Buckeye Burl top
 

One of the builds I'm working on sports a BB top. here's the dude.



I really like how this board is full of holes, knots, cracks and so on. Still, holes need to be filled. I have so far dealt with holes but they were not nearly as large as the two near the horns.

How do you fill them up while retaining a certain organic look? I mean, without ending up with just a black patch.

I have thought of mixing some coarse saw dust and tiny wood chips of the same board with epoxy. That should provide some kind of texture. I haven't tried yet. It might look ugly though... LOL

Thank you.

Maurizio

Why not just to leave it? Extra depth and texture to the bass.

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That's an idea, fill them with a clear epoxy, and let the main body wood show through.

I'm pretty sure he generally chambers the main body wood, so it may not work to do that. although i agree with leaving it, it may not be pleasing to the eye.

Take the leftover pieces, grind 'em up and use them for filler.

It is a necessary evil to fill bark incursions (or "inclusions", if you will ;) ), especially on burl.

A thin layer of veneer could be glued to the bottom, which would cover up any chambering holes in the layer below.

Myself, I wouldn't just leave the hole unfilled. I would at the least use clear epoxy. But the veneer would at least hide any chambering holes below.

And with this post... subbed. :)

You should fill it with black epoxy. That usually looks best.

I've always liked the look of recon stone for this type of fill. There are a lot of choices too.

or put L.E.D.'s and smoke machines in the chambers

Rave party in a bass. Wub-wub-wub-wubwubwubw

Thank you all. Pretty cool ideas. The body is indeed chambered but there's a black veneer between body and top so filling the voids with transparent epoxy would be cool.
The recon stones is also nice - I have no idea where to find them over here though.... I'll ask around.

Perhaps mixing tiny pieces of the same wood, black sawdust and crushed minerals with epoxy is something to try. I like the idea of adding texture and some sparkle to the black.

Time to do some testing :)

:bassist: LOL

+1 I love testing new ideas. You never know till you try.

How about lay down a thin redwood veneer under it--between the top & body? Or just patches under the holes. I have a grip of small veneer pieces if you want some. Zebra, birdseye, mahogany

And you never know what you'll stumble into that you had not foreseen ;)

Thanks! That's good idea. Lets see how the first test looks like.

BTW, I will not start a thread on this bass. There are already too many and I should start another one soon. But I will certainly post pictures of how this thing turns out. Thank you!

ps: yes, less is more. What I have in mind is kinda like that but with some texture. Which is where the plot thickens ;)

How about cutting some fitted plugs out of the other burl offcuts? They would just fit in to the voids and then only the edges would need filling with epoxy. To the untrained eye, it might just look like it grew that way...

That's a possibility too. I looked into it and couldn't find a piece that would look right. It's kinda like, my eye expects to see a knot or something like that instead of what is outside the void. Maybe I haven't found the right piece yet... Let's check again ;)

Aww, that's a bummer. I was hoping to see details on what you do with it. Can't wait to see the finished product either way!

agreed it's a shame.