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5 string Ricken-Musicman Bass.

#581
definenredefine said:
That's a bummer. On the plus side the bass looks pretty awesome.
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Spent yesterday wandering around the local carmax. Found a good deal (in today's market) on a very low mileage car. It's a 2018 Ford Edge with 10K miles. Single owner. Kind of a unicorn out there. It's a bit older in model years than I really wanted, but everything else in my budget had 3x the mileage or more. If our 2010 Edge is anything to go by, I'm hoping it will last long after my daughter goes to college. (Assuming no one drives into it....)

Thanks for the kind words... I have some runs to deal with tomorrow, but I have really high hopes for this finish.
 
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#582
Videojunkie said:
Spent yesterday wandering around the local carmax. Found a good deal (in today's market) on a very low mileage car. It's a 2018 Ford Edge with 10K miles. Single owner. Kind of a unicorn out there. It's a bit older in model years than I really wanted, but everything else in my budget had 3x the mileage or more. If our 2010 Edge is anything to go by, I'm hoping it will last long after my daughter goes to college. (Assuming no one drives into it....)

Thanks for the kind words... I have some runs to deal with tomorrow, but I have really high hopes for this finish.
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You're welcome! And hopefully the car treats you well - glad you were able to find one in fairly short order. For what it's worth, Ford really seems to be on their game lately. Of course, you would know better than I what with your previous Edge and your departed Lincoln...
 
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#584
Flamingo21 said:
Let's just all be glad the bass wasn't in the back of the car.
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No joke - I once got rear-ended in my pickup truck while driving my bandmate and all our instruments and amps to a practice space. His first reaction was to turn around and make sure the gear was ok. Once that was confirmed, he checked on me to see if I was ok. (We were all fine except the truck, which was totaled)
 
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#586
I sanded back the 1st coat with 320, and was able to flatten the runs. 2nd coat went on pretty smoothly. I'm going to add a hook to hang the bass head down for the next coat.

Overall I'm impressed with VU. The spray bottle is perhaps not the ideal implement for application, but it does work better than a brush (IMO) especially for getting into all of the weird areas that an instrument has. I am probably applying it too heavy, but it flattens out really well, and any drips are pretty easily sanded out. I am most impressed with how it has filled the grain of the mahogany.
 
#588
3rd coat. I'm getting better with the sprayer. A ton of overspray, but I'm learning how to get it to mist a fine layer of finish on the bass. Short aggressive squeezes of the pump, and you get a relatively even mist that coats pretty evenly. I'm still doing too heavy of a coat, but I'm improving.

Hanging the bass upside-down every few coats should help even things out as well.
 
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#589
Progress
20230109_204505.jpg
 
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#590
3 coats in, I'm really happy with how this is going.

I may have to redo the truss rod cover, as the yellow color is "faded" vs the headstock.
20230110_163246.jpg


The front looks really good. I'm going to do one more coat before level sanding the body to get rid of the waves in the finish. But this high gloss finish is starting to show off the figure in the top!
20230110_163300.jpg


The back is going well. I think after then next coat, level sanding is in order to even out the mahogany in particular.
20230110_163339.jpg
 
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#591
4th coat. Did quite a bit of back sanding using 320 before this one. Trying to get the back to level out. There's still quite a few low spots in the mahogany that I'm working on filling. Probably another 3 coats or so. I might lay it flat and tape the sides and just add finish to the back.

Definitely learning better technique with the spray bottle: less overspray, thinner coat application. Still a work in progress.
 
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#592
I know it's been a while since I thanked you guys for riding along with me through this adventure. I really do appreciate the likes, comments and encouragement that you all provide. Coming up on 600:woot: posts, and over 18K views is astounding to me.

It's going to take another few weeks/ months to get done done, but I really feel like I can almost see a finishing line.
 
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#595
Matt Liebenau said:
It’s looking really good. Forgive me if you mentioned this earlier but when you say spray bottle for the finish do you mean one of these? That’s what I’m picturing in my head.

View attachment 4932476
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That's basically what I am using. A smaller bottle (16oz) but has the heavy industrial style pump.

Bar5F Plastic Spray Bottle, 16 oz | Leak Proof, Empty, Clear, Trigger Handle, Adjustable Fine to Stream Output, Refillable, Heavy Duty Sprayer for Hair Salons & Spas, Household Cleaners, Cooking https://a.co/d/cgEscMH
 
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#596
Videojunkie said:
That's basically what I am using. A smaller bottle (16oz) but has the heavy industrial style pump.

Bar5F Plastic Spray Bottle, 16 oz | Leak Proof, Empty, Clear, Trigger Handle, Adjustable Fine to Stream Output, Refillable, Heavy Duty Sprayer for Hair Salons & Spas, Household Cleaners, Cooking https://a.co/d/cgEscMH
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Extra props then. And to think, I wasted all that money on a compressor and spray guns… :D Oh well, the compressor still works for the pin router. :thumbsup:
 
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#597
Videojunkie said:
I know it's been a while since I thanked you guys for riding along with me through this adventure. I really do appreciate the likes, comments and encouragement that you all provide. Coming up on 600:woot: posts, and over 18K views is astounding to me.

It's going to take another few weeks/ months to get done done, but I really feel like I can almost see a finishing line.
Click to expand...

Thank you for taking time to share your process. It's been fun watching all this come together.
 
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#599
Matt Liebenau said:
Extra props then. And to think, I wasted all that money on a compressor and spray guns… :D Oh well, the compressor still works for the pin router. :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

You didn't, but it's nice to get such good results from basic equipment. I just didn't have the money to buy my own setup, and using my friends setup for something that's going to take weeks wasn't my favorite option (coordinating schedules, etc..)

Tonight, I flooded the back in an attempt to help level out all the grain in the mahogany. We'll see if that's successful. :p if the water level was an indication, I'd be ecstatic. I'll know better in an hour or so.

20230111_171637.jpg
 
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