NBD: Warwick Corvette 5 string: Refin in progress

[Grangur]

This is a really nice bass that I've picked up from Painy of this parish. It's one he's owned from new and it's seen some action. So it's now come to relative peace and tranquility of the Grangur Retirement Home for Gentle-basses.

Here, among the trees in the Hertfordshire countryside, this amazing bass will be pampered and treated with the care and dignity it deserves in as it takes some well-earned rest in our tranquil surroundings.

First we take a look at the credentials of this wonderous instrument.

Serial number: E-075214-00
Article number: 1245780000CZBUBOWW
produced: 2000-05-17
Description: Corvette Standard, 5-string
Natural Oil finish
Bubinga body
Ovangkol neck
Chrome hardware


Cool. Let's now take a closer look.



As can be seen here on the lower horn, the wood has some layers in the depth and as you can see Painy has been diggin' a groove above the front pup. The bridge has been kickin' up a sweat and the chrome is showing the signs of exhaustion.

Edited November 21, 2016 by Grangur

[Grangur]

The neck has signs of having had some love in the past.

Played using rounds for a good number of years, the frets are somewhat wrinkly, and the plastic Just-a-Nut has gone the way of most of it's kind; broken at the ends.


Taking it apart, the neck was probably the tightest pocket fit I've come across. Breaking their tight embrace was a small challenge, but once it's open we can see the true colour of the bubinga wood.


The tail-piece was also a tight fit with the chrome breaking down.

Edited November 21, 2016 by Grangur

[Grangur]

First job is to get the parts on order from Warwick. What I did first was to strip the body and clean the parts to see what's needed.

The electrics were ok, if a bit stiff. One of the knobs had a grub-screw stuck in the side. I managed to release this though by putting a screwdriver in the slot and giving it 2-3 sharp taps with a small hammer.

The body stripped went onto the neck. The frets bother me. The dents are low and the strings have taken a groove into the fingerboard.

With the fret worn the round-wound is lower and cuts into the wood.

The above picture was taken after I've leveled the frets to see what we have left. TBH, there's not a lot of height to the frets.

Big question here is at what point do you re-fret. I've done refrets before, but not with frets that don't go through the sides of the neck.
Looking on the Warwick site, they sell fret wires in sets of 26, but they are universal and need to be cut to length. This wouldn't normally worry me, except for the wires not going through the sides of the neck.

To be honest I'm thinking of getting prices from luthiers better than I to get this done and for a re-finish of the wenge fingerboard.

Any thoughts here from the collective?

[Manton Customs]

It's not too difficult to trim the tangs back if you go the refret yourself route. On the Warwick necks I've worked on the frets slots are not cut so the edges don't go through the edge of the fingerboard, but they are simply filled after the (tang trimmed) frets are installed.

The current frets look like they need a bit more leveling and crowning action if you're going to keep them, I can still see the wear on (especially) the second from left fret and the fret to the very left...You don't want that. Regarding how low the wire can go, the fretboards (nearly) the limit really, as long as you can crown them and are comfortable playing on low frets. There still looks enough material there, can you take a measurement at the lowest point?

Edited October 16, 2016 by Manton Customs

[Grangur]

[quote name='Manton Customs' timestamp='1476650962' post='3156047']
It's not too difficult to trim the tangs back if you go the refret yourself route. On the Warwick necks I've worked on the frets slots are not cut so the edges don't go through the edge of the fingerboard, but they are simply filled after the (tang trimmed) frets are installed.

The current frets look like they need a bit more leveling and crowning action if you're going to keep them, I can still see the wear on (especially) the second from left fret and the fret to the very left...You don't want that. Regarding how low the wire can go, the fretboards (nearly) the limit really, as long as you can crown them and are comfortable playing on low frets. There still looks enough material there, can you take a measurement at the lowest point?
[/quote]

Many thanks for your reading this and your helpful information.
I leveled the frets down until the dents were just about gone, then used a crowning file to give some kind of crown. The file is now grounding on the FB and not really doing much to improve the crown.

I guess the next stage is to take needle files to the sides as they're not as tidy as I'd like. The height at the lowest is below 1mm though. I don't have anything to measure with more accurately. If I did I don't think my eyesight would hold out to read it anyway.

It's interesting what you say about the slots. I did wonder how one can cut a saw blade slot and not go through the sides. So the method, I guess, would be to cut to length, and then clip off some of the tang each end, then make good with a file.

[Manton Customs]

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1476654979' post='3156112']


Many thanks for your reading this and your helpful information.
I leveled the frets down until the dents were just about gone, then used a crowning file to give some kind of crown. The file is now grounding on the FB and not really doing much to improve the crown.

I guess the next stage is to take needle files to the sides as they're not as tidy as I'd like. The height at the lowest is below 1mm though. I don't have anything to measure with more accurately. If I did I don't think my eyesight would hold out to read it anyway.

