Project Basses

@Al1885 In the video series they don’t wet sand after colour. They put about 9 thin clear coats on straight after the colour then sand. Then do the final clear coats. So as I don’t know enough, I’m following their lead. I’d be worried about sanding through the colour because it’s such a thin layer

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Yeah, with nitro that’s not really a thing anyways. The solvent in a coat being applied tends to soften the preceding coat, so that the two tend to “flow” into one another and dry together. That’s one of the reasons you can’t gob it on too thick, because it tends to ruin the coat underneath.

Different with poly, because once set, it’s insoluble. Sanding in between coats gives it surface area for mechanical grip.

Anyhow, beautiful job, and yes, I have workshop envy too :slight_smile: Funny thing about wives, mine said that I bought a fixer upper house as an excuse to buy tools. Kinda true, too.

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I wish I had that kind of space, although I’m thinking about building an extension on my garage, insulate it and put an AC in there. Right now, I’m sharing space with my broken car.

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Ok the latest on the Moolah Bass. I haven’t had a whole lot of time since I started my new Postal job on Monday, which used to be my off day, but I’ve sanded the control cavity, the bridge pickup cavity and started the neck pickup cavity…tough angles when you’re using a Dremel to sand. I’m starting to think that Terry was right. It looks like the controls will fit OK, but I’m worried that the pickups are going to be too high. I’m going to try to sand as far down as I can, but I’m not sure how well it’ll work. I have to work Saturday but I have Sunday and Monday (thanks to the 4th) off, so I’m hoping to get the sanding finished and start putting the wrap on and cutting the plastic for the pickguard.

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Take it slow and enjoy the project work train!
The ride is the fun part.

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That’s the plan but I’m hoping to have it finished before our next hangout

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Water slide decal.

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1st clear coat of 12ish coats.

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Interesting choice, going with satin rather than gloss. Should be a real looker!

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14 coats of clear. 1st wet sand. Don’t spray nitro if you’re in a hurry!

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Moolah bass sanding progress

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Can’t wait to see how it turns out. I found out you can buy basses already built, so I have been taking that route! (no pun intended)

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That’s a wrap on the spraying. 21 coats in total. Now I have wait 2 weeks for the nitro to cure before final sand / buff out.

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Good advice from the Stew Mac video was to write down the coats, so you don’t lose track of where you are.

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I don’t know if I mentioned this before but I absolutely love that color. Going with a white pickguard?

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It’s like Xmas @howard you’ll just have to wait :slight_smile:

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I’ve done that too (Poison Apple and Turquoise Waters) but wanted a new challenge

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So, I had a couple of days off work, did the garden on Monday, and watched an episode of Return of The Saint on tv (who can resist 1970’s British tv series on Freeview ?). On Tuesday I was bored, so I raided my guitar parts box for the last remaining items:
Two strap buttons
Acoustic guitar bone bridge
Telecaster control plate with 3-way switch
Jack socket
Two 4 string single coil bass pickups, (in the early 50’s style)
A music man bass bridge (this was as far as the project went)
Two matching chromed knobs
A guitar sized dual-action truss rod
Two A250k mini-pots

In the shed I had a pile of hardwood off-cuts, including a skipped Mahogany tee-square which was fretboard sized (for those who remember technical drawing lessons).
By close of play today I have a tele-bass in the making, just needs tuners, strings and frets (I need to find some pickup height adjustment bolts) and all the finishing work.

The body is based on a thin-line telecaster, it has three chambers but solid under the bridge and neck joint. The pick guard is 3mm thick Iroko board with left-over Birch veneer. Bolt-on neck with threaded inserts. Hole added to the tele control plate for the jack (why don’t Fender make ‘em like that ?). It’s 28.5 inch scale, like an Ibanez Mikro.

I’m considering the idea of staining the woodwork black, apart from the pickguard. Good idea or not ?
If anyone owns a Mikro / super short scale bass, what are the best strings to use ?

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I have a Mikro and I used D’Addario ECB81S on it.

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@jclay thanks, I will look them up.

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