33" Reverse P/J Jazz bass, blocks & binding (FINISHED PICS)

[songofthewind]

Great work! I'm enjoying this thread very much. Not the pain and suffering part, obviously..

[SpondonBassed]

15 hours ago, songofthewind said:

Great work! I'm enjoying this thread very much. Not the pain and suffering part, obviously..

That's an interesting comment.

I neither look forward to nor enjoy the little mishaps and let-downs that accompany most builds.  They do happen and you could say that it is almost an inevitable part of every build.  The interesting thing is that they happen at all levels of skill and experience.  Without them though, we'd learn a lot less from the experiences of our fellows who face these challenges.

The successful completion of each build diary is the goal.  The contrast between the lows and the highs of a build gives each story a dynamic.  Those who intend to build or who have had their own plans take a swerve due to unforeseen circumstances find out how their contemporaries work around stuff as it occurs.  The solutions are the silver that lines those darker clouds.

I think Honza has had his share of those on this build but he's not one to let that get in the way.

It is rare to see comments like "The assembly was straight forward everything went together just right." as we've recently seen in @JohnDaBass's build - Relic 51 & 3/4s Tele-P.  That's cool too.  It means that the builder can get onto the next build sooner.  (No pressure John, heeheehee).

Edited October 2, 2018 by SpondonBassed

[Andyjr1515]

12 hours ago, honza992 said:

Into the grunt work. 

I re-did the frets.  Cursing as I went 🙄.  Though to be fair, all went smoothly.  I then filed them level with the edge of the neck, then added the bevel, taking it down slightly into the binding so there isn't too sharp an edge.  

I then did the neck taper, going from 20mm at the first to 22mm at the 12th.  Slim, but not too slim.  

It's then on to the neck carve.  I use the facet method, which makes for a lovely photo!

Oh, and the body needs sanding.  Lots and lots of sanding.  But is at least looking more or less bass shaped. 

 

There's a lot going on in this post!

Very precise stuff going on in the neck routing. I confess that my approach is much more haphazard than that 

The body shaping has transformed it.  Looks great

 On earlier threads for the pickguard, I'm still not entirely sure how you got the flush mdf template reduced to the final size.  I'll have to read it again.  Also, how did you manage to route the actual pickguard without it melting?  Like you mention, there's a lot of work involved with pickguards...

[honza992]

On 02/10/2018 at 09:17, Andyjr1515 said:

There's a lot going on in this post!

Very precise stuff going on in the neck routing. I confess that my approach is much more haphazard than that 

The body shaping has transformed it.  Looks great

 On earlier threads for the pickguard, I'm still not entirely sure how you got the flush mdf template reduced to the final size.  I'll have to read it again.  Also, how did you manage to route the actual pickguard without it melting?  Like you mention, there's a lot of work involved with pickguards...

I haven't actually routed the pickguard itself yet, I won't do that till the last minute.  The one's I've done before though have been no problem, no melting, though I do turn the router down to a slower speed.

[honza992]

On 01/10/2018 at 21:54, songofthewind said:

Great work! I'm enjoying this thread very much. Not the pain and suffering part, obviously..

Ha ha, yes the pain and suffering is definitely a feature of guitar building.  In fact, the more my skills grow the more I realise that guitar building is, like tennis, mostly about avoiding unforced errors.  The lapse in concentration, the inexplicable routing using a template that's upside down, drilling too deep, or too shallow, or not at all, not checking fret slot depth etc etx.....  I've done them all.  Several times.   New swear words have been invented.  The occasional infantile tantrum.  

But as @SpondonBassed says, it's inevitable and you just have to rely on your skills or improvisation!

[honza992]

I'm deep into the neck carve at the moment.  

This time I'm doing it slightly different to my normal method.  Only slightly differently, mind, and if you look away you;ll not notice.  But, this time I have cut my facets only as far as the start of the transitions like this....(rather than trying to cut facets through the transitions, if you see what I mean). 

And I sanded the bulk of the neck to 90% of the finished shape before starting work on the transitions.  It's worked out really well.  Having the neck virtually finished meant I could 'feel' the transitions more clearly somehow.  I should finish the carve tomorrow and I'll post some pictures....

[honza992]

I've just weighed all the parts and I think final weight will be about 3.4kg (7.5lb). Perfect. 

[honza992]

Finally, an update. 

The neck is finished, tru-oil slurried and currently waiting overnight for the water slide decal to dry before sparying some poly over the top of the logo to bury it.  Tomorrow, hopefully. 

The body is mid-finish.  I brushed on a few coats coats of General Finishes High Performance to act as a sanding sealer - providing a flat surface for the colour - which will be a (hopefully) beautiful creamy white.  I'm using 1/3 Antique White and 2/3 Snow White, both (fake) milk paints from General Finishes.  They're basically just a low gloss acrylic (no lactose involved) paint, but they spray nicely and are completely compatible with the High Performance, which I'll also use as the top coat.  I spray using an HVLP turbine, but I turn the pressure down really really low.  Being an HVLP I don't have a pressure guage, but my guess it's only running at 1/3 or so of it's capacity - basically just enough to 'flop' the paint out of the gun in big gobs and onto the surface - it'll flatten itself nicely as the water evapourates.  I've found that increasing the air flow simply fills the air with clouds of vapourised paint that bounces off the surface, but doesn't improve the quality at all, but does make me nervous about what i'm breathing in, even with a full mask. 

