YB-4 'Bad Girl'

[WeirdBits]

I mentioned in my first post that the body had some chattering/tearing issues on the back, this is the worst of them but there are several other lesser ones.



Normally, a good heavy sanding would clean up most of them but the one above was too deep. The complicating issue is that I can't afford to sand away endlessly even a 1mm or 2 would mean the cavity cover have to be recessed further which would probably mean my switch block would no longer fit above the pots. So, in the end I wicked in some glue to the above tear and will touch up with timbermate later.

It took a ton of sanding up through the grits to get rid of all the machine marks on the sides of the body, as there were some really rough spots. The end grain is always the worst and there were some very deep lines near where the strap button goes on the tail. Eventually I moved up to 240 grit all over.







cont.

[WeirdBits]

Time for some timbermate touch-ups. For this build I decided not to grain fill all over, but instead just fill any questionable areas like the old ground wire hole plug, bridge pup lugs, the body seam and tearing on the back of the body.

I find a mix of Pine and Natural Timbermate makes a good colour match for basswood, particularly when staining.







Once that was dry I sanded again with 240 and then up to 320 grit.

cont.

[WeirdBits]

Body is fully prepped and ready for some colour, so it's time to set it up for the painting rig. Basically, an arm/shaft that is bolted into the neck pocket while allowing full access around the pocket.





This then slots into my rotating painting socket that's held in a vice.









cont.

[WeirdBits]

Time for some colour.

When I first purchased this kit I also purchased Wudtone Dark Tease to go with it, as that's the colour I envisioned. That bottle of stain has been sitting unopened, sealed in a zip lock bag, in my ammo crate finish locker under my work bench on the large concrete slab that is the floor of workshop and double-garage. That seems to keep things at a nice stable temp and extend the life of finishes somewhat, but that's still over three years and waaaaay out of date I wasn't sure if it would still be usable. It's a dark bottle so I gave it a lot of shaking and a test on some ply, it looked ok.

1st coat of three year old Wudtone Dark Tease. I started with a heavy application in the pup routs to reassure myself it was going to work.










cont.

[WeirdBits]

Fat dotted girls, you make the rockin' world go round…

I had some 8mm white MOP dots that I would be unlikely to ever use on a guitar, so I figured a 24 fret bass would probably be my best chance. Why not. I thought I'd be happy enough just trusting in the position of the existing 6mm dots and just drill the new dots holes directly over them. As such, I drilled some small guides and radiused them to match the fretboard.



The plan being to double-sided tape them in place and then drill with an 8mm forstner.



However, the first hole at the 3rd fret showed not only how far out the 6mm dots were but that the 8mm over the top just further emphasised how far out of whack they were…. I couldn't live with it. I grabbed some rosewood headboard and cut a plug to fill my newly drilled 8mm fretboard hole and glued it in with black super glue (black for a reason).



After that I measured the position for each dot, marked, double-checked and then carefully drilled the 8mm hole to depth. In a few spots the new holes only just covered the out of alignment old dots. The forstner bit left a slight hump in the middle of the holes so a touch of dressing was required, as it messed with the depth for the dots. More work, but eventually I was able to glue and press the dots in for a nice clean fit.




cont.

[WeirdBits]

There were a few weird dents and score marks on the back of the neck, so I did a bit of steaming to get the worst of them out.





The scarf has a bit of unsightly fill, but I really didn't want to mess with it so I'm leaving it as is.




cont.

[WeirdBits]

5 days drying and then a light rub with 0000 steel wool and the body got it's second coat of Dark Tease.









That upper edge of the body is my favourite, I love the way the colour is working with the grain.


cont.

[WeirdBits]

If I'm replacing the fretboard dots I may as well do the side dots with white MOP too. I had to fudge the position of the new dot holes in a couple of places, otherwise they wouldn't have covered the old plastic dots which weren't always in the right spot.





Taped up, black super glue, and dots at the ready.





All done.




cont.

[WeirdBits]

Time to finish up the fat dots. Some lengths of masking tape stacked on top of each other and then drilled through with a sharp 8mm brad point to act as guards for the fretboard so that I could use a file to rough down the radius on the dots.



The initial radiusing revealed a flaw on the 15th fret dot that was previously hidden. My first reaction was to drill it out and replace but the shape grew on me so I decided to leave it.



Final cleanup of the new dots and then a scrape and fine sand of the fretboard up to 1500 grit.



I seated a few frets, touched up the ends, and then it was time to level. Fret rocker to find the high points, marked with black, and then everything else gets red.



12" radius sanding block until the black is gone and the red is just touched.




cont.

[WeirdBits]

Re-crowning the frets, worth the investment in a good tool.



Sanding up through the grits and then a final polish with 0000 steel wool.



I then sanded the back of neck up through the grits to 400, but stopped at 240 for the headstock face.


Time for some inlay.

First step is to print out the pattern on standard A4, cut to size and then paint with brush-on super glue. This toughens up the pattern and makes it much easier when routing.



Position and mark where you want the pattern.



Paint the area with liquid paper! This provides a surface you can glue the pattern onto, but can be removed without leaving a residue (in my experience).




cont.