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Black Limba, Rosewood 4-String Bass 1st Build

#21
Even though I'm not at the finishing stage yet, I was wondering if anyone could help answer some questions regarding finish. I plan on using tung oil for at least the body - probably the neck too, aside from the headstock which will have nitro because I will have a logo I need to cover. My brother used tung oil on an unfinished bass body from Mighty Mite, but the body just always felt kind of sticky and oily. Also, during the hot summer days, the bass will sort of sweat and your shirt will end up smelling like tung oil. Is that just the nature of oil finishes? Or did he not wait long enough between coats? Also, I've heard of some people using wax on top of the oil finish, so would that help with avoiding that feel?

So I guess to make it easy my questions are:

Is that just the nature of an oil finish?
How exactly should it be applied (waiting times between coats, how many coats, wax, etc)?
Also, can you wet sand tung oil between coats, and if so is it any different than wet sanding nitro?
 
#24
A little more progress today - sanded the sides down, got rid of router marks, and did the roundover.

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I went with a 3/8" roundover instead of 1/2" like I planned, but that's for several reasons. One reason is because if I used a bigger roundover bit, the bridge would stick off over the roundover on the bass side making it very obviously a homemade instrument ;) Another reason you'll see later (if it works out!)... I actually like the smaller roundover though, its a little more modern but I think it looks good.
 
#28
Not much significant progress has been made as I am still waiting on some parts to arrive. However, I did drill more holes - for the pickups to the control cavity, the ground wire, and for the mini switch. I was curious how it will all look so I did a mock up:

a9vfo0.jpg


I'm very happy with it so far.
 
#30
The rest of the parts just arrived today! I may get started working today even though it's late, but whatever I'll just stay up super late :hyper: !

I got an engraved neck plate:

fyojdd.jpg


I was hoping the engraving would be darker, as the picture examples looked that way, but it's still cool.

And the rest of the neck parts I needed:

10dv59d.jpg


I asked for a less stripey board (did stay with mac ebony) and the one they chose is perfect. Still stripey, but just enough it won't distract from the body. And I got a flamed sycamore veneer for in between the neck core and fingerboard, for contrast, and since I knew mac ebony and rosewood would be just a little too different in color.

The veneer will look great:

x22jyc.jpg


Also, a few other small things arrived - blank pickguard stock (control cavity cover, no pickguard for this baby!), tuners, etc. Stay tuned, the build will progress soon!
 
#31
I had forgot to post, but I did a little work the other day. I made the control cavity cover, and routed the little recess for it to sit in. It was a really tight fit and I had to sand the cover until it fit.

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I also glued the veneer down to the blank.

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I suppose to this point I really haven't documented my mistakes. I haven't had many (luckily, and I hope I don't jinx myself...) and some were unfortunately unavoidable and may have not been my fault.

Here's one that I couldn't seem to avoid: grain tear out when routing.

j8npg9.jpg


The router liked to grab the limba and take some bigger chunks out than I had hoped. In this route it may have been avoidable or I could have minimized it. When the bit went into the corners of those round parts (where the screws go through the pickup), it grabbed that chunk off you see there. I probably should have done that straight edge first, then done the round part, I imagine that would have helped. I will probably just fill that with glue and dust.

The same thing also happened when I was routing the body shape to size.

2elbn6c.jpg


The top chunk was really bad, it grabbed a bit of wood. I did try to take very very small passes around the body to avoid this as much as possible, but it still happened. This may be because of where it was, since it was on the horns. One thing I noticed as I made more passes, is that if I rotated the router as I went around the curves of the body, the grain was less likely to tear out. I'm not sure how to explain that, I hope you understand what I mean. I don't believe these tear outs were due to using the router in the wrong direction, I wrote down which way to use it in which situations like: sides and roundover - counterclockwise, routes for pickups - clockwise.

And here are the mistakes that are most definitely my fault. Some jigsaw marks from the original cutting out of the body:

2ij3tkn.jpg


And how bad the hole for the jack came out.

