Needs some OSHIT safety stickers.
6 Likes
Got the sanding done, dye applied, and first coat of oil/wax finish is curing.
I couldn’t resist a sneak peek of what the final product is going to look like!
21 Likes
That is going to be one gorgeous bass! Great job @fennario !
4 Likes
Thanks @Glenn ! My expectations were low going in, but I’m extremely pleased with how this is coming along!
2 Likes
You may have to put. Number of coats on it to make it shine. Looks real good so far.
1 Like
I was in an aluminum forging plant recently that still has steam hammers from the late 19th century in service. This sticker could be based on that place!
2 Likes
They are from my favorite youtuber, AvE. He sells them as merch.
Think Danny Sapko of engineering and tools, but a bit ruder. He does tool and industrial equipment teardowns to point out points of failure. And gratuitous dick jokes.
2 Likes
Thanks @Craig_A ! Second coat on this morning. I’m not going for a gloss lacquer look with this bass, more an oil-rubbed satin finish. I had seen some results with the Osmo Poly-x “glossy”, and it was exactly the sheen level I was after. I have some other options to try out on future basses! 
1 Like
The basses I built that had a gloss finish, I used base coat clear coat on them. Which is a polyurethane used mostly for cars. Base coat was the color coat (nothing spectacular), then I used a super gloss clear coat polyurethane to cover it. I had to use a few coats of clear to get it thick enough to sand with 1000grit wet paper, then buff with compounds to make it shine. Putting the finish on was the most time consuming by far. The woodwork is fairly easy for me. (I’ve got the tools for that)
2 Likes
I’ve been experimenting with a few finish options
- The Osmo Poly-x oil on this build
- Rubio Monocoat with the accelerator and sheen enhancer
- Polymerized Tung Oil
- Wipe-on Poly
- Solarez “I can’t believe it’s not lacquer”
The Solarez is a neat option - it’s UV cured and takes about 90 seconds to fully cure a coat in the sun, and will still get nice and shiny with polishing compound. It’s quite easy to build up enough film coats to be ready for level-sanding in a single day. I have no interest in spraying anything at all or working with nitro at this point
1 Like
You can also try Tru-oil made by Birchwood Casey. It is a product used for gun stocks. I have used it on some my guitar necks. Easy to use and looks great.
3 Likes
One of the best movies ever made!
2 Likes
It may be difficult to see, but the dark brown on the body of this bass is a paint. Doesn’t appear to have a poly or other clear coat on it. I can also feel the raised edge of the paint going from the neck to the side panels where it was taped to the painting. It’s much darker than the pics seems to be when ordering it, so I’ve never been too fond of the color. Since I ordered new Fishman Fluence pickups and controls, I’ll be removing a bunch of stuff anyway. Probably needs some shielding as well. I was thinking of sanding down the paint to a more natural wood and then maybe staining it. Any thoughts or things to keep in mind? The biggest concern I have is is possibly ruining the feel of the neck with sanding that paint seam.
7 Likes
Got the neck rough-cut, but ran into some issues of my own making, no pun intended.
I still have to sand the headstock to shape which will mostly fix my eff-up, but the big issue is a had a router mishap right around the heel which caused this sapele neck to splinter and took a chunk out of it in so doing. 
Glued and clamped the splinter and patched the gouge with a slurry of wood glue and sapele dust. Should be functional if not the most pleasing aesthetic.
Aside from the heel, I figured out my eff-up with cutting out the neck itself, so what I might do is fully build this neck as practice to see what else I will learn from the process, then make another neck out of a nice piece of roasted birdseye maple that I had originally earmarked for the next build. Who knows though, after the neck carve I might be happy enough with this one to keep it. We’ll see.
15 Likes
The wood you made the body from is absolutely beautiful. Can’t wait to see how it turns out.
3 Likes
Thank you! Me too!
3 Likes
Progress so far. Stripped the dark brown paint off. Haven’t done a lot of cleanup yet. Still trying to decide exactly how to refinish it. The tricky part with the thru neck is not messing it up. I like the feel of the neck as is. I was also thinking of accentuating the curves a bit: little longer forearm cut, bigger radius on the rounded edges, especially around the horns.
8 Likes
That is one very sharp rondwound string ….
5 Likes
Decided to go ahead and cut a new neck from the piece of BEM I was holding for the next build. Also got the truss rod and CF reenforcement rod channels cut. I’ll still use the sapele neck to practice carving, but not planning to use it for the bass.
I’ll have to cut out a notch in the body & pickguard to accomodate the truss rod adjustment wheel.
16 Likes