The JBA - 4 Begins.

[ozzbike]

nice looking kit and upgrades Ozz, think I put those pups in my JB. You going active ?

Nah...not active...but considering dropping in a push pull pot to allow series/parallel switching of the pickups.

[Keith Walters]

Today,

I searched some threads and found the Jazz Bass build of Keith Walters....

http://www.buildyourownguitar.com.au...ead.php?t=7260

So I am thinking of trying a version of this approach. I think the Ash body would look great with a Cedar Colour from U-Beaut Stains...and I have a small bottle of color-tone Vintage Amber that I think will look wicked on the neck.

I jumped over to Feast Watson site and checked out their write up on the products for sealing porous wood.....hmmmm

Sanding Sealer......

http://www.feastwatson.com.au/consum...t-details/1504

The Fine Buffing oil.....

http://www.feastwatson.com.au/consum...t-details/1526

I have noticed that my colour laser printer is not printing as dark and dense as it did in the past on my water slide decal paper. Just wondering where people get their paper from? Maybe I should try a different supplier. Any suggestions will be diligently assessed.

I have names for all my guitars.....an Ash body Jazz Bass will have to think about this for a little. I already have a Jazzmaster called "Jezzebell." So she will be a dark brown colour with a lot of wood grain showing through......mmmm........Perhaps...."Jazzmine."

I'm sure the manufacturers of these products are more than willing to offer you all sorts of "helpful" add-ons and doo-dads to supposedly improve your finished product. However all I used was the fine rubbing oil applied with 0000 steel wool, followed by Gilly Stephenson's Cabinet makers wax, and I can't really see how the finish could have been improved by using anything else. If you just spend 30 minutes or so on it each evening you'll have it done in no time; there's no mess or cleanup involved and it just smells like furniture polish.
Concerns about being able to finish the woodwork is one of the biggest impediments to people building these kits; being able to do the job on an ordinary kitchen table is obviously going to be more encouraging to people with limited facilities.
As I mentioned in another thread, I'm about to start building a strat copy, and I'm going to try using dyes from an inkjet refill kit to do the staining. In my experience, if that stuff gets spilled on unpainted wood, it's damned near impossible to remove, and you can mix it to an infinite variety of colours.
My current scheme is to have a "sunburst" type finish with green edges and yellow centre with some wattle leaves and flowers carved into the body.

If it all works out I was thinking of "inlaying" a valve into the woodwork with an orange LED to make it look like the heater is working, like I've done with this "steampunk" USB drive:

[ozzbike]

Thanks for the reply Keith.....love the USB drive...may have to get some cabinetmakers wax.

With the fine buffing oil......how many coats did you do? Did you wait until the oil was all done to put the wax on then....as I would expect....if so...how many coats of this stuff?

I fully intend to grab the ash grain and drag it out of the body with ebony timbermate....and then some cedar colour stain from U Beaut.

Did you use sanding sealer on your body? If so at what stage....before or after any colour.

Thanks and Merry Xmas.

[Keith Walters]

I just did seven coats of buffing oil, that is 30 minutes each evening for a week, followed by another week using the furniture polish.
No sealer, no pre-sanding.
I first did a trial run on the area that's covered by the scratch plate, and it was obvious after a couple of days that it was going to work.
Actually, the maple on the neck is what takes most of the work; with the body probably 3-4 coats of each would be enough.
You basically just work it in with the 0000 steel wool for about 20 minutes, let it dry for another 10 or so, then give it a quick rubdown with a soft cloth. It's more like polishing a piece of furniture than painting.
I didn't do any staining because Fender actually make guitars with a finish that looks like mine.
To do the green/yellow sunburst thing, my scheme is to first brush the body down with a fairly weak solution of yellow inkjet dye, and then rub the edges with cyan dye, which should produce green. Needless to say, I'll try this with a piece of scrap wood first!

[ozzbike]

Thanks for the info Keith......I hope the printer ink works out well for you.

[ozzbike]

I think I got a good shape on the headstock.....found a full size PDF somewhere.

The Ash body has so many hooks bumps and spikes compared to Basswood.

I decided on and did use only one coat of Baltic pore filler on the neck, and walnut pore filler on the body.

Both came up very nice.

Big fail time.....the Feast Watson sanding sealer went on so well....glad I only did one coat though.....dry overnight....sanded 240 grit. Stuff is like soft plastic or a gummy wax.....funny finish to it.

Dust off....time for stain....Colortone Vintage Amber at correct StewMac dilution ratio....barely went in....light yellow tint.

U Beaut Cedar stain at a decent concentration made such a mess.....not happy Jan.

I think it is time to let dry.....sand to 120....pore fill again....180 grit dust off....then light shellac coat x 2 to even the finish....particularly on the end grain.....then try the stain again.

Still going to try the Fine Buffing Oil finish as opposed to Tru Oil or wipe on poly. But it seems our traditional body prep here just works. Nice to know. 😎

[ozzbike]

That stuff was so waxy it formed globs on paper even after a number of days drying. Wow.

Thank you to the gods of guitar building it all came off. Some work today...and then this afternoon the timbermate begins again. Walnut for the body and Baltic for the neck.

I hopefully will not be too embarrassed to post photos this time.

[wazkelly]

Hi Ozzie, good to hear the crap eventually came off. Wet sanding may have been a way of preventing sand paper from clogging up. I had a similar issue on the Swampy Tele and that was the only to fix things without using a full box of sandpaper.

[ozzbike]

Waz...I got it all off...and did the process again 80 girt, 120 grit, pore filler, 180 grit....on the neck 3 x damp and sand at 240...not so on the body.

Well still wet...but here are some piccies of the neck and body after stain applied and finish coat x 1 has been applied.

Neck...Vintage Amber colortone dye. One soak coat of Tru Oil applied.

Body...Cedar U Beat stain. One coat of Feast Watson Fine Buffing Oil applied with 0000 steel wool.

Love the neck...the body is okay...see how we go with more coats.

First ASH body....love the grain.

[Guvna19]

Looking Good Ozz !