The New Bass Project Begins.

Yeah thought as much about the wedges and rag.

Shoulder is now sore as hell....movement is good.....but I think building will have a day off today.

Was out and about and there was a big green shed next door to the doc.

Found these ten small files, a plastic head hammer....black oneside and a see through yellow on the other.....and a small drill bit...2mm....all for $33-64. Love the little cover for the multi sized and shaped files....think that was $15-00 or so.

Time for some pain pills....and bit of fat gutted TV watching I think....shoulder is killing right now.

good one Greg. DB may give you a fortnight in the naughty room though for telling us about the visit to the big green shed ! haha

I was worried about that....but I was hoping the ailing and infirm card might carry the day. :)

I was effected by the medication your honour.....my wallet did not know what I was doing. :)

I was playing with the Purple mess trying to get things to work. I have a tuner for it now....have had the neck adjusted.....but the action is super high and the bridge is way down.....anyway. When trying to tune it, the lead bag for the PBH-4 was closest...so being the lazy man I grabbed the lead from the bag.....look what I found inside with the 2 x allen keys.

Hmmmm....I thought....maybe that bottom of the truss rod is able to be left out....or tapped in. Allen key access if tapped in....and the steel pin if it is out. I can imagine that the pin would give a little better access. So I used the pin and the truss rod end just popped back out easily and the pin fits straight in.

Interesting.....wokka have a look in the lead bag that came with yours.

With that thought in mind I attacked the neck with tape and then the first coat of the Bloodwood Dingo Stain. What a great smell and feel. After some others typing that 800 may be too high I was worried about the stain taking to the neck....no issue at all. Even the tight grain of the rock maple just soaked it up.

I worked it around and over the neck with three complete coverages and then it hangs now for five days.

I did find one glue spot on the neck at the bottom of the nut....the earlier water wipes did not bring this one up.

Love the colour....very bright and sticks to the neck like glue.

Love this stuff DB, and was super easy to use. All natural, works great and gives an awesome result....LOVE IT. :)

A couple more pics for you guys. Dingotone is so easy to use....not like water based stains. More patience and wait times between coats so I suppose it evens out.

Loving the look though. :)

I can't believe how much DT stain grabs the grain and figure of the wood and pops it out there.....yet the neck and headstock is 800grit super smooth. I reckon it looks great......may have to do a TELE with an Acacia neck to see how that looks.

wow the colour of that neck ozz its glowing !
Yeah thats what I thought with the truss rod the straight key must be for turning it hence it should be proud.

Neck is looking great Greg - that Blooodwood DT sure looks perfect for necks! I'm very interested to see how the Coolangatta Gold looks in contrast! Great work.

cheers,
Gav.

Wokka,

You out there????

As I have to hit the glue run with the little wire brush I had a look at the neck and headstock before work this morning. I note that the colour has a patchy effect now after a couple of days drying. The colour has really permeated some areas and the wood is nearly white in the more polished/shiny/tight fibre areas of the grain.

I am just wondering if you may have been right....maybe 800 is a little too fine.

I am thinking about giving the whole thing a hit with 600 grit after I fix the glue mark and sand that bit back through the ranges.

I was just wondering if you think this will cause an issue. Yes, I am aware I will have to go over the whole thing again with stain. Just wondering how DT goes with a heavier grit...e.g. 600 as opposed to 800.

And...sorry about doubting your pre-eminent skills. :)

Greg

Hey Greg, yeah looks like the 800 grit is too fine and there aren't enough pores for the stain to soak into.
I'd do what you suggested wire brush the glue then go over with 600 grit and try again

Wokka,

Thanks. I have a night shift tomorrow night....so I might do this in the morning....rather than wait the five days....clean up the glue and sand the whole thing back to 600 and then stain. An even coverage would look awesome in this colour. :)

no worries Ozz, so is it acacia on the neck and coolangatta gold on the body ?

