Andyjr1515

And to the final finish stage of the body - the tru-oil slurry and buff. "But hang on" I hear you say, "it's stained! You can't slurry and buff stained wood. It'll sand all the stain off!!" Well, that was the conventional wisdom - pretty much up to me looking at my LP Junior that I'd stained in cherry red and thought...hmmm...what if...?? And yes you can. But - like all these things - there are a couple of tips and tricks. And so where we had got to was this - actually bad photo because, other than at the edges, you can't really see the gloss starting to build up. But this, with the wood having now drunk in the oil into the grain, each extra coat of tru-oil starts bringing out a gloss finish: To illustrate, based on the number of coats I put on @Jus Lukin 's headless, just one more coat would give me this level of gloss: But that is not the finish that @Fishman is after. He is after more the 'old bass well looked after' look. And for that look, slurry and buff on stained wood is ideal The method is simple: - proceed in the usual way with the initial coats of Tru-oil. Just wiped or brushed on, allowing it to dry in between coats. First few will be sucked into the end grain. - at the point that each extra coat is starting to leave a gloss finish and the end grain is no longer absorbing more oil, stop. - leave it for 2-3 days minimum to harden - I then slurry and buff a coat. But - unlike normal where the slurry is tru-oil mixed with the wood dust - this time the slurry is the new tru-oil mixed with the hardened tru-oil surface sandings. I use either 1500+ wet and dry or 2500+ Micro-mesh - The original hardened tru-oil coat is actually quite tough and it is not likely, with the above grit, that you will break through into the stained wood (if you do, you will lose the stain in that patch) but - the slurrying is a relatively light one and care is taken at any corners and edges where there is a greater danger of breakthrough. - while it is still wet (ie pretty much immediately) I then wipe off the oil with some kitchen roll and then, with fresh roll or a lint free cloth, buff it dry. And that is it! I went from @Fishman 's slightly gloss body above to this in less than 20 minutes: And it's silky smooth to the touch. If feels like a well-cared for 40 year-old bass... ...which is where we came in

And one of the bigger of the remaining jobs done. Frets are fully levelled, recrowned, polished, fretboard is polished up and fretboard edges are rounded off: I've done the fretboard the same way I do for my own guitars that have ebony boards - it's a variation of the tru-oil slurry and buff. With ebony, you can just polish it up but I find that slurry and buff with fine emery (400 grit) gives a glassy smooth feel and stops the grot getting into the teeny grain lines of the wood with hard playing. I got a pleasingly rapid reply from Martin at SimS and he says that shielding the pickup chambers themselves is OK. An interesting reminder - the Superquad cases are carbon fibre and fully conductive and so are themselves fully earthed. So next job will be drilling the holes for the controls and shielding all of the chambers. But while the Tru-oil and rubber gloves are out, I'll just do the slurry and buff on @Fishman 's Wal save. Oh - and that will give me time to check with @Jus Lukin what kind of jackplate he prefers

Trust us - NONE of this thread is boring....

And yes - the big gap at the back of the joint (the gap on my dreadnought is smaller but is there nonetheless) is essential. The angle of the joint itself pulls the neck into the body as it goes down - it is a VERY strong joint when it is fully engaged. If there wasn't a gap at the back, the tenon would prevent the neck pulling fully against the body and you would have a gap at the sides of the heel and a very weak joint.

Hopefully this will help you think it through. And the tweak on your proposal wouldn't have to be very great to get a joint every bit as sound as the original one. This is what you are seeing, prior to stealing MrsMaude's steam cleaner: And this is what you should see after stealing it: So yes - you could file the 5 degrees-ish angle either side and just follow the angle of the dovetail down - which of course would make the triangle more acute. But, assuming you took a template of the original size of the end shape, you would just have to add two tapering pieces of timber to each side of the resulting tenon to recreate this shape, albeit at a 5 degrees angle to present. Which is, I think, what you said in the first place?

Absolutely. Always the best policy - take one step and then re-assess And yes - with some tweaks, what you say is perfectly feasible. The tweaks are that there needs to be enough strength in the joint at the bottom (which is why the heel block is there) to prevent the bass 'clapping hands' when you string it up But you will be able to judge the best thing to do once it's off.

As they used to say for American Express..."That will do nicely, Sir"

Very plausible - it all depends where, how far, what angle and what's in the way. The ideal is a straight line as @BigRedX rightly says, but sometimes that's not possible. This afternoon has been about frets and fretboard. Not finished but well on with it. The frets had already been levelled with a levelling beam but, to be able to guarantee no buzzes at decently low action heights, it needs to be better than that alone. So I use a rocker across a number of points for each fret looking for high spots: There were around 7 frets that needed some attention in particular spots across their widths...but the 11th fret, hmmm I just wasn't happy with. From halfway across the fret, the 'high spot' was more than I would have expected. I had a real close look and came to the conclusion that it wasn't seated properly. Now, a decent whack from the rubber mallet might have sorted it...but I wanted something a bit more certain than that. So, because I run a small bead of titebond along the fret tangs when I fit them, I first heated the fret with a soldering iron to soften the glue: Then used the fret-removal pincers to ease it out. These are just like any other end cutters, but the end is ground down so that the jaws can get under the tiny gap under the fret wire: Tidied up the slot, checked it was deep enough and then detanged a length of fretwire so that I could leave the tang slot ebony fill at each side in place: A tiny bead of titebond along the tang, fret inserted and then judiciously whacked with the mallet and this is a good sign - the glue squeeze-out means it's seated properly: Wipe clean and then a radius block clamped on for 10 minutes for good measure: All of the remaining high spots were levelled and the fretboard edges rounded over a touch. So tomorrow will be to re-crown /polish any flat spots and then scrape and final sand the fretboard In the meantime, I've emailed Martin Sims to ask whether they advise shielding the pickup cavities or not. The control chamber can be shielded while I'm waiting for the reply and the switch and pot holes can be drilled

