CC1

... Reason I ask, is that with what must now be 4-5 coats @ 50/50 (with the odd light sand halfway), 3-4 coats at 70/30: Knots look like this:

@Bizman62 and @Andyjr1515 Sorry to bother you again - but just wanted to check something... Should it, as I'm building the layers, look a bit... shoddy? There's the odd light streak, bump, slightly uneven texture, wipe mark, etc. Nothing major - but as I'm building the layers, is it ok to look a bit shabby? As long as major bits of dust etc are removed between layers with the brown paper and mineral wipe, is that professional glass-gloss achieved all in the final sand+50/50poly+cure+hand polish? My experience with this is limited to say the least - all previous woodworking I've done, I used spray poly and then buffed. I just wonder if it's like the epoxy - where it doesn't matter how rough the first pour is (scratches etc) because it's the final pour that matters most. I'm just getting flashbacks to a $50 strat I tried to refinish 15 years ago, where I painted on the poly in layers, and it ended up looking like I had dipped the thing in brown paint and freeze-dried it (actual full on lump runs and streaks etc)

qThat's a great way to think of it I stalked your profile and found your write up on finishing at home without a workshop - will stick to that like glue Cheers, will share back soon when it's all done! C

Thank you very much! I had thought that what I might have done was go right through a very thin layer. This seemed more noticeable when the thin strip of red epoxy flowing through the body (same scratch problem), once wet sanded (I thought it was thicker...) slightly raised the grain on the surrounding wood. Now, it was all wet sanded to 2000 again, and that particular piece of the wood will be under the G String (It's a P Bass) so I'm not going to bother resanding the whole thing. So, reading an above comment (before your reply), I decided to try one thing, assuming thickness was the problem. I made a new batch of wipe on, this one much more like 70/30 to 75/25. It was noticeably gloopier. I wiped this on, a bit generously, but not enough to let it run/drip. 3 hours later, the scratches in the epoxy part are basically all gone. So it would seem that my first re-coat yesterday of 50/50, was as you say, so thin, it couldn't even fill in 2000grit scratches. My concern, being that it's in a dusty room (no foot traffic, but it's in the air), is that I don't want to put on 3+ coats at any thickness without denibbing etc - because that's surely going to make fine dust stuck between the layers, no? In any case, I will not be sanding between subsequent coats - but rather lightly buffing with brown paper between coats to de-nib and remove embedded dust, before a quick light mineral spirits wipe, followed immediately by another coat of the 70/30. Where abouts should I stop do you think? I have 5 coats of 50/50 on the body for the most part, with 1 coat of 50/50 over the epoxy areas, and now have 1 coat of 70/30 over the whole thing. I'm thinking, another 4 coats of 70/30 should be enough, at which point I'll do a quick 800 grit light sand, then apply the final 70/30 coat. Then I'm down to the final bit - do I use my Briwax as a final seal, or go down the car polish route? I know I need 2 different car polishes, one grittier and one very fine, and buff (I have lambswool RO-Sander pads) - if you've tried this, any exact brands I can use? They all name themselves differently Sorry for the million questions Every youtube video I watch does things slightly differently

Fear was I'd start poly'ing over dust and nibs formed in the previous layer. I'm having to do this in a spare bedroom carpeted, too)

What you thinking then... hard buff with brown paper between coats and keep applying? Change the mix to 70/30 poly?

thanks. I can definitely see fine scratches though - and this is the first recoat after all that sanding Will leave that until tomorrow

What have I done wrong that means the scratches are now staying, and the poly isn't filling them in? I am sometimes leaving an hour or so between coats, sometimes it's overnight (only so many you can get in a day) If I need to keep the coats closer together, should I go do one now? (It's been 2 hours since a coat was done, at 4pm UK, it's now 6pm UK, and looks like the last photo) Or is that normal and keep building layers until a final polish/buff? The wood looks and feels great. The epoxy started brilliant, went to shit, seemed recoverable, but now seems cruddy and amateurish

"Pain in the arse" I thought, but wanting to get it right, I thought bugger it, I'll sand that back down. So I carefully wet-sanded the epoxy parts from 400 through 2000 grit by hand. Pretty sure I ended up taking off all 4 layers of poly, but at least it was back to looking cloudy (like it had been prior to first poly coat) But, I then put on another fresh coat of 50/50 poly, of course while wet it looks fine, but now it's mostly dried (been 3 hours), it still looks like this:

After the 5th wipe on coat - it became clear that I had got grit/gunk or whatever in the sandpaper, and scratched the epoxy part, making it look like this after the poly was dry:

