First build: JBA-4M bass

[dozymuppet]

Awesome, thanks Simon.

[dozymuppet]

Progress over the weekend: Ebony grain filler, sanded back. Wasn't really sure where I was going to go with finishing on this until I could see if the grain would pop at all. Now that I've seen it, I'm pretty sure I'll go for a stain. I was looking at the Dingotone Nullarbor Ochre, but it's out of stock, so looking for other options.



Also, I'm wondering if I should take the same approach on the maple neck, or if that will be too much of a contrast with the ash body.

[Simon Barden]

The maple is closed-pore, as opposed to open-pored ash, so won't really have any small holes to accept grain filler. You are likely to simply tint the whole neck the grain filler colour. If the neck has any figuring - flame or quilt or birds-eye etc, then the figure will absorb more of any stain than the plain wood will, and could make it pop more, but you'll need to sand back and really add another stain over the top as the darker stain will just make the maple look dirty.

TBH I'd avoid it, and maybe just tint the neck a bit if it's on the pale side.

[dozymuppet]

Yeah, I was wondering about that. There is a bit of nice grain in the neck though.


When you say "tint", what do you mean? Darken the stain on the neck specifically?

[Simon Barden]

Just a light amber colour for the neck. Any clear finish will normally add a bit of depth to the look, but that is a fairly pale neck.

[dozymuppet]

Gotcha. Thanks again.

[dozymuppet]

A lot of progress made over the weekend.

Two coats of Birchwood Casey Walnut Stain over the ebony grain fill (the stain is water-based, so obviously some of the grain raised...). Two coats of Birchwood Casey Sealer & Filler (clear), which was very delicately sanded-back over the curves to deal with the raised grain. Then the first coat of Tru-Oil down. Really happy with the early results.



Also did a bunch of fret-levelling work, and fretboard sanding. First coat of Tru-oil went over the whole neck. I decided against any staining of the neck, as I didn't want it to look dirty (as Simon suggested, and validated by a couple of google searches).

[dozymuppet]

Not much to see right now, but on the weekend I fell to impatience and said "yeah, that's enough, I just want to build it now". So after only 4 or 5 coats of Tru-oil, I attached the neck and body and was thinking it was looking pretty good. Surely I can partially put it together now and let it cure.



But I only had to look at it at the right/wrong angle, for me to realise some more patience was required. I'm now on to about the 11th coat, and so glad I saw the error of my ways.

Trying very hard not to slip and buy a 2nd kit to keep me busy during waiting periods...

[BigDaddy]

Black hardware is going to look killer with that colour/grain fill combination. Nice job.

[DarkMatterResist]

Looking good .... Hows it progressing?