Members u6crash Posted September 23, 2011 Members Share Posted September 23, 2011 I'm not too active here in the bass forum, largely because I haven't had a bass in quite some time. That should all change in about a month. My bass kit from Carvin arrived this afternoon. The whole kit: The neck. Birdseye maple fretboard finished in tung oil. Fret markers are for little girls and housewives. Undecided on if the back will be finished in tung oil or satin nitrocellulose: Shot of the front of the body: Back of the body: A sketch of what I'm proposing to do the body. Though it is alder and not highly figured, I'm going to first stain it with a deep scarlet red, sand off the top (leaving some in the grain I hope) and then go over it with a brighter cardinal red. The stripes will be Olympic White which is a little off white to begin with and will age nicely under some gloss nitro. Yeah, faux f-holes are kind of polarizing, but I'm making this for me, not anyone else. This is my z-hole design (patent pending) which I hope to put into use on a semi-hollow guitar someday: Headstock sketch. I'm thinking the headstock will get stained red to match the body. It won't be a perfect match since it is maple instead of alder, but with the hardware and logo, it will be close enough: I'm kind of tempted to ditch the Carvin tuners in favor of some with an elephant ear/clover head design, but bass tuners are expensive! I'll probably use what I've got unless I can find a deal. So, that's what I've got. Hopefully I'll have a bass I can play in about a month. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members randombassist Posted September 23, 2011 Members Share Posted September 23, 2011 loving your designs so far Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bassman1956 Posted September 23, 2011 Members Share Posted September 23, 2011 Enjoy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Marko Posted September 23, 2011 Members Share Posted September 23, 2011 Very nice; can't wait to see it when it's finished. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Perfessor Posted September 25, 2011 Members Share Posted September 25, 2011 This is taking way too long. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members JR13 Posted September 26, 2011 Members Share Posted September 26, 2011 can't wait to see how it turns out. I've thought about building one of these kits a few times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ezstep Posted September 26, 2011 Members Share Posted September 26, 2011 C'mon! It's been four days! I have thought about a kit but never taken the plunge. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members u6crash Posted September 27, 2011 Author Members Share Posted September 27, 2011 I know, I know! I went to pick up sand and sealer, and I haven't been able to find anything that is compatible with the nitro I plan to finish it with. All the stuff I've found is water based and specifically says "not compatible with lacquer". So I either have to find the can I used to have or order it and wait for it. Sorry for the tease. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rpsands Posted September 27, 2011 Members Share Posted September 27, 2011 I've got an old set of SX cloverleaf tuners I could probably hook you up with for cheap/free+shipping. let me pull'em out and take a look and I'll let you know Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members u6crash Posted October 1, 2011 Author Members Share Posted October 1, 2011 Sorry for the delay folks! Life gets in the way sometimes. I haven't found my nitro sand and sealer, so I might have to order some more. Anyway, here's some of my progress: Body in the tub. It's on top of two stacking office desk trays turned upside down so that liquid doesn't pool around it. The body dampened with water to raise the grain and help the dye along. First coat of stain applied. I'm going with a dark red to do the grain and a lighter/brighter red for the overall body. I used an empty bottle of cranberry juice to hold the dye. I've got water based dye from Reranch. It requires the dye solution be strained to keep out any solids from the organic dyestuff, hence the rag on top of the bottle. Need to run out and get some stuff. Hope to have more to post soon! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members randombassist Posted October 2, 2011 Members Share Posted October 2, 2011 It looks like you murdered someone in your bathtub. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Perfessor Posted October 4, 2011 Members Share Posted October 4, 2011 Thanks for the update. Gonna be a very cool bass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bassman1956 Posted October 8, 2011 Members Share Posted October 8, 2011 It looks like you murdered someone in your bathtub. Hey, if it gets Marg Helgenberger to show up, who cares? