Alright, so where was I? That's right, the fingerboard. So I worked, I think 8 coats of CA glue onto the maple with the back of sandpaper as a squeegie to spread it. The first 4 coats were with thin glue, then the final 4 were with medium body Titebond CA. I learned several valuable lessons doing this. First was not to do it without shoes on! I stepped in a drop and didn't know until I felt my toe burning. By the time I got to it, it was cured and I had to cut off the sock. Had a piece of sock stuck to me for several hours! Doh! My other lesson, and one I feel the need to share, as I had to learn the hard way, is that each layer HAS to be sanded flat before the application of the next coat. If you are impatient (like me), you'll think that the glue should fill the voids in the previous coat cleanly. Instead, it leaves little white, cloudy spots that can only be removed by sanding them out, back to the layer they were originally on. One other lesson I will share is that using the CA activator always left it white and crusty and created more sanding. I decided to let it air dry which took a while. I ended up sanding through to bare wood at the nut that I then had to restain. I had used up all my original amber color mix and had to reformulate to touch up. It wasn't 100% matched but close enough. I made extra this time! Finally decided to drop fill CA on my bare wood spots and use Dan Erlewine's razor blade technique before final sanding. I then worked through the sanding grits; 400, 600, 800, 1200, 1500, 2000. Then used the Stewmac sanding pad set and worked up to 4000 grit. Looks like glass! Back to the body: after waiting for my spray poly finish to cure for 30 days, I noticed it had yellowed turning the body a bit green. I wasn't satisfied and liked my neck finish so much that I decided to sand the body back and in doing so, had to sand back to wood. Doh! Then the rain started... and continued... for another month. I waited for the humidity to drop below 60%. It didn't, so I shifted gears. I was internet buying black hardware and bought a black three hole control plate without measuring because (doh!) and it was too large for the body. Finding a black pickguard was proving difficult/expensive so I bought a piece of birch plywood and cut out a pickguard and control plate. I ordered some black lacquer. Figured while I was at it, I'd order some blush eraser. This was a game changer! The blush eraser allowed me to finish the finish without having to wait for this place to dry out (Virginia, USA). I would highly recommend the stuff if you are in a humid area, just go with light a mist/fog and let it dry somewhere away from humidity. I dried mine in a small bathroom with the AC running and took the dogs outside to avoid the fumes. I stained the pickguard like I had done the body and neck and then sprayed a black lacquer burst around the edges. Finally got several coats of lacquer on the body, pickguard and control plate and sanded all up to 1200 grit. I then finished everything but the fingerboard with colortone buffing compounds (medium, fine) and brought it to a shiny hand polish. Then used a buffing pad on my orbital sander with the Colortone swirl remover. Finally got it put together and it is already louder than my other basses without the electronics! Now I need to wire it up and it should be done. I'll get some pics uploaded soon.
Some body shots after spraying on poly, that I later had to undo. Also, the fingerboard before CA. Another lesson of note: My first application, I used a paint stick wrapped in plastic as a nut slot dam. Yeah, didn't work. Had to file out the slot and was looking around for fret dam material. In reading, I learned that cyanoacrylate won't adhere to HDPE. I got a milk jug from my recycle bin and cut out a rectangle and folded it lengthwise. Stuck it in the slot and it worked like a charm!
Since this started as a fretted kit, it turned out the fretless neck I ordered from Pitbull was a couple inches shorter than the kit neck. I had to move the bridge back to compensate, exposing the bridge ground hole. I guess I'm going to eventually put in a bridge pickup to get rid of the holes. That will be a future mod. Maybe a soapbar? Jazz? Another MM style? Haven't yet decided. I just got the 12" 1/8 bit to drill for the new position, just haven't drilled it yet.
I hand sprayed a black burst on the back of the neck to clean up the division between neck and fingerboard. I masked the maple, then laid the neck on my trash can lid and sprayed diagonally down and horizontally. This resulted in a pretty good burst. I then sprayed from the heel to blend it.
I made the rookie mistake of carving my headstock before receiving the tuners. So I decided to angle them slightly. I just liked the look of them lined up in the back. This thing sounds good already!
And this is where I am now. The black neck plate I bought had smaller screws than the original chrome neck screws. I filled the neck holes with skewers and glue and re drilled. I think I might go back and re plug with maple. The neck now shifts position under pressure. I have to line it up visually against the strings (LaBella Tapewounds, by the way). I have heard it is better to have the holes in the body larger than the screws so they don't bind and you get a flush fit, but it seems it allows a bit of play, even with the screws tightened. I am debating making a 45° drill jig to countersink the neck/body joint with 2 screws (a la Billy Sheehan's Yamaha Attitude bass), or trying to hunt down the larger sized screws in black. Other than that, I just need to solder. My friend is going to show me how, just need to coordinate a time. My final upgrade (for now): a Bartolini classic MM4CBC! Thanks to all on this forum for your help! Even if you didn't directly contribute, I have learned a lot reading the posts and I plan to post more. Now if you'll excuse me, I've been on the computer too long. I have a new bass to practice!
After staring at it on the wall for a while, I noticed I had not leveled the nitro properly and had low spots. I had to disassemble it to drill the bridge ground wire hole anyway and so I decided to knock everything down and re polish. Sanded the puffiness out of the pick guard and worked on the getting the body level. Started w/ 800 grit and went to 1200. Got the body looking good and was getting ready for final buffing and polishing. I set it down on the couch for about 20 minutes while I buffed the pick guard. There was a towel under it and for some reason I can't figure, the towel left a texture pattern on the back. Nothing was on the towel and the finish was cured, or so I thought. Tried sanding more, but looks like it was down to bare wood! @#$%^&*!!! two more coats of lacquer on the back (not doing the front and sides, they're done) and now I wait for the finish to cure again before sanding and buffing.
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