Random piece of wood

[Hellzero]

Indeed, very smart idea. I'll use this trick instead of a small square file next time I need to remove some glue residues or any asperity in the nut channel.

[JBoman]

It's been a while since i posted. I've been working on the finishing. For the neck: just adding more layers of laquer, slowly building it up with 50/50 mixture of PU laquer and mineral spirits.

For the body, I finally decided on the paintjob: I went for this kind of gray/black burst. Not easy to get done with spray cans and of course it does not look like something that came from a factory. But I'll give it a B+. It's also getting the same laquer treatment, with the goal of achieving some kind of semi-gloss finish eventually, with progressively finer grit of sandpaper ending ut with 2000 grit.

 

Then some bad and good news.

It's full on winter over here which means wood will shrink. Frets are sticking out ever so slighlty so I need to do another pass on the fret ends, which means I will break the finish, oh well.. more laquer after that. Then second thing: neck went into a backbow. Which is not always a bad thing. The effect is that currently with string tension, truss rod does not need to be engaged at all. The bad thing is that even with string tension, I'm not getting enough relief, or lacking the adjustability. I have a 2-way rod in here, but even if the rod is helping and pushing the neck to more relief, it's still not quite there. The neck is simply too stiff, imagine that being a problem  . I still have the option to remove some material, since it's still quite thick on the maple, thus making the neck more flexible. Also, the small bit of relief I'm getting is at the first 4-5 frets, nothing in the middle (where it should be). It could be that the neck is too thick towards the 7-12 fret area.

 

Lastly, the neck has developed a slight twist towards the E string. It's barely noticeable with just eyeballing it, but it's definetly there. When laying the neck on a flat surface with the heel and headstock on the surface, it's rocking side to side about 1mm. Wood is unpredictable. That's both a bad and a good thing, because I believe I could do something about it if I reshape the neck strategically, making it less stiff on either side.

 

Need to think about this.

 

 

 

 

 

EDIT: I'm also experimenting what an off-set string tension might do for the twist. I put it togethere like this with just the E and A- srings pulling it against the twist. It's been overnight like this with the truss rod completely loose. So far nothing. Let's see...

 

 

Edited November 30, 2021 by JBoman

[Richard R]

That looks very nice with the black/grey fade. Hope you can sort the neck out.

[JBoman]

10 hours ago, Richard R said:

That looks very nice with the black/grey fade. Hope you can sort the neck out.

 

It will probably be fine. It's so minimal. I also installed the rest of the tuners and with all 4 strings I get the proper relief with no string buzz.

And truss rod still not engaged  I'll let it settle in for a week or so and see what happens. Then it's time to take it apart (again!) and continue with the final touch-up.

I'm still missing a string tree and the jack. String tree would probably have to be a bar-type that catches A, D, and G strings. Output jack, I have it on backorder, it needs to be a bit longer that usually, since it's going through 5-6mm of wood instead of 2-3mm of pickguard.

[JBoman]

Slow progress.. I started to wet sand the finish to smooth it out and ended up sanding through the paint. Good thing it was only a couple of spots in the back, but had to spray the back again to fix it.

"If it's worth doing, it's worth doing over and over and over and over again..."

 

Now I'm attacking again trying to build up the final lacquer layer again. This time I have a new weapon. I got this cool little airbrush second hand and with 50/50 lacquer/mineral spirits, it's producing a nice aerosol. It's a slow process with such a small spray, but much easier to control and I'm avoiding extra buildup and "pools" of lacquer that otherwise would have to be sanded down. Specifically, it's now easier to get more lacquer on the edges where it's more needed.

 

Spraying the neck is also producing an extremely satisfying surface.

[JBoman]

Finishing done, finally.

Bridge and pickup went in (EMG MMCS). Strings just hanging there loose. Next up: nut slots.

 

 

[JBoman]

Nut slots done, nut still needs some minor refinements, just needs some trimming of the edges ever so slightly but it's now functioning.

Installed also: string retainer, vol and tone pots and strap buttons that accept the Schaller system. I'm using the same strap with all of my basses, nicely broken in 20 years old leather, mmmmmmm.

I discovered that I need to shim the neck. Not bad, bridge still has adjustability but it's almost bottomed out at the E and G strings, so I need to put a slight angle to the neck, no biggie.

Don't really know what happened there, it did not need a shim during test assembly. Maybe the finishing contributed to that much of extra "lift" to the dimensions. Who knows.

 

[JBoman]

The string tree needs longer screws, it needs to be quite high up and the original screws are not long enough, so still some parts hunting to do.

But the longer barrel jack finally arrived and electronics are now done. Battery clip is not perfect either, but it functions, maybe I will later turn it 90 degrees.

 

 

[JBoman]

Aaaaand we have a neck dive.

Tuners might be too heavy. I'm considering swapping them for some Gotoh Res-O-Lites. I've had a good experience of them in my P-bass.

Current tuners are about 315g total. The res o lite option I'm considering is 236g total. About 100g difference can be a big thing when you have the whole neck as a leverage.

[JBoman]

Also, we are back at fret leveling.

Still had some "waviness" to level.

I don't mind 🙂 I have gotten quite good and fast at this stuff, only took a couple of hours and oh so shiny again. Found also some suitable screws for the string retainer.

Did also some neck shimming with scraps to figure out a good angle, found a good setting, bridge adjustment looks now way better. Shim just needs to be replaced with hardwood.

[JBoman]

Neck dive: I decided to change the tuners to something lighter with the same hole/post diameter. So I only need to plug the screw holes. I can live with that.

 

 

 

Edited November 13, 2022 by JBoman

[JBoman]

Some final shaping on the neck, bit more laquer and we have lift-off

 

A stanley blade is a very effective scraper. Just be careful. Made also a handy neck rest from scraps and some old leather.

 

 

Edited January 18, 2023 by JBoman

[JBoman]

I guess everyone is keen on hearing it as well, eh?

 

I been having this thing lately where I keep all my basses in different tunings with different string gauges. This one ended up in C standard with 115-55 strings. It sounds like it was made for low tunings, YAYY METAL!! \m/

 

 

 

[Andyjr1515]

Looks good.  Sounds great!

[bloke_zero]

Wow - that was a real journey! Came out well in the end! Did the reso-lites solve the neck dive?

[JBoman]

17 minutes ago, bloke_zero said:

Did the reso-lites solve the neck dive?

 

Sure did!

[mrbacco]

jaysus (in typical Irish slang) ... all that wood, those tools and that bass! congratulations for the wonderful build that sounds great as well

[JBoman]

This bass went into places 😎

 

https://helsinkifestival.fi/en/event/basso-2/

 

Picture from soundcheck:

 

 

Performance: 

 

 

 

 

[JBoman]

I was not the only one with a self made instrument.

There was also this monstrosity. I did not manage to catch up with the owner, so I'm not sure what those extra 2 strings are tuned to, we we're suspecting a low B and E. Crazy.
(left handed)

[Andyjr1515]

Splendid concert!