Paulownia Precision

[fender3x]

I’m not sure how well that stuff would work on good wood. Rotten wood is easy to
penetrate, but good wood less so. You can but try.

Yeah, I am not sure either. Paulownia is very porous, but I have my doubts too. In any case, it's a moot point for this build.

[fender3x]

I’m not sure how well that stuff would work on good wood. Rotten wood is easy to
penetrate, but good wood less so. You can but try.

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.

[dozymuppet]

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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[McCreed]

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.

Or you could buy a harder timber to start with...

[fender3x]

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.

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.

Or you could buy a harder timber to start with...

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.

[McCreed]

Are you familiar with the old saying "too soon old, too late smart"?

All too familiar with the concept...

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!

[Rabbit]

All too familiar with the concept...

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!

You could always go with a Steve Harris style strap .

[fender3x]

You could always go with a Steve Harris style strap .

Had too look up what Steve Harris uses. I am guessing that the "sweater" strap is better suited to Northern England to Miami ;-)

[Stuart D]

All too familiar with the concept...

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!

My Pitbull P bass is 5 and bit kilos. Lovely guitar but after about 30 minutes I’ve had enough of wearing it.

[fender3x]

My Pitbull P bass is 5 and bit kilos. Lovely guitar but after about 30 minutes I’ve had enough of wearing it.

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.