My first project

Spas · #1 08-05-2010, 03:50 AM

Hi, first time poster here (been reading TB for a while now though) with his first project bass! So without further ado, greetings from Finland in the form of PICS!

The project bass is a Stagg BC300 fretless that I bought couple of months ago as my first experiment with the fretless world. It was dirty cheap (if I remember correctly I paid 140 euros for it (which is like 185 U.S. dollars I guess)) and it's decent enough, but still needed a bit remedying in my opinion. The stock pups were rubbish, so they had to go. I put Duncan Basslines in their place, SPB-2 for the P-pup and SJB-1 for the bridge. Now, these pups are very different in character (and the SPB-2 is a bit hotter), but I am very pleased with them, as I can get so many different tones from this bass now. Funny thing is, the pups cost me about as much as the bass itself.

I'm not sure what the so called 'natural satin' finish on this bass was, but I knew it had to go also. I really wasn't too happy about it, as I prefer oil and wax finishes. Also the bass didn't have anykind of contour (I don't know if that's the right word for it) for the right arm, so I sanded some wood of the edge, and put some spray varnish temporarily on it to protect it. The black stuff is some lint that got stuck to the varnish from my wristband, as the varnish turned out to be really sticky. The actual project started last week with a lot of sanding. And I mean alot, the finish was really hard to get a rid of. After a couple of days I was done and went to a nearby woodshop for some nice veneer.

As you might recognize, it's some rosewood and one type of birch (I don't know what it's called in english, wikipedia tells me it's Betula pendula var. carelica, a mutant of silver birch). They were really thin, less than a millimeter, which is something like 0.04 inches. I found them in a leftover corner in the shop, and paid only a few euros for them. This was very lucky, because they were exactly what I was looking for.

So with the sanding done I could start gluing the veneers in place. First I glued a layer of rosewood on the bass in two pieces.

Doing it in two pieces helped me with the pup cavities, and the screw holes and the grounding hole of the bridge. I could always see where they cavities are, and use the bridge as a template for the screw holes I couldn't see.

Here's a picture of both halves glued and some rough work with the cavities.

More in next post, and please, excuse me if my english isn't too great.

Spas · #2 08-05-2010, 04:05 AM

The plan was to make stripe of rosewood in the middle of the body, and birch on the edges. I ended up going for a recess for the bridge as already had had some problems with the action, and I didn't want to lift the bridge anymore. Here's a picture of gluing the second layer of rosewood in the middle, with the bridge in place.

After this I glued the birch veneer in place, and a little piece of rosewood behind the bridge, so nothing special there. Oh, and you might've noticed that I don't have too much tools with me... this whole project has been done with just some sanding paper, some small files, and everything I could come up to in the basement of our apartment building (I'm a poor student). The veneer was cut with a pair of scissors ment for nail clipping.

For the headstock I used a layer of rosewood and on top of that a layer of birch. Here's a picture of it glued, sanded and filed.

After gluing the body, there was some more sanding and filing. Man does veneer this thin chip easily!

I had some problems with that, and you might see exactly where from the next pictures.

More in next!

Spas · #3 08-05-2010, 04:10 AM

After sanding the body and neck up to 240 grid, it was time to begin the finishing.

I bought a bottle of linseed oil, some beeswax and wet sanding paper. I wet sanded the linseed oil in with 240 grid yesterday. Here's some pics from this morning.

After taking these pictures I wet sanded a second coat of oil in with 400 grid paper, and at the moment it's drying up in the basement... so more pictures tomorrow!

ridgeback · #4 08-05-2010, 04:13 AM

your english is perfect spas, i would never have noticed anything had you not said..
interesting project and looking forward to the end result..

Melik · #5 08-05-2010, 04:53 AM

Hyvältä näyttää! - Looking good!

Spas · #6 08-05-2010, 05:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ridgeback

your english is perfect spas, i would never have noticed anything had you not said..
interesting project and looking forward to the end result..

Thanks, me too!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Melik

Hyvältä näyttää! - Looking good!

Kiitos! - Thank you!

SDB Guitars · #7 08-05-2010, 06:46 AM

I like the look, so far. Good job!

