SR style 5 String Kit Build

[caitlin]

I thought I'd better start a thread since I'm taking a bunch of photos and stumbling around in the dark.

I've spend most of my time so far working the heel of the neck to better fit the pocket on the body.

The body seemed the straighter of the two. Now with a single thin shim of laminated card slid in with the neck it squeaks into the pocket and feels really snug.

I moved onto the body today, first finding the center line then trying to position the bridge

Here's measured up to drop the saddles at 34"

See

 

Here's the literal 'strings' over the saddles

And here's the 24th fret area, I dunno who that bloke is.

 

Since then I was starting to sand the body with 240 grit but I remembered that I want to recess the control cavity for the cover.

I checked the offset from the template gauge on my router to the inside of the plunge tool and it came out at 11mm, amazingly i found a washer with a hole to edge size of 11mm so I used that to trace around the cavity cover to jigsaw out a routing template.

Here's the results of my first test cut:

The fit isn't perfect, but too small is much better than too big

I'm hoping in the future i can remake that cover in a nice bit of wood and swap that in.

Of course the body is curved, so I have no clue how to get the template to match the curve I'm wondering about soaking the template and clamping it through some foil or grease proof paper to stop the bass getting wet and letting it dry to match, but any tips would be cool about now

I'm currently thinking of painting it some kind of white because all the hardware is black and I quite like a black white contrast.

[SpondonBassed]

45 minutes ago, caitlin said:

I thought I'd better start a thread since I'm taking a bunch of photos and stumbling around in the dark.

I've spend most of my time so far working the heel of the neck to better fit the pocket on the body.

The body seemed the straighter of the two. Now with a single thin shim of laminated card slid in with the neck it squeaks into the pocket and feels really snug.

I moved onto the body today, first finding the center line then trying to position the bridge

Here's measured up to drop the saddles at 34"

See

 

Here's the literal 'strings' over the saddles

And here's the 24th fret area, I dunno who that bloke is.

 

Since then I was starting to sand the body with 240 grit but I remembered that I want to recess the control cavity for the cover.

I checked the offset from the template gauge on my router to the inside of the plunge tool and it came out at 11mm, amazingly i found a washer with a hole to edge size of 11mm so I used that to trace around the cavity cover to jigsaw out a routing template.

Here's the results of my first test cut:

The fit isn't perfect, but too small is much better than too big

I'm hoping in the future i can remake that cover in a nice bit of wood and swap that in.

Of course the body is curved, so I have no clue how to get the template to match the curve I'm wondering about soaking the template and clamping it through some foil or grease proof paper to stop the bass getting wet and letting it dry to match, but any tips would be cool about now

I'm currently thinking of painting it some kind of white because all the hardware is black and I quite like a black white contrast.

I've done the Pitbull SR kit myself.  The IB5.  The build thread is here, in case my sig file and links aren't displayed on your device.

I made a rebate template, just like you have, but from half inch MDF.  I then clamped it to the back of the body at a slight angle and it was flexible enough to follow the body curve to a degree.  Luckily it worked well.  The specific part about that is here.

Try a dry fit first.  It might be flexible enough.

Edited April 26, 2020 by SpondonBassed

[caitlin]

Obviously I've made a cack handed mess of it, but it'll 'do' and it's not so bad it doesn't *work*, but there's not much surface for the plate round some of it.

I can of course re route that if i decide to make a custom plate later on. Here's some traumatic photos I took whilst still shaking from fear:

I used my template and another scrap of ply to sandwich the body between and bend the template over the body, I don't think there's any marking to speak of although the routing is a little uneven in depth.

I've ordered some tru-oil for the neck, so next jobs are pilot holes for the neck screws (what on earth drill size should one use?!) and sanding the neck ready for finish.

There's a tiny chance my straplok sockets might arrive today, but those can't be more than test fit before paint.

