Another Swift Lite Bass

[Pea Turgh]

The way the neck swooshes in to the body, and the demarcation veneer, looks bloody marvellous!

Its a pity it won’t make it to the next SW Bass Bash!

[scrumpymike]

11 minutes ago, Pea Turgh said:

The way the neck swooshes in to the body, and the demarcation veneer, looks bloody marvellous!

Its a pity it won’t make it to the next SW Bass Bash!

Unless we hold the bash in Hawaii - which I personally would be up for 😎

[Pea Turgh]

Aye!

[Andyjr1515]

We're still experimenting with colours and contrasts.  I always find that it is only when you pin down one element that you can see the valid options of the next and, with the fretboard and neck now the colour the owner wants, it is time to look at the other elements.  And hmmmm….the back....

While the ash was quite dark alongside white maple, this neck is now SUCH a strong colour, the ash looks a bit wishy washy?  Also the yellow tint from the strong amber clashes with the brown tint of the ash - certainly when you see it in real life.  With a bolt-on you can often get away with this, but a through-neck, in my view, needs to coordinate (whether with contrasts or complimentary shades) between back, sides, top, neck and fretboard and this doesn't yet do that.  

So time for some more experimenting. 

One thought was to maybe go for complimentary colour between the back and neck and a greater contrast between sides and top.  So I did loads of colour checks with some ash offcut until I came up with this one.  The dye on the ash is a totally different mix of dyes in a different strength to that applied to the neck but the result is quite close to each other in the colour spectrum.

This is a test only so don't worry that it's a bit patchy!

It's sufficiently different to still have a distinct through neck-look but now both back wings and neck have an amber hue on the orange/yellow side 

 

And, to my eye, the depth of colour makes the sides contrast better with the top:

 

I've sent the shots across to 'our man in Hawaii' to see if this is getting close to the overall look he had in mind.

 

Edited December 21, 2018 by Andyjr1515

[scrumpymike]

I'd say you've got that spot on Andy - proper eye-candy!

[RichardH]

Yup, that looks spiffing.

[TheGreek]

a bit darker??

[Andyjr1515]

37 minutes ago, TheGreek said:

a bit darker??

It will darken when I do the proper job to an extent.  I'll see what the man in Hawaii thinks

[honza992]

Andy, can I ask about staining the neck?  What did you use and how did you do it?

[Andyjr1515]

16 minutes ago, honza992 said:

Andy, can I ask about staining the neck?  What did you use and how did you do it?

 

I made a mix of chestnut spirit stains using their very useful sample packs (which I'd already got - both their wood colour samples and their poster colour samples)

For the neck it was a mix of Light Mahogany + Yellow + A teeny touch of Orange + meths to thin it down and  reduce the intensity

Just wiped on with a cloth.  Couple of coats

For the Ash, because of the brown tint to the wood, it needed something extra.  I was going to add more orange, but in the end added some thinned Yew stain to the neck concoction and a drop more meths.  I did 1/2 dozen samples on some scrap and tweaked the shades and tones until it looked about right for what the client was asking for.

 

Pleased to say that I've heard back from him and he's happy for me to use that as the basis  

[BassTool]

On 21/12/2018 at 16:42, scrumpymike said:

I'd say you've got that spot on Andy - proper eye-candy!

 

On 21/12/2018 at 17:20, RichardH said:

Yup, that looks spiffing.

Agree 👍

[Andyjr1515]

As amongst the final tasks before the Christmas period,  I managed to sand down all of the body and side stain trials and reapply properly.  Over the last couple of days I've started laying down the initial tru-oil coats ready for the final slurry and buff coats that will be finished after Christmas.  This is how it's looking now:

While the final coats of slurry and buff are hardening over the post Christmas period, I will be starting the finish jobs.  Allowing for family stuff over Christmas and New Year, it should be ready to ship mid-January

Have a great Christmas, all.  As always, many thanks for the support and encouragement over 2018 and see you all the other side!  

