Fred's JBA-4M

So, I still haven't finished my SG, but somehow I ordered a JBA-4M from PBG... it just happened [emoji16]

Pretty much everything will be upgraded.
Ordered Tonerider pups and Babicz bridge from PBG.
And bone nut, electronic kit, tuners from Realparts.

The plan is to go for a 'barn' style body by brushing the ash body with a wire brush to remove soft wood, then stain dark brown/black and finish body and neck with True Oil.

Now it looms like the factory glued a veneer on the back of the body (see photos) and I find it looks weird and it's not going to work with my plan to distress the wood!

Do you guys reckon I can sand it off to bare wood?
Cheers https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...eab4a05c58.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...184525bfc3.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...845eb5a234.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...917c0cbcb1.jpg

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Veneer or not it looks a nice grain to pop...

nice grain and upgrades Fred should come up a treat ! So active pre amp system going in ?

try the distress look on the veneer but as you think probably won't work with your plan so sand it off if so

Not active, I got the toneriders from PBG, passive

I'll see how I go with the veneer but I can see that veneer getting a taste of 60 grade sand paper!

There may be a reason hiding under the veneer that explains why they stuck some veneer on in the first place; maybe a big knot or a filled gouge. But if there is, hopefully your 'barn' treatment should be able to hide any imperfections.

The fear of what lurks underneath?????

I would sand off the veneer and if it is hiding something ugly then deal with it accordingly. Luckily that side won't be on show all of the time.

For what it is worth if my Swampy Tele was an Ash body or the chemical wash didn't look any good over the Alder it would have been done in a washed out black fountain pen ink finish, including neck and fretboard. Arzi's Barncaster was a ripper but I would have gone a bit darker as a point of difference.

Just my 2 cents worth.

@Simon and @wazkelly, indeed the fear of what lurks underneath...
But the more I think about it the less I can accept this veneer that lools like it doesn't belong here... even a big ugly knot would be better I'm thinking!

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Have to agree with you on that one Fred.

Hopefully no big holes filled with filler? Nothing that some timber mate couldn't hide or disguise.

Fred,

Do a burst using the colours you speak of. But go really dark around the edges.....the veneer has some nice figure to it.....dark edges would help hide the other grain.

I'll test for glue spots around this veneer and will see if it's usable.
I agree it's got some nice figure but I'm not sure how it's going to 'connect' with the front...

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It's less the front and more the belly cutaway on the back where it doesn't really gel ATM.

Just wet the body to look for glue spots and there's a nice line of glue all around the veneer (as I expected) plus some traces of glue in the middle.
Going to think it through during the week but I'm more and more tempted to just sand it off...

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https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...608da01c6f.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...0ac745ffd5.jpg

That's it, the veneer is going. It started lifting in places because of the water, and it's coming off with a stanley knife.
Too late to change my mind! [emoji3]
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...5e20e6bec0.jpg

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Plan just about sorted then, a shame because to me the veneer looked real nice

The factory can come up with some weird things. Hoping the natural timber underneath looks good. Would have stripped it back if it was mine as the blend on belly cut was all wrong.

I'm very curious what is under that veneer. Hopefully it'll be some nice timber ;)

Me too!
I haven't removed more of the veneer yet as the rest doesn't deem to want to separate from the body by just getting it wet.
But I found a few sanding pads as rough as 60 grit... that should take care of the veneer! [emoji41]

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Hey Fred, do you have a steam mop with those nozzle attachments? On second thoughts that might be a bit too extreme but possibly a bit of gentle steam application may assist.

Humm... I don't but I'm thinking I could try with a wet rag and the cloth steam iron...

Just the heat from the iron should loosen the glue and you should be able to peel it off with a scraper. Steam will help as well, but will also make the wood underneath swell (until it dries out again).

Thanks for the tips. I'll try and see how it goes!

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Finally managed to remove that veneer. Was pretty good glue!
I ended up sanding, wetting, warming and scraping...
Anyway that was hiding 2 knots with cracks in the wood which are going to be perfect for the rough barn style look I want for this one!
Very happy I removed it.
I'm bow going to try to remove the soft grain with a brass brush on the drill as I saw somewhere on the forum.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...b7e30f230d.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...7428d631ae.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...4b165fda9a.jpg

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And here we go after 30 mins with the drill with wire brush.
Looking pretty good!
I'll do another session tomorrow when the drill batteries have recharged. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...69fb968d59.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...bc532d4a63.jpg

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That will have a very cool effect on the finish Fred, I like it. Reminds me of this.

Geez Fred, that is a rather nice blank canvas now the veneer has been removed. Like the subtle weathered look you have already achieved. Makes the grain definition really stand out.

With this build I wanted to replace the black plastic marker dots with something else.
I've considered paua, but I'm not sure it will work with the very grainy wood and I wanted something more 'industrial', so I've been looking for metal markers and I found some nice stamped blanks from a jewelry supplier. They don't do steel, so I got 8mm and 10mm blanks in argentium, which is a silver alloy. At around $1 a pop it's pretty affordable as I only need 9.

