Setch
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Everything posted by Setch
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Though this is kind of skirting the issue, if you're up to the job of a good top carve and rebinding, you could easily incorporate the maple into a scratch built Les Paul. If you're not, and this is an attempt to simplify the project, forget it. The basic question is - What do you gain by retopping rather than building from the ground up? A scratch build would be no more difficult, quite possibly easier, and won't risk butchering an existing guitar. Aplogies if I'm dirrecting this at a very experienced builder, I'm a Noob on this board, so I don't quite have a handle on all the regulars levels of competance... -Setch.
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You're on the right track, but it's actually simpler than the proccess you describe... If the bass is finsihed in nitro, simply wet sand the damaged area to key the finish and aid adhesion of your touchup. Spot fill the dents with undiluted nitro, and leave a good long time (weeks not days) for the laquer to cure. Then level with wet or dry paper on a hard block, and buff out. The touch ups should burn into the old finish and be nearly invisible. If you suspect the finish is poly, you're in for a tougher time, but you can still touch it up. Any dings can be drop filled with thick CA (crazy) glue. Let it cure for a day or so, then level and buff out. Flakes of finush can be reattached with CA as well. The touchups won't be invisible, but should look pretty good when buffed out.
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I sprayed this trans-blue finish using a waterbased laquer from Stew Mac. First I sealed the body with a couple of coats of dewaxed shellac, then around 4 coats of clear laquer. I then shot 2 thin coats of laquer mixed with blue concentrated waterbased dye. Finish up with lots of clearcoats until you are ready to level and buff... BTW, ignore the slightly matte appearance, I have more clear to shoot before leveling and buffing, so the top coats are a bit orange-peely at the moment.
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Upgrading low end bass / fretboard
Setch replied to frny4x's topic in Solidbody Guitar and Bass Chat
Brian, I think the problem he is describing is open grain, rather than unevenly coloured grain, so a dye job probably wouldn't solve it. I've heard of people filling the open grain with a combination of sawdust and CA glue, or porefilling with marine grade epoxy, though this is more common on a fretless neck. Whatever you opt to do, I think you'll have a tough time working on a fretted neck, it makes sanding with the grain a real PITA and any other approach will leave horrific crossgrain scratches. -
'Tuned' tone chambers are pretty much BS. Chambers can change the sound of a guitar, but any attempt to tune them for a specific resonance is stepping into the realm of physics way beyond most peoples' capabilities. To paraphrase a pretty experienced builder on the MIMF "The chambers in my body are all tuned to very specific frequencys. I just have no idea what they are ". Just leave plenty of meat for the bridge to sit on, and enough round the edges to ensure you don't break through when you radius the body edges. I also leave a solid section behind the bridge, but this is based on nothing remotely scientific.
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Whilst the Perry's method is an unquestionable success (looks fantastic BTW) there is also the potential to mess up much fatser, and much more thoroughly! I carved my LP style doublecut using a router to cut the deepest carved depth around the perimeter of the body (as Perry mentions, this is difficult to achieve if you decide to skip this step) then followed up with a spokeshave for all convex surfaces, and a goosenecked scraper for all the concavities and the recurve. It isn't a quick process, and it's tough on the fingers, but slow steady removal of material minimises the possibility of a horrible cock up. I estimate I put maybe 3 - 4 hours into the carving, then lots of handsanding. I really honestly planned to practice on scrap first, but ended up diving in headfirst, and I'm very happy with the result.