It is "Bloodwood" on the neck and will be "Coolangatta Gold" on the body. DB reckons the Acacia is more the old Vintage Yellow and I wanted the more amber tones.....and I think Bloodwood hits it right on....more orange.....I actually quite like the look. Can't wait until the bridge arrives and I get it measured etc and then stain away. :)

I'd start staining Greg, no point waiting for the bridge, I do all that at the end of the build. But you can measure that up when it arrives so you will probably still be on colour coats.
sure bloodwood on the neck will look great.

Bridge was in the mail waiting for me at the end of the day.....measuring time. :)

I knocked the guide ferrules into the holes on the headstock....measured aligned and drilled the holes for two tuners on the headstock....fitted them.

Clamped everything up and measured 432mm from the nut to the tippy top of the 12th fret. So measured 432mm from the top of the 12th fret to midway along the travel of the saddles on this seriously heavy bridge. :)

Aligned the neck....aligned pickups...measured all....moved things around....drilled bridge holes....drilled neck holes. Think the pick guard may wait a bit.

Pull it all apart and learn some things straight away:-

1. Dingo Tone stays active for a very long time.....I had little stain marks on the body, my work space....my hands....it has been 3 days. Now I lay down a few sheets of paper towel over my bit of carpet and beach towel.

2. Remedial sanding and wire brushing is problematic on DT when it has not fully cured....it fills the sand paper like it is still very wet. So patience is the key in the first place to avoid remedial work.....wet body down.....look for glue.....sand and sand and sand and then wet down again and sand and sand....and by the way did I say sand.

3. Body soaks up the DT at a rapid rate at 400 grit. 600 grit is the perfect fine sanding on this rock maple neck....sorry to doubt you Wokka. :)

4. Dingo Tone is so much easier to apply and prepare the body/neck ready for application than water based stains. Dingo Tone covers like nothing I have used before. Dingo Tone really grabs the figure and grain in the wood and pops it out there. Love some of the flame even in this pieces of plain old Basswood. DB this is a magic potion of yours.

5. Patience now....as DT takes a lot longer between coats and between layers of finish....stain, intensifying, final.

Some photos of the remedial neck work.....

I have done only one coat.....soaked up nearly half the bottle with just this session of covering....sort of went over the whole body a few times....but more spreading and evening the coat out than putting multiple layers on. Sanded to 400 grit the body is like a sponge.

Hang now for five days.....:(

More piccies.

I like this look....no sanding or machine marks in and around the neck pocket and the curly bits at the front.....sanding and more sanding.....love it....right of passage I do believe. :)

Awesome. Great colour. This is going to come up very nicely.

colour looks nice and deep for first coat on the body Greg, well done. The first coat is always the thirstiest !
How much saddle travel have you got in the new bridge ? Typically the E string saddle should be about another 5mm (roughly 437mm from 12th fret) further than nut to 12th fret dimension (432). This is to compensate for the string width.
This is only a rough guide and you won't find out till you intonate it

that's a great colour, this is looking good

Wokk, I can't remember the distance....but this bridge has heaps of travel on all four strings/bridges. I took a point that was midway across all four. I understand your point about the string width changing length. Before I screw it all down I will measure again.

I don't know if I want to put another coat of the stain on the body as it is staying pretty dark and has good coverage 1 day afterwards....could also just be after night shift hang over....12hours is such a long time staying awake when all around are sleeping.

no worries Ozz sure there will be enough adjustment in the bridge saddles to intonate it.
I've found some Dingotone colours actually darken after a few days as the oils cure so see how the colour looks in a day or two

I have some Laser Water Slide Decal paper in the post.....was mucking around with Word and came up with this.....What do you reckon??

so what you calling the axe Ozz, Gyro Coolie ?

Yeah,

Gyro has been a nickname of mine for many years. Ozzbike was the name on my ID at the avatar site, would have used GYRO except I would have no photo. Maybe I should make a new ID sometime.

Was thinking of GYRO as a brand name......and COOLIE as the model due to the colour.

Open to suggestions though.

