Build #3 DHB-4 fretless

It looks like I will have some down time coming up in October and have started some planning on my third fretless build.

The kit arrived a few months ago but I was very busy between work and other projects.

This is the kit out of the box without any hardware
Attachment 43517

and this is with the kit hardware
Attachment 43518

There are some things that I like about this bass, like the body shape, the grain on the fretboard.. and there are some minor but fixable things that I don't like at all, like the white plastic pick guard, the white plastic truss rod cover (not pictured, just too ugly!) and the black plastic electronic cover at the back of the bass (will make my own).

The bass body is very light and feels nice.

The bridge is made of a very light timber.. very charming but no way to ground it.. it will be interesting to tune this instrument when I'll get there. The bridge it's just floating and will stay in place under the tension of the strings.

Some questions:

Question 1:

The nut came off in transportation I guess.

This is a photo of the but just resting there:
Attachment 43519

and these two are photos of the nut, notice the slot where the nut is supposed to rest
Attachment 43520
.
Attachment 43521

Notice also that some of the timber came off where the nut is supposed to rest.
I think I can just fill that with some timber filler to patch it up?

I'd imagine that a drop of super glue will hold the nut in place, however I was thinking if perhaps I should make a little reinforcement just behind the nut, towards the tuners, to create a slot for the nut to rest? (think of a classic fender precision bass nut, for example, it sits in a slot).
I have drawn an orange rectangle on this photo to show where I am considering adding the timber to create a slot.
Attachment 43522

I guess if I go ahead with this, the piece of timber that I am adding will need to have a little round cut so that I can still reach the truss rod with an allen key...
Or a bit or glue would be enough, between glue and string tension pushing downwards? (It was just glued in the factory after all)

Question 2:

not sure about this but I kind of like the idea to have the body with two slightly different colors on the front, (mirrored on the back maybe?):

I am considering a different color for the center of the body.

See the photo below where I drawn those lines with pencil in line with the fretboard
Attachment 43523

and here a very brutal sketch to illustrate the idea. Color 1 will be within those center lines in line with the fretboard, and color 2 basically everywhere else.
Attachment 43524

how would I proceed to make this happening?
I should say that I would love to use a timber stain, and wipe on poly for this build, but I'd imagine that some stain will just travel and be absorbed by the body, making very hard to achieve straight lines.. making a real mess to use more technical wording.

Or should I abandon the stain option altogether, run some masking tape and spray paint the body or something?

(I apologise in advance for the rookie question, but I must admit that the many staining/finishing options and all their possible permutations still confuse me a little).

Don’t bother trying to make something to hold the nut in place. It’s fine as it is. Millions of guitars, electric and acoustic, have nuts just like this. It’s a lot wider than a Fender nut, which makes it far more stable, so it doesn't need a groove to sit in.

Just stick it back with some wood glue e.g. Titebond. Though as it’s off I’d take the opportunity to replace the kit plastic nut with a bone or Tusq one. You can use a couple of drops of CA if you want to, but don’t use much of that at all otherwise you’ll never get it off again. Wood glue is easiest as you can move the nut for a short while when the glue is drying in order to get it central and not poking out of one end of the slot. And you just wipe off any excess glue with a damp cloth (which you can’t do with CA). I use a small artists paintbrush to spread the glue thinly over both the nut and the neck before fitting the nut.

I’d wait to glue it back on until you’re ready to string up. Just put some masking tape over the nut area when applying any finish. If you don’t want to file the nut slots to adjust the string height at the nut, then you’ll want to sand the bottom of the nut to do so, which means it needs to stay unglued. You’ll find it will happily stay in place under string pressure alone. The glue just stops it falling off when you remove the strings. I’d have the strings in place, but slack, before glueing the nut in (sliding it under the strings) so you can then tension the strings to clamp the nut in place whilst the glue dries. Leave it alone for a few hours before you tune up properly.