It's quite exiting, this. I can see my future involving a scratch built neck through fretless with LED fret markers in my future

[SpondonBassed]

2 hours ago, caitlin said:

I've ordered some tru-oil for the neck, so next jobs are pilot holes for the neck screws (what on earth drill size should one use?!) and sanding the neck ready for finish.

The pilot drill size should be no greater than the core size of the screw but as close to it as you can get.

[caitlin]

looks like about a 4mm screw shank by my chinese off-by-at-least-a-mm calipers. I was planning to throw a 3mm drill bit in and wax the screw. I don't want *any* flipping risk of not having enough bite.

Of course the instructions just say screw the neck on, not a mention of a pilot hole, they also of course say nothing of earthing the bridge so they're not, uh, good.

Here's the thing, the holes on the BODY are not large enough to allow the screw through without 'screwing' it, and to my mind they should *just* push through so that the can use the washers and the neck to *clamp* the body to the neck. But also I've seen fender custom shop videos where they clearly screw the screw through the body before hitting the neck.

The threads are wider than the screw shank of course, but there's not a whole 'body' thickness of unthreaded screw at the end of the screw so I'm a little unsure of whether to gently relieve the body holes or not

Moot for now since I don't seem to be able to choose a colour of 'white' off the website I'm looking at for body paint yet /o\

[SpondonBassed]

2 hours ago, caitlin said:

I was planning to throw a 3mm drill bit in and wax the screw

You should be okay with that.  Using wax is a very good idea.

It might be worth deciding if you have confidence in the screws supplied with the kit however.  A close visual inspection should tell you if the threads are cut cleanly and the heads are free from deformities that would cause the tooling to slip or the heads to shear off.  Often the screws are the weak link in an inexpensive kit.

I replaced a lot of mine with stainless steel ones.

Edited April 27, 2020 by SpondonBassed

[caitlin]

Thanks for your advice, it's super appreciated.

[caitlin]

@SpondonBassedwill be happy (I saw I was name dropped in that other thread :P) to know that I've got two rattle cans of fill primer and two cans of 'appliance white' which may be a terrible choice.

I've got a lot more sanding to do and I really do wish my flush straploks would turn up because I don't want to drill the recess for them till I know they're going to turn up and I can't really paint till I have all the holes drilled appropriately

The oil for the neck is also being ignored by Royal Fail's finest parcel non-delivery section Stupid pandemic.

Still, I almost have everything in hand to *Finish* this thing, urk.

[caitlin]

Hmm

masked it:

And then gradually emptied a whole can of primer over it

 

I can certainly see all the bits I didn't manage to sand properly, a bunch of end grain and some general lumps and bumps.

I'll leave that to dry for a good while and then sand some more and dump the second can of primer over it.

It's only going white because @SpondonBassed has functionally *dared* me to do it. There is always the recourse to matt black though.

The straploks have not arrived, I will stagger across that bridge when it hoves into view, there's a certain amount of finish damage that will be hidden by the flange of the lok anyway.

I still hope against hope that they may arrive in the mail tomorrow.

[SpondonBassed]

If you are flatting between each coat, the primer should fill quite a bit of the open grain.  In fact there is a specific "High Build" grade of primer that acts as grain filler and primer in one.

Don't worry, I won't hold you to any one colour.  I am just interested to see what a colour finish looks like on the IB5.  Mine had such nice grain that I had to leave it natural.

[Si600]

Spondz has occasionally some genius ideas, and equally frequently a lot to answer for 😉

I'm intrigued by Appliance White as a colour though.

[SpondonBassed]

6 minutes ago, Si600 said:

Spondz has occasionally some genius ideas, and equally frequently a lot to answer for

Ayyyyy!

THE Spondz, if you don't mind.

[caitlin]

So because I'm a flap I'm *considering* getting some dust off ebay, the prismatic junk you can put on your lowered and neoned nissan to make it look different colours in different light angles and putting just a BIT of that over in the clear coat.

