Fred's IB-5

Hey guys,
While the STA-1M is curing I thought I'd get started on the IB-5.
I'm still waiting on the Dingotone and custom bone nut but I've got a fair bit to do before I started finishing anyway.

There are a few dents in the wood that I've got to fix:
Attachment 6993
I read that these can be fixed by covering the dents with some water, putting a paper towel on top and using a hot iron till the water was all evaporated.

The control cavity isn't deep enough and the pots don't come out enough:
Attachment 6994

The kit came pre-drilled for headstock and bridge and they must have had their template wrong for the headstock... The side with 3x is okay, but the one with 2x looks very weird. I'll have to fill this one (with a toothpick maybe?) and re-drill:
Attachment 6995

On the bottom left side of the body, there seems to be a tiny piece of wood that has been glued to finish the shape. THe glue is just too visible and that won't work. (no photo)

And finally the part where the bridge is going is really not flat, so I'll have to level that down:
Attachment 6996

Also I want gold hardware instead of black, so I've ordered gold replacement parts for everything. Thank you eBay!

For the new bridge, I wanted to get individual bridges like the Ibanez SR premium or prestige.
But I didn't want to go all in and pay $80 per unit, so I found cheaper units on eBay:
Attachment 6997
They're going to be a bitch to intonate I reckon, I'm hoping I'll do it once and then shouldn't have to worry about it again since bass players never change their strings I heard... :-)

So anyway, first job was to fill in the holes that had been pre-drilled for the bridge that came with the kit. I tried a few different options: timbermate Ash on the left, timbermate hardwood top right, and plastic wood bottom right.
Attachment 6998
I'm thinking the plastic wood should be stronger if I need to drill next to the filled hole, but the colour just won't work.

So I started by filling the bottom of the holes with the plastic wood:
Attachment 6999

And I then filled the top with the hardwood timbermate which had the best colour match:
Attachment 7000

One of these holes is going to show as I don't want to line up the 5x bridges, so I'll have to come up with something to hide it...
I'm going for a dark walnut Dingotone finish and I'm wondering if I couldn't darken the part where the bridges are. Maybe I could darken the middle of the guitar and link the bridges to the neck... we'll see

Then I worked on getting the pots deeper in the cavity so I can screw the bolt on the other side.
I started by drilling each pot with a boring bit:
Attachment 7001

It worked:
Attachment 7010
Attachment 7002
Attachment 7003

But now the jack needed more depth too to be able to screw it into place:
Attachment 7004

So I ended up routing the whole cavity bottom flat with the dremmel and a routing bit. I had to do this without guide as the routing base wasn't allowing the bit to go deep enough in the cavity. Not the best looking job, but it does the trick.
Half way:
Attachment 7005

And finished, now the jack is happy:
Attachment 7006

On the outside the new gold jack sits nicely in the hole, but I think I'm going to sand the sides as they look too 'sharp':
Attachment 7007

With that done, I got the palm sander out with 80grit paper and I flattened the part for the bridge. It now looks flat and the bridge doesn't rock. Photos with the old bridge used as a test:
Attachment 7008

Attachment 7009

That's it for this weekend...

Good to have a couple of builds on the go & looks like you've made good headway in tweaking this bass before starting on the finish.

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never seen an IB-5 with pre-drilled tuner and bridge holes Fred. You are ontop of all the little issues with the kit. The gold bling on a walnut stain will look very nice

@wokkaboy - I was surprised when I saw it was all pre-drilled. And that's a shame as I wasn't planning to use the stock bridge from the beginning.... would have saved me a fair bit of trouble if it didn't!
Anyway, we'll make it work.

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yeah you are ontop of the problems Fred.
You may also want to route the control plate recess with the dremel before you start sanding/staining.
Were the control cover holes also pre-drilled ?

Yes, that's on my list. But I want to cut a new cover panel as the one that came with the kit is just pretty sh#t... It overhangs the part of the body that slopes down and there will be no way to get it flush. And yes it was pre-drilled too... But I should be able to hide these.

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Hey guys,
I haven't posted any progress photos for a couple week and I've been on holiday, busy progressing the bass while the STA1 is curing.
So I'm going to add a few posts.

Firstly, as I said in my last prost I was pretty unhappy with the crappy plastic cover panel that came with the kit. The holes were not in the right spots and I was never going to be able to mount this flash due to the curvature of the body.
So I thought I'd make another one, and not a plastic one as I'd like this bass to be 'natural' as much as possible, so no plastic, acrylic, etc.

I found online a sheet of brass, 1.6mm thick and I thought that would be perfect to make a 'gold' cover panel.
So I started by marking the shape of the cover panel, using the plastic one:
Attachment 7192

Then I cut it with the dremel... was pretty long as the disc on the dremel is tiny and brass is not that soft:
Attachment 7194

Next I marked where I wanted the holes to be. I went with 6x instead of 4x to ensure I could have a good fit:
Attachment 7196

I drilled these and countersunk the screw heads and I then bent the cover plate by hand to match the shape of the body. That was pretty hard too and it took me about 1.5h...
Attachment 7199

And finally I did a first quick polish:
Attachment 7201

Was hard work but it looks amazing!
And on the plus side I shouldn't have to shield this one too much!! :-)