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Back from hiatus with some new builds
- Thread starter Geoff St. Germaine
- Start date
- Aug 31, 2001
- 6,267
- 302
- Disclosures
- Owner - St. Germaine Guitars
JAUQO III-X
Inactive
- Aug 31, 2001
- 6,267
- 302
- Disclosures
- Owner - St. Germaine Guitars
- Aug 31, 2001
- 6,267
- 302
- Disclosures
- Owner - St. Germaine Guitars
So as of last weekend the final coat of lacquer has been applied to the fretless. Since it's premixed rattle-can lacquer, I'm going to let it sit about 5 weeks before wet sanding a polishing it. I'm going to do the epoxy coating of the fretboard this weekend, so I'll get some shots up of how I do that.
Work on the fretted 6 has been progressing pretty well. The body is cut to shape and the fretboard is glued on the neck. The next steps up are cutting the neck pocket for gluing in the neck and carving the body. After that's done I'll fret the neck, shape the back of the neck and then glue it in. Once that's done it'll be a lot of finish work. I'm going to use oil and wax for this bass, but I've not decided exactly what I'm going to use yet. Anyway, some pictures.
Work on the fretted 6 has been progressing pretty well. The body is cut to shape and the fretboard is glued on the neck. The next steps up are cutting the neck pocket for gluing in the neck and carving the body. After that's done I'll fret the neck, shape the back of the neck and then glue it in. Once that's done it'll be a lot of finish work. I'm going to use oil and wax for this bass, but I've not decided exactly what I'm going to use yet. Anyway, some pictures.
- Aug 31, 2001
- 6,267
- 302
- Disclosures
- Owner - St. Germaine Guitars
- Aug 31, 2001
- 6,267
- 302
- Disclosures
- Owner - St. Germaine Guitars
Yesterday was a busy day. My friend came over and we worked on his guitar a little. Here's what we got done:
I have a little bit of perfectionism in my so I cleaned up some of the routes. They were all gonna be covered, but something bugged me about them.
The fretted bass is now ready for the pickup cavity template to be built. The neck pocket is done. A couple of pictures of how I do that and where it's at now. The neck angle is the same as the fretless, 1 degree.
I had to modify the headstock to get straight string pull with the hipshot ultralites. I guess one advantage of the Sperzel tuners is that they're very small.
I also have to put together a template for drilling the bridge holes for the indi bridges. The hipshot ones going on this bass have a recess, so I'll have to build something to mount to the body for the drilling/routing. Off to the shop!
I have a little bit of perfectionism in my so I cleaned up some of the routes. They were all gonna be covered, but something bugged me about them.
The fretted bass is now ready for the pickup cavity template to be built. The neck pocket is done. A couple of pictures of how I do that and where it's at now. The neck angle is the same as the fretless, 1 degree.
I had to modify the headstock to get straight string pull with the hipshot ultralites. I guess one advantage of the Sperzel tuners is that they're very small.
I also have to put together a template for drilling the bridge holes for the indi bridges. The hipshot ones going on this bass have a recess, so I'll have to build something to mount to the body for the drilling/routing. Off to the shop!
- Aug 31, 2001
- 6,267
- 302
- Disclosures
- Owner - St. Germaine Guitars
- Aug 31, 2001
- 6,267
- 302
- Disclosures
- Owner - St. Germaine Guitars
- Aug 31, 2001
- 6,267
- 302
- Disclosures
- Owner - St. Germaine Guitars
PJ, I'm gonna ease the edges of the carve a little bit to get a bit softer appearance.
Lowsound, I agree it looks awesome. I would imagine some of it would be the extra labour involved in carving, though with a good CNC setup it probably wouldn't be a huge issue.
Lowsound, I agree it looks awesome. I would imagine some of it would be the extra labour involved in carving, though with a good CNC setup it probably wouldn't be a huge issue.
- Aug 31, 2001
- 6,267
- 302
- Disclosures
- Owner - St. Germaine Guitars
Next up: Mirrorcoat.
I set up the bass so the fingerboard is sitting level in both axes. I masked off everything around the fingerboard and sanded it down with 400 grit. There's already System 3 clearcoat on the board, it's just the final coat with Mirrorcoat. I put on about 45 ml of mixed epoxy and spread it, making sure to wet the entire surface with a foam brush. Normally I'd use a propane torch about 5 min after applying the epoxy to get rid of any air bubbles, but it's warm enough inside that simply blowing lightly across the surface burst all of them. Convenient!
The satin looking finish on the body here reminds me that I should use a satin finish on one of my builds. I did it on the floor standing main speakers I did with curved oak cabinets and I love the look and feel. This one is still going gloss though.
The abalone dots look great through the glossy epoxy!
I set up the bass so the fingerboard is sitting level in both axes. I masked off everything around the fingerboard and sanded it down with 400 grit. There's already System 3 clearcoat on the board, it's just the final coat with Mirrorcoat. I put on about 45 ml of mixed epoxy and spread it, making sure to wet the entire surface with a foam brush. Normally I'd use a propane torch about 5 min after applying the epoxy to get rid of any air bubbles, but it's warm enough inside that simply blowing lightly across the surface burst all of them. Convenient!
The satin looking finish on the body here reminds me that I should use a satin finish on one of my builds. I did it on the floor standing main speakers I did with curved oak cabinets and I love the look and feel. This one is still going gloss though.
The abalone dots look great through the glossy epoxy!
Geoff St. Germaine said:
So let me get this straight, you do an epoxy finish on your bodies, or just the fretboard? If you do it on the body, I applaud you good sir!
lowsound
- Aug 31, 2001
- 6,267
- 302
- Disclosures
- Owner - St. Germaine Guitars
I used system 3 clear coat for grain filling, but not for the actual outer finish on the body. The body/neck top coats are lacquer.
- Aug 31, 2001
- 6,267
- 302
- Disclosures
- Owner - St. Germaine Guitars
I got a lot of wet sanding done today. The whole bass is levelled and sanded up to 2000 grit. I figured it's time for a mock up with the electronics and body hardware.
Things left to do on this bass are the nut (brass), polishing and buffing out to gloss, installing the hardware and installing the electronics. Hopefully it'll only be a couple of more weeks until I'm playing this bass. 6 months part time for the bass seems reasonable, and the fretted sibling should only be about a month behind, primarily due to the oil and wax finish.
Things left to do on this bass are the nut (brass), polishing and buffing out to gloss, installing the hardware and installing the electronics. Hopefully it'll only be a couple of more weeks until I'm playing this bass. 6 months part time for the bass seems reasonable, and the fretted sibling should only be about a month behind, primarily due to the oil and wax finish.