I think that's a terrible idea though because it's mostly likely just going to show up all the flat spots and dings in the underlying wood that i sanded for, oh, i don't know... a hour maybe

Otherwise I'm just hoping the hardware base colour contrast will 'do it'. I expect to be wrong and it'll just look 'cheap' but what's learning without trying stuff?

[SpondonBassed]

Interesting.  It's good to be adventurous.

[Pea Turgh]

Just draw doodles over it in black marker, and clear Matt coat it.  Maybe.  Or probably not.

[caitlin]

16 minutes ago, Pea Turgh said:

Just draw doodles over it in black marker, and clear Matt coat it.  Maybe.  Or probably not.

I'm real bad at drawing

[caitlin]

1 hour ago, SpondonBassed said:

  Mine had such nice grain that I had to leave it natural.

You're not making me like you, you know? lucky you for having it easy

[caitlin]

Nothing, but INTERMINABLE sanding.

Also: out of sandpaper; meh.

[SpondonBassed]

No pain, no gain.  No sandpaper no pain.  Er... What was the question again?

Heeheehee.  Now you're living it.  If you can keep your plan and your patience the pay-off is nearly always worth it.  You WILL be thinking about how to go about the next one towards the end too.

Just in case you weren't warned.

[caitlin]

I've, uh, already printed out the plans for a telecaster and priced up plywood (just to annoy purists), bwahahahahahahahah. no no no, I have to fix that motorbike.

[SpondonBassed]

12 minutes ago, caitlin said:

motorbike

Is it on the Basschat 'bike thread?  Ex 'biker wants to know.

[caitlin]

20 minutes ago, SpondonBassed said:

Is it on the Basschat 'bike thread?  Ex 'biker wants to know.

Nope. It's a B600 I got for a couple of hundred quid, which does (now) start, roll, and stop. It's needed some welding on the brake support and swingarm (luckily I have a TIG qualification and a small welder) I'm in the process of getting the guts up to strip the swingarm bearings whilst it's out of the frame and re-grease them. then a lot of hammerite before reassemble, tyres, and an attempt at an MOT. Oh the indicators also need a stern 'sorting out' since they rusted completely out and there's a small stack of bolts that sheered and need procuring. Y'know the usual crap you need to do to get a rat bike back on the road.

Of course the bike garage is sharing space with the bass spray booth and everything so doing it all at once is a challenge.

[caitlin]

In bass news, I've sanded the neck to 1000 grit and applied the first coat of tru-oil. urk. That stuff makes your head swim, doesn't it? and I DID have the window open.

[caitlin]

It's now had the last primer it's getting. I knocked it back till there was a percentage of defects remaining to the point where I don't care any more

I've buried as many of them as I can in the last 500ml of spray primer. I've learned my lesson about grain filling and high build primer.

I should have used coloured filler primer even though it was coloured and then used white primer over the top of that but I got scared by the white paint insisting non-white primer would suck.

Tomorrow I'll put another coat of tru-oil on the neck (how many coats? some forums say 15?! that's over two weeks of waiting), stash that somewhere very safe, and then give the body it's last sand before the 'appliance white' (maybe I should put a fridge or tumble drier logo on it or something) goes on.

Still need to source what's going on with the clear. I could get a 2K clear and add the sparkles in and use my cheap as chips compressor and even cheaper spray gun, but that would require making sure I have a lot of other supporting crap like mixing gear, and many cleaning solvents.

https://www.stardustcolors.co.uk/pearls-special-effect-paint/781-pearlized-clearcoat-spray.html#/845-colours-multicolored_turquoise_blue_purple

is an option, but phew that's not cheap is it?! dunno how many coats I'd get out of 290 ml either.

[Richard R]

I can't really see the effect on ge photos on that web site. You have to work fast too, 1min between coats and only 1 hour working time before the two components on the can go off. And any runs will really show. I hope you're brave enough to try it!