fleabag Posted September 30, 2020 Share Posted September 30, 2020 I'm no whizz at woodwork, but i'm sure i read somewhere about dyeing or staining unmolested wood, is that you get a much more even and non blotchy finish if the wood is sand-sealed beforehand. @Andyjr1515 ?? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GarethFlatlands Posted September 30, 2020 Author Share Posted September 30, 2020 So the paint primer was left for 24 hours, given a quick rub with 400 grit paper, and 2 more coats applied with a 15 minute gap between each. After waiting another 24 hours, I rubbed the paint down again with 600 grit paper, wiped the whole thing down with white spirit and once dried, put 2 coats of the final colour on, again waiting 15 minutes between sprays. It's a purple metallic paint, Ford Purple Velvet. My second choice would have been Ford Highland Green (check out the fit 1968 Ford Mustang on Google Images when you look up the colour 😍). I'll do the same process again tomorrow. I'm getting all my spraying instructions from a Youtuber called Brad Angrove if anyone is curious on the reasoning behind my methods. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pea Turgh Posted September 30, 2020 Share Posted September 30, 2020 Nice! What colour scratchplate are you going with? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted September 30, 2020 Share Posted September 30, 2020 That looks good 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GarethFlatlands Posted September 30, 2020 Author Share Posted September 30, 2020 41 minutes ago, Pea Turgh said: Nice! What colour scratchplate are you going with? I have a black plate from the old bass, but it's not well cut around the pickup so I'll see if I can live with it. What would you go for out of interest? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted September 30, 2020 Share Posted September 30, 2020 1 hour ago, fleabag said: I'm no whizz at woodwork, but i'm sure i read somewhere about dyeing or staining unmolested wood, is that you get a much more even and non blotchy finish if the wood is sand-sealed beforehand. @Andyjr1515 ?? I think I'd have said the opposite, @fleabag. Sanding sealer will do just that - form a seal - and that will affect how much the stain will penetrate the fibres. Interestingly, the patchiness that @GarethFlatlands suffered with the stain looked just like that - a surface contamination stopping the dye soaking in - but we know from the machining and sanding that it was freshly exposed wood. Very curious. But the paint job looks fab 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unknown_User Posted October 1, 2020 Share Posted October 1, 2020 14 hours ago, fleabag said: I'm no whizz at woodwork, but i'm sure i read somewhere about dyeing or staining unmolested wood, is that you get a much more even and non blotchy finish if the wood is sand-sealed beforehand. @Andyjr1515 ?? I think the problem may be the type of wood. Reading the below, it seems tulipwood (AKA poplar) is great for taking paint but awful at taking stain. https://www.h2ouse.org/staining-poplar/ "One type of wood that is notoriously problematic to stain is poplar. " 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pea Turgh Posted October 1, 2020 Share Posted October 1, 2020 13 hours ago, GarethFlatlands said: I have a black plate from the old bass, but it's not well cut around the pickup so I'll see if I can live with it. What would you go for out of interest? I’d probably go black too. Tort could look nice, but could be a bit busy. Yeah, black! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GarethFlatlands Posted October 1, 2020 Author Share Posted October 1, 2020 (edited) 3 hours ago, Unknown_User said: I think the problem may be the type of wood. Reading the below, it seems tulipwood (AKA poplar) is great for taking paint but awful at taking stain. https://www.h2ouse.org/staining-poplar/ "One type of wood that is notoriously problematic to stain is poplar. " Thanks, that explains a lot! Why the stain was so bad, and why the painting is going so well (hopefully that hasn't jinxed it). 2 hours ago, Pea Turgh said: I’d probably go black too. Tort could look nice, but could be a bit busy. Yeah, black! If I weren't trying to keep costs down so much, I'd get black hardware rather than have all the plastic parts black and the metal parts chrome. As it is, I'm just trasnporting all the hardware from the old bass to the new one bar the bridge, which is a £5 job from Facebook Marketplace. There was a Shuker bass on here years ago that was orange with black hardware, but I can't seem to find it. If you remember it, that would be the look I would go for. Edit - Found a picture of it, or one very similar anyway. Edited October 1, 2020 by GarethFlatlands Add pic 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GarethFlatlands Posted October 15, 