It's interesting what you say about the slots. I did wonder how one can cut a saw blade slot and not go through the sides. So the method, I guess, would be to cut to length, and then clip off some of the tang each end, then make good with a file.
[/quote]

No problem . To get everything perfectly level and the bass playing it's best you need to get rid of the dents, as these are low spots. Yes, if your crowning file is hitting the board you can shape them in the traditional way with a three corner file. You should be able to find plenty of info online on doing this.

For future work you could roughly measure the lowest point with either the depth gauge on calipers, or feeler gauges (which should be more accurate). Around the 0.6/0.7 mm point is when I start to think about a refret. A lot of small wire starts life at around 1mm, so it has to be quite bad to truly require a refret. Though often people don't like to play on low frets so have them refretted earlier.

Yep, clipping the tangs is the way to go when refretting a board like these. it's also how you refret a bound board, so a useful skill to have. Clipping the tangs off neatly is not particularly easy without the right tool or really taking your time with a Dremel. They tend to distort if done with an inappropriate tool, which ruins the wire!

[Grangur]

Ahh, many thanks for the tips. Yes, I was thinking that of the dips. Is there any way that you would use to fill the dips though?

The way I was thinking was strip the neck and sand it flat, then re-fret. This could be done, of course on just part of the neck, but to do the job right it would be good to have all the frets the same.

Warwick sell the frets in pre-cut lengths. The advantages of going there, as I see it are:
1. The wire gauge is right.
2. The wire would be of a good quality.
3. Their fret wire is yellow brass all the way through and won't turn silver when polished.

The disadvantages are that Warwick's price isn't exactly budget and having cut pieces means there's no slack really if I do mess one up in the timing.

Re-fitting frets after sanding the neck would be impossible I guess?

[Andyjr1515]

I love these basses. Great restoration project, Grangur

[Manton Customs]

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1476672846' post='3156163']
Ahh, many thanks for the tips. Yes, I was thinking that of the dips. Is there any way that you would use to fill the dips though?

The way I was thinking was strip the neck and sand it flat, then re-fret. This could be done, of course on just part of the neck, but to do the job right it would be good to have all the frets the same.

Warwick sell the frets in pre-cut lengths. The advantages of going there, as I see it are:
1. The wire gauge is right.
2. The wire would be of a good quality.
3. Their fret wire is yellow brass all the way through and won't turn silver when polished.

The disadvantages are that Warwick's price isn't exactly budget and having cut pieces means there's no slack really if I do mess one up in the timing.

Re-fitting frets after sanding the neck would be impossible I guess?
[/quote]

When I mentioned that the dents would need to be removed I was actually referring to the tiny dents you left in the fret wire (if you decide not to refret), sorry if that wasn't clear.

The scars on the board itself are just cosmetic, but it'd be nice to take them out also. Filling them would never end up looking right, so yes as you describe; you can sand or scrape them out. Just careful with the radius...use a flat block and sand along the neck not across, a radius block is not necessary. You could try to scrape them out without removing the frets first and see how you get on, it's difficult to tell from pictures if that'd be possible.

You could buy the Warwick wire, or you could head over to the Tonetech website who sell Jescar EVO wire in a variety of sizes, so measure your current wire and find one of theirs which matches. Jescar wire is the best you can get in my opinion and the EVO variety is a brass alloy also (so yellow). It's most likely cheaper too and comes coiled (uncut).

Refitting frets is perfectly possible if you're careful removing them, but as yours are pretty knackered anyway I'd get some new ones. You might have some fun removing the frets, as Wenge is very splintery and can come out in big chunks, so take care.

If you feel you're getting out your depth once started you could post me the neck and I'll give you some B.C discount .

[Trueno]

I think that the bubinga corvettes are fantastic instruments. When I bought my Thumb BO it was a close call between the Thumb and one of these (albeit fretless and 4 string).

I'll be watching this with some interest.

[Grangur]

Thank you Mr Manton for the pointers. I was sorely tempted to contact you for a price on the neck at the beginning. I might still come back again at some stage.

What I've done today is sand down the frets some more, file again and finish with 0000 wire wool. I took a blade to the spaces between the fret wires and scraped the wood a little. This has eased the dents a little. I was careful not to totally flatten the radius of the neck by scraping as much from the sides as from the centre.

After working on the neck I then put a rule across the frets and checked with a feeler gauge of 0.61mm. It went easily under the ruler at all frets, right across the radius. So, I'm thinking I'll leave the refret for now at least.

The body and the back of the neck has then all been sanded to smooth it all off.

After sanding I then used 0000 again and oiled it all. The grain is looking good. Initially I was thinking of sanding back to an "as new" finish. But before going for it I wanted to just check how good it can look with its scars of use. Quite frankly, I'm liking it a lot.

All the parts have now been ordered from Warwick. So, tomorrow I'll oil again to build up the finish.

