H's JBA-4 Fretless

[UpperCaseH]

Thank you!

Andy, I'm intending to sand back a bit more, but will probably allow the timbermate to keep darkening the non-grain parts a little. Instead of planning this one out like I did the Tele I'm trying to let myself be guided a bit by how it progresses, if that makes sense. Maybe a step towards getting a bit more creative with this stuff.

I'm leaning pretty hard towards the Nullarbor Ochre after looking through previous GOTM threads last night.

Fuzzbeard's STA-1 and this tele (I'm sorry, I can't remember who built it) are both in NO have a pretty nice colour that I think will be cool with black grain, and I'm pretty sure both are ash bodies.




Which brings me to another question. If (it's a big if) I was going to try to find an ash veneer for the headstock, when do I attach that? Before shaping the head? After? Is there anything else to consider besides "glue, clamp, wait, sand"?

[wazkelly]

Great job with the ebony timber mate.

As others have said just sand a bit more to lighten up any parts that are too dark. With the end grain, it is just part of the look and character with using Ash and really stands out once you add some finish. Wouldn't worry about it too much as both front and rear faces are what most people will see.

[wazkelly]

Not sure there are too many suppliers of Ash veneer.....you can always google to find out.

Depending on what colour you intend doing on the back of neck or if leaving clear/natural that might dictate how you do the headstock. On the 3 of mine with Rosewood Fret Boards I used the body colour on the Maple back of neck and all around the headstock and happy with the results. Just need to stop sanding at 240 or maybe even 180 otherwise the maple will not soak up much colour. You can always smooth things out more later on when getting ready to polish.

[UpperCaseH]

Got the speed bumps off!



It was easier than I expected. I heated the first two with a soldering iron and there was no glue smell or bubbling, so I tried the next without, and it didn't seem to make a difference, so I continued without heating.

This is the worst tear-out. I don't think it's too bad.



Plan is cedar timbermate into the gaps. I'm not sure how best to prep for that. I'm planning to mask either side of the cut so no timbermate gets onto the fretboard. Should I try to clean the cuts up first? There's no way the TM will flow out the sides, as there already seems to be some kind of filler in there. Should I carefully scrape/saw that out then mask the sides as well as a dam to try to get the cedar to show up on the sides? How should I go about making sure those little lifted bits of fretboard stay on?



I asked Karl here, but all he said was "walk time?"

[wazkelly]

Looks like what happened on mine too.

Best to give the FB a light sand with 240 as there will be a few raised edges to knock down. If you want to see the filler on the edge of the FB suggest using a stanley knife or box cutter blade to gently scrape out and open up that part of the slot. Once prep has all been done, tape up the back of neck and Fret Board to prevent the TM going everywhere. When it has cured, about 24 hours later, you can peel off the masking tape and very lightly sand it smooth, including edges of the Fret Board. On mine, reapplied masking tape on edges of FB so that it acted like a dam to prevent the CA glue running down the edges and when doing final polish used DT wax on those edges as trying to use the CA stuff was just too hard on those curved edges.

Here are a couple of shots, one before and another after applying the timber mate.

[UpperCaseH]

Thanks! That's pretty much what I had in mind for the tape. I think I'll leave the existing filler that's in there and keep the edges of the fretboard all the same colour. How did you prevent the tape lifting the pieces of fretboard that have come up a bit but not actually torn right out? Or didn't you? If not, did the CA fill in the little holes that left, or was it the timbermate? I guess it wouldn't be a problem with epoxy since that'll fill it anyway.

I'm still deciding between CA and epoxy. I'm going out to Carbatec today or tomorrow to have a look around since I've never been and I need some sandpaper and stuff, so I'll see if they have any epoxy and then try to make a decision.

Edit for a question I just thought of: I'm going to make the neck as flat as possible once the filling and light sanding is done, before I finish the fretboard. If I adjust the truss rod after that, is it going to crack a CA or epoxy finish, or is the adjustment too small for that happen?

[wazkelly]

G'day H, with the truss rod the neck will change shape once under load therefore a little forward bow, not much, could be handy. Frankly, to stop the CA or epoxy running everywhere it would be better to have things dead flat. I even went as far as sanding what little radius there was off the FB too. At this stage I have left it alone to completely settle and as there is plenty of forward bow I will need to slacken it off initially then pull down on the neck to flatten it out and gently tighten up to that point. It already feels too tight and don't want to break anything and did this procedure on one of the others recently to help straighten it out too.

In relation to the Rosewood chipping around removed frets, not much can be done about those and try to keep them well taped up so that you can use the CA or epoxy as both a binder/sealer & filler. I kept some of the small chips but the jigsaw puzzle was too big and complex to bother with. Maybe you could try and peel back from the edge of the FB and across from Low E to High G side very, very slowly for each strip that you have pre cut to fit the fret slots from nut to heel. You do not want to get timber mate in these splintered out bits as that would show up as more colour spread on the face of the FB and look a bit crappy.

[UpperCaseH]

Slot filling.

Taped the fretboard up, then decided that since I can't be neat with this stuff I taped the whole neck and head.


Got the timbermate on. Made it fairly runny so it'd fill the gaps.


Waited for it to dry a bit. Hmm...


Since it doesn't (apparently) shrink as it dries, I assume what's happened is it wasn't runny enough, didn't initially reach the bottom of the slots, and has since sagged down. I guess I'm going over it again. I knew I shouldn't have cleaned everything up yet...

[UpperCaseH]

Hahaha bugger.



Guess I'll lightly sand the fretboard back a little because some of that is bleed-through or poor masking.

Then... I don't know. Maybe I'll borrow a brown pen or texta or marker or something from the mrs, push a ruler up against the line, and try to colour over all the bits that aren't covered by the ruler.

[wazkelly]

Hi mate, the bleed looks a bit more like timber mate finding it's way into the splintered out bits of rosewood fret board that came away when extracting the frets. Similar thing happened on mine too and agree that localised light sanding should take most of it off and then you can give the whole FB a similar light sand all over to smooth out any other parts that were not so obvious. Not sure how deep those block fret markers go but you should be able to get away with a decent sand with a very fine grit. If too coarse that will introduce scratches to the block fret markers.

Colour looks good and presume you are happy with the outcome? Hard to pick end result from colour charts, samples in store, or looking at the stuff in the pot before applying but that should look even better once covered in CA or epoxy.