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It's not centered. I measured out the center and punched a small hole for the forstner bit, but it came out off center. I would guess that I should have drilled a pilot hole instead of just using a small punch, because it definitely moved from where I had punched. Also, you'll see the big dent on the edge, from where the chuck of the drill hit once I got through... oops! :rollno: The good thing is, when I put the plate over it, it doesn't show and it being off center doesn't look bad, and besides not many people will ever look there.

This just means I will have to be suuuuuper careful when making the neck!
 
#32
LOL! Yeah, been there. Pretty much just have to sand out the tearout on the horn, and the jigsaw marks in the cutaway. I'd leave that pickup cavity tearout, as it's going to be barely noticeable once the instrument is assembled. But the others, definitely sand them all the way out.
 
#33
Yeah, I sanded some of the tear-out out, but some of it is just so deep if i do it'll change the shape of the horn too much. I've heard also that it is possible to raise the wood a little bit with heat and water, like with an iron and a damp paper towel or something. Could that help with the tear-out I had on the horn?
 
#34
StarbardGuitar said:
Yeah, I sanded some of the tear-out out, but some of it is just so deep if i do it'll change the shape of the horn too much. I've heard also that it is possible to raise the wood a little bit with heat and water, like with an iron and a damp paper towel or something. Could that help with the tear-out I had on the horn?
Click to expand...


Steaming will help pull out a dent but it wont help with tear out, as the wood is missing, and not pushed in. I have had that same problem many times, trust me, after sanding it out the minor change in shape to the upper horn will not even be noticeable. Its really not that big of a deal.
 
#35
Hopkins said:
Steaming will help pull out a dent but it wont help with tear out, as the wood is missing, and not pushed in. I have had that same problem many times, trust me, after sanding it out the minor change in shape to the upper horn will not even be noticeable. Its really not that big of a deal.
Click to expand...

Okay, thank you, I will take your word for it. I really didn't want to have to change the shape, but it seems there is no other way. There is still a little bit of work to be done on the body, so once I get the neck fitted and whatnot, I'll come back to the tear outs.

Thank you all for your interest and input! I'm about to go do some more work on the neck
 
#36
Routed for the truss rod slot.

14vtstt.jpg


The straight-edge I used as a guide for my router was a big chunk of bubinga I've had lyring around for a while. I can get two fender style necks out of it, and soon enough I hope to use it! Originally, I wanted to have the truss rod adjustable at the headstock. I sat around, measured, contemplated etc for probably an hour before deciding it may just be too difficult to do well as a first timer. So, this will be heel adjusting. All I need to do is square up the edges, and drill an access hole at the heel, and the truss rod will fit.

The rod is juuuust barely under being flush from the surface. Maybe like 1/64" or 1/32" lower than the top of the neck surface.

6zxceq.jpg
 
#39
I couldn't help myself but to stay up late working... it's now 1 AM. I got most of the neck down to size, with the exception of the headstock (haven't made my own template yet).

30hlgtc.jpg


I hadn't noticed how much my rosewood blank varies in color until I started cutting. Some of it is dark brown with little variation, some has darker brown with bright red and purple.

65vkhs.jpg


And after a little work squaring up the edges of the truss route, and drilling the access hole:

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24ywhe1.jpg


I'm sure I'll be back soon, thanks again to those taking interest in this and to those who have answered any of my questions!
 
#40
It is looking great!!

I'm currently working with black limba too (http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f57/black-limba-single-cut-1054018/). I found that tear outs is something to do with the router speed and the routing direction (follow the grain direction).

I tried to lower the rpm as soon as I got a little tear out, and it has been working well so far.

For your tear outs at the horn, you can sand the affected part until you have got enough dust to fill the holes. Put a few drops of super glue into the filled holes. When the super glue is completely cured, sand it. With the black limba, I found the filled holes blend quite nicely.

I hope it helps...


Harry
 

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