You can certainly stain the main body colour, but if you want well defined stripes, then you’ll have to mask up the areas and spray them over the top of the stain. It would be possible to spray stain on with an airbrush, but it is the nature of stain to spread out when applied, so the edges wouldn’t be as sharp as if you used a paint spray.

You could try using the poly to provide some masking. Mask off the stripe areas and apply main body stain. Then apply a couple of coats of clear poly. Remove the masking tape to expose the bare wood in the stripe areas. Using a water-based stain you should be able to apply stain to the stripes and wipe it off the poly. If you find the stain has spread under the masking tape too much, you always have the spray paint option open to you. But definitely try out on some test wood first. I’ve never tried this method, so whilst I think it has a good chance of working, there may be issues with it I haven’t foreseen. And you’d need a good masking tape that leaves well defined edges, like Frog tape.

As you’d already have poly over the base stain, there shouldn't be any carry over when applying poly on the stripe stain. I’d apply the first coat from the outside to the centre of the stripe to minimise any risk of carrying stripe stain onto the main stain poly. Though spraying the first coats of poly over the stripes has less risk.

Any stain is likely to spread under the edge of masking tape, it’s the nature of stain being taken up by wood. But I feel that spirit stains have less surface tension, so penetrate a bit further than water-based stains. Spirit based is also more likely to stick to the poly and in cracks where the poly has sunk into the grain.

If the top of the guitar is arched, then there may be issues when trying to mask off the stripes with a single strip of tape if the tape is twisted following the contours. Give it a go, but thin strips for the outline and then filling in the middle may give better results.

Again, if you do end up with undefined edges there is always the spray paint option to fall back on, just making the stripes slightly wider/longer to hide the old edges.

Thank you so much Simon, very helpful advice, I appreciate it!

I have started working on the neck yesterday.

The PitBull fretless necks have side dots in the "fretted" position (in the middle of the fret), however for a fretless unlined neck I need the dots to be in the "fretless" position (which is dots in line with the frets, to be used for reference when playing and visually assist with intonation).

A couple of pictures here to describe the problem:

Above a lined fretless neck, with side dots correctly in the middle of the fret, and below the unlined fretless neck I am working on for this build
Attachment 43526

Notice the dots are in the same spot. Unfortunately this is not helpful at all on an unlined neck, as those dots don't provide any usable reference at all, if anything they are more confusing.
That dot on the 3rd fret should be used to give me a reference to play a G (on the E string); but if I install the strings and press down where that dot currently is, I will get a note somewhere in between a F# and G, not good.

This is what I need instead.
(I have added some orange dots to show where I need the dots to be to play on an unlined fretboard)
Attachment 43527

At this point I could proceed with drilling out the existing dots, and install the new dots, proportionally moving them a little to the right using the lined neck or a template as reference.

I tend to prefer doing my own intonation, finding the side dots position directly on the instrument after the bridge and strings are installed.
On top of that, I want to shorten the scale a fraction on this instrument to achieve "21 frets", instead of 20 (and a half) like the lined neck I've got.
Having 21 "frets" will give me 3 full octave to play with, from low E on the open string, all the way to highest E on the 21st fret of the G string.

I clamped the neck on a simple jig I made some time ago.
Used some plywood and cardboard to protect the neck.
Attachment 43528

Put some masking tape on the drill bit to mark the depth, and drill out the existing side dots
Attachment 43530
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Attachment 43529

Once the side dots have been all drilled out, I have used some timbermate and acrylic paint to get a s close as possible to the color of the fretboard

Don't need too much of it. Here below before mixing.

Attachment 43531

Attachment 43532

When trying to match the colour consider that it will look slightly lighter once it's dry
Attachment 43533

Run some masking tape to protect the neck.
First coat applied, pushing it down inside the holes

Attachment 43534

After that I have removed all the excess and let dry, it looked like this

Attachment 43535
.
Attachment 43536

Wait for it to dry, sand lightly.
Attachment 43537

re-apply the mix, let dry, and sand again

Finished, side dots removed, ready to install mine when I'll get there

Attachment 43538

In my (humble and minimal) experience so far with the other fretless builds I've done, the finish on the neck will even out any color discrepancy.
The old side dots might still be visible under close inspection and with specific lighting conditions, but otherwise in 99% of the scenarios it will look like those dots were never there.