2020 Author Share Posted October 15, 2020 My wife successfully popped out our first baby, Caleb (named in part after the late Caleb Scofield of Cave In), hence the lack of updates/sleep. I've been spraying the bass while they were either out on walks or upstairs so the fumes wouldn't reach them and so the house would have a good amount of time to air out, so it took a week plus to get a total of 5 coats on there. Here she is after 48 hours drying time on the final coat. The clear coat was more satin than I expected. I also realised that it's the exact same colour as the Ford Fiesta that was my second car. I had a few regrets on the colour, wishing I'd gone for something like Frost Gold, or Burgundy Mist Metallic, or left it as bare wood and just finished it with tru oil. Too late now. I still like it, but it's the same as a car I used to barely tolerate and was glad to see the back of after it could have potentially killed me*. Anyway, using copper tape, I shielded the pickup and control cavities and that was about it for today. However, I couldn't resist a quick test fit of everything to see how it was all looking. The masking tape took some of the paint off around the bridge pickup, and the fit on the scratchplate around the bridge pickup isn't good. The holes for the pickup wires aren't quite wide enough so I need to either file the holes or just go back and forth with the long drill bit to widen them a little. Once that's done, I need to sort out the nut slot and the nut, drill the holes for the tuners, finish the headstock somehow (no more purple paint so no matching headstock sadly; it'll probably be tru oil). Once that's done, I'll see if the thick fretboard is an issue and needs lowering. It's been radiused and will need flattening, but we can see after that what the deal is. Then wiring up, stringing and hopefully done! *the brakes failed while I was driving. Thankfully, I was on a motorway slip road with a pretty steep gradient upwards, and it was about 2am with very few other cars around, so I just kind of rolled up the hill to a stop. Had I stopped at the services for a toilet break like I was considering, it could have been much, much worse. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Si600 Posted October 15, 2020 Share Posted October 15, 2020 Congrats on the baby squeeze out 😉 Looking a nice bass, my friend made a telecaster that he sprayed Ford purple. My superstrat bitsa is Vauxhall green! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pea Turgh Posted October 15, 2020 Share Posted October 15, 2020 It might be a similar hue to the bad car, but then another is a car, too, so as long as neither your car or your (really nice) looking bass don’t try to kill you, all is well! Congrats on the baby! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted October 15, 2020 Share Posted October 15, 2020 Many congratulations on the baby and bass 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard R Posted October 16, 2020 Share Posted October 16, 2020 Congratulations on the baby! That colour looks much better on a musical instrument than it ever did on a car. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GarethFlatlands Posted October 16, 2020 Author Share Posted October 16, 2020 Thanks for the feedback and the congratulations. Caleb passed his hearing test today so it's a steady diet of chin-stroking music for him from now on. I've had a day or so of the bass looking more assembled, and to quote King Crimson's 'Indiscipline', "The more I look at it, the more I like it", despite my reaction to the colour yesterday. I made the mistake of flicking through Geddy Lee's Big Beautiful Book of Bass and I think that made me want to do every other colour other than the one I'd chosen. I also keep thinking how cool it would look with all-black hardware, but one of the points of the build was to transfer the parts from the original Maya and keep costs down, so that's not happening for now, if ever. Eagle-eyed readers might note that I forgot to drill a hole for the ground wire to go to the bridge, so I'm debating on whether or not to try and do that now the finish is on and done, or whether to run a strip of metal from the bridge to the pickup cavity as per the 60's Jazz basses. If you're not sure what I mean, it's on page 11 of this thread (which is a goldmine of bass building info. if you've not seen it already). https://www.tdpri.com/threads/1960-jazzbass-build.169606/page-11 I saved a beer can from last weekend's Zoom pub quiz, but have no tin snips so I'm thinking about a good way to cut and shape the aluminium. I'll check the diameter of the tuner bushings, and if I need to order another drill bit, then I'll just get some tin snips too. I'm also still waiting for my nut blanks to arrive. Annoyingly, I ordered some months ago and now can't find them, so had to order a fresh batch. At least that's the last bit of hardware I need. 17 hours ago, Si600 said: Congrats on the baby squeeze out 😉 Looking a nice bass, my friend made a telecaster that he sprayed Ford purple. My superstrat bitsa is Vauxhall green! My second choice was Ford Highland Green, but the band around the top of the spray can in the shop looked like a really anemic pistachio colour rather than what I'd seen on Google images, so I discounted it. I mean, look at this slice of fried gold. