I have built a scratchbuilt bass before but this is my first kit. I suspect it will take a while - happy to take time and do it well.
I am so far just at the stage of checking everything and doing mock ups. There are a few glue spots on the veneer. I haven't got any Goof off, but since it is the recommended product for dealing with this I plan to get some, so I will wait and deal with the glue once I have got some. In the meantime I have a few questions. First - I am wanting a transparent cherry red/ruby finish. I have seen colortone dyes in cherry, but they seem very expensive, but also the bottle seems to be enough to do a lot of guitars. Does anyone know of good options in Australia? I am at the moment thinking of doing body, neck and headstock all in the cherry.
Next questions I have photos. If the photos don't show enough then let me know and I'll try and take better ones.
On the top there are a few places where the veneer is scratched. Normally I would just sand it out, but of course with veneer I am a bit scared in case I sand right through. That would look terrible on a transparent finish, but so will the scratches. What is the best way to deal? Do I try and steam it and see if that works? I would have thought steaming won't work on scratches, but I am willing to try.
Next question - the neck fits very well into the pocket sideways, but there is about 0.5 to 1 mm at the end of the pocket where the neck won't go. It is hidden by the fretboard extension, so won't be really visible, but I expect that gap will also weaken the joint. It looks as if the radius of the corners of the neck and the pocket are not quite the same and so it doesn't fit in properly. The neck needs to be a wider radius or the pocket a smaller radius on the curve. The instructions say to adjust the pocket always rather than the neck but in this case it is going to be easy to lightly sand the corners of the neck to fit properly whereas doing the corners of the pocket means getting out the router and making sure everything alights properly before cutting. Any reason not to just alter the neck slightly in this case?
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