My TB-4 Bass Build

[Simon Barden]

I've never used the Dingotone stuff (and never will as it's Australia-only) but I belive the intensifier coat should help deepen the colour.

As you couldn't see it but it didn't take stain well, the mark could have been a glue smear. You normally only get them on veneered tops, but careless hands at the factory can obviously still leave marks. I suppose the lesson learnt is not to take anything for granted and always check for glue spots on the body if you are staining. You'd normally sand off any surface glue as part of the basic prep work, but some may still remain if it's soaked in or been pressed into the surface during the clamping the body pieces together process.

[lunaticds]

I've never used the Dingotone stuff (and never will as it's Australia-only) but I belive the intensifier coat should help deepen the colour.

As you couldn't see it but it didn't take stain well, the mark could have been a glue smear. You normally only get them on veneered tops, but careless hands at the factory can obviously still leave marks. I suppose the lesson learnt is not to take anything for granted and always check for glue spots on the body if you are staining. You'd normally sand off any surface glue as part of the basic prep work, but some may still remain if it's soaked in or been pressed into the surface during the clamping the body pieces together process.

It was on there pretty well. I'd run 4 grades of sand paper pretty hard over the whole body. I spotted the filled cracks at the bottom early on - one that I was able to mostly sand out, and the other I was able to clean up the excess, but the gap its filled stands out a bit. Having discovered that early, I was looking around for any other signs of glue but didn't see any where that was. I even wound up hitting it again once I discovered it but didn't seem to make much difference.
Hardly the end of the world I guess.
Biggest concern is whether I'm going to be able to get some black stump stain into it later.. it dawned on me after I started that I probably should do the whole lot at once, but I don't have the black stump yet. Time will tell I guess. With a bit of luck it'll be here by Tuesday.

[lunaticds]

It got the better of me and I decided to make a rig to hold up the TB-4 in the house so its warm. I went over a few spots with a little more of the Dingotone just to darken them a little more. There are some random spots a little lighter than others, but not much I can do about that now.


I've been tossing up whether or not I really want to run a burst around the edges now. The red has a real "bloody" look to it which I'm sure will either vanish or stand out even more when I put the intensifier. Giving it a burst almost starts to feel like it's "expected" for a Thunderbird style, so doing something "different" feels like something I should be doing.

I've also created my own truss rod cover for it. Basically the same as the OEM one except it has TR-IV standing up in the Jurassic Park font. I'm calling this the Thunderaptor.. kinda lame, yet trying to stick with the "thunderbird" concept. The velocoraptor is after all related to birds, so it kinda fits. It's a little fiddly given the size and detail, so currently waiting to see how it dries with a coat of paint over it.

[lunaticds]

This is the Thunderaptors truss rod cover. It doesn't look quite so messy when you're actually looking at it. The paint is less than perfect, but it's hard to get right around such fine detail. I don't think I could get any finder print with using a resin printer or getting someone to etch it. I think it'll be one of those it'll do until it irritates me things.