack-plane and now it's gluing Going to look nice

It's a beautiful bass. Great mojo about it...