My First Builds - IB-6S Bass and LPA-7 Guitar

[P2ych0178]

Nice grain on both kits. Almost a shame to hide them under dark colours.

With the height difference where neck is slightly lower....DO NOT SAND THE VENEERS....they are thinner than paper and it wouldn't take much to sand right through as many forum members have discovered the hard way. Best to wait until final setup to see how things are as once you put some coats of finish on the neck heel that may just solve height issues perhaps. If not a shim under the neck may be required but you may also discover the issue could be cosmetic and that fretboard height is more important in relation to bridge saddle heights and thus achieving a decent low action. Changing one thing because it doesn't look right can often have ripple effects and best to check all those things out on the final assembly and setup stage. Likewise, neck bow, as a fiver does generate a lot of tension and best to make any truss rod adjustments under tension and at proper pitch.

2 on the go at once is lots of fun which is how most of mine were done. Ensures you always have a build to work on.

Good luck and will be keenly watching how things progress.

Cheers, Waz

Just after sanding the veneer on the body and I think it's looking pretty good (gradually worked my way up to 400 grit). There's one or two slight bumps in the veneer but I got a clear filler with the stain that should help me smooth out those VERY minor imperfections.

And yeah, it's not that the neck is high? More that it sits a little lower at the base. I put a 2cm*1cm piece of paper folded twice over at that corner and it lines up perfectly but that affects strings. Will just have to wait and see what works best when it's finished and fully strung =)

And on the dark stains - I very much appreciate what you're saying. I thought that having the gold and silver tints in the stains might help bring the grain back out in the wood. Adam sent me a pic of a similar bass finish in much the same way and I thought it looked pretty sweet. I'm considering whether to maybe stain the top of the LP a lighter colour. It's looking pretty epic in the almost-white it currently has! =D

Sanded veneer:-



Example of Columbian Gold stain:-

[P2ych0178]

And Thanks Simon for the advice on the nut!

I went looking and the closest nut they have is longer than mine. However, it says E-to-e spacing is exactly the same. Any chance that for a 7-string, that actually means B-e spacing? As I could then maybe chop the sides of the nut to make it fit. I'll see if I can find a way of messaging them to find out =)