Jump to content

Neck-Thru Bass: First Project


Recommended Posts

Started the body carve.

DSC00882.jpg

I love this scraper. As long as I can keep it sharp it is awesome to work with.

DSC00888.jpg

Carves completed. I added cutouts inside the horns more for aesthetic reasons as I have no problems reaching even beyond the 24th fret.

DSC00894.jpg

The wife snapped this shot of me while I was sanding. I think I need to start working out more and drinking beer less. Sucks to get old.

DSC00895.jpg

Body sanded up to 220 grit. I am going to bring it up to 600 before starting the finish.

DSC00898.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

I hit a little bit of a slowdown. Humidity has been crazy for the last few weeks here and the guitar started to swell up. I brought it inside for two weeks to allow it to lose moisture and also went on vacation. After returning from vacation I decided I needed a dust free location (or as close as possible) to spray my finish. Aside from containing over spray I also didn't want something to take up a ton of room in my garage so I built this quick and dirty collapsible paint booth.

DSC00944.jpg

Folded up it is just over 5 inches thick. I still have to attach the base and a handle to make it a little more portable but so far it is working out well.

DSC00946.jpg

Finally, I got my first 3 coats of clear on. I went with a rattle can water based poly (minwax). I tested out several different products because I didn't want to amber the wood at all and this is what got me closest to the result I was looking for.

DSC00948.jpg

I draped another sheet of plastic in the front to keep the inside as free of dust as possible but did not take a photo of that. Now I have to leave it alone for 72 hours before I can scuff back and add a few more coats.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think the spray booth deserves to be acknowledged as a project of itself!

Thanks, but honestly I think I spent more time thinking about how it would work than I did building it. It only took me a few hours and about 30 bucks to put together.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

DSC00967.jpg

12 coats applied. Still have another 6 to go before it gets buffed. I am not a patient man so the wait is KILLING me. It sure is getting shiny though. :wOOt

DSC00968.jpg

My camera will not let me shut off the flash so I couldn't capture the reflection as well as I had hoped. Although the color of this shot sucks it is really more representative of the actual gloss. I covered the flash with my finger to take the shot.

DSC00971.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So I started scuffing back on coat 12 and realized that it was smoothing out really well. Barring any defects I am thinking that I am probably good at this point. My micromesh pads are pretty destroyed (used them with water on a restore a few years ago) so I have a new set ordered. I will finish leveling out the finish and decide if I need to spray any more once I have finished that.

Headstock faceplate smoothed to 12000 with my micromesh remnants:

DSC00972.jpg

The spots of light in this photo are the floodlights in the fixtures on the ceiling of my garage.

DSC00973.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Clear coat #18 has been applied to the bass and I have started buffing out the cavity cover. Still some minor scratches to remove but its coming out pretty nicely. 3 more days until I can start buffing out the actual instrument. Finishing has taken much longer than I had expected but I did not want to rush through anything.

DSC00976.jpg

DSC00977.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...