Andy

[Christine]

Merry Christmas Andy

[Andyjr1515]

2 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

As amongst the final tasks before the Christmas period,  I managed to sand down all of the body and side stain trials and reapply properly.  Over the last couple of days I've started laying down the initial tru-oil coats ready for the final slurry and buff coats that will be finished after Christmas.  This is how it's looking now:

While the final coats of slurry and buff are hardening over the post Christmas period, I will be starting the finish jobs.  Allowing for family stuff over Christmas and New Year, it should be ready to ship mid-January

Have a great Christmas, all.  As always, many thanks for the support and encouragement over 2018 and see you all the other side!  

Andy

By the way - it isn't too much Christmas spirit got into Andyjr1515...the through neck IS parallel and the hatch IS parallel to that...it's just the camera angle and lens distortion that makes it look squiffy 

Of course, if YOU have had too much Christmas spirit, it might look perfectly straight 

[SpondonBassed]

On 24/12/2018 at 12:47, Andyjr1515 said:

it's just the camera angle and lens distortion that makes it look squiffy 

It's also very much like a diagram I once saw demonstrating the optical illusion that two parallel lines are convergent (divergent if you like) when it is just due to the oblique lines in between.  Sorry, I searched but could not find the same diagram just now and the one I saw was in a fifty year old school book I used to own.

You should know that we have more faith in you than that!

I like the warmth that your additional tinting has teased from the grain of the wings.

Edited December 28, 2018 by SpondonBassed

[Norris]

Beautiful. That neck joint is a work of art 

[Andyjr1515]

20 hours ago, Norris said:

Beautiful. That neck joint is a work of art 

You say the nicest things 

Merry Christmas!

[Andyjr1515]

OK - a bit of a respite between visiting one set of relatives for Christmas and another set visiting us running up to New Year

 

While the finishing process is progressing, I'm knocking off a few of the remaining jobs.  First is recessing the bridge.  It's a small change but makes such a difference.  From this:

 

 

To this:

using these simple tools:

This is one of the only thing I use the little Veritas hand router for - but it's great for ensuring the bottom is completely flat.  This small version is actually a bit of a flawed design but I think I've used it often enough to consider its bigger brother which is a much better design.

Other things done are the luminlay side dots:

 

And in the meantime, the finish is becoming silky smooth to the touch and nice and satin to the eye:

 

Tomorrow I'm going to try to make a trio of knobs and also sort the truss rod cover

 

[TheGreek]

Those Luminlay are a great addition to a bass. Makes positioning sooo much easier. 

Will you be adding these to the control knobs too? 

[Andyjr1515]

1 hour ago, TheGreek said:

Those Luminlay are a great addition to a bass. Makes positioning sooo much easier. 

Will you be adding these to the control knobs too? 

Hmmmm...it's a thought.  The luminlay dots might be a bit big but it's definitely worth thinking about...

[Andyjr1515]

Another job off the list, other than the dots (I've put luminlay as an option to the customer, @TheGreek  - thanks for the suggestion) and the tru-oil, I've done the knobs

 

Same method as on @Len_derby 's:

Drilled a hole in some thicknessed ash:

Without moving the drill or wood positions, then used a forstner for the nut relief:

 

 

Then a plug cutter to cut it out:

 

Drilled a grub-screw access hole and pressed the insert in, with grub-screw lined up with that small hole and also used the plug cutter to cut out a disc of top wood:

 

Then, adding a disc of veneer between the two, glued and clamped it together:

 

 

Finally sanded to shape:

 

So just the dots to add once I've had an answer of luminlay or MoP

[Maude]

I like the idea of luminlay dots on knobs (stop giggling at the back), I struggle to see my dots on stage nowadays. 

Edited December 29, 2018 by Maude

[Jimothey]

4 hours ago, Maude said:

I like the idea of luminlay dots on knobs (stop giggling at the back), I struggle to see my dots on stage nowadays. 

I'm just glad you didn't say I struggle to see my knob nowadays 😁

[Andyjr1515]

Waiting James' reply, but I know which one I would have

 

It was a great suggestion, @TheGreek

[TheGreek]

Maybe I should take the idea to the Dragons Den..😉😉

One of those that once you know...it seems obvious.