I got the PC Petrifier today. It's incredibly thin. It looks like skim milk that has been cut water. As feared it just beads up on a finished surface, so it's no good at all for that.
I also tried it on a scrap of bare paulownia. It soaked in nicely and raised the grain. I sanded that off, and will recoat tomorrow, then wait a few days for full curing, as per the directions. I am not really optimistic that it's going to make the wood much harder, but we'll see. I saw a recommendation for new wood to drill 1/8" holes so that it soaks in better. Obviously I am not going to do that.
If slathering it on lberally does not do the trick, I'll try immersing a chunk of paulownia in a plastic bag full of the stuff and leaving it overnight. That would be extravagant with most products, but this stuff was less than $5 for a half pint. At that price, it I could put a guitar body in turkey basting bag with if it looks like it will work.
No help for the current build, but that was expected. It will either be helpful for a future build, or it will contribute to my continuing project to be an object lesson on what not to do.
I tried some of the local equivalent on a scrap piece this weekend as well. It seemed to make a marginal difference. Not enough to bother with for my current project.
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Or you could buy a harder timber to start with...If slathering it on lberally does not do the trick, I'll try immersing a chunk of paulownia in a plastic bag full of the stuff and leaving it overnight. That would be extravagant with most products, but this stuff was less than $5 for a half pint. At that price, it I could put a guitar body in turkey basting bag with if it looks like it will work.
Making the world a better place; one guitar at a time...
That's what I thought yesterday, but I new think that it was not fully cured yesterday. It says on the bottle it can take from 1-3 days to cure. The piece that I "slathered" is much harder today...not maple hard, but much harder. I don't think "dunking" overnight made any appreciable difference. But it made enough of a difference that if I do another paulownia build, I'll definitely use it. Still no use for the current build. The mfg confirmed that it's of no use on finished wood.
Are you familiar with the old saying "too soon old, too late smart"? Between wood hardener and a harder top coat, I am hoping I can get an acceptable p-bass that weighs no more than 7 lbs. If it works for the p-bass, I am considering doing a Jazz body to replace the basswood body on my frankenjazz...to see if I can get it from 9.8 to around 7 lbs.
All too familiar with the concept...Are you familiar with the old saying "too soon old, too late smart"?
I get your point about weight though. 9.8 lbs (4.4 kg) is more than I'd want hanging off my shoulder.
I once owned a '69 LP that weighed 13 lbs! Talk about a boat anchor!
Making the world a better place; one guitar at a time...
I think that's what has put me on the lookout for a lighter bass. I thought chambering might be the thing. Warmoth advertises that it's chambered bodies reduce weight by 25%... but that's 25% of the *body* weight, not the assembled bass weight. At best that brings most chambered basses down into "swamp ash" territory...a reduction of about a pound overall.
By contrast my ES body basses (one from Pit Bull and one from Fret Wire) are MUCH lighter. The assembled basses are around 3.4 kg. My swamp-ash precision weighs in at around 3.9 kg. A Gibson Midtown bass (closest commercial bass to a PB ESB-4) weighs in at around the same as my swamp-ash precision--about a pound less than the PB equivalent. The primary difference? The PB and FW bodies have a paulownia center-block, whereas the Gibson has a maple center-block.
I built the 2nd ES to get a neck and weight that I liked, and it worked pretty well.
I am now trying to get I neck and weight I like with the contoured comfort and simplicity of a P-bass. I think this will work, but I may have to accept the dents.