Spas · #8 08-06-2010, 01:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SDB Guitars

I like the look, so far. Good job!

Thanks, appreciate it!

And as promised, pictures from this morning. In these it has two coats of linseed oil, and is sanded to 400 grit. Starting to shine a bit already!

I just put a third coat of oil, and sanded to 600 grit. Let's see if it makes any difference. If it does, more pics tommorrow!

TomA1234 · #9 08-06-2010, 03:33 AM

That is looking GOOOOOOOD!

Dirk Diggler · #10 08-06-2010, 03:22 PM

If you can do that you can build one from scratch too!

Nice job and I'm a masser birch fan too.
Dirk

Spas · #11 08-07-2010, 03:47 AM

Thanks for the nice words. I'm trying my best but there are some details I'm not too happy with... but I'll have to live with them as my holiday is coming to an end, and I really don't have too much spare time with my studies and all.

No pics today, I wet sanded the fourth and final oil coat in a moment ago. It's at 1200 grit now... I'm thinking that I overdid it a bit.

Will post pics tommorrow.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dirk Diggler

If you can do that you can build one from scratch too!

I really would like to try to build one from scratch, but as mentioned I don't have the tools and machines for that kind of a project. Maybe someday..!

aronnes71 · #12 08-07-2010, 04:43 AM

Nice! Good work.

Cheers
Tore

Spas · #13 09-17-2010, 06:14 AM

Didn't post this as soon as promised. Had other things at hand (like a trip to Paris and stuff...

), but here it is anyway! My very first customization project is done!

And here's the results:

It does look quite different now, and even if I do say so myself, a lot better. I'm about 90% happy with the finished product, some minor details here and there I would like to fix, but I don't have the time for that now. It is still essentially the same bass, but as mentioned I did do some reshaping of the body and neck too (the arm contour for example, which you can see from the out-of-focus pic above), and it is more comfortable to play now too.

I will have to change the crappy tuners someday, when I have the money to do it, and the D on the G-string is a bit dead-ish (maybe the fingerboard is a bit uneven or something, any ideas?)... but other than that I'm quite pleased that I started this project with this bass. I did learn a few things and I really really want to build one from scratch now! There's a ton of good info here on luthier's, and it is so easy to get inspired by the beautiful instruments you people build here!

isorokko · #14 09-17-2010, 06:18 AM

Wow! Great stuff and from a fellow tb'er from Turku

Any chance of seeing/hearing this thing in a live situation at one of the clubs here?

E: Btw, where did you get that nice veneer? Might bee looking into doing something similar to a bass I have sitting around...

Spas · #15 09-17-2010, 06:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by isorokko

Wow! Great stuff and from a fellow tb'er from Turku

Any chance of seeing/hearing this thing in a live situation at one of the clubs here?

E: Btw, where did you get that nice veneer? Might bee looking into doing something similar to a bass I have sitting around...

Thanks! Myself and the rest of the band are not gigging just yet. We really don't have any idea where to start with the clubs, and let's say that we are still "digesting our visions". If you have any ideas of a venue for improvisation based music, please let me know.

The veneer is from DLH, you can find it in the harbour area. They have some veneer as leftovers there that one can buy as single strips. They also have a website: http://www.viilukeskus.fi/. Should you do something like this, be sure to take pics and share them with us!

isorokko · #16 09-17-2010, 06:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spas

Thanks! Myself and the rest of the band are not gigging just yet. We really don't have any idea where to start with the clubs, and let's say that we are still "digesting our visions". If you have any ideas of a venue for improvisation based music, please let me know.

The veneer is from DLH, you can find it in the harbour area. They have some veneer as leftovers there that one can buy as single strips. They also have a website: http://www.viilukeskus.fi/. Should you do something like this, be sure to take pics and share them with us!

Drop me a pm with more info on the type of music you guys play. I'll give you some ideas of clubs/bands to try for some gigs. Turku is really bad for gigging atm, a lot of the smaller good venues went under in the past few years. We've got a gig at S-Osis tonight, come check us out and come say hi to the bassplayer

Our set starts at 22:00...

Back on topic again, thanks for the link. I'll have to check them out and see if I can find the time to do something similar over the winter!