Rob's JB-5RF

[ThreeBbass]

Not being a native fretless instrument player I decided that I needed to be able to see where to put my fingers, but didn't want to put fretlines on the neck ...

I had a look around to see what others had done and found a couple of examples that I liked where the fret positions were marked on the side of the neck ...



Cool ... I decided to do something similar

1st thing was to work out exactly where the marks needed to be. I found a couple of different websites that had fret scale calculators (eg: http://www.stewmac.com/FretCalculator) and using the 34" scale got the same dimensions on all of them.

I compared this to another 34" scale bass that I have and the measurements were right (measure twice, cut once!)

I then marked up the neck and found that the guys in the factory had put the inlays in the side of the neck in the wrong places. I thought it must have been me, but after trying to re-calculate where the dots should be positioned using different scales (like 33.5" etc) and comparing with other instruments I'm pretty sure now that they're just in the wrong places.



Got my new Dremel out and using a fine tool I cut indentations along the neck and then filled them with Timbermate. Then sanded it all back to make it smooth.



Pretty happy with the result ... just have to decide what to do about the inlays that're still there - or just leave them. Wondering if the fix may end up being more trouble and look bad ... any suggestions welcome!!

[pablopepper]

If you can find some similarly dark wood and make very fine sawdust, you could drill those fret markers out and fill the holes with the sawdust and thin superglue. It might also be a good idea to use superglue on the timbermate lines (which look tremendous btw) to harden them up and make sure they don't chip out over time.

[ThreeBbass]

If you can find some similarly dark wood and make very fine sawdust, you could drill those fret markers out and fill the holes with the sawdust and thin superglue. It might also be a good idea to use superglue on the timbermate lines (which look tremendous btw) to harden them up and make sure they don't chip out over time.

thanks for the advice papblopepper ... I'll give it a try.

[ThreeBbass]

Another productive weekend ...

Part of my plan for this build was to look at what to do with the scratch plate. I was thinking about replacing the plastic one that comes with the kit with something made from a contrasting wood instead. I looked on eBay and found a mob in the US that make them from a number of materials and found that they made a 5 string Jazz scratch plate from walnut that looked like the sort of thing I was thinking of.


I was also thinking that inlaying the scratchplate and not just screwing it onto the body might be a great thing to do, so I asked them if they'd make me a custom one without screw holes or bevelled edges. They were happy to (probably less work for them anyway!)

Once it arrived I traced the outline of it onto the body using a stanley knife and then routed out the shape using my father's day present (Dremel from the kids!)



It took a bit of mucking around to get the scratchplate to fix perfectly into the hole ... needless to say, it wasn't perfect 'cause it's the first time I've tried this! I glued the plate in place and clamped it overnight ...


Next morning I took the clamps off and was pretty happy with the result ... the plate was sitting a little above the body, and there were a couple of places where there were gaps around the plate.


I grabbed the Timbermate and filled the gaps and let it dry. I then got the sander out and used some 400 grade paper to get the plate down to the same level as the body. I'm pretty happy with the outcome ...

[vh2580]

The inset pickguard looks awesome. Nicely done

[andrewdosborne]

That's just brilliant love it

Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

[ThreeBbass]

The plate is flush with the body ... now wondering if I should also cut a recess for the control plate and make it flush with the body too ...


I'm planning on finishing the body using DingoTone colourless ... hoping that it'll pick the grain in the different woods and make it look great. The colourless DingoTone finish on the neck is really nice, so hoping to get the same sort of look on the body.

[FrankenWashie]

The plate is flush with the body ... now wondering if I should also cut a recess for the control plate and make it flush with the body too ...


I'm planning on finishing the body using DingoTone colourless ... hoping that it'll pick the grain in the different woods and make it look great. The colourless DingoTone finish on the neck is really nice, so hoping to get the same sort of look on the body.

This is just out and out WOod Porn dude....too cool!

[Dedman]

bravo man, that's great!

[wazkelly]

What a great idea and it looks good too.

Definitely agree that the control plate will now need to be recessed too otherwise it would look odd sitting on top.

Suggest tracing around the edge with a pencil rather than your Stanley knife and just dremel to the inner edge of the line to avoid any more timber mate filling.