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Day Seven: More sanding and body prep
During the wet rub (800g) of the 4-in-1 undercoat, I discovered that because of the thickness of the two coats; the through body string ferules did not fit in to their shoulder rebates any longer. The undercoat had added a good 0.7-1mm of material to the holes. Darn!
The only way to solve the problem was to re-machine them out again.
After considering all options, I decided to do this with a Dremel square cutter mounted in the drill press. This time I compensated for the paint thickness.. Duh! (See pic) Thankfully, it worked a treat.
Next was the transitional coat to the acrylic lacquer colour coats. Septone Primer Filler is perfect for this, as it is a high build primer that allows the hiding of any residual imperfections easily. As its colour is beige, it was really easy to see any areas where I had sanded through (with 1500G wet paper) to the previous coat which was white.
This was particularly important on the edges, as I could see easily where the thin spots were, and re-coat/sand accordingly.
While the touch-up coats dried, I test fitted the new machine heads that had arrived the previous day. These Schaller BM’s are a world of difference to the clunky cheapies in the kit.
As this bass is going to be a workhorse, it was a worthwhile investment of $130. Even with this (most costly) upgrade, the bass will still be within budget.
Although not really obvious, the plugged hole from the original incorrectly positioned (compared to a real MM) G tuner is annoying me, so I may just cover it with a decal of some sort... perhaps even a PitBull one. ;)
Final rubdown was a wet 1500G. The body now has a shine and is a smooth as glass.
Next: Colour/clear coats and headstock face.
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Day 8: Colour/clear coats and headstock face
During the initial phases of construction, I was still undecided about the colour scheme; my wife favouring an antique cream with tortoise shell scratch plate, but I gravitated to the Chilli red with white perloid scratch pate and black headstock of the 2004 limited edition Stingray 4. There was no 5 string version of this, so even as a replica, this MMB 5 is not going to get mistaken for the real thing.
One thing I decided right from the beginning was that I was not going to hang the guitar up to paint as many people do. This is inefficient and in my experience makes it hard to get an even coverage easily as it is in a fixed position.
My solution was to use a 360 degree rotisserie type system similar to that used by engine builders.
It was really easy to make, and holds the guitar rock solid in any position you want. This is particularly good for angling the instrument in to the light so you can see how much you are overlapping each coat etc.
I created a mini spray booth with a curtain of clear plastic sheeting on 3 sides of the spray zone. Plenty of light was coming in from all sides and the top.
After standard prep, I sprayed 5 coats beginning with all the edges first and allowing it to tack off before building up each subsequent light, full body coat about 15 minutes apart. The edges were sprayed with the body in the horizontal position, and the front and back in the vertical position. The beauty of this is that the aerosol can of paint is always in the upright position and delivering an even pressure pattern. Each coat was applied at 90 degrees to the previous, (vertical/horizontal using the adjustable nozzle arrangement) ensuring even coverage.
Headstock was prepared the same way as the body. After the satin polyurathane on the back/sides of the headstock and neck were fully cured and masked, two coats of British paints 4-in-1 were applied to the face, hand sanded with 800G followed by 2 more coats of Septone Primer Filler. Final coat was wet sanded with 1500G before the black lacquer was applied.
The same spraying procedure was used with the clear coats, with 4 coats being applied. For the final clear coat the body was in the horizontal position, allowing slightly thicker coats without the fear of runs and drips. The technique still has you constantly moving the spray head, but just a little slower.
I’m going to leave the body to fully dry until next weekend before I start the polishing process.
Starting to look good.
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