Customizing my Spalted Maple bass top...

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Thanks. If I could have just gotten the finish off without going through the thin maple I may have still done some artwork on it. But by the time I got through the finish, it was already through the maple in spots too. That veneer was so thin I almost thought it was like a decal of SM, but it was wood as I sanded it. So I thought I'd do the artwork on the ash...until I saw how nice it looked with the ash body.

Nothing wrong with some nice ash.

 

[charlie monroe]

@Sundogue are you still loving the ash?

If not, it would be great to see your artwork project.

Can you show us any burning you have done? Even if it isn't a bass? I thought this was a fabulous idea.

 

[EricMordus]

I bought this bass a while back and it's been my main player. So much so that I've gotten rid of most of my other basses. I love the bass in almost every way...it plays beautifully, the action is nice and low, it balances well. It's a joy to play and I love the looks of it. But...

I'm going to replace the pups with Seymour Duncan NYC-5's. I already have the pups, but before I replace them, I am going to finally get around to creating a work of art on my bass by wood burning images into the top. It is a spalted maple top, but there is hardly any spalting.

This is the bass as I got it...You can see the only spalting is between the pickups.

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I'm going to put quite a lot of designs into the body, but along the top of it I am going to woodburn an eagle, from the arm contour all the way to the end of the upper horn. Below is a photoshop image of where the eagle will go.

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Since I have to replace the pups, and add switches (to wire the pups in Series/Single Coil/Parallel), now is the time to sand off the finish on the Spalted Maple. Once the pups go back in and it's all wired back up, I can use the bass while I work on the wood burning.

One of my concerns is the neck being off for a while. I'm thinking of loosening the truss rod until the neck is straight while off the bass. Should I bother with that? I've had the necks off other basses for as long as two weeks without messing with the truss rod, but want to be sure with this one.

I've also redone the headstock. I hated the pointy end so I cut it off and reshaped it. I also sanded off the LTD logo and burned in an Om symbol.

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I'll post progress pics as I go along. Busy time of year for me, so it will be slow going but I'm hoping to at least get it taken apart and sanded in a week or two so I can put the new pups and switches in and put it back together.

WOW!!! I have the 4 string version, and I want that headstock!!! Only I would have a Yin Yang burned into it, well done!!! I'm always afraid I'll bang into something and break that pointy bit off, hasn't happened, but in the back of my head all the time...