You've done a great job on the side dot removal.

Once you've settled on the actual scale length you'll be using (which with it being a fretless really depends on where you decide to initially put the saddles to measure to), you can use the StewMac fret position calculator to determine where the virtual frets should be.

https://www.stewmac.com/FretCalculator

Thank you so much Simon!
I wasn't aware of that online tool, very interesting and super helpful, bookmarked!

usually I find the side dots position by giving the instrument a ballpark set up (bridge height etc..), based on what feels right on that instrument, with bridge saddles sort of halfway their range; then I put some masking tape on the side of the fretboard, and find the side dots positions by playing on the instrument a combination of harmonics and actual notes, checking with a tuner and open strings.
Then gradually I start drawing lines in pencil on the masking tape.
I make an effort to not hurry this process, I like to leave the instrument overnight, continuing to fine tune the following day. Usually I set aside at least a week for this step to allow for several passes; I keep going until I feel the instrument reaches very stable side references, feels natural, and I can play it "without thinking too much".

I am not sure if this is the way to go, but instinctively it feels right to me. I really like the idea that the instrument itself is "doing the speaking", letting me know what is right and where the notes are. I wonder if my ears tend to feel more familiar with just intonation on an unlined instrument?
Switching between just and equal intonation, correcting the intonation in a musical way based on other musicians parts is part of the fretless charm.

However, the web site you mentioned provides great reference and for sure some mathematical and precise numbers to check against it before drilling the new side dots in!

Thank you!

Unless you’re doing a side dot per fret, they are only going to be general indicators. Most of the fret positions won’t have dots, so a lot of your playing will be intuitive anyway and you’ll be making adjustments to your finger positions by ear as you play. I expect the more fretless you play, the less you actually need the dots. But what you don’t want are dots in the wrong position to put you off.

I am working on this project, sanded the body and neck, stained with an black interior stain and then applied a clear glossy varnish but I am encountering a potential problem.

I might have got my research mixed up because I was under the impression that after two coats of varnish I was going to start alternating sanding with finer grits and reapplying diluted coats of varnish, until a smooth surface is achieved, similarly to the Tru Oil procedure.

However, I have (thankfully!) did a quick test on a piece of scrap plywood wood that I stained and varnished with the same products, and when I sand (400) an opaque, whitish colour comes up... it looks like I am making it worst. The surface doesn't feel that smooth either.

After some research, it looks like I need to buff the timber using super fine 3M rubbing pad with an orbital sander....
is this the way to go? I don't have an orbital sander but perhaps I could ask around and borrow one.
This is the video and blog post I watched suggesting this workflow.

The bass looks good but the finish is not smooth, there are minor paint brush lines, and occasional drops of thicker varnish here and there.

Ok, quick update.

After a bit more research, this evening I decided to sand lightly by hand, and apply a thin coat of varnish slightly diluted (1 to 10) using a cloth instead of a paintbrush.

I'm much happier now, the surface starts to appear much nicer, definitely smoother, and the whitish patina goes away after the coat.

I'll proceed this way tomorrow again with finer sand paper.

Any clear finish, be it poly, acrylic, or nitro is going to go white and opaque if you sand it with P400. You've creating lots of scratches in the surface and these diffuse the light falling on it, reflecting it back in all directions. Apply more varnish and this will fill in the scratches and create a clear layer once again.

Personally I'd just apply several coats of poly and wouldn't bother with intermediate sanding. With just a couple of coats and sinkage into the wood, there's always the risk of sanding through into the stain layer, especially on corners. So unless you've got a particularly large drip (which needs to be left to dry for several days before spot sanding away as the interior of the drop will remain wet for a while), then I'd just go for layer application for depth, certainly if unused to the process. As you get more proficient and experienced, than you can start light intermediate sanding, but you need to get a feel for it.