By the way, the 'heel block' will be glued to the neck but will usually form a continuation of the dovetail joint. You steam-heat the dovetail and not the heelblock joint and so this will act just as if it had been a solid heel. The sharp edged joint is just that they didn't sand it smooth before fitting the neck

First of all, congrats getting the fretboard off so well! OK - there's sort of good news and bad news here. The good news is that yes, it's a dovetail joint - so, unlike one video about Aria acoustics I've seen where it was dowelled and the guy had to saw it off - then yes, it's perfectly feasible to get the neck off. Worth having a look at the internet and the Stewmac site because you basically have to get steam into the joints to get heat into the glue and soften it just like with the fretboard. Stewmac sell a surprisingly cheap steam 'hose and needle' for the job. If MrsMaude has an old Prestige pressure cooker that can go into your workshop like the iron, that's ideal...but there are other ways of generating steam. The good thing about a dovetail joint is that once you get it moving (when the glue is soft, you basically tap the bottom heel with a rubber mallet to 'crack' the joint), the tapered joint quickly lets go and the neck lifts out. The bad news is...that it's a dovetail joint Because cutting a new dovetail to match the angle and get a half decent joint isn't the easiest thing to do. But you can turn a dovetail joint into a mortice and tenon joint...and that's a LOT easier. I'll try and find some photos of my acoustic builds, where I have used both types, to show you the difference.

The jack socket hole is usually an ideal place. Again, you need a long drill.

There are a number of ways, yes. The challenge is usually what your options of direction are in terms of a drill being in the way and the accuracy of angle and direction - especially if you are trying to join two holes meeting in the middle. Sometimes it's the same with cable runs. The 'standard' way of getting a double humbucker cable run into a solid body is to drill with a long drill though the back of the neck pocket all the way through both chambers. Again, a small amount of drift over that length can result in a large variance from where you were originally aiming. And long drills can bend while they are drilling...

Great tip

And we're ready for the final furlong It's difficult to describe the difference between a full poly-type gloss and a light Tru-oil gloss (you can build it up and build it up as an alternative), and even more difficult to photograph it. But once it has fully hardened, it sinks much more into the grain which I describe as "more like an old guitar polished up than a new guitar made to look older". It's easier to photograph that effect on the back: Than the front: ...but the effect is the same on both sides. The main thing, though, is that the finish is now tough enough to stand normal handling for the final stages. And those final stages are: a bit more work on the frets; rounding of the fretboard edges; copper shielding the control chambers (I'll check with Martin at SimS to see if he recommends the pickup chambers too); cutting the jack hole and fitting the plate; installing the switches and pots and bridge earth wire; installing the pickups; fitting the magnets to the control hatch cover; stringing up and final set up. Talking of the bridge earth, it's something that doesn't come up very often in the build threads, but it can be one of the more challenging tasks of a build. No matter how close the chamber is to the bridge area, the hole for the wire has to be at a very shallow angle so that you don't just drill out of the back! This one has an added challenge - the carriers for the individual tuners are super slim (normally, the entry hole is under a 90mm x 60mm bridge plate) and I have to drill at an angle to miss the bridge screw-holes So it calls for a long drill. A LONG drill. If there was such a thing as a 'medium long bradpoint drill', then for this one, it could have been maybe half that length - but I've never been able to find one: Why only one hole? Well, happily, the other strings will be electrically connected via the head block. For the connection itself, I stick some copper shielding foil on the flat mating surface, soldered to the bridge wire that sits in the drill hole entrance. That way you get a great electrical connection without the bridge plate being lifted by bare wires, problems often associated with the 'traditional' stripped wire way of earthing the bridge plate. I'll take a photo when I do that bit. And why didn't I drill the hole before I fitted the ebony inset? Well, I could have done, but then I would have had to line up the bridge blocks before fitting the wood they were going to sit on. Building basses are full of these 'neither way is ideal' decisions. A lesson for broader life, I suppose

Coming along very nicely

I'm chuffed to bits It looks great

You will be able to see when you take the fretboard off. It really depends what kind of joint it is.

And you can see why MrsAndyjr1515 is always so angry!

It's a long (and tedious) story...

OK - I'm paying attention. This is getting real and exciting So, the Aria FEB is this one? I've just re-read the thread. Just a thought - and do feel free to ignore it I've got the wrong end of the stick. I've read your musings on getting the right kind of angle of the board to give you a floating overhang and I'm not convinced that there is enough wiggle room to get the board a steep enough angle with the sanding and building up approach (if I've understood those musings properly). The amount of thinning down and building up tends to be impractically high for any major change in angle. On the other hand, a small change of the angle at the heel can make a huge difference (think of how thin a shim needs to be on a bolt-on neck to correct the action if the bridge is over its adjustment range). Once you've got the board off, you should be able to see the neck joint... Because all that got me thinking. And I remembered that years and years ago - I bought a cello neck And to my surprise, I've just found it (MrsAndyjr1515 is, as you can imagine, delighted) : ...and realised just how small that heel angle has to be (5.5 degrees)... ...to produce this effect at the overhang: ...and you might have access to that neck joint soon.....

And what a pleasure that was. If I had to choose the favourite bass I've ever held in my hands, it would be - without doubt, that one. Couldn't tell you why. It just felt magical.

They look like DiMarzios to me...

Looks a nice board

Looks great, @W1_Pro ! Always had a soft spot for Washburns. And yes - this fits nicely in this section Hope all well with you and yours

Yes - that second coat looks a lot better. It is always a surprise just how much hard work it is to actually sand fully back to the wood! Great stuff - look forward to seeing the result