Cool! More than one project is always more fun!
Cool! More than one project is always more fun!
The TB-4 arrived today... just in time for the lockdown to kick into high gear.
Everything looks OK. A couple of annoying cracks that have been glued up on the base that no amount of sanding will get rid of it seems. Stands out a bit but anyway. There's also a weird mark between the pickups that I couldn't see sanding but is there when I stained it. Hoping a strategically placed decal will help fend that off.
The Karijini red is an interesting colour. A little lighter than I thought and doesn't get as dark as I'd hoped. It's currently drying in the shed, so I expect that'll be a few days given the lack of warmth. If I hadn't been in a mad rush this morning, I should have grabbed a cheap box heater to add a bit of warmth and see if I could help this along a bit.
Everything else in the kit was as expected. The OEM tuners and the gold Grovers are already on eBay for sale. I've got a nice new set of black Gotohs for the job. I was glad to see that the pickguard screws weren't pre-drilled.. that can get tossed in the parts box.
It'd really didn't dawn on me to take a photo when I did the mock build. Anyway, pics when I get there.
I've never used the Dingotone stuff (and never will as it's Australia-only) but I belive the intensifier coat should help deepen the colour.
As you couldn't see it but it didn't take stain well, the mark could have been a glue smear. You normally only get them on veneered tops, but careless hands at the factory can obviously still leave marks. I suppose the lesson learnt is not to take anything for granted and always check for glue spots on the body if you are staining. You'd normally sand off any surface glue as part of the basic prep work, but some may still remain if it's soaked in or been pressed into the surface during the clamping the body pieces together process.
It was on there pretty well. I'd run 4 grades of sand paper pretty hard over the whole body. I spotted the filled cracks at the bottom early on - one that I was able to mostly sand out, and the other I was able to clean up the excess, but the gap its filled stands out a bit. Having discovered that early, I was looking around for any other signs of glue but didn't see any where that was. I even wound up hitting it again once I discovered it but didn't seem to make much difference.Originally Posted by Simon Barden
Hardly the end of the world I guess.
Biggest concern is whether I'm going to be able to get some black stump stain into it later.. it dawned on me after I started that I probably should do the whole lot at once, but I don't have the black stump yet. Time will tell I guess. With a bit of luck it'll be here by Tuesday.
It got the better of me and I decided to make a rig to hold up the TB-4 in the house so its warm. I went over a few spots with a little more of the Dingotone just to darken them a little more. There are some random spots a little lighter than others, but not much I can do about that now.
I've been tossing up whether or not I really want to run a burst around the edges now. The red has a real "bloody" look to it which I'm sure will either vanish or stand out even more when I put the intensifier. Giving it a burst almost starts to feel like it's "expected" for a Thunderbird style, so doing something "different" feels like something I should be doing.
I've also created my own truss rod cover for it. Basically the same as the OEM one except it has TR-IV standing up in the Jurassic Park font. I'm calling this the Thunderaptor.. kinda lame, yet trying to stick with the "thunderbird" concept. The velocoraptor is after all related to birds, so it kinda fits. It's a little fiddly given the size and detail, so currently waiting to see how it dries with a coat of paint over it.
This is the Thunderaptors truss rod cover. It doesn't look quite so messy when you're actually looking at it. The paint is less than perfect, but it's hard to get right around such fine detail. I don't think I could get any finder print with using a resin printer or getting someone to etch it. I think it'll be one of those it'll do until it irritates me things.
I think it looks great. Has a definite hand-cast metal look about it.
Printed the cover with the text added. Scraped the crap out of it with a jewelers flat head just to clean up the letters, quick sand around the outer edge then hit it a couple of times with spray paint until I couldn't see the underlying PLA any more. I think the magic came from my 5 year old managing to knock it off on to the garage floor whilst still wet, and managing to get it to land bottom down where I left it to sit for 4 hours (mostly because the garage was about 10C) given there was no way of picking it up without marking the paint.
It's a fluke it came out that well to be honest. It's by no means perfect, but this bass needs at least a couple of cool features.
I've since ordered a Babicz Fch to go on this as well, so I've now got more money in tuners and the bridge than I do in the timber :P
In other news: I've applied the third coat of the Intensifier this morning. It's starting to darken nicely. There are a few lighter spots on the back of the neck, but I don't think I can do much about that. I'll decide tomorrow morning if I'm going to go for a fourth coat or if I'll hit it with the steel wool and get my first coat of Tru-oil on.
I've watched a couple of videos of different methods people have used to get Tru-oil into really nice finishes. My finest sandpaper at the moment is 400 grit (though I have some finer stuff coming). Very tempted to be aiming for a coat tomorrow and maybe one or two over the weekend, then getting the decals on before adding a couple more coats to help make them look like they grew there. I'm mindful this stuff will change the colour slightly and there is no bare wood, so will be trying to find a point where I don't wind up having a massive light patch behind the decals.
Hopefully the Tru-oil will go over the polyurethane that the decals have been coated with.
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