Beginner's luck I'd say!Originally Posted by fender3x
I did cut the timber with a mallet and chisel before using the router, that seemed to keep it neat too. I wouldn't want to have to do it again.
I don't think the bridge is quite the same, but it is well made and heavy
I wound up ordering both of these this week. The GB707s were in stock until I ordered them, then mysteriously they're backordered. Based on AusPost's efforts at taking over a month to deliver my last kit, I'll probably still receive them first.
Minimalist pick guard prototype 2 was in improvement over the first, but the logo is just too fine so the printer is struggling with it. It doesn't look anywhere near as bad in person as it does blown up by the camera. There are two rings around the logo - the outer is very fine. I'm going to have a crack at merging that into a thick layer and see if I can make that whole edge look a bit better. The fine detail around the text and the Rex don't look so bad and hopefully a coat of paint will help that along a bit.
Well, the kit arrived today.
A little disappointing:
- The "stripes" are blotched on the top so that really isn't ideal
- The pickguard came screwed on. Possibly good for a rookie. Not good for someone who was hoping it wouldn't, so I didn't have a heap of holes in the body I don't want.
- The pickguard isn't well cut at the neck. I had to take it off to test fit the neck. Not a huge issue, but annoying.
I will persevere regardless. I've tried some Colortone Red Mahogany up top and some green in the pickup cavity. The green definitely is a no go.
The mahogany took some rubbing but it at least seems to go on and has darkened up a bit. Will be curious what happens if I wipe a little tru oil over it.
My expectations are 50/50 that I'll wind up sanding this back and just spray painting it before it's all said and done, but then this build has taken a complete direction change from where it started, so we'll see. I don't care to put any more money into this build. I had to extend my guitar wall over the weekend as I was out of space for what I already have, and I still have guitars on a floor stand as well, so possibly I have a problem
We have done a couple of these. They do look sharp just clear coated but we never tried to stain one. If you get the stain you want to stick perhaps a single spray coat of poly clear might set the stain before wiping on the finish?
The colortone mahogany seems to stick. I wiped a quick bit of TO over it and it seems to be ok (i just wiped it with white cotton cloth and no colour transfer so I guess that's positive).
How does this timber go sanding? It looks to be a composite of layers and I'm not sure if I can be too aggressive with it?
OK. I reckon this is the roughest I've received (theres even splinter-worthy bits in the routing). I'll go easy on the heavy grit just to be safe and see how we're looking when I hit 320.
I managed to get the top and sides stained last night.
Not sure what the colortone seller diluted with, but the only thing that gets it off my fingers was acetone lol. I've since found some gloves.
It seems to be staying on ok, though it's requiring a fair bit of rubbing to get it consistent. The sides are a lot more work. It doesn't take quite so consistently and needs a few passes to start getting it consistent.
I've gone over the sides again this morning and done the back - there was about 30 mins just in going over the back twice. Subsequent layers aren't making it any darker but are at least helping get it more consistent.
Later today I'll get back around the edges again.
Headstock was cut last night - loosely based on a Jazz bass, and given a quick belt with the sander to fix the edging up. Still needs more work, but it's a start. It looks like it was pre-drilled for the vintage style tuners I'm not using. I'll knick down to the supermarket at some stage, find some toothpicks and attempt to fill the holes up and sort them out. I don't see any point in sanding much more until I've sorted that out.
I put some TO on late yesterday after about the 6th coat of stain (I used the sum total of about 25ml of stain). It took a few stain coats to get it to even out, but eventually I got there. It certainly wasn't the easiest thing I've ever tried to stain lol.
The TO layer count is currently 2 - I noted that the stain really doesn't seem to bleed in all that far (I also tried it on an off cut of the headstock and it didn't go far on the maple either), so I figured I'll build up a bit of TO before I start taking to it with sandpaper again.
I've wound up so far with a very deep brown looking body, which is cool. I was hoping it'd be a little more red, but that clearly wasn't going to happen with this timber.
I've been tossing up what I do with the neck though. I was thinking of using poly as a finish to seal it up then sand it back a bit to take the shine out of it and make it easier to play. The only concern I've got with that is that the maple will be a pretty major contrast compared to the body. I do want to leave the headstock for just clear coat so black decals work.
The choices I see are:
- Suck it up and just hit it with the poly and see maple like a normal bass.
- Stain it red, live dangerously and give my wife more excuses to hate this bass.
- Throw some of that Dingotone Black stump I found in the shed on the neck, finish it with poly and hope like hell it doesn't bleed through to the front of the headstock.
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