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpondonBassed Posted October 16, 2020 Share Posted October 16, 2020 (edited) 9 hours ago, GarethFlatlands said: I saved a beer can from last weekend's Zoom pub quiz, but have no tin snips so I'm thinking about a good way to cut and shape the aluminium A good pair of scissors should work fine with light gauge aluminium. Edited October 16, 2020 by SpondonBassed 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard R Posted October 17, 2020 Share Posted October 17, 2020 19 hours ago, GarethFlatlands said: ...page 11 of this thread (which is a goldmine of bass building info. if you've not seen it already). https://www.tdpri.com/threads/1960-jazzbass-build.169606/page-11 This thread ^^^^ has a man rolling his own capacitors!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpondonBassed Posted October 17, 2020 Share Posted October 17, 2020 2 hours ago, Richard R said: This thread ^^^^ has a man rolling his own capacitors!! I bet they're hard to light. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted October 17, 2020 Share Posted October 17, 2020 23 hours ago, GarethFlatlands said: Eagle-eyed readers might note that I forgot to drill a hole for the ground wire to go to the bridge, so I'm debating on whether or not to try and do that now the finish is on and done, or whether to run a strip of metal from the bridge to the pickup cavity as per the 60's Jazz basses. If you're not sure what I mean, it's on page 11 of this thread (which is a goldmine of bass building info. if you've not seen it already). Because it will be under the bridge, there's no real danger in drilling the hole, but that does seem to be a neat and pragmatic solution if the pickup chamber is shielded. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robertg43 Posted October 17, 2020 Share Posted October 17, 2020 3 hours ago, Richard R said: This thread ^^^^ has a man rolling his own capacitors!! Next we have some one that will cut down a tree for there bass build 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted October 17, 2020 Share Posted October 17, 2020 3 hours ago, robertg43 said: Next we have some one that will cut down a tree for there bass build I know someone who did... 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pea Turgh Posted October 17, 2020 Share Posted October 17, 2020 Still considering it!!! 😂 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard R Posted October 17, 2020 Share Posted October 17, 2020 Do we know anyone who grew the tree for the wood and smelted the steel for the strings? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GarethFlatlands Posted October 25, 2020 Author Share Posted October 25, 2020 (edited) The bone nut blanks finally turned up, as did the 12mm drill bits I ordered, so I have everything I need in terms of materials and tools. The template I have had holes marked out for the tuners, so I clamped it to the back of the headstock and pused a 4mm drill bit through the holes to mark out the centre points. Once done, I clamped a piece of scrap ply to try and stop any tearout. I ordered 2 12mm bits, a standard wood bit and a forstner bit so I had options in case one didn't work. First, I drilled a pilot hole with the standard bit a few mm deep which would then act as a guide for the forstner bit. I've tried using a forstner with a hand drill before, and it wandered so this seemed like the better idea. My scrap ply bit sadly did not prevent tearout, and it was bad enough that the tuner bushing wouldn't cover it. I then tried drilling through from the back until the centre point had come through, then flipping it over and drilling from the front. My first attempt did not go well, and I went through the full thickness by accident. The tearout here was even worse (G string). My next 2 attempts went much better, and the holes were nice and clean. Any suggestions on how to fix the ugly tearout? The headstock has already been thicknessed so taking more material off it's really an option. Part of me is thinking maybe a veneer would look OK, possibly in a similar colour to the fretboard. Edited October 25, 2020 by GarethFlatlands 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulThePlug Posted October 25, 2020 Share Posted October 25, 2020 sawdust n glue mix? painted headstock? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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