Ultimately you need to get the finish flat and smooth. That's all the video you linked to showed. And that's one way to go about it but there are many ways and the chap stopped short of the final polishing process using cutting compounds for a proper shiny finish.

You need to sand the surface flat using wet and dry on a backing block. The bigger the block, the flatter the overall surface will be, but obviously on curves it's either a small block or hand sanding. Once the varnish is on, I'd be using it wet. The first task is to get the surface flat and free of pits in the finish. If it's very uneven, then I'd start with P400, otherwise I'd use P600 as there's less chance of sanding through by over-enthusiasm. Once the surface is flat, then you can move on to finer grits - P800, P1200, P2000 and P2500 if you want. Once you've gone the hard work with the P400 or P600, then the rest is a lot easier as you are just trying to remove the scratch marks the previous grade grit made.

Just make sure that you add a drop of detergent to the wetting water for the wet and dry, as it reduces surface tension and helps keep the paper clog-free. Check the paper often as you don't want balls of finish clogging the paper as this can scratch the finish with coarser scratches than the grit you're using.

The grey pad in the video is equivalent to 00 grade steel wool and the white one 0000 grade steel wool. If the surface is already very flat, then you could go straight to using something like that (I thing there must have been some unseen surface preparation in that video) and P2500 grit wet and dry will get you to somewhere in-between the two finish levels. But you don't need to go finer than that with sandpaper as your cutting/polishing compound will take over from there.

I generally use T-cut (a medium cutting compound for cars available in the UK, but Meguiars Ultimate Compound is an equivalent) followed by Meguiars Scratch X2, which is a finer cutting compound. You can rub by hand or use some foam polishing pads on a battery drill (or a mains drill set to a pretty slow speed). It's very easy to build up heat from friction, so not too fast a rotation speed and keep the pad moving across the surface at all times. Heat softens the finish and you won't get a good shine. You should immediately change from a slight white opaqueness to clarity and shine.

So the video and the standard method normally proposed for guitar finishes are equivalent, but if you start with a rough surface, unlike the flat one the chap in the video had, then its going to take a very long time indeed with a grey 3M pad. And you can get a glossier surface than he did using a cutting/polishing compound.

The general sanding rule I use is that if it's taking a very long time, then go a grade coarser and see if that improves things, and keep going coarser if necessary. But even on finish bumps, I wouldn't go coarser than P240 used wet. And just work on those locally.

And you seem to be using a very mixed application method. Normally you'd either use poly as it is (ideally spraying it) or mixing it 50/50 with turps to make a thin mixture you can wipe-on from the start rather than spray (or brush). Wiping-on from the start will probably get you the smoothest finish if you can't spray it on.

It's not TruOil, so you can't wipe-on un-thinned poly in the same way to start with and hope to get the same results.

Ultimately you just want to get enough of a finish coat on so that its deep enough to sand flat without sanding through to the wood and stain below. How deed it needs to be depends on how flat you can get the surface. Some people do it via very careful preparation of the surface and then applying the finish coats very evenly, so that only a few coats are required and little sanding is needed before polishing. Others take time to build up many thin layers. Others put a few thick layers on. A rough thick coat may take longer to sand flat, but it often takes less overall time than applying lots of layers.

Many ways to skin a cat, many ways to finish a guitar and end up with a similar end result. A lot depends on your level of expertise in the different finishing methods and the amount of time you have available. But it helps to understand just what you are trying to achieve. Some of the intermediate steps people take don't seem to make much sense to me, but if they are happy doing it that way it won't do any damage, though it might extend the process a bit.

To get TruOil or Poly to fill up undulations in the finish, rather than just form another layer that follows the contours (due to surface tension), you need to thin the finish significantly. And I'm never quite sure how well a very thinned finish would dry and adhere to the surface below. Obviously the more thinners there are, the thinner the final finish will be, so the more applications you need. A few thick layers and sanding back can end up taking far less time, even if the intermediate steps don't look as nice.