Here are a couple of coats:

[Jabba_the_gut]

Looking very nice!

[songofthewind]

Good work! Very exciting!

[Andyjr1515]

Excellent job!  You are really motoring at the moment

[Christine]

On 17/09/2018 at 20:04, honza992 said:

More of an issue is this....

All the blocks are white, apart from the one at the fifth fret (block 3) which is blue.  What the...?!%@%!  I didn't notice before because they were only rough sanded, but once glued in and starting to sand it was obvious that it didn't match at all.  This is the first time I've used MOP and as a natural material I'm sure there is some variation in hue, but that is ....well, a bit much.  Very disappointing. I guess I have two options:

1. Grab my router, and zap that little bugger.  Hope I can get it out relatively neatly and re-rout the channel. Get the retailer to send me one that is the correct colour, re-glue, re-radius and put it all down to experience. 

2.  Relax.  It is at least at fret 5, so I can pretend that it's a design feature.  And no one will notice apart from me anyway. 

Anyone with any opinions?

(Oh and also I'll email the supplier and ask whether that blue is in fact within the accepted range of 'white'....🙄)

Still trying to slowly catch up after our break, it looks great, well I csan't see any obvious filling from the photos and I'm pretty sure you wont either once the strings are on. The point I'm trying to make is it looks great and that blue block looks rather cool too

[BassTool]

Nice work so far 😎

[honza992]

On 12/11/2018 at 19:40, honza992 said:

Finally, an update. 

The neck is finished, tru-oil slurried and currently waiting overnight for the water slide decal to dry before sparying some poly over the top of the logo to bury it.  Tomorrow, hopefully. 

The body is mid-finish.  I brushed on a few coats coats of General Finishes High Performance to act as a sanding sealer - providing a flat surface for the colour - which will be a (hopefully) beautiful creamy white.  I'm using 1/3 Antique White and 2/3 Snow White, both (fake) milk paints from General Finishes.  They're basically just a low gloss acrylic (no lactose involved) paint, but they spray nicely and are completely compatible with the High Performance, which I'll also use as the top coat.  I spray using an HVLP turbine, but I turn the pressure down really really low.  Being an HVLP I don't have a pressure guage, but my guess it's only running at 1/3 or so of it's capacity - basically just enough to 'flop' the paint out of the gun in big gobs and onto the surface - it'll flatten itself nicely as the water evapourates.  I've found that increasing the air flow simply fills the air with clouds of vapourised paint that bounces off the surface, but doesn't improve the quality at all, but does make me nervous about what i'm breathing in, even with a full mask. 

Here are a couple of coats:

 

The colour coat is done and although it's gone on  well, there is a little bit of uneveness - not exactly orange peel, but a bit of roughness.   I'm gong to be spraying clear over the top, and I'm pretty sure I'll be able to level sand at the end of the process, no problem.  But I'm not 100% sure whether I need to have the colour coat absolutely smooth or not.   Is it like burying a water slide decal, whereby as long as you put enough clear on top and then sand it level, the edges disappear?  Or does the white have to be absolutely flat first?  Any advice?  @Christine and @dadagoboi if you happen to be passing this way, I'd really appreciate a pointer......or any other fine colour finishers out there....the white is really really hard, so I shall only sand if I really need to!

Thanks a bunch. 

[dadagoboi]

2 hours ago, honza992 said:

  Or does the white have to be absolutely flat first?  Any advice? 

Absolutely flat.  Better to spend the time leveling sooner than later. If you miscalculate how bad the orange peel is and sand thru the clear later you'll be spending a lot more time fixing it than getting it right before shooting clear.

I block sand the primer (or sanding sealer) coat with 240 and than 320 before applying color base.  There won't be any orange peel with properly applied after coats and if there is 320 or 400 will take care of them.

As far as the first step, sanding.80/120/180/240 with a block to get  an absolutely perfect starting surface.  Depending on wood I steam with a wet washcloth and clothes iron on stun to raise fibers before and after 120. Sandpaper is aluminum oxide (white) nofil type.

I  don't use grain filler and generally use pro furniture finishes from Mohawk or automotive products.  I don't use waterbase because no one really knows how long it will last. I used it on industrial production line furniture in the 90s .  It did not hold up and every year there's a 'new and improved' version.  I'll go with tried and true vs that.

Ribbon mahogany, Mohawk Ultra Penetrating dyestain and clear Piano Lacquer nitro.

I really love your work honza992. That neck is stunning!

 

[honza992]

Hmm...I was hoping my next post was going to be of finishing photos....Instead it's this:

I managed to sand through the white so it is back to square one. 

