ok then, some progress in the last couple of days.. or better three steps forward and two steps back.. but still technically moving forward it is....
I have decided that the finish has to go. I am just no happy with what I am getting. Will sand it back and will try a different technique.
Before re-sanding it, I've decided to assemble most of the bass to see what else to expect.
Lined up and drilled the neck, placed the floating bridge, and put the strings in.
The issues that stood out were:
#1 the action is crazy high!! almost 8mm at the 12th fret
#2 the neck pick up is way to high, although at its lowest position (screwed all the way down)
I have taken everything apart and got to work.
In order to lower the action i did some work on the bridge.
I placed some rough sanding paper on the body and sanded the bottom of the bridge over it. This is to maintain the correct curvature (which the kit bridge didn't have by the way).
here prepping for sanding and first shy attempt:
Sanding the bottom of the bridge over the body to maintain the curvature (thanks Tom for the tip!)
and here after I got the hang of it
a digital caliper came handy to keep one eye on how much I was taking off.
I also used a Dremel to take out the part of the bridge over the nuts.
this is the finished bridge: the orange lines on half of the bridge to illustrate the work done, and the arrows to show the string slots i prepared while working on the bridge, will finesse them at some point.
I quickly restrung the bass, didn't measure the string height but it was evident that it was waaay better. The current height is definitely manageable by placing a small shim under the neck.
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