Thank you so much Simon for your help and for sharing your expertise. I really appreciate it!

All your tips and comments are on point.

The finish is looking gradually heaps better past that first shock of seeing the finish going so white the first time. I will definitely follow your advice.

Diluting 1/10 is something that I've read somewhere and instinctively made sense to me looking at the product I am using.
I tried it yesterday. I just needed the varnish to be a little bit less dense. The way it was it made it difficult to apply evenly without having heavy drops appearing and gathering everywhere.
I used a brush for the first 2x coats, as per tin instructions, but ultimately wasn't happy with it and used a cloth yesterday and I am much happier with the control I have.
All this is 20% experience and 80% guts feeling to be honest, but I am learning a lot and it seems to be working fine.

Thanks again for all the suggestions Simon, you shared a lot useful info!

the finish is proceeding, a bit painful but it's getting there...

In the meantime I'm getting my head around the wiring for this kit.

According to PitBull Guitars website and the electronics that came with this kit, my understanding is that this is the wiring diagram

Attachment 43651

I am considering not having the switch in this build, just keeping 4x knobs (2x volume, 2x tone).

I am wondering if this wiring diagram will work for my kit? (although I am a bit confused as it says "stereo jack" and I am not sure why, would a normal jack work?)

Attachment 43652

Another question I have is about the wires coming out of the pick up. One black, a pair twisted together white and red, and another pair twisted together white and green. What are these wires? Which one is ground and which one is hot?
Photo

Attachment 43653



On a different note: for this kit the bridge is made of timber and I was a bit worried about not having a ground connection going from the electronics to the bridge, and therefore to the strings.
After a closer inspection, I noticed there's a predrilled hole between the electronics cavity and the ferrules for the string through body. This is good news, it looks like I will have to feed a wire through each ferrule predrilled hole, making sure that it touches the ferrules. Still not 100% sure on how make sure that this wire will touch each ferrule but will come up with something. At this point I am thinking or soldering a bare wire to the ferrules.
Will take some better photos when I'll get there with the build.
I've check with a multimeter and the ferrules are conductive.

Attachment 43654

Hi FaustoB,
I can help with the pickup wires.

The black is hot,
the white and red (soldered together) wires join the 2 coils in the humbuckers - they do not go anywhere (unless you are coil splitting) just put some insulation tape around the ends so they cannot touch any conductors in the control cavity.
The green (with bare shielding wire) are the ground.

That 2nd wiring diagram will work, but there are points to note.

The ‘stereo jack’ refers to the barrel-type jack supplied with the Ibanez-style kit the diagram was drawn for. Whilst you can get mono (TS) barrel jacks from Switchcraft, the Chinese kits have standardised on using a ‘stereo’ (TRS) style barrel jack. The term ‘stereo’ is misleading, as they are rarely used for stereo outputs on guitars and basses, but the third terminal is more often used to switch battery power on active circuits (most common on basses). So despite being a TRS jack socket, only the T and S contacts are used, so just wire it up to a standard output jack as normal.

The 2nd wiring diagram has the volume pots wired up differently to the 1st. The pickup signal now goes to the central wiper connection, with the output from the end tab on the pot (reversed from diagram 1). This is to prevent the output from one pickup being grounded when the other one is set to 0 i.e. the same as selecting a single pickup on the switched version. But this means that both pots are always connected to the pickups, halving the resistance the pickups see to ground.

In the switched version, when selecting just the neck or bridge pickup, they’d gave 500k resistance to ground at full volume, but with the 2nd arrangement, having one pickup on 10 and the other on 0, the pickup on 10 would see a 250k resistance to ground across the volume pots. This will knock off some of the treble and move the pickup’s resonant peak frequency down a bit. So the single pickup sound of arrangement 2 will sound a bit duller compared to arrangement 1.

It’s a bass, so this may not be a problem for you, especially if the pickups are quite bright sounding to start with. The both pickups on situation will sound just the same though.

