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charisjapan

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Everything posted by charisjapan

  1. Hey a2k, We will get together soon! Just takes so me time-juggling. indeed, that was my first time to use that router. It has more horsepower than my first motorcycle!! And my mind was thinking, "What would happen if that 60mm bit decided to fail at 30,000 rpm?!" I've heard tales about carbide splinters ... Yikes. But it worked great, and I learned how to "carve" the difficult areas and not try to take too much at a time. I have been buying most of my Washin Paint supplies at Shimachu Homes or Amazon Japan. Flammables are hard to get to Japan ... or for that matter, Hawaii. Still experimenting with lacquer. Tools come from OFF or Digram online, or again, Amazon. Wood is mostly Yahoo! Auction, but have brought some that I had sent to my daughter in Hawaii, then hand-carry back to Japan. see ya soon!
  2. Thanks for the welcome, SR! I Wikied it and saw the "related to mahogany," but gotta say it strains the imagination visually! If anything, Zebrano meets Swamp ash, Working with it, however, I admit the similarity ... and it is lighter than I first suspected. I just posted the finish pics, and it really soaked up the first two coats of sanding sealer. Thought about more coats to completely hide the pores, but then decided I kinda like a bit of texture, so just sprayed clear and hand-buffed. Neck's glued, so hope to be able to string it up tomorrow!
  3. So that was just a dry run before finishing the body. I hope someday to spray nitro lacquer, but have read enough build threads to know that it's 1) not that easy, and 2) takes time. The first is a challenge that I will meet someday, bit the second would keep me from playing this guitar soon, so found a company that makes a fast-drying brush-on acrylic lacquer sanding sealer (that a mouthful!) and a spray urethane that were supposed to match ... and after a few trials on scraps, found that they did match, and dried quickly. Then I had a few patches to make ... a few original dents in the wood, a few (ahem) holes in the wrong place, and a few things idiotic things I tried on-the-fly that didn't work. You can see all of them if you look close, but up on stage it shouldn't matter, eh? First coat of sanding sealer made the grain and flame pop out very nicely, IMHO. Then sandback, brush on another coat, sandback ... almost ready to rattle-can spray. https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/674/32259948615_af24248397_b.jpg[/img} That was last week, and sprayed three thin coats of the urethane (at least, that's what they are calling it here). After some hand-rubbing ... My goal was an 8-pound/thereabouts bass, and I think I might make it! Body only, ready to glue the neck, add parts, and string up ... 1,766 grams, a little less than 4 pounds. Cheers! cj
  4. Control cavity rout and confirm electric parts will fit. It's a bit tight, but passive, so should be fine. Found some Allparts rosewood knobs. Confirming the neck pocket was straight, clamped it in and looked at E and G strings ... Yay! (the picture angle is off, the strings were perfect) Got out two different tuners to check intonation, which was exactly the same location as the original. The past few posts were all during the New Year vacation. cj
  5. As I mentioned last post, the original neck had the maple extend a good inch further back than the fretboard, and that and the back of the neck were painted a thick black. On the hope that the maple might not look terrible, I stripped it off, and found it was plain ... but not ugly. Next, I decide to lop off the extension, and use a set-neck instead of the bolt-on. The routs went fairly well, and the neck pocket (in spite of all my fears and fussing) was a nice, tight fit. Next was the pocket transition, using various hand tools at first, then impatiently switching to various power implements of destruction.
  6. WoW! No time right now to view the whole build thread, but that top is very, very nice! cj
  7. This shows where that big knot was ... and parts of it are "incorporated" into the design. (code for "hope it doesn't compromise the body integrity") Made a template that looked something like I wanted, and used a table router for the first time. Yikes! Nearly threw the body into the backside of my car, then got smart and cradled the body in my arms (NOT close to that wicked bit!!) ... only to get the wind knocked out of me by a kickback. Fortunately, lived through it to learn something ... small, s-m-o-o-t-h cuts. After a 1/2" roundover and a splash of white gasoline (naphtha). Body routs in the template, and what to do with the original bolt-on neck that had a "tab" extension ... which I thought would look pretty ugly on the grained/flamed body. More pics to bring me up to date soon ... cj
  8. Hey back to you, Knightro! Nice to find some familiar "faces" and meet some new folks. Cheers! cj
  9. Hi all from Yokohama, Japan! I play (bad) bass for my church band, and enjoy my MusicMan Stingray a lot. It's got the piezo pickup, and can make a nice blend, but ... it's heavy! At just a tad over 11 pounds, my aged back has been asking for a bit of relief, so decided to try my hand a building a bass ... or two. A while back, I found this slab of wood on Yahoo!Auction, our equivalent of eBay. It was supposed to be a table top, but warped a bit, and the big knot in the center was not terribly attractive ... I was the only bid at about $30 including shipping. I had no idea what to do with it. Btw, it's called Chinaberry, or "sendan" in Japan, Melia azedarach, and the berries are mildly poisonous ... and gets birds high as a kite. And I had a Hohner B2B (Steinberger licensed headless "broomstick" bass) that is light, but the strap button location and full scale = neck dive galore. I also have a 5-string Steinberger Spirit bass with a horned body that is great, but never use the low B, so took some design cues from that and thought to re-purpose the Hohner neck and bridge ... and found that I could have TWO bodies from that slab ... why not? I am working on the headless one now, and will post some pics of my progress. The second one will be a short scale (30") with a Japanese Mountain Cherry neck ... still kind of in the planning stage Warning! I am a carpenter, not a luthier, or even a luthier wannabe. My idea of tools is a hammer with a pounding end and a "fixing" end, a circular saw, and a chalkline. I love working with wood, and this is a new challenge for me, but really not out to make drop-dead gorgeous instruments so much as solid-but-interesting players. If it happens that they are attractive as well ... Yay! Cheers, all! cj
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