GYRO! ... cool! .. or maybe I should say cool-ie! :D ... reminds me of "Gyro Gearloose" (the mad inventor friend of Donald Duck) ... so its probably pretty apt for a guitar builder! :)

Photo's, avatars & PBG profiles? ... used to be that you needed an avatar to get a pic on your PBG profile (which is why I didn't have a profile pic for quite a while) but with this new-fangled forum, you don't ... you can just upload a .jpg, .png, etc. in your profile settings to use as your main pic ... hence the reason you now all have to put up looking at my ugly "mug" on my posts :D

(BTW Adam ... I really like the functionality of the new forum! great stuff!)

Gyro (I guess we can call you that now) - One thing to check with replacement bridges is the minimum saddle height. The standard PBG ones can go fairly low and I had to recess an aftermarket bridge to let me get the action half decent.

P.S. ... I like the logo

good point Bman, worth checking the saddle heights compared to the supplied bridge Gyro.
I like the name Gyro Coolie works for me !

Have not had a chance to get at the bridges and really measure.....but holding the two up next to each other I noted that the issue would only be if the action had to go really low. The GFS one is quite low itself, but the PB one goes down nearly to the height of the saddles. We will see.

Overtime at Xmas and nightshfits for double the money.....so only had a chance to get at the neck and body today. They have hung for 7 days in my shed and looked awesome when I dragged them out.

I gave them both a second coat of stain and I think that will be enough. DB this stuff you have made is such an awesome covering stain. Love it.

More work and the intensifying coat on the body next Monday. Neck to first final coat on the same day. This will be a slow build I think. Patience, patience. :)

And the neck and headstock with their second coat.

colours are looking excellent Ozz, well done. If the ambient temp is much above 30 degrees I wouldn't leave the body and neck in a shed, it could get above 50 degrees and warp the neck and possibly damage the stain. Leave it hanging under your patio would be much cooler

Wok,

Queensland summer most days hitting above 30. The shed is the filter room for my pool gear at the end of the garage. Double garage with a ceiling. The last bit of one of the parking bays has been walled in and left open up to and through the rafters. Then a door put on the outside of that and a room say 1.5m deep and 2.5 wide made for the pool filter equipment and storage. I have some pot hangers that go through the tuner hole and a hole in my piece of wood screwed into the neck pocket. The two items then hang from the rafters. It is open and airy in there. I would love to leave them outside, but the weather is a bit dodgie up here at the moment....roaring winds, dead calm and boiling hot, or violent storms. Just hope I don't get a wobbly neck.

Love the colour though. It got really deep and even bought up some more grain in the end grain in the neck and across the bottom as it dried and with the 2nd coat. I think that is enough now. Will wait, due to work, seven days now and do the start of the final coats on the neck and the intensifying coats on the body. Really liking the build on this one.....patience is hard though.

Dingo Tone is such a great product. Need more colours, and DB and Adam need to post more and better pics of samples. This stuff is the best fine woodworking finish I have ever used. Natural, no solvents, no chemicals, lovely grain/figure, lets see how the final stages go. :)

sounds good Ozz. Sounds like your shed doesn't get too hot. I've seen a neck warp in a hot shed but that had little ventilation.
Hopefully Ads will put up some new pics soon of the Dingotone bodies I've been testing

Love the look of this bass with DT products....but the pace of finishing is maddening....maddening I say. I will have to slip out to Woolies and buy some patience I think.

The body, in my opinion, is looking great straight after the application of the first intensifying coat.... I like it.

The neck and headstock with the first final coat is a bit tricky. The exhortations by DB to use a thin coat and not overwork the final coat is spot on. Really hard to do, and I hope some of the little lines etc will smooth themselves out.

Only two days off....and then back to work again.....maybe sneak in another coat on both on Friday morning before a night shift.....or this is looking like a job for xmas day or boxing day for me. May be finished the finish in January some time.

Loving the result though. This stuff is great.

and we have some more.

Looking great Gyro, those DT colours really glow!! This bass is really gonna look amazing when assembled.

cheers,
Gav.