Onto the kit bandwagon! - Complete!

[invertigo]

So, got some work done on the Harley Benton kit this week, fortunately the weather round here was absolutely ideal for painting on Sunday too (humidity dropped right down to sub-60%).

 

So, first off the body. Reasonably well finished with a few machining marks but well sealed, just gave it a run over with some 600 grit before any paint to tidy up the marks. The ground wire hole is a very rough job, but that will all be hidden under the bridge plate. 3 piece body, looks and feels like basswood to me.

 

Had to fill in the drilled pickguard holes as they were a mile out from the included pickguard, and even more so from the replacement I'm going to be using. So, toothpicks and wood glue to the rescue! Cut back and sanded flush before paint.

 

Pickguard fitted - nowhere to drill for one screw above the controls, debating just leaving it off as it makes no difference or gluing a bit of scrap wood to the cavity to drill into. Will figure this out later down the line.

 

Headstock, shaped! Going to an early 60s colour scheme but wanted to strink the headstock a bit. The body is very lightweight so trying to avoid any neck dive issues. As such, used a template for an American Deluxe size headstock rather than a vintage sizing.

 

Primer!

 

And colour coat, Shell Pink nitrocellulose. Used a full fin of both colour and clear coat and it's looking good with a decent shine to it. Now to leave it for 3 or so weeks to fully cure before wet sanding and buffing.

 

Edited August 30, 2020 by invertigo
Duped

[stewblack]

Oh I love the colour. Nice work! 

[durhamboy]

Another tick on the colour.  Just lately shell pink has been a colour I'm considering, don't know why, but there it is... Looking forward to seeing how yours turns out.

[invertigo]

It's a colour I've always thought was a classic Fender vibe, so quite happy to be using it and the lacquer is top quality stuff, very easy to use and spray neatly.

Ordered a fret levelling beam and crowning file today as I'm going to give it a proper fret job, plus they'll have uses for my other guitars and basses so seemed worth spending a bit more and buying from a reputable UK luthier seller rather than hoping to get a perfectly straight beam from China. I'm also running a bit low on clear nitro so unsure I'll have enough for the neck, and certainly not enough for the headstock front. As such, I picked up some cheap polyurethane lacquer to do the front of the headstock, the back of the neck already has a light coating so probably doesn't need any more doing to it, only needs a flash coat where the paddle headstock has been cut and sanded.

The nut looks incredibly high and also feels like cheap plastic, honestly just considering knocking it off and getting a Tusq pre-slotted nut.

[invertigo]

Slow progress! But it's getting there bit by bit

[invertigo]

So a bit more done yesterday evening, got the body sanded back and roughly polished - now I don't want it to look 'new' so I haven't gone to the extent of buffing out every little mark as I'll likely end up scuffing it all again in the future.

Did a quick mockup with the hardware too, unsure if the pickup cover is going to last but I have it so I'll see if I can get used to it.

[invertigo]

Bit more progress, and it's now a fully playable instrument!

 

Headstock shaped and waterslide decal applied (the back of the headstock makes it clear it's not the genuine article for anyone with issues with this, plus I won't ever be selling it anyway)

 

 

Engraved and coloured in 'signature'

 

 

Neck all built up, frets levelled and crowned

 

 

And a 'dry run', still waiting on a couple of bits to finish it off but it let me see any rough setup needs. Neck needed a decent shim as the action was about 1.5cm off the fretboard with the relief and nut set perfectly and the saddles bottomed out. All sorted now and it plays pretty damn well.

 

Need to sort out some more wall hangars now as the other half is already unhappy with the extra floor space occupied! Started doing some lacquer checking on the back, but I did not realise how quickly compressed air tins get consumed when used inverted. Got another 4 cheapo tins ordered from ebay, so it'll be getting stripped back down to install them. I also need to add a bit of wood where the lower pickup cover screw goes through the guard, as the screw misses the body and sits fully in the cavity, as well as some new LaBella flats to go on and really finish off the 60's P vibes.

Electronics seem decent enough, certainly sounds a bit 'cheaper' than the Fender, but then you'd hope a near-£600 bass sounds better than an £80 kit. May upgrade them at some point, was considering sticking a Wilkinson Alnico V pickup in with a new loom (pots are scratchy and cheap, as expected) but that's something I'll look at soon.

Edited August 23, 2020 by invertigo

[AndyTravis]

That tort looks decent! Nice job.

[Geek99]

Swap the tone pot for a fender no-load pot, putting it to 10 gives you full bypass. There’s a barely-there click as it passes 9

 

that job looks fabulous btw. I left my bass in my car over winter which did a fabulous job of checking the paint 

[invertigo]

And we have the finished product, at least visually. Strung up with Deep Talkin Flats now, electronics may change in the future but that's the fun of modding!

 

And a little detail shot of the lacquer checking. Rubbed it over with some thinned down woodstain and wiped off the surface, just highlights the checking a touch without being too 'in your face'

 

Pretty darn happy if I do say so myself!

[HazBeen]

Lovely!

[Hellzero]

Love the body colour. 😍

[stewblack]

Really tidy job. As you say, you'd hope that a 600 quid bass would sound better, but isn't it astonishing how close an £80 kit can get? 

Looks very good. 

[Andyjr1515]

Great job

[invertigo]

7 hours ago, Hellzero said:

Love the body colour. 😍

Fender 60s colours are some of my absolute favourite. Shell Pink, Seafoam Green, Candy Apple Red etc all beautiful. Was originally going to go Olympic White with this, then I saw a photo of a pink one when doing my planning and the decision was immediate!

4 hours ago, stewblack said:

Really tidy job. As you say, you'd hope that a 600 quid bass would sound better, but isn't it astonishing how close an £80 kit can get? 

Looks very good. 

Very impressive, while the kit was by no means perfect (pretty much no holes bar the neck pocket were in the right spot etc, neck needed shimming) it certainly made me realise HB stuff is genuinely pretty darn good. Even the frets needed very little work, and the neck was straight as an arrow.

1 hour ago, Andyjr1515 said:

Great job

 

Kind words from one of the master craftsmen! Thanks!

 

So, I may have a niggle developing to build something else now too... This is how it starts, isn't it? I always used to do practical jobs, but I've been office based for the last 4 years. In that time I decided my old car needed some love so it's had lots of diy work done to it.... Ran out of jobs on that so this might be the next 'keep your hands busy' vibe