Ironically the colour coat sprayed on pretty easily.  It's the top coat that I'm finding really, really (did I say really?) frustrating.  I'm spraying water based General Finishes High Performance with an HVLP turbine and I just can't get any sort of consistency.  One coat will go on pretty well, and the next will look like the surface of the moon.  Same gun, same conditions (always warm and not too humid), same product, same pressure, same amount of thinning.....

Anyway, the body is more or less sanded back and I'll be ready to start doing the colour coat again.  

 

[Andyjr1515]

4 minutes ago, honza992 said:

Hmm...I was hoping my next post was going to be of finishing photos....Instead it's this:

I managed to sand through the white so it is back to square one. 

Ironically the colour coat sprayed on pretty easily.  It's the top coat that I'm finding really, really (did I say really?) frustrating.  I'm spraying water based General Finishes High Performance with an HVLP turbine and I just can't get any sort of consistency.  One coat will go on pretty well, and the next will look like the surface of the moon.  Same gun, same conditions (always warm and not too humid), same product, same pressure, same amount of thinning.....

Anyway, the body is more or less sanded back and I'll be ready to start doing the colour coat again.  

 

That's very disappointing... 

We've all been there and know just how disappointing that feels.  But you will get there, trust me.

[Jimothey]

24 minutes ago, honza992 said:

Hmm...I was hoping my next post was going to be of finishing photos....Instead it's this:

I managed to sand through the white so it is back to square one. 

Ironically the colour coat sprayed on pretty easily.  It's the top coat that I'm finding really, really (did I say really?) frustrating.  I'm spraying water based General Finishes High Performance with an HVLP turbine and I just can't get any sort of consistency.  One coat will go on pretty well, and the next will look like the surface of the moon.  Same gun, same conditions (always warm and not too humid), same product, same pressure, same amount of thinning.....

Anyway, the body is more or less sanded back and I'll be ready to start doing the colour coat again.  

 

I feel your pain just look back through my builds and it happens to me a lot more often than not!! 

I have that problem when spraying but that's using rattle cans!! I'm building a little spray booth at work so I can use my compressor and spray gun but I like to use 2k paint as I find it's a lot more forgiving?

Hopefully next time round it will work perfectly 🤞

[dadagoboi]

1 hour ago, honza992 said:

Hmm...I was hoping my next post was going to be of finishing photos....Instead it's this:

I managed to sand through the white so it is back to square one. 

Ironically the colour coat sprayed on pretty easily.  It's the top coat that I'm finding really, really (did I say really?) frustrating.  I'm spraying water based General Finishes High Performance with an HVLP turbine and I just can't get any sort of consistency.  One coat will go on pretty well, and the next will look like the surface of the moon.  Same gun, same conditions (always warm and not too humid), same product, same pressure, same amount of thinning.....

Anyway, the body is more or less sanded back and I'll be ready to start doing the colour coat again.  

 

 

I feel for you.  Been there, as recently as this summer and close this week.

Have you considered contacting General Finishes as well as the turbine manufacturer?  What's the procedure for spraying multiple coats of the waterbase?  Does it need to be scuff sanded after drying  so the next layer will adhere?

It's a long shot but compatibility issues sometimes cause strange results that don't immediately appear.  For example, acrylic lacquer over nitro.  After a month or so the nitro underneath shrinks while the acrylic doesn't and you get an unwanted crackle effect.

Simillar result from mixing too many media.

My latest almost catastrophe was refinning a 20 year old red poly body to gloss black.  I thought I'd try something new, shoot flat black automotive primer surfacer, scuff sand it with 320 and shoot clear automotive acrylic lacquer over it.  It looked great but large areas with very rough surfaces appeared the next morning.  I  block sanded it carefully shot more clear and the same thing happened. Once again block sanding and another heavy clear application.  Surface wasn't completely perfect but I was able to block sand it  flat.  Fingers crossed when I polish it there won't be any gray looking areas.

Best of luck the next go round!

[BassTool]

On 16/11/2018 at 23:45, dadagoboi said:

 

Ribbon mahogany, Mohawk Ultra Penetrating dyestain and clear Piano Lacquer nitro.

 

 

That looks like a stunning finish 

[honza992]

Deja vu:

Colour coat is done, and clear is on-going.  Maybe another 3 coats then I'll let it sit over xmas before attacking it with sandpaper & buffing.  General Finishes say cure time is 21 days for the High Performance.  We'll see......

[Andyjr1515]

It's looking very good

[honza992]

Finally, I'm able to do a quick update for this one. 

I managed to sand through so had to heat gun and scrape back to bare wood to start again.  Then I resprayed colour and clear coat then managed to sand through again.  So I had to heat gun and scrape back to bare wood.  Again.  So I resprayed colour and clear coat then managed to sand though ag.... only joking,  twice was enough. 

So, the body is now finished and looks more or less like an enormous Mr Whippy.  It's super super smooth and creamy.  It's lickalicious....

It may, just may be finished tomorrow.  Assuming I don't drop it.......

Edited March 25, 2019 by honza992

[Jabba_the_gut]

Looking very nice! Can’t wait to see this one put together.

Cheers

Jez

[Andyjr1515]

Yes - I agree.  That looks a mighty fine and smooth finish