But if you like to have a bright sound available (its easy to loose treble but harder to add it) then you can always use 1Meg volume pots instead, which will give the original 500k resistance to ground through the pots. This will mean that the ‘both pickups on 10’ sound will be slightly brighter than before. Keep the tone pots at 500k.

Swapping the volume pots is something you can do at any time, so you can see how it goes with the original values and see what you think.

If you want brighter sounds, you can always fit some mini toggle switches so you can have the pickups in series, parallel and split modes. If you don’t want two mini-toggles you can have a common tone control and fit a single 3-position rotary switch for common pickup mode selection, which still gives lots of sound variations.

Thank Trevor and Simon! very helpful!

Commenting on Simon's points

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Simon Barden

That 2nd wiring diagram will work, but there are points to note.

....

with the 2nd arrangement, having one pickup on 10 and the other on 0, the pickup on 10 would see a 250k resistance to ground across the volume pots. This will knock off some of the treble and move the pickup’s resonant peak frequency down a bit. So the single pickup sound of arrangement 2 will sound a bit duller compared to arrangement 1.

It’s a bass, so this may not be a problem for you, especially if the pickups are quite bright sounding to start with. The both pickups on situation will sound just the same though.

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This worries me a little bit! I agree it's a bass but would love to keep the max tonal range.
I'm installing round wounds to begin with (generally speaking rounds are nice and bright) , but likely to swap to half round or tape wound in the future (which are darker sounding strings, with different tension and feel)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Simon Barden

But if you like to have a bright sound available (its easy to loose treble but harder to add it) then you can always use 1Meg volume pots instead, which will give the original 500k resistance to ground through the pots. This will mean that the ‘both pickups on 10’ sound will be slightly brighter than before. Keep the tone pots at 500k.

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I like this option! thank you so much. I'm slowly slowly getting my head around electronics but my knowledge is way more limited than this!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Simon Barden

Swapping the volume pots is something you can do at any time, so you can see how it goes with the original values and see what you think.

If you want brighter sounds, you can always fit some mini toggle switches so you can have the pickups in series, parallel and split modes. If you don’t want two mini-toggles you can have a common tone control and fit a single 3-position rotary switch for common pickup mode selection, which still gives lots of sound variations.

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I like also this option with common tone control with a single 3-position rotary switch for common pickup mode selection!
Losing one tone knob means that I could put the switch right there in the electronics cavity, instead of placing it far away in that pre drilled hole on the opposite side on the body. a long way away and probably a nightmare to fit the switch via the f-hole in the body...

ok then, some progress in the last couple of days.. or better three steps forward and two steps back.. but still technically moving forward it is....

I have decided that the finish has to go. I am just no happy with what I am getting. Will sand it back and will try a different technique.

Before re-sanding it, I've decided to assemble most of the bass to see what else to expect.

Lined up and drilled the neck, placed the floating bridge, and put the strings in.

The issues that stood out were:
#1 the action is crazy high!! almost 8mm at the 12th fret
#2 the neck pick up is way to high, although at its lowest position (screwed all the way down)

I have taken everything apart and got to work.

In order to lower the action i did some work on the bridge.
I placed some rough sanding paper on the body and sanded the bottom of the bridge over it. This is to maintain the correct curvature (which the kit bridge didn't have by the way).

here prepping for sanding and first shy attempt:
Attachment 43658

Sanding the bottom of the bridge over the body to maintain the curvature (thanks Tom for the tip!)
Attachment 43666

and here after I got the hang of it
Attachment 43659

a digital caliper came handy to keep one eye on how much I was taking off.

I also used a Dremel to take out the part of the bridge over the nuts.

this is the finished bridge: the orange lines on half of the bridge to illustrate the work done, and the arrows to show the string slots i prepared while working on the bridge, will finesse them at some point.
Attachment 43661

I quickly restrung the bass, didn't measure the string height but it was evident that it was waaay better. The current height is definitely manageable by placing a small shim under the neck.

the other job was to lower the neck pick up, which was a bit too high even at its lowest position.

