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Completed: Project Fruity - 4 String Jazz Build


benh

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First 2 thinned coats of varnish on the headstock - this is mainly to seal the wood prior to applying the decal. Will drill the tuner holes when this is dry - it'll be getting rattle can satin lacquer over the top of the decal once applied. The rest of the neck and body will be finished with Osmo - 2 coats of the thin 1101 Osmo, applied with 800 grit wet and dry, followed by a single coat of 3032 satin. Hopefully this will look OK - I've finished solid wood doors using this method in the past and it always looked and felt better than just the 3032. Fingers crossed! Loads of sanding to do first though.

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I am having a bass painted at the moment. It will be reliced. I like relic and do not care to discuss it's relative merits if this upsets anyone. This probably feels like a thread derail but bear with me. My favourite neck is a bare wood rosewood one. But my second favourite neck is a very dirty and probably stripped 73 P neck (A nut width if anyone cares). Would a couple of coats of Osmo give me that bare wood feel? I do not want to leave it as bare wood, partly due to the colour issue. I would like it to be a bit darker than plain maple - that vintage aged thing. It is having a matching headstock so I guess the whole headstock would be nitro'd. If I asked the painter to leave the rest could I just Osmo it up? I do not care about future discolouring.

 

Thanks and sorry for a slight derail, but it looks like you are an Osmo-whisperer.

 

It goes without saying that your work looks lush.

Edited by Owen
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1 minute ago, Owen said:

I am having a bass painted at the moment. It will be reliced. I like relic and do not care to discuss it's relative merits if this upsets anyone. This probably feels like a thread derail but bear with me. My favourite neck is a bare wood rosewood one. But my second favourite neck is a very dirty and probably stripped 73 P neck (A nut width if anyone cares). Would a couple of coats of Osmo give me that bare wood feel? I do not want to leave it as bare wood, partly due to the colour issue. I would like it to be a bit darker than plain maple - that vintage aged thing. It is having a matching headstock so I guess the whole headstock would be nitro'd. If I asked the painter to leave the rest could I just Osmo it up? I do not care about future discolouring.

 

Thanks and sorry for a slight derail, but it looks like you are an Osmo-whisperer.

 

It goes without saying that your work looks lush.

Thank you! Yeah I do love the Osmo Polyx oil. The joy of it is, you can get away with just a few coats, so it feels "closer to the wood" than many other finishes,  if that makes sense. Any oil will though. Osmo doesn't play as nicely over previous coatings/oil etc as other finishes however. Most of my experience with finishing is with household woodwork/furniture (ex painter and decorator, but done lots of refinishing work) so I'm sure some others on here will be able to give you better information regarding instrument finishing. I think @Andyjr1515 has done a fair bit with Osmo on guitars/basses? (He'll get sick of me tagging him in posts soon 😂) So long as any previous finish is removed, and a good wipe over with meths to remove oils etc, I think Osmo Polyx would do the trick - a teeny 125ml pot would be more than enough.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Things sent to test us - rather stupidly I left it perched between two chairs while I went to find some string to finalise the bridge placement. The dog then knocked it off 🤦🏻‍♂️ leaving a large, unsightly - and most importantly unsaveable - gouge between the pickups. My own fault really. Couldn't bring myself to take a picture! Ummed and ahhed about letting in a piece of contrasting wood and making a feature out of it, in the end I knocked up another pickup cover to cover both routes, and routed the cavity for it - rather happy with the outcome!

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Not that it didn’t look great before but I think I prefer the one big than the two small covers! I’m going to hopefully do that when I get round to doing my singlecut that I’ve been planning to do?……..👍🏻

 

 

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1 hour ago, PaulThePlug said:

Got a picture of the dog wearing the string?..

Unique... should be able to go with any pup combo under there... JJ, PJ JMM PMM...

Unfortunately no to the dog pic 😂 cheers. Sticking with JJ for now but certainly room to experiment in the future!

32 minutes ago, Jimothey said:

Not that it didn’t look great before but I think I prefer the one big than the two small covers! I’m going to hopefully do that when I get round to doing my singlecut that I’ve been planning to do?……..👍🏻

 

 

Thanks - the more I look at it the more I like the single big cover. Piece of cake to make too, although I had to make the top out of 3 separate pieces of oak. Looking forward to seeing the singlecut come to life!

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've had a bit of a break from this, I decided I wasn't happy with the Osmo on the body. Love the feel of the neck but felt the body was a bit too "spongy" - I'd never expect an oil finish to be particularly hard wearing but it turns out I'm just not careful 😂 so I've sanded back to bare wood and wiped on 2 coats of shellac, 2 coats of oil based satin poly brushed on and it's getting there. Just needs a quick denib and one more coat of thinned varnish to wipe on and I'll be good for assembly when it's cured!

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The back looks cool, like the silver on black string ferrules and the Strat type jack on the control cover. I've often looked at Ritters, etc. with those jacks in the back and wondered how they work out in practice. Does the plug and cord sticking out at an angle ever get in the way? Have you had a chance to plug yours in yet and try it out?

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1 minute ago, durhamboy said:

The back looks cool, like the silver on black string ferrules and the Strat type jack on the control cover. I've often looked at Ritters, etc. with those jacks in the back and wondered how they work out in practice. Does the plug and cord sticking out at an angle ever get in the way? Have you had a chance to plug yours in yet and try it out?

Cheers! Yeah it's just a test really, I figured if it didn't work I can always relocate the jack socket and make a new cover. But surprisingly it works really well, haven't noticed any catching but then it hasn't been used in anger yet. Will have finished pics soon, waiting patiently for the finish to fully cure before a few coats of renaissance wax

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  • benh changed the title to Completed: Project Fruity - 4 String Jazz Build

Totally forgot about this thread. It's been finished for a while now, already picked up a few dings around the house! The joys of children. Here she is! Sounds great too, in my opinion - I won't subject any of you to my awful playing though 😁 BC straplocks as standard of course.

 

Edit: And according to my bathroom scales, 8.1lbs

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Edited by benh
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Great work and a really nice result.

 

When I first saw your solution to the gouge in the body I wasn’t a fan, but seeing it finished I think the dog might have come up with something innovative. The single pickup cover makes for a lot of thumb positions to exploit the tonal differences between the two pickups. It might just be that your dog is a genius in disguise 😎

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