RC-4 "The Cole"...

Hi Arzi,
yes 4-6 week wait for timbermate is too long.
Keep sanding the body and you will get away with no grain filler.
24 hour shifts is tough, hope you get plenty of rest time in this period !

Arzi - the edges / sides tend to be more scarred due to the tools used - the top / back tend to be easier to sand and get a good feel to them. A damp cloth and a quick wipe will bring up fluff that's important to sand off - when you stain, you're basically doing the same thing anyway and it'll stand up and ... Getting rid of the fluff isn't too hard. Just annoying. Tru Oil can be used to pore fill - sand to 320 (shouldn't take too much time once you've done 240 - bear in mind though that basswood sanded to 320 will dent easily). You then take some wet and dry sandpaper (say 600 grit) and rub the Tru Oil in with that. There are a couple of demo's online on how to do it. Otherwise 240 / 320 should be plenty flat enough for stains.

Update again...

I decided that I will not grain fill before staining and in stead do it the hard way. Yesterday I sanded the body again with 240 and 400 grit on top and back + sanded the imperfections from the last time on the sides. Took me about 3 more hours but now I´m quite happy with the results. I lost my sanding block so I had to be very careful sanding with my hands not to press too hard in some areas and cause the surface to "make waves". Even after wiping with wet cloth the body felt quite smooth - just a little raising hair. Haven´t done anything on the neck so far - will leave that for later for now.

My build is a budget build so I´m not spending so much money on high quality replacement parts but instead making it my own with something I can easily get that works and comes with preferrably no additional taxes and customs. So - you might guess that those parts are mainly chinese made. But then again so is this kit to start with so...?

I got my bridge replacement today and did a mock build to see how they would look. Ordered a five strings set so I would have spare parts if one was broken or if I break one myself (has happened before...) Took about 10 days to arrive at the local post office. When ordering these you never know it might take anything from 7 to 60 days to arrive. Easier to estimate the delivery time or product quality if customers have given feedback on the site.

The pics show what I had in mind. So far when adjusting intonation on my other two basses, the saddles moved like shown in these pics - moving further from the neck when dropping down to E-string. So I figured if I place my G-string saddle 430mm from the 12th fret (nut to 12th) with approx 1/3 wiggle room on the neck side of the bridge - then placing the others about 2-3 mm further like in the pics when moving to E. This way I would make sure I have enough room on the last saddle to adjust the E. This is IF this is the way it goes with this one too. Tried with a fishing line if the bridges were high enough for the strings on the neck and they seem to work well.

Also I took out the pickguard material I ordered for the other bass I have built but then decided not to use it. I think it would look good on this one. The shades of black on the pickguard are quite similar of what I had in mind for the grains on this body and neck. AT least that´s what I´m trying to achieve. And with high gloss TO surface the pearl would look nice. Same material I was going to use to make a ring for the J pickup - shape it a bit to go nicely with the pickguard. Might be too much to try blending both pickups with in one pickguard? covers too much of the body surface in my opinion.

The pickguard - five pics in one post seemed to be the limit.Attachment 3427

looking good Arzi, love the individual bridge saddles. That black pearloid pickguard should look sweet. Whatever shape you go for will look great. Always good to show more grain than plastic in my opinion so only need to cover the control cavity

Hi Wokka

I kind of like the shape of the original pickguard but I might try something different. We'll see after I get the time to make paper- or cartboard templates to try out on the body. Will put some pics here for user's to get opinions later.

I thought I might start to solder the wiring tonight after kids have gone to sleep. My wife has a well deserved night off from baby sitting and goes to a rock concert with the girls. I might get my turn when mr Lemmy Kilmister comes to perform here in december...

Arzi

Hi everyone

I got the wiring done a few days back. Used better quality wires to do it than the ones that came with the kit because I had these bits lying around. This was my second time soldering - not a beautiful looking job but gets the job done I think. Soldered the pots while in place and this time didn´t spill any - gonna do my own pickguard so it doesn`t matter anyway.

Then I decided to try making the templates for the custom pickguard. Had an idea one night to use transparent paper for it and this is how it looked. The straight translation from finnish is "butter paper" - don´t know what it is in english but the paper is used when cooking in the oven. Takes pencil and permanent marker well. Threw some ideas in the air and these are not likely the ones I´m eventually gonna use, but if I wanted to show the flaming on the body I need to downsize the pickguard/scratchplate. Thought that it could be useful to someone planning the plates to try this method. Please feel free to throw ideas my way and comment.

Anyway - tomorrow is my last 24 hour shift at work and then almost 8 weeks of leave. Project should take off then.

Arzi

Attachment 3527Attachment 3528

Don't forget to ground the lug on the volume pots (left most on each pot, not connected in the image above) by linking them to the back of the pots.

Hi Weirdbits

Will do that thanks! Gonna shield the cavities later also and tape the back of the plate too to connect to the shielding. I have used connective aluminium tape before.

Arzi

24 hour shifts? Arzi what job requires shifts that go for a whole 24 hours up there in Finland?
Also there is quite a lot of solder on the back of the pots, you don't need nearly as much, the other joints look pretty neat to me for a second soldering job!