Fred's IB-5

[FredA]

I got the grain filling done. I loved how the ebony timbermate made the grain pop on my STA1M, so I used the same process for this one.

Photos with ebony grain filler just dried:


And sanded:


And just for comparison sake here's a photo of the back before grain filling:

[FredA]

I was then ready to start staining, so I started applying the Dingotone Dark Walnut stain today:




I like it!
It's not dark enough yet, but I'm planning to stain the neck, and then pretty much finish the stain bottle on the body and neck.

I want the neck to be a bit darker than the body, but the neck maple is actually lighter than the ash of the body, so I'm considering staining the neck with the black colortone I've got left from the STA1M.

Anyone knows of any issues with using Dingotone over colortone?

[wokkaboy]

Hi Fred, that walnut stain looks wicked. I ebony grain filled a 7 string iceman yesterday and it looks great on ash.
Keep up the good work Fred
Think CT and DT should be compatible, test a bit on some scrap wood

[gavinturner]

Looking awesome! Love how the grain has popped. These bass bodies really do look spectacular in these brown colours. Great job!

cheers,
Gav.

[FredA]

Thanks guys.
I've done a test run on a small bit of maple left from the other guitars headstock and the DT didn't seem bothered.
In the meantime I've grain filled the face of the headstock as I want to spray it gloss black. So much for the 'all natural' concept... But I reckon a solid black headstock will look better.
We'll see.

Sent from my 0PJA10 using Tapatalk

[FredA]

Hey there,
So as mentioned, I sprayed the headstock black, nothing special to notice:


I then stained it black with Colortone:



Looked Okay.

I then applied the first Dingotone coat, using the same walnut stain I got for the body:


I like it, but it is not dark enough, and now quite different from the body colour...
It looks like the neck wasn't accepting the stain too much. It went in and was quite smooth, but the colour didn't pop.

I wonder if it's not because I sanded the neck too thin (I sanded to 800) and that didn't leave enough grain to get the stain.
Any of you guys have come across this before?

I've got another issue/question, this time on the body. After staining the body with 1st Dingotone stain, I've got some pretty visible glue lines. It is where the planks have been glued together. Not messy glue spots, just very straight glue lines where the boards meet.
See:


Any idea on how I could hide /fix these?
I bought the timbermate wax pen from the green shed, and I tried on an offcut, but because it's wax it won't accept any stain or anything oily on top. I'm wondering if I'm not going to use my son's brown colouring pens to try and mask these lines...

Any ideas?
Cheers

[FredA]

After a few days I realised that the colour on the neck was looking pretty sh$$t...
Must be the mix of colortone and Dingotone... It's become all patchy and the walnut colour just didn't take:




So I ordered a custom set of Dingotone from DB, with walnut and black stump stain. I want to try to either mix them before application or just alternate coats of each.
So while I'm waiting on that I got the 180 grit out, and we're almost back to before:


DB advised to try and limit the sanding at 220 before applying the stain coat, so after I had it cleaned with the 180 I gave it a good sand with 220 and we'll try with that when I get my delivery...

[wazkelly]

Hi Fred, with the Orange EX-5 I experimented mixing DT OS & CG by using several eye droppers of each colour into small dishes and then lightly painting onto a scrap piece of pine ply to get an idea of what colour I was after and do not recommend one colour followed by another as the levels of concentration may cancel each other out and just end up very, very dark instead.
Once I figured out the ratio of colours (ended up 3:1) bought some syringes from chemist warehouse and measured 3ml of one colour into a small container and then added 1ml of the other colour. Make sure you shake each individual colour for at least 30 seconds before using and taking sample and also shake combined contents for a further 30 seconds to properly blend the brew. Used same ratios for the intensifier coats too to keep things fairly uniform in colour however ran out of CG and had to touch up some bits with OS which was way darker than the custom brew.

[FredA]

Hi,
Thanks for the tip @wazkelly! Sounds like a good plan, especially for the neck as it looks like the neck maple is a lot harder to stain that the ash body...
I'll do some test once I've received the DTs from Dingobass and I'll post some pictures.
Cheers
Fred

[adam]

Hi Fred, I just caught up with this build diary and wanted to apologise for the many issues with this kit. Seems you've tackled and overcome each one, so well done.

I actually got my first ever negative eBay review (I started my eBay account in 2006!) because of this kit, specifically because the pot routs were too shallow.

These IB-5 kits were from another factory and they really weren't up to scratch. We tried another factory because our regular supplier was taking too long to ship orders.

We've gone back to our original supplier now that they seem to have overcome the delivery issues, so we hope to not see these problems with their IB-5, like the pot routs not being deep enough... which is inexcusable.

Anyway, the build is looking sensational and I can't wait to see it finished.