Hey All - I grabbed one of these kits after always wanting a hollow body bass. I'm a bass player first and foremost so I'm really looking forward to having this one in the herd!
Out of the box it looks to be a great kit. The neck has a great tight fit in the pocket and alignment to the bridge is spot on. There is a 2mm gap between the body and and the underside of the fretboard where it extends aft of the pocket. I don't think that will pose an action problem on my initial measurements. I was fortunate to not have any major glue spots on the maple veneer - the minor ones that showed up on a wash of dye were easily scraped off.
I wanted to go with a lemon type burst on this bass. I had a set of Ubeaut dyes that I bought over 10yrs ago at a timber show so I decided to give them a go. I'm sure there are others who have used these water based dyes and I have always had good results with them in the past. They are super easy to use so I thinned down some yellow in 2 strengths and then made another one with a touch of orange for the perimeter and the back of the body/neck.
I gave the body a wipe over with a damp cloth to raise any grain then gave the lot a light sand with 240 grit to knock any nap that was standing up. Prior to applying the first wash of dye, I gave the surfaces another light wipe with a damp cloth to help the timber to evenly take up the dye and avoid witness lines. I started with the lightest hue in the center and progressively added the darker hues as I moved towards the perimeter of the maple veneer. These dyes blend really well with a bit of a circular rub so the transitions between the various hues can be controlled easily. I reckon it came out really great. There is good depth to the flame and that will only get better with the clear on top. Plan is to go either Nitro or ColourSpec Crystal Clear Acrylic. I've got a full can of the latter (as opposed to a 1/2 can of nitro left) so it most likely head in that direction.
The neck shows the more amber coloured tone I went for here. This matches the back of the body (I forgot to take a rear pic!). There is a really small glue line I need to scrape where the nut meets the face of the headstock. That's going to be a bit of a bugger but I should be able to get at it with a razor blade.
I didn't worry about masking the binding but in hindsight it would have saved me a good hour of scraping last night! Other than that, I think I need to trim and reshape the binding a touch where it wraps into the neck from the upper bout/horn. It's projecting into mid air a bit (ie has not timber support where it borders the neck pocket) whereas the same part in the lower bout has a smooth transition with good support. I also had a couple of tiny voids in the ply at the front edge of the pocket floor where it meets the binding. It looks like it tore out here when the pocket was cut. These are just visible with the neck in position so I filled them with a little Timbermate and will re dye the thin visible edge. I'll take pics of this area tonight!
One question I have regarding the pickups - They have different height surrounds and I'm guessing that the taller surround is for the bridge pickup? That is the convention for 'flat body' basses but with this contoured top, I wasn't sure.
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