Just tried the 6mm and 8mm to see. I like it a lot more than black plastic but not sure which size will work best... what do you guys reckon?
Photos belowhttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...7f825e5339.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...8179b619fb.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...e296a01f8d.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...2697e1c778.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...62b54be567.jpg

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Smalls for me Fred as the bigger ones are taking over a bit too much in my opinion.

Yep... I do find the 8mm dots a bit big too... I'll think about it a bit more.

And as I'm now thinking about modding this bass I've started looking at JPJ basses... a P pickup between the 2 J pickups.
Any of you guys have tried one of those?
I'm tempted... :o)
Seems hard to find a blank pickguard without pup holes or a J bass pickguard with a P pup hole... Any idea where these could be found?

Cheers

Is there enough space between the 2 J's to fit split P arrangement?

Love the sound of PJ combination as that is what is in the new Yammy fiver bought recently and same setup in a couple of 1970's Ibanez Basses that I once owned.

Never seen a J scratch plate with a P cut out and reckon that would need to be a Pablo custom job.

Not enough space... But I was thinking I could fit the P pup near the edge of the pickguard and set the neck J pup higher near neck.
I found a black J pickguard with a P pup hole but it's black... wanted to keep the white as the body will be black.

Do you reckon Pablo can cut a custom one?

Love the new dots Fred, and I agree, the smaller ones are the go to choice.
Just wondering about the rounded shoulders on the dots. If you get them flush, you will have a depression around the edges.

Cheers zandit.
Re the depression, one side of the dots has sharper edges. So i'm thinking I'll stick them with the sharp side up and will polish them.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by FredA

Do you reckon Pablo can cut a custom one?

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Suggest you PM him as I have seen plenty of his custom work for other forum members.

Cheers Waz. I got a blank pickguard sheet so I'm going to try cut it by myself. I will call on Pab if my attempt looks too rubbish... [emoji3]

In the meantime I ordered and received the P pup from Adam (along with a selection of luthier tools ) and I've started playing with the layout for the 3x pups.
I'm planning to get a jaguar switch plate with 3x on/off switches and embed it in the pickguard.
Each pup is getting it's own vol pot and
I'm going to wire them so that the pup and vol pot are off the circuit when on off. That will avoid having 3x pots in parallel at all time.
The tone pot will be on master out.

The jack is going to move to the side instead of being on the control plate.

Mock up photo attached.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...fbc7b9cd65.jpg

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This is going to be cool.

That neck J-bass pup looks like its pole piece spacing is rather wide for its position as the strings haven't spread out enough. Looks to me like the E and G strings will be running over the inner of the pole-piece pairs for those strings rather than between them. I'm sure it will work OK, but the aesthetics might not be to your taste. It's hard to be sure from a photo, but I'd have a look and see what you think.

If it is the case, you could consider fitting the pickup on a slant so that the strings run between the pole pieces. It's something I've seen on some other basses, certainly on some Warwicks in the past.

Thanks Simon. I hadn't looked at that yet.
Just checked and you're correct, the string will run on the inner magnet.
I'll think about setting this J pup at an angle. I think I prefer the pups to be aligned but I might change my mind on that... [emoji3]
Cheers!

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I did some routing yesterday to prepare for the neck J pup, convert the J pup route to a p pup in the middle, and made room for the 3x switches.
Not the neatest job, routing free hand but the pickguard will cover all that.

I also did a dry fit, installed tuners, screwed neck in and installed bridge.
The neck J pup is going to be a bit too wide but the E and G strings will still be over the magnets so I think I'll keep it this way.
I tested setting the neck j pup slanted but I don't like the look of it too much.

It looks likethe E and A strings tuners holes are too far in the headstock, they try to pull the nut toward the treble side.
Do you guys think that will work? When I apply tension to the strings the nut doesn't slide as much but I'm wondering if that is going to cause trouble?
I don't really want to plug and redrill as I am planning a clean finish...https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...a29b9b699a.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...e8e92a240b.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...38b2a00836.jpg

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Hi Fred, agree that angle from nut to E tuner is quite pronounced whilst the others look ok.

I bought a couple of these Hipshot string retainers on eBay and fitted one to my J Bass as the break angle from Nut to A tuner was too flat and it tended to jump out of the nut slot. Spare one to be fitted on the current MMB-4 build when I get around to installing hardware.

They work really well and would provide enough downward pressure to keep Nut where it belongs. Mind you, I have replaced both Nuts with DB Bone ones and they are a much tighter fit in the fret board groove.

Attachment 22673Attachment 22674

Should also mention the chrome is not very thick and chipped a bit off quite easily which made me suspect chromed plastic but on closer inspection probably some coated mystery metal instead but still does the job.

Thanks for that Waz, I'm going to check these out.

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