To make the pick up slot deeper, I tried first with the Dremel and a routing bit... but it was messy.
Then moved to cisel and it was definitely the way to go.

Took out about 2-3mm.
Attachment 43662

Finished job, first time using a cisel ever (thanks Aldi)
I didn't need to touch the bridge pickup which seemed fine
Attachment 43663

Another job I did, was to fit the ferrules and run the ground wire.
This was fun.

I tried to solder the wire to the bottom of the ferrule, but it didn't work. The pressure of pushing the ferrule in the body was breaking the soldering.

Then I decided to twist the wire around the ferrule, and push it in
Attachment 43664
.
Attachment 43665

This almost worked, but it was too hard to push the ferrule down ground with the wire twisted like that around the ferrule.

What worked at the end, I forgot to take a photo but it's a solution similar to the one pictured above.
I made a sort of little spring with the exposed wire twisting it around with small pliers. Put the ground wire/spring in the slot, and pushed the ferrule in.
I measured with a multimeter and it was fine. I proceeded like that for all 4x ferrules, checking with a multimeter, it worked!

Some nice work there.

With a bolt-on neck, as you've mentioned, a shim is the easiest way to adjust the neck angle, which can be very useful in achieving a good action height. A 1mm thick shim can normally make a 3-4mm difference in the string height over the end of the neck.

It's always good to have some upwards and downwards pickup height adjustment available. You'll want to try and balance the pickup outputs and tweaking the pickup height can also make small adjustments to the tone as well.

You know when you read on the forum that someone didn't like the finish they were getting and they re-sanded the entire body and neck?
Well... this is one of those posts!

here a couple of photos of the job almost done
Attachment 43674
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Attachment 43675

I am so happy I started over because I wasn't fully convinced of the colour and didn't like the finish at all.

I have decided to leave some spots of Black Japan here and there, for a sort of distressed feel, and stained using cedar stain (which is dark red..-ish)

I am using Tru Oil for the finish this time.
After 4 or 5 applications I have started applying the TO with fine sandpaper and I am liking the results so far. I am up to grit 1000.
To be precise, I apply with a cloth, then use fine sand paper, then use the same cloth to even it out. It's looking good!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FaustoB

I am so happy I started over because I wasn't fully convinced of the colour and didn't like the finish at all.

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I know it can be hard sometimes to start over, but well worth it. The temptation is to go "bugger it, I just want it to end!", but it will bug you later on down the track.

Totally agree Rabbit!

While I am working through the final coats of Tru Oil, I have began working on the cover that I will use over the hole I drilled at the back of the body to install and access the switch.

As a test a few days ago I managed to feed a string from the f hole to the switch hole on the front of the body. It is possible to feed and secure the switch to the body that way, but I didn't like it. It's hard to access, it's hard to get there (the switch got stuck several times), it's not serviceable, I didn't like it.

So I drilled a 38mm hole at the back of the body, to make the switch installation and access easier, and today I fabricated a cover.

I looked up online and I could find pre-made plastic circles of pretty much any diameter, thickness and colour, but often come in sets of 10 (or 50, or 100..), and I had no idea what to do with the remaining 9 (plus shipping time, shipping costs, more plastic in the world and all that).

I decided to make my own plastic cover using part of the pick guard that I have cut out from my #2 build.

To add stability I screwed the plastic to a scrap piece of wood, used a 50mm drill bit as a template for my circle, and cut with a jigsaw following the line the best I could.
Attachment 43693

then I covered with masking tape the rough circle I cut, and glued it to the drill bit I used as template with two drops of superglue.
Attachment 43695

With an electrical sander I did a first pass of rough sanding, spinning around the drill bit gently.
Attachment 43694

and then with finer sand paper I sanded by hand for the final pass
Attachment 43696
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here a photo of the circle almost fully sanded
Attachment 43697

a bit more sanding.
Here the finished plastic cover, home made to specs!
Attachment 43699

I've taken the plastic cover apart with a blade, it came off very easily
Attachment 43698

Now I've just spray painted it black a couple of coats and will seal it next time I'll work on this.