Hi again So I'm getting close to the end... but something off is happening in the finish that I didn't get when doing walnut tables... So I have dry sanded the whole body to 5000 grit - because the epoxy needed to go there, so why not? Anyway - it was sickeningly smooth. Loved it. Went for a wipe on poly - just 50/50 mix mineral spirits and poly. The first 3-4 coats went on just fine (see image). The epoxy looks flawless (ignoring bubbles - point being there are no scratches). It was like new glass. Then something happened. The 5th coat got too much dust in it. Not a problem I said - I got out the 400grit and did as I had done after coats 2 , 3 , and 4. Light sand, clean down with white spirit, let dry, then 5th coat of wipe-on.... (cont. in next post for image)

You're totally right, that makes much more sense to basically level it off (loving the ms Paint work btw) Not sure why 3mm would be a problem, if the hole is basically 10mm currently, and the thread is 9mm. I suppose if I route from the top by say, 2mm, and lose 2mm from the cavity side (to re-level it), I get 6mm thickness (acceptable), with 3mm of thread proud for the washer and nut. The knobs I have are slightly recessed, so should sit over 3mm quite nicely I would have thought. Thanks for the advice

Thanks Biz It's a solid block of Ash, and whilst I would hope that's strong enough, my fear would be any bangs/drops that impact the knob would be like a well placed holepunch and would just plough the knob and pot through into the cavity. I suppose that's his problem if he does that (but then, if I don't put the strap locks on right and it causes him to drop it, stain on me...) Add to that, attached is the body profile. 29.6mm at the point of the Vol pot, 33.2mm at the point of the tone pot. Also notice the variation in angle. To sit square in the face, I've (crudely) chiseled out a bevel (camber?) in the pot hole. So any 'forstenering' will be done at an angle and I worry about ploughing straight through also. I don't have a drill press. My forstener bits have stop gauges, but that's not going to work well drilling on an angle. My preferred option, which I think gives me the most room for error, is to do the 'tall pots' as custom (I think I could style it out/visually make it less garish by making the knobs themselves tapered and wider) I have though also stumbled on the fact that pot-shaft extension bits, are in fact a thing. I have ordered some standard 9mm pots (a necessity anyway, since I originally bought two log pots by mistake), and am looking at appropriate extension shafts and couplings. Because if the shaft is too long - well I can just dremel the tips off. But you can't chop down the threaded part, which is where it's too long. I do like the idea of the recessed knobs anyway and it had crossed my mind. I could perhaps combine the strategies: 9mm pots, extension bits (then custom cut to length to suit), AND lower the knob height with a 2mm recess into the face - still leaving me about 7.8mm face thickness. Thanks for the advice. I'll post back with how I get on.

Hello, me again. The SG inspired bass is coming along really well. I have Fender Vintage PBass pickups, A Hipshot Kickass Bridge, Gotoh GB707 machine heads. All alignment and routing etc has been done well, and after my first pass with the neck pocket routing was 1mm too wide (0.5mm each side of the neck), which is surprisingly a LOT of give, the second pass was perfect and I can shim the sides/ sawdust-glue the gap. Should be good. However, I have a pot problem. This is a back-through build, no pickguard plate. Because short/normal pots would mean leaving very little wood at the surface, I opted for long shaft (19mm threaded part). Turns out, that's WAY too long. With fairly substantial knobs on, the knobs are sitting 4.6 and 5.9mm proud of the surface. It puts me in a weird situation where 19mm pots are ~5mm too long, but the next size down is 9mm - but the thickness of the wood from the cavity to where the knobs would be is 9mm already. So if I lost 10mm of thread, I end up somehow going through the guitar. I can't get a second nut and suspend the pot in the cavity - because then the bottom of the pot hits/crosses the plane of the cavity cover (the whole thing is slightly thinner than I had anticipated: ~31mm rising to 35mm through the neck part) I would really appreciate some tips that don't involve "well next time don't suck" and "what you should have done is..." because I already know what I should have done, I'm wanting to salvage this as I've poured months of my life into this - and it's a gift for someone so I'm trying to keep standards. My initial thoughts are: - Custom Pots : Previously stopped by ebay (as only found one place on the internet that sells them, in Canada), a guy sells essentially "blanks" for 6mm shafts - set that blank in something, and you've got a custom knob (be it wood/ epoxy). I can then make extra tall knobs with the right amount of rebate to account for the protruding thread (and be precise for each pot, +4mm on one and +5mm on the other) - Bulk out the gap: Fill the 4-5mm gap between body and knob with a series of cascading felt/metal washers - Bulk out the gap 2: Make some wide flat cones in epoxy to do the same job as above - Bulk out short shafts : Do buy 9mm threaded pots, don't route the cavity any deeper, and then find a way to make an extension bit for the split shaft What are your thoughts on any of the above, or something else to try? Many Thanks lads and lasses CC1

Alrighty then. So, we have, on the way: 1x Fender Vintage P-Bass Pickup 2x 250k "long-shaft" (0.35") potentiometers Hipshot 4-String Kickass Bridge (Black) GOTOH gb707 machine pegs (Black) Long 1/4" jack (black) - for edge mounting Insulating Tape . Meaning all I need now, is the P-Bass pickup guard, Capacitor, Customised Truss Rod Cover, and Customised Neck Plate (decorative), and some wiring