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members u6crash Posted November 25, 2011 Author Members Share Posted November 25, 2011 Sorry for the delays! These things never go as smoothly as I'd like. This is why you don't wear the same pair of gloves to dye the body that you wore while sanding it. More than likely there are holes in the fingertips. The neck is masked off with the shape of the headstock taped and outlined. Monday I'll probably take it to my grandfather's to drill it out and cut the shape out. I'm having all kinds of problems with the body. Every time I apply the dye something goes wrong. A couple times it seemed as if there were spots where the grain was still raising, so I'd sanding it back to wood and then some. Maybe that's just the way it will look in some spots. The other bigger problem I'm having is that weird green/brown spots are showing up. It's almost like mold. I sanded and applied more dye today and just a couple hours later these spots were manifesting. I'm hoping when the body is dry that I can sand these spots off without going through the dye. If that's the case I'll apply sand and sealer this weekend and proceed from there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bassman1956 Posted November 26, 2011 Members Share Posted November 26, 2011 You're just down the street from me.When you get it done, you'll need to bring it to one of our GTG's! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members u6crash Posted November 29, 2011 Author Members Share Posted November 29, 2011 Might take you up on that bassman! Here is the body after some thin coats of sand and sealer have been applied and dried. Turns out I won't be able to get help with the neck until the weekend. I'm pretty happy with how the color turned out. I've already decided I'm not going to include the faux f-hole and I might do the stripes differently. Maybe two narrower stripes or more like competition stripes with one wide stripe in the middle flanked by two much smaller ones: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members cyberpunx Posted November 29, 2011 Members Share Posted November 29, 2011 Congrats on the kit! I put together one of carvin's bolt guitar kits and it rocks! Enjoy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bassman1956 Posted November 29, 2011 Members Share Posted November 29, 2011 I like this: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members u6crash Posted December 10, 2011 Author Members Share Posted December 10, 2011 Dyed headstock. I decided I wanted to dye it before cutting the shape out as I don't want to risk dye seeping down the edges. More problems with the body. As I started to sand the sand and sealer I went right through the dye. It didn't take much as all, so maybe I didn't put enough sand and sealer on. I've done some spot repair and it looks like I might be okay. After my repairs are dry, I'll take it out to spray some more sand and sealer on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ezstep Posted December 11, 2011 Members Share Posted December 11, 2011 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members u6crash Posted January 13, 2012 Author Members Share Posted January 13, 2012 Ugh! I'm embarrassed that this is taking so long! Anyway, a small problem: I don't know how it happened, but there is a small little scrape there on the back. At first I thought it went through the finish and to the wood, so I tried to touch it up with a little dye with no results. So I can either try to sand it, ignore it, or incorporate my stripes in such a way that they cover it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ezstep Posted January 13, 2012 Members Share Posted January 13, 2012 You're just down the street from me. When you get it done, you'll need to bring it to one of our GTG's! Don't do it! It's a tarp. You'll wake up in a ditch and you butt will hurt.... Personally, I'd vote "ignore" it, but that's just me. Keep in mind that everyone else looks at your car or truck and compliments how it looks, but you know where every single little dent and scratch is located. Don't sweat the back of the bass too much - your belt buckle will likely ding it up a bit anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Perfessor Posted January 14, 2012 Members Share Posted January 14, 2012 Ugh! I'm embarrassed that this is taking so long! Anyway, a small problem: I don't know how it happened, but there is a small little scrape there on the back. At first I thought it went through the finish and to the wood, so I tried to touch it up with a little dye with no results. So I can either try to sand it, ignore it, or incorporate my stripes in such a way that they cover it. After a month or two of playing it there will probably be more scratches on the back, so why not leave it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members u6crash Posted January 14, 2012 Author Members Share Posted January 14, 2012 This is exactly what I'm thinking. I did very lightly take some 800 paper to it to see what would happen and it didn't seem to improve or worsen noticeably. Since it is the back of the body anyway and it's for me, I had always toyed with the idea of taking a white paint pen to the back and indulging in a stream of consciousness. If I go through with that it would make any little nick on the back unnoticeable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Perfessor Posted January 14, 2012 Members Share Posted January 14, 2012 This is exactly what I'm thinking. I did very lightly take some 800 paper to it to see what would happen and it didn't seem to improve or worsen noticeably. Since it is the back of the body anyway and it's for me, I had always toyed with the idea of taking a white paint pen to the back and indulging in a stream of consciousness. If I go through with that it would make any little nick on the back unnoticeable. You can even use a red pen of some sort to make the scratch seem less noticeable. Woodworker places and art stores have pens like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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