Maude

I Am The Sea - The Whom

I had a little play earlier with colours and this will be the palatte. The sepia ink is just wiped on a scrap of wood and the flake is still in the bag so very dense but this will be it. Shell pink and sparkle for the front front, the bronze and sepia ink for the back and sides. Unsure on headstock yet but the black was too heavy with the chosen colours, and now the top edge is nice and crisp again. Either matching or aged natural. Unless I think of something else mad, like gold or copper leaf. 😁 New waterslide decal on its way.

I Wish - Stevie Wonder

Maybe I didn't word it well but that's what I meant. The rot starting creeping in a long time ago and is now seen as the norm.

Unfortunately, and I'm well aware I have my grumpy old man hat on, I feel that if youngsters have grown up with this sort of lies and BS approach, then they see it as normal and even think they're telling 'the truth' when spouting it. Language evolves but too many just make up their own meaning for the words they use. Could the OP try not paying but claim it's paid for? Given that it will be when he finally chooses to hand some funds over.

AliExpress judging by the poor translations/mistakes on that specs list. A 'sandwitch'? Occultist at the beach?

Head Like A Hole - NIN

I didnt want it to... but yeah. 😂 It's not that wild, in fact it's quite traditional (with a twist). I've just ordered what I need. May as well just go with my gut. I'll mix up the paint at work this week. There'll be a mix of Sepia calligraphy ink, antique bronze paint, shell pink paint and coarse rose gold flake. Possibly gold tuners and knobs. 🙈

I pretty sure the neck pickup on the 182 is fixed. From memory it's surface mounted and the pickguard layed over the top. You could just raise your pole pieces to see if you get a stronger signal.

Feeling Hot Hot Hot - The Merrymen

Erm... well... that's er, nice? Couldn't decide which of Granny's sideboards to use so went for both. 🤭

The top is two pieces joined in an odd place, horizontally through the bridge area, so a trans finish would need to be fairly solid up to the join line. I think it would look odd. It's not a massively noticeable join but it's there all the same. I've considered other finishes that would disguise the top like the Fender paisley, or lace painting, but I'm pretty set on what's in my head right now. I'm just holding off buying what I need for a day or two in case I have an epiphany (or should that be Epiphone?).

Some Candy Talking - The Jesus and Mary Chain

Just a few then. I'm painfully aware that my NBD's tend to turn into rambling semi build diaries.

The thought did cross my mind but the binding, and particularly the bridge will cause problems. Ideally the bridge would need removing and I'm already in far deeper than I wanted tbh. The binding also really wants to go on after a veneer so the the top of the binding is level with the surface of the veneer. A veneer could be fitted but, in my mind at least, any workaround regarding the bridge and binding would be a slight bodge. I'm just as happy with a painted finish as a wood one so I'm not overly keen to create even more work that won't necessarily look right anyway. I'm pretty much set on a suitably distasteful colour scheme anyway now. 😁

And this, boys and girls, is why the sunburst finish was invented. The body is constructed with a pair of central blocks, a pair of side bouts, a top and bottom and a top and bottom veneer. Annoyingly the top is even two piece, joined sideways rather than longways through the bridge area. So a natural or transparent top is now out of the question. It's rather plain anyway without the flame veneer. You can see the top join running down the centre of this picture. Still got the bridge area to carefully sand as the bridge is screwed and glued. The back is veneer is quite nice, and thicker than the front one so is intact. The different blocks in the body construction. All of this means it will probably get a solid, coloured top and a transparent burst back and sides, fading to solid to hide the body joins. I've had a few ideas but I'm very aware that the BEX4 is quite a natural looking bass (like an acoustic) with no chrome bling to stand out from a dark colour. I really like how the features stand out in its now natural colour so I think it'll be a lighter colour front. The cogs are whirring but I'm almost settled on an idea, it won't be to everyone's taste though. Let's just say that Duesenburg and Gretsch seem to be doing a lot of what I like. 😁 I'll probably just get on with it and post a picture afterwards to save this post becoming like a build thread, as my NBD posts always seem to. 🙂👍

In The Midnight Hour - The Jam

The Hills Have Eyes - The Meteors

It does look nice just natural, emphasises the f holes and hardware in a really nice way. But hot pink sparkle would be cool too. 😁 Not made a start on the the neck yet. There'll be no problems there though. Just take all the finish off and then oil/wax or lacquer it. Or paint it hot pink sparkle 😂. The headstock face isn't scratched enough to be a problem either, just wet flat then re-laquer... Or paint it hot pink sparkle 🤣🤣🤣.

Yeah cos I 'need' another bass, just like I 'need' another project! 😂😂

This is completely true, and why I'm not overly worried. I'd hoped it might've just been a quick clean and polish and it would be like new(ish) again, but you can't win 'em all. For the money I've done alright. The other good thing is that although I really don't need another project right now, it's kind of forced my arm, and now I don't need to feel bad about ripping a perfectly good BEX4 apart and doing something different. It'll all come good in the end. 🙂

Slow down, slow down! 😂 That would look amazing though. You can see just how thin the flame maple veneer is in this picture. The blue stain is impossible to completely remove leaving the veneer intact. On the plus side, if you look closely at the natural wood you can see some quilting coming through. This is only sanded with 120 so a any grain will only get better with subsequent finer sandings and a finish, if it stays as some sort of trans finish. Who knows, I need to contemplate. 😁

This is now make it up as you go along. 😁 Or if I want to look clever then the wood is talking to me and letting know what it wants.😄 I'd never have been happy with the original cleaned up. Sure there's ways to disquise a lot of the damage but that's exactly the problem, I'd still see it. The turquoise is the blue basecoat that has stained into the flame laminate. To fully remove the blue staining, including in the dents, I have rubbed through the laminate. It was always a risk, it just depended on the how thick a laminate they used. The answer is very, very thin. So I'm now sanding the laminate off and see what we're left with. If it hasn't got a good natural grain then I reckon a sparkle finish might be on the cards. Or something equally crazy. 😉

In for a penny! Turquoise BEX4 anyone? 😁

News of the World - The Jam