Would love to route a 50mm circle around the 38mm hole, as deep as the thickness of the cover I made, to make the cover sitting flash.
I don't have a router, only a Dremel, and I am too tired now to think how to do it!

Time to play some music.

I have strung the bass with the kit strings (which are not too bad btw, round wounds) and played for about a week or so.
The set up was relatively straight forward this time, and I'm not complaining about that.

The bass didn't have any side dots at that point, and it's always a good ear exercise for sure to play a plank of timber like that. The instrument is very pleasant to play, it has a lot of presence, don't know how else to describe it. The low string has a great tone, and it's easy to reach the highest notes on the fretboard especially on the G and D string .
With a cheap shoulder strap, there's a bit of neck dive. This was easily resolved with a nice shoulder strap with some comfy friction and padding. I noticed that I like to play this bass lower than my usual instrument height.
The pickups controls and switch offer a good selection of sonic choices, my personal fav is both pickups on, or just the neck pick up on.

The strings I've ordered (super long scale half rounds) have been stuck for a week in a post office somewhere between the seller and me. Not sure when they'll get here.

After some fine tuning everyday, the instrument felt very stable for a few days.
Yesterday I decided to go ahead and mark the side dots on the fretless position (in line with the frets).
I have put some masking tape on the side of the fretboard, tuned the instrument very carefully; then proceeded marking in pencil the position of the 3, 5, 7, 9, 12, 15, 17, 19, and 21st fret with a vertical line, using a tuner, checking across all 4 strings.

I have clamped the neck gently to a simple jig I made, and with a square ruler I drew a horizontal line across the side of the fretboard so that all the new side dots are sitting at the same distance.

Attachment 43724

Attachment 43725

After that, the process is somehow similar to what I have done at the beginning of this build to take the side dots out.
I found a suitable drill bit.

Attachment 43726

drilled all the side dots in the marked position, removed the masking tape and inserted the pins, which were shortened to bite in the timber only about 1mm.
Like I did for my last build, I am going with metal pins slightly protruding out for a tactile and visual feel because I have received good feedback from those ones who tried the instrument and because I like it. I fell like this time I really fine tuned this technique.

Attachment 43727

Attachment 43728

Photos of finished instrument coming soon, although I would love to get the strings I have in mind first and record a short clip.

Getting there!
Over the past 3 months I have lent this bass to some local musicians and have received an equal amount of valuable feedback and great compliments.

Now I am finalising the set up and fine tuning some bits and pieces:

Adjusted the neck pick up height which was sitting on a weird angle. Now it sits parallel to the strings.
Attachment 43977

Shortened the screws that were protruding out the floating bridge (the bridge will never get higher than that)
Attachment 43978

Added my logo to the neck plate
Attachment 43979


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Looking good.

bass finished a few months ago but haven't had the chance to upload some photos yet, here we go
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Attachment 44956
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Attachment 44957
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Attachment 44958
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Attachment 44959

some videos captured with my mobile phone. Not a perfect representation of the sound but pretty close, for now this would do!

https://youtu.be/s5T_3wb2uNU?si=vVbJvQlunlAwEkxT

https://youtu.be/b5VOa_79kiU?si=X3LdRl6CVHnuYbBw

https://youtu.be/_1mxMEv0eMM?si=BTC35X4eR6sYqrQz

it plays wonderfully with half round strings, very warm sound and smooth tactile feel.
the pickup selectors does a great job offering a variety of tones from super warm, round and bass-y (neck pick up) to very bright, very present attack and mids (bridge pick up only), otherwise selector in the center position for both pickups and both goodness at the same time.

Everything stock except the strings!

Looking good! The extra work will be well worth it in the long run.

+1 for looking good. I love the colours on the body and neck.

Looks great. It also sounds great. that is some pretty impressive playing, particularly on a fretless ;-)

Sounds great, nice bass, the looks of a lez paul body, fretless is something Ive never attempted, maybe I should. Sounds awesome nice playing.