So I'm building this bass...

[STYX]

Et voilà!

Some lacquer crept under the masking, mainly where there are curves. The left (longer) horn/cutaway still has a little wood visible from me being too generous with tape.

To do before the clear coat:
Touch up horn
Clean binding
Fret marker dots (side of neck)

[Bassboar]

Well done sir
I can't wait to see it all finished up and ready to go!!!!
You inspired me to buy some warmoth parts and nail them all together later this year.
Great work

[STYX]

Well done sir
I can't wait to see it all finished up and ready to go!!!!
You inspired me to buy some warmoth parts and nail them all together later this year.
Great work

That's awesome! You'll find it's well worth the effort. Will you be doing a build thread? Pleeeease?


The lack of updates is basically down to me being lazy (Yeah, like masking is such hard work). Got round to it today though.(This is the tip of the longer horn BTW)

Also, since the beginning I thought of putting the fret markers on with marker pen - simple, right? Tried it on a leftover piece of binding and the dots didn't turn out perfectly round. Drilled a hole in another piece to guide the pen; not much help and the colour bleeds. Tried spraying lacquer through the hole - difficult to align right and mask off and bleeds, too.
So today I just couldn't be bothered and went back to the original marker pen approach - freehand:

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My hand was a bit shaky while doing this, believe me!

[STYX]

Guitar building lesson of the day:
Take your time with the clear coat and don't spray too close!

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The clear coat went all milky on me (and it's just happened again), probably because I was spraying too close or applying too much paint at once. I managed to get it back to normal by applying pressure to the affected areas *phew*.

The finish actually looks fairly dull right now, which I presume is down to an uneven surface. Nothing a bit of sanding (and another can of clear gloss?) can't fix, I hope!

[STYX]

Update time!

Last weekend I finished the clear coat and let it dry for a 4 days. This was followed by a couple of days of wet sanding the whole bass with 2000 grit sandpaper. Today I decided the surface was even enough (and I was in danger of sanding through the clear coat) and went on to apply the polish. This meant I could finally start bolting on the hardware I've had for almost a year!

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(You can just about see the reflection of the tuning pegs here)

The fretboard also no longer needs any protection, so this is what the bass looks like right now (click for bigger):

Only a few more things to do! Apart from the soldering and mounting of hardware I still need to slot the nut.
I also noticed that the hole for the jack is such a tight fit that the connector inside can't bend enough. So unless I use the bass unplugged only or permanently connected, I'll have to expand that slightly.

Some questions I've been asking myself and would really appreciate your input on:
- Should I shield the control cavity with copper foil? It's pretty tight in there and sides are very rough, which might make it difficult for the foil to adhere.
- Fret levelling: the frets have a pretty uniform height already. I'd love to skip this if I can get away with it, what with all the masking, sanding/grinding and crowning involved.

[STYX]

Quick update:

• Got the string spacing wrong on the nut. New pre-slotted nut ordered (expected Thursday)
• Decided against shielding for now
• Pickup & bridge mounted
• Forgot everything I ever new about soldering and cold soldered every single connection, which is probably the reason for the very loud hum at the moment.

[STYX]

A follow-on to the last post:

Since the pickup didn't come with any foam to mount it on, I had been looking for a material to use. As it turns out, make-up sponges are soft & springy, and with the help of my girlfriend I got hold of some large enough to be cut down to size.

The hum has also been fixed! The diagram I was using expected the controls to be mounted on a shielded pick-guard, thus connecting the two pot casings. Not having this left my tone control (I think) without a ground. All I needed to do was run a wire from the back of the volume to tone. My soldering remains shoddy though.
All snugly packaged:

And since the last missing part, the nut, arrived today the bass is now done! (click for larger size)

After 53 weeks since placing the order for the neck blank I'm so happy I finally have an instrument! It still needs some setup work (the intonation is pants and there is quite some fret buzz in places) but it is entirely playable!

[Achtane]

Right on, man! Excellent work, 'specially for a first build. That's a pretty big undertaking.

[STYX]

More detail/beauty shots in my "New Bass Day" thread: http://www.ilovefuzz.com/viewtopic.php?f=188&t=26260