The oil I'm using is boiled linseed. I like that as it gives a sheen, but not gloss. I'll then get a shine on it by using beeswax. I find thst gives a look of deeply polished wood rather than a "plastic" look of lacquer. (Each to their own, I know.)

I'll post more pictures tomorrow. Thanks for looking.

Edited October 17, 2016 by Grangur

[3below]

How well is the BLO taking to the existing finish? How much existing finish did you take off? I also have a bubinga corvette and it would benefit from a 'light' refresh. Refrets with the right tools (Hosco cutters, tang nibblers etc) are not that difficult, I did my first this year on a 'project bass' with bound fingerboard. Am pleased with the results (though I could improve).

[Manton Customs]

Glad to help and good luck with the restoration.

Edited October 18, 2016 by Manton Customs

[Grangur]

[quote name='3below' timestamp='1476739768' post='3156913']
How well is the BLO taking to the existing finish? How much existing finish did you take off? I also have a bubinga corvette and it would benefit from a 'light' refresh. Refrets with the right tools (Hosco cutters, tang nibblers etc) are not that difficult, I did my first this year on a 'project bass' with bound fingerboard. Am pleased with the results (though I could improve).
[/quote]
That's encouraging. I have the fret cutters and fret bending tools. I may well give that a go then. Have to say while I have done regrets, I am slightly apprehensive about the risk of splintering.

It did cross my mind to make it fretless but, if I did, would it get played as much?

The finish this had was natural oil. It looks to me that the front had been waxed periodically, but the back hadn't seen anything on it from New probably. I have other natural oil Warwick basses. Periodically I re-oil and wax them all.

The main thing is never use spray polish, but I guess you would know that.

[Grangur]

Been sanding and oiling the body, then sanding and oiling some more.


As I said before; not going too hard on it. Dare I say, it looks better in the flesh. But I've gone for leaving the diggin' in scars.



What I have gone hard on is the neck. Last night I ordered some fret-pulling pliars. Tonight I went mad and used the Hosco fret cutters to bite in under each of the frets and look what I've gone and done...





Not tooo comfortable about the slots, but I guess with the barbs being there on the fret-wire, I don't think it's possible to do a lot better. In any case I'll be sanding the neck later to get rid of the string-wear marks.

I think I can see how Warwick do the slots. There's not a lot of wood left at the sides, but my guess is the slot is cut using a very small circular blade. It cuts in both directions, but is careful to not go through the sides. The under-cutting of the tang isn't as severe as I anticipated. My guess is the fret-cutters will easily nibble off enough to do the same as Warwick's frets; not going though the sides.

[3below]

If you have any big lift outs / chips it might be worth exploring the PTFE sheet, CA & sawdust method. It has worked really well on my refret and the ebony bridge I constructed recently. Body looks super

[Grangur]

[quote name='3below' timestamp='1476907529' post='3158445']
If you have any big lift outs / chips it might be worth exploring the PTFE sheet, CA & sawdust method. It has worked really well on my refret and the ebony bridge I constructed recently. Body looks super
[/quote]

Many thanks. The chips in the neck are really just rough edges. I'll see what happens when I get sanding, but I doubt there's anything there to worry about really. This is the first time I've defretted Wenge. I've done maple and rosewood and done those cleanly. But with the tangs it won't ever come out totally clean.

Thanks for the tip though. I'll see how the sanding goes.

[3below]

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1476908010' post='3158449']
Many thanks. The chips in the neck are really just rough edges. I'll see what happens when I get sanding, but I doubt there's anything there to worry about really. This is the first time I've defretted Wenge. I've done maple and rosewood and done those cleanly. But with the tangs it won't ever come out totally clean.

Thanks for the tip though. I'll see how the sanding goes.
[/quote]

Save the sawdust - you never know.... My experience with rosewood was refretting a defret that someone else had done, hence chip filling.

Edited October 19, 2016 by 3below

[Grangur]

[quote name='3below' timestamp='1476908376' post='3158453']
Save the sawdust - you never know.... My experience with rosewood was refretting a defret that someone else had done, hence chip filling.
[/quote]
Yes, fair point. I used the same method on filling holes in a Wishbass a while ago.

Good point though. I might not have done it, had you not suggested.

Edited October 19, 2016 by Grangur

[EBS_freak]

This is going to look great. Watching with interest.

[Andyjr1515]

The body has come up wonderfully well

[Grangur]

Thanks guys.

Well this weekend included just a little sanding, cutting and filing and now we have a fully refretted Warwick Corvette 5











The fretting was interesting. I avoided cutting through the sides, but cutting and filing the tang on each end of the frets. So the fret wire goes to the sides, but the tang doesn't cut through the wood "binding".

It all set up and plays really well. So, it's a great result. I'm happy. I think this is now probably the No.1 bass at Grangur Towers.

Edited October 24, 2016 by Grangur

[ColinB]

Excellent work - really good job.

[Trueno]

That is an object of lust. Great work.

[Andyjr1515]

That looks superb. Great job, Grangur