well, that's that project knackered

[ahpook]

...a year or so i bought cheapy japanese jazz copy for £40 iirc, with the plan of stripping it and doing it up a bit.

time passed and this spring i've finally got round to stripping it and varnishing it.

it was going well...


just as a test i strung it up today and as i was tightening up the strings...

[i]CRACK[/i]

there's no obvious cracks in the body, but from where i heard/felt the sound come from i reckon the ply in the body's started to go around where i routed the body for the new pickup...it was stored out in the garden shed for quite a while and i reckon the damps's got to the adhesives.

shame...it was looking rather nice too, but i'm not risking a fully-strung bass folding up on me at some point.

BUT i now know more about finishing wood and varnishing, so i've only really lost a few quid's worth of sandpaper and varnish.



so it goes

Edited May 31, 2008 by ahpook

[squire5]

If you can't see any obvious cracks in the body then it is possible that it may be something else.A neck,if not securely tightened at the backplate can make similar sounds as it takes the tension of the strings.That happened to me once when I changed the neck on my P-bass.As i was tightening up.I heard quite a loud crack.Turned out there was a bit of play in the screws in the plate.nearly another 1/4 turn each in fact.It's been fine ever since.Check it out.

[ahpook]

hmmm..the neck screws and plate were snug as a proverbial.

i've given it a bit of thought and i've decided to leave it...i don't think i'd be comfortable with it now.

thanks for the idea tho

[Lfalex v1.1]

Could it be the truss-rod creaking as it takes the strain? Some of mine creak and crack and groan as they're tightened or as strings are tensioned...

[ahpook]

the body's been junked now...as i said, whatever the cause i can't play an instrument that i don't feel i can trust.

i'm now working on the other bass i was building up...expect another tread soon !!!

[BOD2]

I read somewhere justy recently that with some guitar bodies (and I would expect that would mean "cheaper" ones) the hard polyester finish actually gives strength to the body. It supports and keeps everything from moving. By remving the finish you can actually weaken the body and allow movement between the parts that makeup the body.

It's possible that's what has happened here - the hard polyester shell was holding it all together.

If so, it's a warning to anyone hoping to strip down a cheap body !

[ashgeezer]

I had a similar problem with a cheap body i bought off fleabay, i stripped it right back to bare wood (ply) and it was nightmare to sort out, the sanding itself was bad news, in hindsight i really should have just wire wooled the laquer then primed over the top of that.
On a good note i eventually sorted the body out and its just been primed and rubbed down and dsoesnt look to bad so far.
but i'll know in future, live and learn, its great leveller.