Kiitos

Yep - maybe for my 5th or 6th guitar, I'll think about doing my own neck. The neck it also seems would need a few specialty luthier tools I can't be bothered buying right now. Wife would already be miffed if she knew how much the components, the electric planer, the belt sander, R-Orbit Sander, Drill sander, Epoxy, Clamps, Hand planes, Jigsaw all cost... I feel like I've done alright so far, seeing as every video on youtube is "oh, just pop on over to your workshop and pop on your £1500 bandsaw... then your pillar drill... m*tha f****r I live in London, does it look like I own a workshop?!

Agreed - but I've been at woodworking long enough (not that long, but long enough) to know that sometimes "eh, it'll be fine" works and other times it cascades and it gets catastrophic. So especially since I really don't fancy starting again, I'm reading/measuring/checking everything in triplicate, then doing a practice on scrap, then making my cuts/holes etc. So especially if over the length of something, it ended up being way out... I've also had very cheap Esquire/Pacifica type guitars that cost me £70 and the action/string spacing on them was terrible. Just trying to play high up the fret board, the high e would slip off and then get caught in the edge of the fret.

I can only find 19 and 20mm spacing on Bridges. I would think it needs 20.6mm or 21mm if rounded? Should I just be using 20mm then?

Gracias Senor E and G are 4mm (centre of the groove to the edge) from either side of 41-42mm neck at nut. Doing as described, where the (saddle?) edge of the bridge would be is 70mm on the nose, so 62mm total That sounds typical doesn't it? I think I've seen that sizing somewhere? (I've also seen 57mm)

>> here's a good p bass diagram... can you follow this? Thanks! Yeah that won't be too hard. So the answer to "Can I have a Bass/Mid/Treble tone knobs config" is a no? I understand having volumes for different pickups, I don't really know how Tone knobs work. It would be nice to maybe have a second Tone know (one for Low one for high end) but if that's going to mean different/more complicated pickups and/or wiring, I might leave it... >> TOM Bridge Those are these (attached)? They don't look adjustable for string spacing, but I do like the look of them, so would only get them if they fit the neck I have (Replying to that below in a minute)

Second image

Hello First timer. I've taken on building a bass for a friend as a present after I found some lovely Ash I've designed and made the body (a modified Gibson SG-inspired style), and sought a neck from ebay I now need to take the plunge and buy all the wiring and components. I need to do this, so I know exactly how deep to route the cavities etc, and I need to know that to move the making of the body forward. From limited research (being only a guitar player myself), I've arrived at the following conclusions: - The bass is 32" scale, not enormous. The spacing on the nut the neck came with is 30mm E-G (whole neck nut width at nut 41-41.5mm). I understand that the size and type of Bridge I buy is going to be important for playability, but struggling to find the method for figuring out the size bridge I need (as some don't seem to be horizontally adjustable). Do I just need to get a 'range' of size, and make sure it's fine adjustable for spacing? Hoping to keep this to 15-30£ - From research, thought I'd get DiMarzio P types, but DiMarzio is basically out of stock (the ones I picked anyway) until after Covid (Feb I'm told). To keep it simple, I thought I'd instead just get Fender Vintage P-Bass pickups. - Bearing the pickups in mind (Passive), I have no idea about pots/wires/capacitors. Ideally, I'd have just a 'kit' you assemble with the solder, but I don't know what I'm looking for. I keep seeing sets though for '4 String p Basses' that have 3 individual tone knobs. Do the pots have to be compatible with the pickups in this regard outside the [impedence?] of being 250 or 500? I was told you only need 500k for Active pickups, which I won't be using. If I get normal Vintage pickups, do I have to get a single volume and tone pot and that's my lot? Can I get a multi-band tonal knob setup? - Due to how the body came out - I think I'm still within the limits - but he body is 35mm thick through the middle, and will be about 30mm deep where the control cavity will go. THe bass will not have a pick guard (he's a finger only player, and it would cover the lovely detail in the body), so I'm going to do the cavity from underneath. I believe that leaving 5mm thick on the top will suffice, so that gives me 25mm to play with underneath (minus a few mm for the cavity cover). Is this enough to fit all the pots and wires? What 'size' pots (knob length - hehe) would work then, short or long ones? - Also, partly due to the depth of the body, I will put the jack in the edge, not the face/top of the bass. Essentially, I'm hoping you experienced lot would know off the top of your heads, a simple 'package' I can assemble, not too expensive, that can actually turn this piece of wood into a bass. Once it's all routed, finished etc, I will then give it over to a guitar shop to set the action, intonation, etc Any help you can offer will be much appreciated. Thanks CC1