The DPZ-4 Sinosauropteryx Bass Build

[lunaticds]

Well, completely flat and round at the same time.

I've used a radius block on a couple of fingerboards after removing the frets and you'd be surprised at how poorly radiused some are.

If you do want fret markers on a fretless neck, then it can often be easier (given relatively basic skill and tool levels) to get a fretted neck and fill in the slots with a contrasting coloured hard filler e.g. coloured epoxy, to give you the markers, hence Rabbit's comments.

I'll see what happens. A little out of my already broken budget. I'd hope that a fretless neck might come in a little closer to right to go. We'll see I guess!

I'm thinking I'm about done with the body. The grain has come up quite a lot which is kinda cool. I've got about half a dozen coats of Tru oil on and I'm not sure I'll add any more beyond touch ups. I'm certainly not used to having grain come up like this, but it seems to provide a cool effect that works with the colour and the stripes.

[fender3x]

I'll see what happens. A little out of my already broken budget. I'd hope that a fretless neck might come in a little closer to right to go. We'll see I guess!

I only quote Ronald Regan about a couple of things.* One is "trust but verify." You don't need a radius block to see if the neck is...I guess, not flat, but straight. Get the bow out by adjusting the truss rod with a long straight-edge along the centerline of the neck. Run it from side to side too see if there is any unevenness. If there is, the investment in a cheap radius block may be worth it. I'd do at least a cursory check before learning about unevenness by buzzes.



* My second favorite quote from Ronald Regan is "If you are right 98% of the time, who cares about the other 6%." Something to take into account, perhaps, when reading my advice ;-)

[lunaticds]

I ordered a radius block last night so it'll be coming if I need it and ordered my first set of flats at the same time.

[fender3x]

Will be interesting to see what you find when you give the board a few strokes with the sanding block.

I just installed a set of flats on my newly fretless ESB-4. Much better than the tapewounds I had on before.

[lunaticds]

Will be interesting to see what you find when you give the board a few strokes with the sanding block.

I just installed a set of flats on my newly fretless ESB-4. Much better than the tapewounds I had on before.

It will be. Apparently the neck is arriving today. Radius block I doubt I'll see within the next week or so.

Currently body shot:

Hard to capture the colour quite right. It looks quite a bit darker. Finish is by no means perfect, but I want to keep some of that wood grain coming up, so I'm not going to gum it up with any more TO.
Bridge literally just went on. I soldered the Toneriders to the pick guard this morning, so that'll go on at some stage and I'll go back to letting it rest.

[lunaticds]

Pointless update time.
The neck is coming along. I wound up making up my own colour for it. I put down the Dingotone Black Stump which really just looked dirty on the maple and didn't really darken enough, so I put a couple of coats of the Colortone Mahogany I used on the body over it. Once that cured (as well as it was going to), I hit it with the Dingotone intensifier. That gave me a far less dirty black and far more walnut-esque brown with a hint of red through it. It's not perfect but after a few layers of TO over the top and the colour actually started to look pretty reasonable. It looks a lot less out of place than clearcoated maple would have.

I've put a few layers over the neck, but I'm still working on the headstock, trying to bury the decals. There's no rush - the tuners are still on back order.

I did hit the fretboard with a radius block real quick, but I need to go back over it. It needs a good sand anyway as there are a couple of marks where TO has managed to creep on to the board. I'll give it another go at some stage. I've been debating whether or not I hit the fretboard with the TO as well. There seems to be some people who love it and others who tend to think it'll just seal out the moisture. From a presentation perspective, I think it'd look cool given it's fretless. Still not sure on that one. I can probably get it close with enough layers of lemon oil.

I've waxed the body now it's had a couple of weeks to cure. It's shiny enough and still has the grain showing through how I want it. It'll get a little more wax before I'm finished, but hands glide across it a lot better with it.

The back of the neck is more than adequately coated with TO. There's enough to seal it up, and it just needs a bit of wax to help remove some of that stickiness. I'll do that once the headstock is finished. At 4 layers a day, I figure I might be there some time mid December

[lunaticds]

Well, finally it's about done.

I got sick of my tuners being on back order for months, and hit the retailer up to change over to some.. much more expensive.. Schellers.



I've got the action set reasonably playable and no unusual spots anywhere on the board. I'm not entirely sure that the nut height is all that right (stock nut) - things seem to be a little too sharp, but then it may just need to be that I need to get used to being far more precise about where I'm fingering given the lack of frets.

The Toneriders seem to be pretty cool. With the tone right up it's breaking up a bit, and down low.. it's low. Certainly a lot of tonal difference.

My first time out on flats - they're Ernie Ball Slinky Flatwounds. Quite different getting used to playing on these - they feel a lot gentler on the fingers, but it's hard to get used to a set of new strings that aren't as bright as I'm used to.

It's fun to play. My first time using a fretless, and I've noticed that I'm putting a lot more emphasis on listening to myself relative to what I'm playing given that it's not forgiving with finger positioning.

The string alignment is a bit out of kilt. There's a bit more space between G and the edge of the neck, but I'm not sure there's much I can do about that without making more holes in it.
It's certainly heavy, but unlike the TB4 build, it's at least balanced and much more comfortable.
The big thing left to do is intonate it properly.